In a sense, it's a good thing I didn't install the fence this weekend. There's just too much pre-planning, using common sense and doing it right, that needs to be done first. With the yard having flooded because of the lack of drainage access to the alley, I'm now contemplating buying a truckload of dirt and backfilling the entire alley half of the yard, and hiring someone to come out and redo all of the sidewalks and patio areas back there so that the yard runs level to the alley.

I also have to get gutters up on the garage, period, with a downspout or two out in the alley, to shoot the water out there...and hopefully, gravity will carry it down to the street, because the slope of the alley, even, is NOT very good. So really, I'll be redirecting my water into everyone else's yards. But better than my yard, I guess. I'm a great neighbor, ain't it? :)

Whether I raise the yard or not, I'm going to have to find a way to raise the fence above the "waterline" or it's not going to last at all. It's gonna rot from the bottom up, anytime it rains and has to sit in a large puddle of water in the back. So, I'm probably looking at buying even more concrete and some cylindrical forms to raise the fence up to "level" with the alley. Don't ask me how I'm going to block off the area under the fence. I haven't gotten that far. But for now, this is what's going through my brain. We'll see how much that changes between now and when the work actually gets done.