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.

The front garden

Well all of our attention of late is on the backyard and my poor little front yard is feeling very neglected.

So ... I thought I'd show you how my plants are doing. Now, please excuse all the mess around these beds as we have to re-do the path to the front door and fix other parts of the front as well ... so don't focus on the mess. Just focus on the healthy plants :-))

More progress ... 2 weekends in a row!!!!

I'm very pleased to report another very successful weekend of progress in the backyard, and you may not believe it, but all of it was done WITHOUT the help of Dad. His back is most grateful for the break I'm sure!!!

Jobs this weekend were:

1. Paint retaining wall - DONE
2. Paint inside of garden beds with that thick black stuff that stops water from getting through the bricks - DONE
3. Paint garden beds - 90% DONE
4. Paint blueboard - DONE
5. Move 8 tonnes of dirt into the garden beds at the back - 50% done

Not sure if you've ever had 8 tonnes of dirt delivered to your nature strip .. and then had to move it out the back by the barrow load .... but it's pretty hard work. J had this job and by about 4 tonnes (approx) he was really starting to feel it. So he had some X-Box playing time to give his arms and back a rest. Good thing his controller fingers weren't aching!!

And yes ... there were 'differences of opinion' aired on how things should be done :-). Wouldn't be landscaping without these would it!!!!

In the second picture down you can just make out a paver on the right hand side. We think the creamy paver will look really nice against the other colours.

Now I know that green is not everybody's cup of tea (nor was it husband's) but he even likes the colour. Can't wait to get some plants in there. Should look ace!! I've decided to go with my first choice in the garden beds .. yuccas. I love them and after looking around at a billion different plants, I still keep going back to them so I'm taking that as a sign.

Our 'faux' rendering was done by Dulux Full Texture paint. What a great invention this stuff is for the DIY'er. We have done 2 coats (first coat colour was too light) but we think we got it right with the 2nd coat. There are a couple of patches that don't look so great, so we are going to give it a 3rd coat to see if we can even it up. It looks good - but we want to get it as perfect as possible.

Next weekend the backyard will take a breather as J is in Hobart and I am going to have a lazy 2 days at home. Yay.

First coat of texture paint on bricks

2nd coat of texture paint on bricks

Everything painted - probably need one more coat on the bricks to make it look a bit better

Retaining wall painted

Sssssh... don't tell my boss!!

Yesterday (Wednesday), Dad was dropping off my brother's new BBQ (brother only lives 10 mins away from me) so he thought he'd swing by our place and sand the blueboard ready for the topcoat. He knew we didn't have a ladder so couldn't reach the top bit. I asked him what time he'd be at our place so I could leave work and meet him ... his response (earlier in the week) was "don't know but probably late afternoon".

So I decided to leave work at lunch time, then do work at home for the afternoon while waiting for Dad. Lo and behold, when I got home at about 1:00 he was already there, and had started sanding!!!

Oh well .. good one, I still had every intention of working.

When we put one of the sleepers up the previous evening, we'd stuffed it up a bit and it wasn't levelling properly, so I asked Dad if he could take a look and see how we could fix it. No problems was the reply.

Well ... 3 hours later and this is what we finished!!! No work done for my actual paid job, but the retaining wall is now complete. John (very timely) arrived home just as we were packing up the tools.

This weekend's job is to start painting the retaining wall (and fence), paint blueboard and brickwork. We are also going to get some soil for the garden bed and bring that in.

Going to be a busy weekend I think!!!

Backyard progress ... mega photo warning

Firstly, lots of photos in this post so my apologies if it bores you (just don't look I guess!!).

The weekend was an extremely productive one. We didn't even go for a bike ride on Sunday when it was perfect weather!!! Insane? Possibly, but when somebody offers to come and help, you don't turn it down.

Anyway ... for those that are interested .... photos below show the progress of the weekend.

Site Supervisor - Zach

Site Supervisor Andy (with Zach)

What you looking at?? Roxy

Dad arrives ... construction zone gets set up

First posts in (that's Dad .. Andy's Dad)

John and Dad covering up the joins

All done - ready for sanding

John sanding the joins ... and a bit of painting to test the colour

So still to do .... second coat of 'joining stuff' on the blue board then another lot of sanding back. Brickwork to be rendered and painted and the blueboard to be fully painted once John has done his thing (the sanding thing).

The other job started on the weekend was the posts for the garden bed at the back. Just 1 sleeper high but enough to make a bit of a garden at the back.

Good one huh!!

Digger's gone .. and a hole in the fence

To copy Perry's comment 'wow - two posts in one day!!'.

The backyard is virtually flat ... just some tufts of grass/weeds that I need to get rid of around the boundary and it will be quite barron. Not for long hopefully!

The plan is to get the retaining wall (just one sleeper high) along the back fence done this weekend. Frank is coming back on the 24 October to bring in the dirt for the grass and the crushed rock for the patio area. Lazy? Yes but at $60 an hour it's much better for our marriage than barrowing it all in for 2 days.

The only mishap was a small hole put into the paling fence (in the gate). There was a star picket in the dirt that Frank didn't see and as he went through the gate it pierced the wood. Oh well ... worst things could have happened.

Getting very excited about this area now. I can visualise how I want it to look .. just hope it comes out that way.

