Scope Creep

Condition #1:  The original owner of the house put in an under-the-house garage with a rear driveway.  This necessitated the excavating of a humongous amount of earth and the installation of several retaining walls.
Condition #2:  We have a small child, and our next door neighbor had a baby in October, so we will have another rugrat roaming the back yard.
Condition #3:  We have several fenced areas in our backyard for safety and to restrict the roaming of children and dogs, but there is nothing on the side of the retaining walls that faces our next door neighbor.
Condition #4:  I don't want our next door neighbor's child or anyone else to get hurt.
Condition #5:  I don't want to get sued.

My Solution:

• Build a picket fence from the corner of the house to the corner of the detached shed/garage in the back corner of the property, with a walking gate in it that has a hasp and padlock on it.  
• The fence will run just inside and parallel to the property line.

The Solution that I 'agreed' to after discussing my solution with Irish Woman:

• The fence as I conceived it shall indeed be built.  
• Extend the fence that surrounds the upper part of our back yard toward the back of the property, marrying it up with the fence for the dog's area, with a new gate on that new section of fence.  
• Rip out two sides of the fence to the dog's area, opening up the back yard.  
• Add a gate to the back portion of the upper fence so that we can get to the back part of the yard without leaving the yard.  
• Move two raised 4'x8'x3' garden beds, and construct another.  This includes moving the dirt.
• Extend a retaining wall to cut down on erosion and ground shifting as the earth tries to move back into the area that some idiot dug out the backyard so that he coud have a walkout basement.

Note to self:  Next time, just go buy the lumber and concrete, dig the holes, and build the fence before discussing it.  You'd think I would have learned by now.