Did you honestly believe the fence story ended there?
How touching.
Now sober up.
The fence looked great for about six weeks. The plants around it grew like gangbusters. The white lattice gleamed in the sunlight.
Admittedly, the square-topped fence posts looked a little unfinished, but we ordered some ball caps online and sent them down…
…and the next time we were on island we glued the caps to the posts and painted them white.
Perfect.
For about two days.
Then, before our eyes, the caps started falling apart. Don’t ask me how plastic fence caps managed to fall apart, but they did.
Trust me.
I noticed their untimely decrepitude one morning as I stood on our balcony sipping my first cup of coffee.
Maybe, I told myself, my eyes were deceiving me. I slouched inside for a second cup of joe, then ventured downstairs.
Damn. At least one ball finial was completely gone (who knew where?) and two were listing wildly to the side.
Ten minutes later I was down in the garden inspecting the damage. Had someone tampered with the fence or were the caps just poorly constructed?
Crappy construction seemed the most likely explanation, and this was confirmed when I grasped one of the ball finials and it came off in my hand.
Deep breath.
After a brief consultation with Michael, I decided to superglue the finials to their bases and nail the bases to the posts. I even found the missing ball under a bush a few feet from the fence.
Two hours later the whole thing looked almost as good as new.
Fast forward a month.
A tropical storm hit the island. Our house was unscathed except for one thing—our favorite coconut tree fell down…
…right on top of our new fence.
