In April 2019, I stopped at the nearby Starbucks en route to or from Panorama. While there, I ran into Ian, our neighbor and friend, who was also stopping for coffee. I had not seen Ian for quite some time, having separated from Linda and moved out. It was good to see him. As we talked, he shared having availed himself of the fence remnants from some repair work at our house.
Three months prior, a significant winter storm had damaged a section of the fence along the back of our property. Linda worked with the insurance company to arrange the repair, and as that work took place, the original fence boards were removed and stacked out front to be taken away when the job was done.
Ian, seeing this, seized the opportunity to grab several of them for a woodworking project. He used them to make large photo frames. As he shared this, my mind raced with thoughts of a similar use. Mother's Day was on the horizon, a month or two away, and we had some excellent photos of the kids taken in the backyard against that very fence. How cool would it be to get a print of one of those images and give it to their mom in a frame made from the fence itself? I wanted to get two made. One she’d keep, I’d have the other, and eventually, the kids would get them as a piece of their literal and physical history.
I see opportunities to do something poignant and intimate as worthy of obsessively pursuing, which I did. Ian responded well to the idea, but it became apparent quickly that the level of effort and time he had available was a constraint. I had to let it go, at least for that initial Mother’s Day idea.
By then, I had already ordered two 8×10 copies of the print. I still have them rolled up in a tube in my closet. And the idea never completely went away. It was “hibernating,” forgotten about until I'd come across the tube with the prints. This was all while living in a rental house in San Jose and eventually going through the next few years of dramatic changes.
In March 2023, we had moved back into the house on Panorama. The last remaining section of the original fence gave way during high winds and another storm, and the frame idea resurfaced. I set aside a couple of those original fence boards, intending to get those frames made after all, not as Mother's Day gifts this time but for them directly.
It still took another year and a half. I toyed with doing it myself but knew they’d be shoddy. I ran the idea past my woodworking friend Johnathon, who was open to helping, but I did not press on it until a couple of months ago, as their 21st birthday was on the horizon.
The concept of giving them the framed photos was good, but the idea of them having 8×10 images in 11×14 size frames seemed a bit much. It might work on a hallway wall in a parent's home but in a dorm, rental room, or bedroom. At 21? No. That wasn't going to work. Yet a smaller image, say maybe 4×6 in a 5×7 frame… would work well. One for each of them, and a third for myself, to be placed among the many family photos on a long table by our living room window.
I took the fence boards to Johnathon, along with a sample 5×7 frame as a reference point per his request, and over the past few weeks, he made the three frames for me, pictured in this post.
This idea is well over five years old. It's stayed with me since that initial conversation with Ian. Having ordered the prints helped keep it alive. Seizing the opportunity to use those remaining fence boards meant it was merely about prioritizing taking action and having somebody with the right skills, knowledge, and tools to make this all come together did just that.
I will give them these framed photos this coming weekend when Lauren is down to celebrate the birthday with a day trip and family dinner.