Sitting on the fence

I have to make a decision on what kind of front fence to get. I was originally going to get hardwood timber posts with pool fencing in between mainly because it would be quick and I thought quite economical. Something along the lines of this -

Image from www.ilandscape.com.au

Everyone though (like 5 people) keep saying that it won't match the house and will look cheap. A totally hardwood fence is waaay too expensive, so the consensus has been for timber fence with top rails.  The thing is…I just can't picture it. So I've done a super dodgy photoshop job for a vertical option and horizontal option and I STILL can't make up my mind.

The horizontal version with white palings and top rail in the same colour as the front door - Dulux Simone Weil. I'm leaning towards this version cause it matches the horizontal timber on the gables.

The vertical version. Obviously there will be a bit more palings between each post, my photoshop skills just aren't good enough to match. I don't love this style, but I don't hate it. This is apparently better though cause there's less chance of sag over time.

I'm totally on the fence (pun intended) with all of this. What say you?

The irony...

The birds loved sitting on our balcony railing…and pooping all over it. I'd spend ages each weekend scraping this stuff off…it was like paint! I'd have to bring the hose up from downstairs and use a stiff broom and tile scrubbing brush to get it off. It would sparkle like new and then be all pooped on again by the afternoon. Super annoying.

Because we have large glass sliding doors as well, the birds would fly straight into it, at what seemed like a hundred miles an hour, knock themselves out momentarily, get back up, and do it again! Sometimes a poor bird would do this three times before it worked out it wasn't a good idea.

So the railing was covered in poop and the balcony windows were decorated with the smeared prints of beak, wings and bird feet. So lovely.

I hung up a whole heap of CDs to deter them and while they look absolutely hideous, it's definitely reduced the numbers dramatically. The other day though I was walking down the hall and saw one perched on the railing, under a CD and (ironically), next to the classy rubber snake I'd also put there to deter the birds. I raged and ran down the hall yelling and screaming with my arms flailing in the air like a mad woman.

I managed to scare the bejesus out of the bird, which shat all over the railing as it flew away.

Awesome.

There was another one there this morning. I just calmly took a picture of it and hoped it flew away without leaving me any presents.