It doesn't look like much....

But this patch of dirt may retain my husband's sanity. It POURED down rain last night. We didn't freak out because we've got new gutters and they should be alleviating those pesky problems of old- water spouting everywhere and eventually ending up in our basement. Sunday morning we peeked in to see how they fared....and ended up hauling 10 buckets of water out of the basement (gotta love the ShopVac!) Which indicates SOMETHING still isn't quite right. So on Sunday Via Colori (chalk painting festival) was cancelled due to rain (Mary was supposed to work all day). Late enough in the afternoon (3PM) the rain ceased and Eric decided to channel all of the water from the gutters on the east side of the house into a pipe and off the hill at the front of the house.

Look above at the white PVC pipes attached to the gutters and into the ground. Now envision a 30 foot long, 8 inch deep trench running from the pipe back by the fence all the way out to the front hill of the yard (out of the photo). The lovely patch of dirt used to be grass-ish stuff. We spent the afternoon, early evening, dusk and just after dark (8:40) digging a trench, running 4" PVC piping the length of it and attached to the downspouts, running to Lowe's for properly fitting fixtures (who KNEW there's thin wall and thick wall PVC pipes - each with their OWN accompanying attachments - not us and we started off with the wrong ones!), glueing the various components together and shovelling as much dirt as possible back on top! Along the way we encountered lots of roots, old chain link fence post stakes (2) and a massive block of concrete with the sawed off end of a fence pole that were in our way! We removed everything but the stubborn concrete and pole. Although we persevered with a sledge hammer and managed to removed about 8 inches of the concrete, we still could not get the pole to budge, much less come out. So Eric smacked it to one side and we routed around it! Now we cross our fingers that the next rain we have a dry basement....pretty please?!

The bonus of Via Colori was the remainder of a keg of CBC beer awaiting return. We iced it down on the way back from Lowe's and shared with our new neighbors. Billy & Michelle thought it was the best housewarming gift yet! And Bogart got to play with their dog Trevor. Much ridiculous puppy fun was had.

On This Episode of Wild Kingdom....

Soooo, most of the new windows are installed, meaning that the second floor is now completely secure. And the Pella guys are replacing the old first floor windows as they take them out so there's no easy ingress and egress...Sooo HOW do we have another episode of Wild Kingdom? Well, there's been this darling little tiger-striped cat who's been in and out of the house as the various contractors come and go. She arrived at approximately the same time as the new neighbors in the duplex (along with their kitty tree on the back porch) and she's extremely friendly so we believe she belongs(ed) to someone. She only looks about a year or two old and after holding her several times I speculated she'd had kittens, maybe even recently.
Today Eric and I dropped by the house in the morning to check on the progress of the contractors. I had been looking at the new windows while Eric talked to our HVAC guy, Rick. As I came around a corner Eric says, "Rick, would you repeat to Mary what you just said to me?" Rick says, "Sure. That cat that keeps running around here is living in your crawl space with her kittens!" Huh?
Rick had torn off a piece of plywood in the first room in the basement to run an HVAC pipe through the crawl space and up to the living room. Lo and behold, there was mama cat and three kittens cozily lounging in the dirt and debris. To be fair, we'd had "signs." Eric would put a box over the open register hole in the living room (over the crawl space) and it would be mysteriously moved. And one of the contractors said he'd seen her come out of the hole, but we all assumed she'd just been poking around in the empty house. And then yesterday there were kitty pawprints on the new metal roof over the back porch (just after we'd sealed all of the previously open window spaces). So we got the flashlights and peered into the 2'x2' opening into the crawl space. It was pretty obscured by spider webs, but there appeared to be all sorts of stuff in there too. I used a piece of wood to clear the webs, then reached in and started pulling stuff out. There was lots of old trim from the house in there (so THAT'S where it went?!) Conveniently, there was also a garden rake (the space goes back about 15 feet) which I used to drag more stuff out, all while momma and babies nestled an unreachable 10' back into the space. Old Pride of Cleveland beer bottles, neat old pavers and lots of random wood pieces were dragged out.
I was already filthy by that point, found my long sleeved shirt from painting and said "the heck with it, I'm going in!" It was a treasure trove of little trim bits, old apothecary bottles (Burma Shave, Squibb, etc), and lots of indistinguishable rusty cans (and one cool old Maxwell House Coffee can). The kittens decided I was interesting company so they kept wandering over to see what I was doing. I kept counting them "one, two, three" to make sure no one was going to get squished as I handed stuff out the hole ot Eric. Then E grabbed a Budweiser box and we put the kittens into it to move to the back room for safekeeping while Rick worked on installing the new pipe. Mama cat was having none of that. By the time we'd stepped away for 2 minutes and came back, she'd already scooped up the littlest (and mightiest) guy by the scruff of the neck and returned him to the crawl space. "OK, you win! For today you can stay there" (and really, we had to get back to work). Rick managed to work around the little family. When I dropped by after work, Rick had successfully installed the new duct and the kitties were hanging out in the crawl space....in their new Budweiser box bed! Who needs a sweet little grey tiger-striped kitten? They are all very lovable and friendly!

