Wednesday, November 05, 2008

Bike porn and a new lawn

Our extra long weekend started on Friday afernoon when we headed to the Motorcycle Expo at Jeff's Shed. J calls it 'bike porn' as we drool over the things we can't have!!!!

His mission was to find his Kawasaki ZX14 which he wants to move on to ... ha ha, did I laugh when I saw that it was in the very back corner therefore it would be one of the last stands we looked at!!!

My goal was to check out my upgrade ... the Honda VFR800.

So here they are ....


John on his new 2009 baby


Andy's upgrade (hopefully)
So, on to all things 'house'.
Saturday morning saw us up at 6:00am to move the last cubic metre of dirt into the backyard before the grass arrived ... which was due at 7:15am. Dad was then to arrive at around 8:00am to help us level the dirt and lay the turf.
Well the turf arrived at 7:00am ... loads of noise just for the neighbours!! How they must love us. Then when the guy left again at about 7:20am, J decided to shout "it's OK neighbours .. you can go back to sleep now". oh the shame ... the shame!!! :-)) (Cathy from across the road did have a giggle about it on Sunday when she told me that she heard him). It's a good thing I love him hey!!
I have also decided that the TV shows like Backyard Blitz, that have 20 minutes to spare and no turf laid .. and then all of a sudden it is done in time ... is more bullsh*t than I first realised. There is absolutely no way in the world they can lay turf as quickly as they reckon they do. Not properly anyway.
We finished just after lunch .. and our lawn area is really quite small!!!
Anyway ... the first hour or so was preparing the soil. Dad bought his contraption down that levelled the soil really well ... we then put the 'starter fertilizer' they give you (I think it's a mixture of fertilizer and water crystals) and then it was time for the turf.
Progress pics below. The first pic is to remind you what it was a month ago.....

The lawn area 1 month ago

Soil levelled and fertilized ... first rolls of turf ready to go


Brickwork pattern working well

Da daaaa ....... all in. J making sure the lawn gets a good drink


Another shot ....

and a close up shot
We were completely knackered on Saturday night ... those rolls of turf are dam heavy, but we both agree that the work was worth the effort.
Can't wait for some plants to go in the garden bed and the path to be done!!!
Next time on the 'Adventures of J & A in the backyard', hear how J puts together his new BBQ with a screwdriver, a Bundy and lots of nagging from A.

5 comments:

Toni said...

Your posts never fail to make me laugh! You have a great way of writing. I think the backyard shows have about another 100 people out of sight of the camera :-)

Bikes look great and so does the backyard! What a transformation, well done. What's going in front of the feature you built a few weekends back? Pavers?

Can't beat Turf and it should be good as the weather's not too hot (bloody freezing this morning) at the moment. We laid ours in December in Brisbane, poor stuff nearly died, it was just too hot.

Christmas in your backyard this year is going to be fab!!!!

Is Santa bringing the bikes?

Bernadette and Perry said...

Absolutely frikkin brilliant! Makes us want to get our sh1t sorted out in our own back yard. What type of turf sis you go for in the end? We need to pick your brains about the whole process as we need to do the same thing.

First year since 2001 I haven't been to the motorcycle expo....

The tales of J&A said...

Aaaah grasshopper ... the journey to green turf and landscaping is a long and arduous one ..

Turf = Sir Walter Buffalo

As I said, it's surprisingly hard work but to see it all done is a real treat. Keeping it green in this first 2 weeks is the key apparently and then just one good soaking a week is all it needs to maintain it's healthiness!!

H2B- unfortunately there will be no bikes in Santa's little backpack this year .. maybe 2009?? :-))

Perry - *shaking head at missing bike expo* ... disappointed my friend, disappointed....

Stay tuned ... .pavers are not too far away now!!

Bernadette and Perry said...

Ha ha! You make me laugh. Yeah - no time to go to the bike show. I know, priorities...

Toni said...

Hi.....I quite often go back and look through your blog. Wondering how I missed your feature wall in the family room, not the red one the other one. Now I know why you like my Glendive :-) Can you tell me the colours that you used for ALL of your walls if you can remember (and if not too much bother....) Thanks. Oh and I was out browsing around the furniture shops in Nunawading y'day, saw your bedroom chair and in your fabric too, very nice.

Hope Santa comes up with the good in '09!