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!!