The mightiest of all! Hear the kitten roar! Also, crawl space pre-dejunking.

Me and the three. Momma cat decided they were in good hands and took this opportunity to thoroughly investigate the hole. Crawl space after mountain of debris removed.

Mo Windows!

Yes, this is likely not NEARLY as exciting for you as it is for us, but we are THRILLED with every new window that goes into this place as it makes a HUGE difference in how it looks (from the outside, at least). Here's the new bay window on the front of the house (note: all windows still need trim inside and out).

This is the new kitchen window overlooking the backyard. The window (hole) to the right is in the bathroom. It's the one our mason, Andy CUT into the wall!

And these are the windows that will be in our study.

Another "wow!" day

The Pella crew started yesterday and made some fantastic progress. They installed all of the windows into the new framing and started on the replacement windows. Below are the French doors (or Freedom Doors as our new neighbor Billy joked) off of the master bedroom.


Below: the other windows in the master bedroom.

Below: The Pella crew after tear-out of the 2 windows in our front porch.

Below: Here we have the metal roof which forms the floor of our balcony. It had to be installed before the French doors were installed, and we cut it close. It was completed over the weekend.

Below: In other news, Mary and I spent Monday afternoon cleaning the portions of the brick walls which we intend to leave exposed. We sprayed muriatic acid and scrubbed to get the plaster and mortar off the face of the brick, sometimes more successful than others. You can see the difference and it will look great in the end.

Getting my mind out of the Gutter

The fine folks from Professional Gutter & Drain installed the new gutters today. As I have spent many hours hauling buckets of water from our basement when it storms, I am very, very glad to see gutters on the house. Nice to get my mind out of Gutter-worry mode.

Let there be light(s).

So, Eric and I took a little detour to Great Indoors when our flight to New York (6:30AM) was cancelled last Friday (9/24) and delayed until late afternoon. We were there to check out entry door locksets. Alas, no luck finding the style we wanted there (Arts & Crafts). We happened past the lighting department and learned that all lighting and ceiling fans were 20% off (if you spent enough $$$) until 9/29. We were pretty sure we'd meet their challenge since we're outfitting an entire house from scratch! We stopped by on Monday night with our electrical drawings that spell out where all of the lighting in the house is located. And we went to work selecting the various fixtures. We started in the outdoors lights. In the photo below we chose the one in the center - a small version for on our bedroom balcony, the large version for the back porch. It's in a silvery bronze (not that you can tell from the photo) so we got a Minka fan for the back porch to match. (see here: http://www.farreys.com/i/ceiling_fans_minka/2007/lg/F574-BNW.jpg)

This is a kind of dark photo of the Emerson fan we chose for the master bedroom:

or here (http://www.emersonfans.com/catalog_detail.jsp?id=15&item=1)

This more traditionally styled Emerson for our living room:
(http://www.fanshack.com/store/index.cfm?fuseaction=showProductImage&Path=../i/Emerson/Olympia/KF100OZ.jpg&manuf=Emerson&series=Olympia)

And then we got crazy on the lighting for the dining/entry room. I think the brand might be Madison Avenue - or maybe the series name- but we bought 4 pieces it, so obviously we liked it! We got this chandelier for the main room, the wall sconce peaking out below for next to the front door, a single hanging unit for over the "bar" area and a squared-off flush mount for the ceiling at the base of the steps upstairs:

All in all, I think we spent about 2 hours, took home 9 fixtures and special ordered the Minka fan in rubbed bronze for the guest bedroom. (http://www.farreys.com/i/ceiling_fans_minka/2007/lg/F574-ORB.jpg)

The staffer helping us at Great Indoors was very helpful. She found all of the items, assured they were in stock and patiently rang up an extra discount we earned when 2 of the items incorrectly rang up for more than the posted price. (It's their policy to give you an extra 5% off if it comes up more expensively than posted- we'll take it!) We literally closed the place down and were the last customers loading stuff into our car. But our electrician starts this week and we're ready for him!

