Oh, sorry to hear that!!! I live next door to a Master Gardener - she has, over the years, trained ivy to cover all of the ugly chain link fence between our houses, and when I landscaped two years ago, she noticed a space between two evergreen trees. So this year, she had a friend at some rare tree type place give her some, well, rare type tree. She planted it last weekend - we still have a great view of each other's yards (well, I have a great view of hers - she, poor soul, still has to look at my yard which is never a thing of beauty!) but we have screened our views of each other's sunrooms. It's really fun to watch someone who knows what they are doing work in a yard. They have some woods behind their yard which they also own, so they have a recycling compost center that would make you drool - if you were into that!!!! It's really cool.
On the other hand, I have new neighbors who replaced their fence with a new, black chain link one, which isn't bad, except that they came about 1/3 of the way across their backyard (which is my side yard) and stopped. I think they did this to cover the gate that was there , but really, chain link isn't that expensive!! Why in the world would you just stop your fence - after I told him he could take my ugly chain link down, and after I also told him I was going to be putting up a new fence around my yard this year??? So now, if I take that fence down, I'll either have to start my new fence where his stopped, which is weird, or I'll just put my new fence on my property line where I want it, and then he'll be the one to have to look at that weird fencing 1/3 of the way across HIS backyard, while I look at a pretty wrought-iron fence on MY side.
Weird, huh?? Oh, well, at least this way you'll be able to plant what YOU will enjoy. It does get to be a money pit, though, doesn't it?