Remember when I posted about my neighbor who put up a security camera aimed right at our backyard? I was furious. I’d convinced myself he was spying, and I was two bad ideas away from marching over there with a shovel and a speech.
But someone gave me a simple piece of advice: “Ask him why.”
So I did.
Turns out, he didn’t even realize it was angled that way. He’d just gone through a rough divorce, was living alone, and said he wanted to feel “less boxed in, but still safe.” Then he pointed to a rough sketch on his patio and said, almost shyly, “I just want to make something beautiful.”
That stopped me cold.
We got to talking, and it turned out he’d been wanting to redo the fence between our yards but didn’t know how. I told him I worked with wood, that I’d built furniture and outdoor pieces before. His eyes lit up. “Would you help me?” he asked.
Two weeks later, there we were—covered in sawdust, arguing over stain colors, laughing over takeout pizza. What started as frustration turned into friendship. We ended up designing a shared fence with a built-in fold-down bar table between our yards. We can drop it on either side for cookouts, pass burgers through, or just lean there and talk about nothing while the grill warms up.
He took down the camera before I even mentioned it.
Last weekend, we had burgers at that table. His ex stopped by to grab her mail and told him the fence looked beautiful. The way he smiled—proud, lighter somehow—made the whole thing worth it.
Sometimes people don’t mean harm. They just need connection. And sometimes fences don’t divide neighbors at all—they build bridges, with cup holders.
Credit Goes To The Respective Owner~