Painting Painting Painting

With the impending arrival of the gutters (maybe at the end of this week!) we've been working on painting the trim around the house. We picked up multiple gallons of two colors: "match" (which means that they matched it to the piece of the sage green aluminum cladding that will adorn our exterior windows) and Empire Gold. The "match" will go on all of the trim and eaves while the siding will be painted with the Empire Gold. I threw a first coat of the gold on the siding next to the porch last week. The rest of our work has been in the green color. We bought a brick house in large part because of the nightmares Eric has remembering painting our old (all wood shingle) house with my dad several summers ago. So, in theory, this one should require far less painting! When one considers the crazy roof angles on this house and that each of them have eaves...and they are not exactly easy to reach...this one is becoming quite the challenge as well. As I had the day off, I grabbed the remnants of a can of green paint, climbed out the west dormer, across the don't-ask-how-it's-suspended-scaffolding and onto a lower (and less slanty) roof to scrape off the old red paint in a reachable peak and replace it with a coat of our fresh green. About a half hour's work and that was going swimmingly. I was 90% done when a raindrop hit my arm. "No big deal, it's just a drizzle" I thought...and I had only an inch of paint in the can that was just enough to complete my task. The drops started coming harder and faster "ah, I'm protected by this nice little eave and I've only got another foot to paint, it will be fine" I say to myself. Just as I use up the final remnants of paint the sky opens and unleashes a downpour. I shriek and quickly but CAREFULLY hop across the roof, cautiously scale the scaffolding and dive into the dormer window just as the downpour increases and the wind starts delivering the rain in horizontal sheets. The HVAC guys working in the house who knew I was on the roof were heading upstairs to make sure I'd made it in and laughed at me as I was drenched from head to toe...but that section of the eaves had it's first coat of paint!!!

Andy and the Arch

The final project for our masons was to brick-in the area above the window on our front porch. This small section of the house was an addition completed probably 80 years ago. I assume that given the low roof line at the time (you can see it in the photo: the dark wood), no brickwork was done above the window. Our goal: brick up to the porch roof and match the arch which is over all of the other front windows. Below is the "before" photo.



Below: The bricks to be used to create the arch. To match the arch, we wanted to match the light-colored brick used in the other arches on the front of the house. The local brickyard didn't have a very good match. So I cannibalized some bricks from our old house's landscaping and they were nearly perfect. By coincidence, these yellow bricks were salvaged by me and Mary 9+ years ago when the city renovated a bridge within a few blocks of the new house. So in a way, the bricks have returned to where they came from.

Below: The new brick work and arch. The mortar will lighten up once dried.

Below: a few shots of the other tuck-pointing that Andy and Ed did yesterday.

In other news, the plumber has been working away installing all of the drain lines. Not very exciting photos, so I will spare you.

Brickwork, Day 2

Yesterday Andy & Ed tackled cutting a new window into the brick wall. Below, they set the scaffolding and marked an outline of the future window.

And at the day's end, they had cut the window and bricked an arch over it to match the rest of the house's windows.

Below is the inside view (before the arch was bricked). The window will be in the 1st floor bath. Don't worry, we'll have frosted glass.

She's a brick...house!

Our brick masons, Andy & Ed from GBR Masonry, began work yesterday. Below you see the LR fireplace in the post-demo condition. The firebox and brick-edge of the fireplace are all chewed up (not by us, it was that way when we bought the house) and we did not have the courage to see what was behind the wad of insulation stuffed up the chimney.


Below is the fireplace after Andy had torn out the firebox.

And below is the rebuilt mantle brick and box!

Below is a shot up the chimney, where Andy encountered the tomb of a half-dozen mumified sparrows. Yet another species to add to the list of animals who lived in our wild-kingdom house.

The first of many painting days

We picked out some exterior house colors and we were excited to get some paint on the trim to see how it would look. The green should be a match for our new windows' cladding.

Thanks for the help, Sister!