Looking onto patio area

Looking from gate to back

Alcove area outside the formal lounge - this will be a lush garden one day (hopefully)

Back - the bit that will have a small garden bed and grass

Back - can you imagine the grass there and trees along the fence??

Backyard progress

Well our dingo guy is here (Frank) and he's doing an excellent job. He postponed from Tuesday because of the heavy rain that we had on the Monday. So today the sun is shining and he is flying through the job.

Progress photos below ... I reckon he'll be done in another couple of hours!!! Finished photos to follow later today.

Looking from family room onto patio area (OK .. try and visualise a patio area)

Looking from patio to side gate

Looking the other way .. from gate to back

Digger having a bit of a rest at the back

Back of house

Sleepers ... how many???

Our garage currently looks like a small Bunnings trade area!!! Yesterday we headed down to the local Bunnings to pick up the sleepers and concrete we need for the retaining walls.

I'm super excited ... the guy is coming tomorrow with his little Dingo to clear the backyard. He's going to remove the top layer of weeds and flatten the area. Next weekend we will put up the retaining wall for the garden bed and then once that is done, in comes the dirt and the grass.

Pavers have been putt off for about a month as my car needed repair (which took all of my paving money ... dam car) but we will get the area ready with crushed rock. Unfortuantely that money tree that I planted last year seems to have died!!

Dad will also come down this weekend to build the frames behind the brick garden beds. Poor old fella' has Shingles at the moment so he's in a whole lot of pain, but the trooper that he is, he'll still come and help us. What a guy!!

The Coffee Table

Lights dim .... queue background music ......

Toni - this post is for you....

Lamp Tables

And to anybody else reading this post you may think I've gone quite mad!! Well, I may have but it appears that Toni (H2B) and I have the same wooden furniture!!!!!

Sorry sir .. how many cushions???

Well ... the couches have arrived for the formal lounge. YAY!!! Don't know how all the cushions are supposed to fit across the back but I've done my best. Not sure about the green ones yet ... they were a gift from a friend so I'll try one day with .. one day without ... and see how I go.

Anyway .... I am absolutely ecstatic about this room. It is exactly how I'd pictured it when we built the house. Just need to find some really nice prints for the walls and that room is done!!

I think it will be a lovely spot to sit and read and look out on the garden (when it gets done).

Hi .. I'm Bruce

Hi there humans ... my name is Bruce and I am a Blue Tongue Lizard. I live under the deck of some people called John & Andy. Some days, there is even a little person that comes and stays for a few days at a time. She is pretty noisy and she scares me sometimes because she bounces a ball right above my house. Very annoying!!



I quite like my new home as I can hide from other humans and animals but when they are all working, I sun myself on the garden bed or on the driveway. It's very warm there sometimes.

I think the humans quite like me as they tried to feed me some strange meat the other day. I didn't really like it so I hope they don't try to do that again.

The lady human (Andy) got a bit cross with me yesterday because I decided to play in the front garden bed as it was such a lovely day .. but apparently I put all of the red bark into the white pebbles, and that really annoyed her. I heard her say something about making me into a small handbag!!

I'm not sure how long I will be able to stay here as the people were talking about fixing up the pathway leading to the deck. It didn't sound like a very good plan to me as that's where the hole is for me to crawl into my home.

I'll cross my claws and hope they don't block me in when they fix the path!!

See ya,

Bruce

Couch MIA and a new tree

Where the hell are MY... sorry .... OUR new couches???!!!!!! Who knows. We were told 3-4 weeks, and I'm sure it has now been closer to 5 weeks since we ordered them. A stern phone call to Freedom is in order today I think.

John's two little snodgers arrive on Sunday for a week (from Hobart) and I wanted the lounge room to be done for when they get here. Not that they can use that room of course ......... only kidding. Ha ha ... I'm so funny.

Anyway ... we arrived home last night to find that the council had been and has planted trees in everybody's nature strip. Nice. Pity we haven't done the nature strip yet but I guess now we'll just work around the tree that's there!!

Not sure what type of tree it is and I'll take a photo on the weekend. It's decidious so looks quite ugly and bare at the moment but I'm sure it will be lovely.

A new bench, some lounge room furniture and a lizard

After 14 months of the dryer sitting on the laundry bench, Dad came around on the weekend and put it up on the wall!!!

It is nice to actually see how the laundry was supposed to look for a change!!!

Now all we're waiting for is the weather to fine up so the dogs can go back outside and my laundry floor can be clean for a change, rather than paw prints and mud all over my tiles!!!

Note to self: if we ever build again, get the builder to concrete down the 'wasted' side of the house.

Also, some of the lounge room furniture was delivered on Friday and we are anxiously awaiting a phone call to say that our couches are ready for delivery. The coffee table & two lamp tables are quite 'chunky' (a bit like their owners really) so all of a sudden the room looks like it won't fit the couches .... but I'm assured that they will!!

Work on the backyard will also re-commence shortly. Stay tuned for arguments .. I mean, progress by J and I.

We also have a few visitors in our garden .... the noisy frogs are back (which annoy me at 3:00am but I'm told that it's a good sign of how healthy the backyard is) and we have a lovely Blue Tongue Lizard (whom we have named Bruce) living under the deck at the front. He kept me company on Saturday when I was weeding the garden.