God bless landscapers

After the weekend, I have a new found respect for people that are insane enough to do landscaping as a profession!

Saturday and Sunday were spent making a path from the footpath to the front door. John is going to build a small walkway/deck type thing out from the front door to meet it so the entry is still not done.

Will post some pics later but we are pretty pleased with the result. I didn't buy enough pebbles to fill in between the pavers so will have to finish that off on the weekend. At $30 a bag the pebbles are currently the most expensive thing in the path!!!!

At least now you can walk from the footpath to the front door without having to worry about your shoes getting an inch of mud!!

Next weekend i'll finish off the path and start getting the soil ready for the little garden we are going to do in front of the windows. In front of that will be another path around to the side gate and then in front of that, just mulch.

One disappointing thing we found was that the water pipe is really close to the surface so we are concerned about digging around too much and hitting it. John was REALLY annoyed about that as he was sure there are plumbing codes and this doesn't meet it!!

Anyway, we are really pleased with our efforts.

Yesterday we thought of a few reality TV shows we could do "Couples landscaping: How to get divorced before you are married" or "Why are you doing it that way you idiot" or "How about you stop being a bitch and telling me what to do!!".

:-))

Give away - 2 dogs to good home

Dam dogs!! yes I know they are hating their new backyard - no grass, no trees to hide and play under .. cold and wet on their little paws. But at 1:00am this morning when I was in my dressing gown scouring the fence line for where they had just got out, I was ready to kill them!!!

No I wouldn't ever give them away but I sure feel like it right now.

I'm going to hit the nurseries on the weekend and see if there is anything we can do to alleviate some of their hatred of the backyard. Might get some mulch delivered and see if that helps them a bit, maybe even buy some trees and leave them in the pots for the moment. At least they have something to look at and play around I guess.

Also on the agenda for the weekend is to buy some gum boots!!!

We are also going to have a go at the front garden .. start to clean it up a bit ready to do some planting. We'll attempt to level it out and give it some form, then investigate the soil type and what we need to put on it to break down the clay.

Unfortunately money is tight so whatever we do, it's going to have to be cheap options for the moment. When wedding is done, we'll get stuck into putting money aside for the landscaping and see if we can't have something decent by christmas.

The street is really looking full now with so many houses almost finished. At this rate we'll be the only house in the street with no driveway and no front garden!!!

We drive past one of the houses in the street (Dave & Bec - for those that have been reading the blog from the start you'll notice that Dave was once referred to as 'knobhead Dave'. A term of endearment only :-))) and feel envious every time!! They have a beautiful looking home with a gorgeous front garden. Very simple yet elegant. They are spurring me on to get stuck into ours!!!

Will post pics over weekend of any successes!!!

The mud ... oh the mud

Even the dogs are struggling with the mud!!! It's awful to have this lovely house surrounded by horrible mud. Cash flow is tight (due to upcoming wedding) therefore we can't afford to get the landscaping done .. not even enough to cover up this %&%()%* mud!!

We did stretch the budget however yesterday and had the concreter come out and give us a quote on the driveway. He said that he could scrape it out and lay road base until we can afford to get the concreting done. We took him up on the offer as it will be better walking on road base than the other.

Wish now we had of added some additional funding to the mortgage to get the outside done, but I guess in a year's time I'll look back at this stage and smile fondly :-))

It's a good thing that the frustration stops the minute I walk in the front door. Still can't believe that the house is ours. Currently feels like I am on holiday somewhere and any day I will be told to pack my bags and move back again.

We are really enjoying the extra space (although I'm tipping our gas bill is going to be enormous for the heating over winter).

John got the plasma up on the wall in the bedroom ... looks absolutely brilliant and he's enjoying playing his X-Box games on a bigger screen!!!

Curtains and timber blinds have gone in .... just need to find some for the bathrooms. Every morning we have little doggy faces at the window while we are showering ... bit freaky having them gawk at you while you are showering!!!!

House pics

Yippee - pics of the house. For those that are interested I'll be updating with the backyard (aka the 'bog') and the front landscaping.

For those with a good eye you'll see that the couches are two different colours! Yes, they are actually navy blue and it was really bugging me seeing the navy blue against the red wall. While they don't look so great from the back, it doesn't look to bad with the cushions and throws. The good thing is that while I'm been going on and on about needing a new couch (which has fallen on deaf ears until now), the big fella agrees that we need an upgrade!! Woo hoo. Couch shopping here we come.

Thanks for sharing the journey with us .... but it's not over yet!!!!!! Got a wedding and a garden to plan.

;-)

The happiness fairy has been

Well I'm feeling much happier today :-)). I think it's sometimes good to have a big vent on paper (or in cyberspace as the case may be). Kind of like therapy this internet thing.

The house will be a hive of activity today in preparation for our move tonight/tomorrow. Each time I go back to 'old' home I can't get my head around how much there is still to pack up but I'm sure once all of the furniture goes, it may not look as bad.

Water tank gets installed tomorrow so I'll be happy if there is no rain in the morning but it can pour in the afternoon to fill our little tank!!

We have our first dinner party on Sunday evening so the race will be on over the weekend to get the house in a reasonably orderly fashion. Actually unpacking is the good part ... packing is crap!

Looking forward to displaying all of the little things I have bought over the last few months. John mentioned the other day that he will be interested to see how much new stuff pops up, lol.

Happy days!! :-))