Here is the backyard view. Note that the siding has been installed on the dormers as well as most of the trim. The rest of the siding will have to wait until the windows are installed. On Tuesday the metal roof over the balcony and the back porch will be installed, or at least so we are told. We arrived on Friday to find a DeMarco Roofing sign in our front yard, which confused us as we did not hire DeMarco roofing. But our contractors ordered the metal roof from DeMarco, so it is the delivery sign.







Here are a few shots of our joist-sistering project. The room feels quite open now that 2 metal posts have been removed.

Otherwise, while lying awake at 1:00 AM the other night, I realized that the plumbers were drilling the holes for our toilettes, but that they don't know if they are 10'' or 12'' on center drains. So I hauled the toilettes to the site so the plumbers could drill the drains in the right location.

As a bonus, here is a shot of our chuckle-head dog, Bogart, playing in Goodale park. Yes, Bogart is the one lying on the ground.

Line 'em up.

To date all of the work has been done by Phillips Renovation and its crew. This has been great as the work has been quality and timely, and we have had only one group to work with. From here on we start juggling different contractors for the remaining trades. Right now we have an HVAC crew on site and plumbers as well. Next week the electrician should start. Assuming that the framing, plumbing, HVAC and electrical work is inspected and passes, this will be followed by the insulation contractor and the gutter contractor. We also have a masonry contractor scheduled to begin on Tuesday and our windows contractor is scheduled to begin installation of all the windows in about 3 weeks. That leaves drywall, finish carpentry, flooring, framing/finishing of the porches, final installation of all fixtures and cabinet/appliance installation. So, as you can see, we're almost done.

In the DIY category, we began reinforceing the floor joists under the kitchen floor. The original 2x8 joists had been all cut up over the years to accomodate different plumbing schemes, leaving maybe 2'' of the original 8'' on 4 of the joists. To prevent these twigs from snapping, POs had placed steel posts in 3 places in the basement under the kitchen. To ensure a solid floor for our future tile floor and to get rid of the steel columns so the basement room is more functional, we began "sistering" new 2x8s to the existing joists. This posed a challenge from the outset, in that the stairway to the basement turns sharply at the end and a 12' long joist cannot be brought in down the stairs. So, I cut a whole in the plywood board which covered an old basement window and lowered the joists in through there. Next, we had to cut or remove any nails that would prevent the new joist from laying flush with the old joist. Finally, we had to cut the 12' joist down a bit, apply glue, set up a brace to support it, pound it into position (think sledge-hammer) and nail the new joist to the old joist. And since these joists and the subfloor above it are nearly 100 years old, pounding on them kicks up a century's worth of grit, grime and dust. Ahhh, reminds me of the demo stages.

On a similar subject, our plumber drilled a 4'' whole through the 8'' joists over the guest bedroom to accomodate the 2nd floor toilette drain. Now, this is a problem, as the building code only allows 1/3rd of a joists depth to be drilled. When called to the plumber's attention, the plumber told our framers to sister plywood to each side of the joist, which they did. But our architects and engineer could not sign off on that so the framers will have to sister those joists with full sized 2x8s as well. So while the first "solution" offered by the plumbers was a waste of time and money (I do have to pay my framers), better to catch the problem and resolve it before the pipes are in and the cost of correction is much higher.

Below: 4 inch holes in 2x8 joists.

Below: Ducts to the master bedroom hidden behind the back door.

Below: Where the HVAC guy wanted to put a supply, but that's where the plumber HAS to put the bathtub supply lines.

HVAC Contractors- boy do we need them!

So we met with the HVAC guys today - Keith and Rick. They were scouting the house for the purpose of determining where to place various vents and returns and how to run everything up to the second floor without making overly-obnoxious extra chases and soffits. Carolyn joined us as her crew will frame out the final product. We think we came up with pretty good ideas - one set will run behind the back door in the kitchen (otherwise unusable space) another will bump the bathroom wall a little further next to the study for a seamless chase. While it sounds like these decisions were easy to come by, they were not. It took about an hour and a half with five of us trying to decide what could or could not happen. And the house felt about 90-100 degrees. But we're happy with the conclusion. Eric put them in contact with the plumber to make sure they aren't vying for chase space! Also today I set up two more appointments for Monday. At 9 we're meeting with a guy who does decorative concrete flooring - because we just can't commit to what we're going to do to the floor in the kitchen and we want to investigate all of our options. Concrete can be stained and stamped to look like tile, dyed to have different colors and textued. We're not sure if this is the option for us, but we thought we'd consider it! And then the awesome Brad from M&M doors is coming out to measure. We're very excited about that!

August 1 Photos

We walked the perimeter yesterday to review the progress. On the top of this window next to the condos we noticed the decorative detailing on the wooden part of the arch. We'd never noticed it before and thought it was neat!

The dormer has fascia and trim!

The massive i-beam was added to the basement yesterday for additional support. They inserted it by making a hole in the brick, sliding it in and supporting it. Then our mason, Paul will re-brick it into the structure and fill the hole. Presto! It will look like it's always been there!

Hardi-plank siding where the vinyl was stripped off (and we found the door...and the termite damage)...

The highlight of our day yesterday. I found this massive oak mantle on Craigslist. It is big...and old (the yellowed tag on the back says Marietta Mantle Company)...and VERY HEAVY! We ran out to Galloway to claim it from a guy who'd taken it out of his house and didn't want it. We JUST BARELY got it in to the van (we had to remove various pieces parts of the vehicle to make it fit) with his kind help. On the return trip we had the back of the van open with the lower 1/2 of the mantle sticking out as we made our way cautiously down Broad Street back to the house. Our AWESOME crew removed it from the van when we got there and our AWESOME neighbors let us stash it in their garage. And it FITS the fireplace right inside the front door (at least the cutout appears to be about right on)! And it has a perfect condition bevelled mirror! And it was UNDER $100! Rock on! Can ya tell I'm excited about it?

A busy afternoon and evening

So we met "Andy" from Ohio Exterminating at the house about 3PM. He basically told us he couldn't guarantee that we do or do not have termites and if we decide to treat with either of 2 methods it will run us about a grand. Oh joy. While he was poking around the house I measured the exterior doors to share with our next stop, M&M doors. Carolyn dropped in just as we were about to scoot off to our next appointment and we shared the color choice for our porch roofing material (something-grey). She was dropping off the wood for the fascia that we would prime later tonight. We hopped on the Vespas and set out to scope out a place one of our window estimators had recommended - M&M Doors. This excursion was a bit trickier than anticipated. They have an address that's on McKinley Avenue - which is currently under construction and one-way (in the wrong direction for us). We had to circle waaaayyy past it on Broad Street before we could locate a connecting through-street that put us on McKinley. And then, with the lack of many buildings with addresses I got nervous that we would pass it (on the 1-way) and have to go all the way back. So we pulled over and I called them..."Uh...where the heck are you?" Apparently, almost there. The manager, Brad gave us over-the-gravel-at-a-neighboring-business-within view directions and actually came outside to wave us over. "If I knew you guys were on SCOOTERS I would have given you different directions!" We parked our bikes next to a non-descript warehouse in a neighborhood where we'd normally likely triple-lock them. Considering how near-impossible it was for us to get there and a noticable lack of foot traffic, we figured they'd be fine (and they were). Brad invited us into the workshop for a peek at their operation. The large one-story place had at least two huge rooms with woodworking equipment in the first one we walked through and doors in various stages of completion in the second. Brad was a really nice guy who was obviously proud about the work they do and eager to share their current projects. We fell in love with a pair of doors they were working on for another project. They were Craftsman-style in detailing with an arched window. Brad joked that we could probably have the ones there if he didnt' hear from the current owners soon.(Alas they were about 6" too wide for our project). He had some other REALLY cool and HUGE doors he's working on for one of the mansions over on Broad Street. We laughed when we found out we even know the owner from the Short North! So, loving our excursion and feeling quite confident that M&M will do an outstanding job if we can afford them, we headed home. Fifteen minutes after we got there a couple showed up to look at the bedroom furniture I'd posted on craigslist, handed over cash and hauled off their new treasures (see my old desk and dresser above). After a quick dinner we headed over to the house for plywood priming. Five huge pieces of plywood sure suck up the primer! Eric had to run over to the hardware store and get us another gallon to finish the task. Hopefully we'll get to see them put to use tomorrow! Oh yes, and the hardi-plank siding is almost done on the side of the house! Pics soon!

Photos of the Progress

Above: a portrait of the progress.

Above: The hallway between the master bedroom and master bath.

Above: the extra storage being framed in the master bedroom.

Above: the vaulted living room ceiling from the 2nd floor overlook.

Above: the vaulted ceiling from below.

Things to ponder

We met with Ray and Carolyn at the house after work tonight to finalize a few more details before they start another job up Worthington-way. First they handed us a little brochure with all sorts of color swatches on it and told us to choose a color for the base layer of our bedroom patio and the top of the back porch roof. While I was immediately drawn to the copper (cool!)...the practicality of matching it with the existing roof materials will likely be the end result with something in a deeper gray tone. Next up E must consult with our architects about insulation r-ratings to see if there's a material that will sufficiently insulate the cathedral ceiling in the living room with the existing beams, or if we'll have to add an additional 6" of beams for more room for thicker insulation (what were YOU thinking about on Friday evening)? Then there's the issue of the downstairs "guest" bathroom. We've got just barely 5' 1" of width to it....just enough to MAYBE fit in our 5' tub once it is drywalled. With free-standing framing on the side that meets the guest bedroom at the brick wall in the back of the bathroom, the wood framing stuck out about 1/2" so R & C suggested firring out the brick just enough to meet the other framing. To do this WITHOUT endangering our already tight space they shifted the opposite wall (between bathroom & study) just slightly...which puts it MAYBE (or not) too close to the existing study window that will be torn out and replaced with a new & different model with more glass/less framing. Eric's consulting with Pella to see it that flies. Our other option is to get out the prybars and remove the remaining 1/2-1" of plaster covering the brick and see if that allows us to squeak the tub in there! We also had to decide how to finish the front porch ceiling- flat or at a slant that reveals more of our brick on the house (we're thinking the latter). Finally, we trekked upstairs and marvelled at the various interesting nooks and crannies of "dead space" in the eaves. Felix had framed in one for a door and we decided to have a couple more framed out for the potential of nifty little storage spaces taking advantage of the otherwise "dead" space. Next up, Carolyn is delivering the cedar siding that E & I need to prime before it can be used for trimming the side of the house and the new dormers. In the near future: the "guts". The HVAC guy might get in sometime in the coming week, the plumber the week after that and then bring on the electrician! Oh, and E's supposed to call City for a structural inspection sometime in the beginning of the week!

What we saw when delivering the goods

The crew was still at the house this evening when we arrived to drop off our acquired treasures from Jim. Larry announced that they'd finally "cathedralled" the ceiling in the living room (meaning that they cut out all of the joists from former second story floor). We went in to marvel at the space. It was pretty cool when they'd first removed the plywood flooring to be able to peer up to the ceiling from the first floor through the remaining joists. It is mega-cool to stand with an uninterrupted view on the first floor and see the eyebrow window in the peak of the front eaves (yes, we owe you pictures, but didn't have the camera).

If you look back at yesterday's pics from where they removed the siding, Eric mentioned that the old framing was pretty chewed. In retrospect we believe that the likely culprits were termites, but it is impossible to gauge how long ago they may have done that damage or whether they are still lurking about and we are in further danger from those wood carnivores (does that automatically make them herbivores?) Tomorrow's tasks will include consulting an expert on such things. Although we may have complicated the investigation as Larry and the crew already have the whole side shored up and ready for siding!

Why we love that Jim guy....

Mid-afternoon yesterday I got a call from Jim on my cell. "It's Christmastime!" he chimed. When Jim calls that means he's got extra building materials that he wants to go away. In that he's renovating a gorgeous (and huge) house in German Village on Schiller Park, we generally rush over to claim whatever he is discarding, haul it back to our house and marvel over our good fortune that he's working on his similar-era house at the same time as we are attempting to reclaim our "bungalow". Tonight's bounty included about a dozen 16' long polonia (sp?) planks that were used for exterior trim and fascia boards on his manse. And several dozen tongue-and-groove double-sided fence planks, a few fence posts and an old fence gate. We have a brand new fence on the side of the yard we share with the condos (completely finished with decorative caps as of last night). We removed the lower fence at the back of the yard to make way for our succession of dumpsters (it made its way into one of them). The fence with the other neighbor in the duplex is a stockade fence that is inexplicably over 8' tall (we call it the king kong fence) and will one day be replaced, but is sufficient for now. We estimate that Jim's donation should get us our rear fence back when we're done with the rest of the house. And we will have the most interesting amalgamation of fencing on the block.