Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Check out our water feature!....

We went to bed listening to the sound of rain on the roof last night. I love that sound but couldn't help thinking - I hope that all that water's going where it should and there's no leaks...

Now I was expecting to see mud in the morning but I didn't expect this...

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It seems Mother Nature had decided to give us a hand with the landscaping overnight and in her infinite wisdom seems to think that a water feature... or perhaps a moat... is called for..

Apparently she forgot that DOG + CLAY + WATER = D-I-S-A-S-T-E-R !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So this morning we had to figure out how we would keep Tyler (our dog) contained and safe (and mud-free) while we were both at work for the day...

We ended up having to put her into the laundry and set about removing the 'temporary' forest, and dog-proofing it, including putting the child lock on the laundry cabinet (which I'd discovered taped to the inside of the cabinet door a couple of weekends ago)... but were faced with another problem... we suddenly realised that the stupid lever door handles that we had to have (they would have charged us extra for normal ones) would be very easy for Tyler to open - even though the door does open inwards, I'm sure that she would find a way... So eventually I came up with this...

Modern security... ;)

We might have to look into a lock of sorts...

Neighbours....

You spend so long choosing the colour of your bricks and matching the roof colour... you plan the landscaping and carefully select the plants... but one thing that you have absolutely NO CONTROL OVER is who decides to live in your street...

One of our new neighbours (well they live what will eventually be 5 doors up the street - there's only 1 dorr currently, the others haven't been built yet) apparently really REALLY REALLY likes to listen to music in his car. So much so that I know he's coming home well before he's even hit the estate!

Here's a mud map...


I can hear this guy coming as soon as he turns off the main road!! You get this reverberatting buzz that gets louder and louder until he finally drives past...

Where I grew up there was (is??) such a person who used to drive the streets with windows wound down and music (can you call it that? (ooh that makes me feel old!)) or actually more like DOOF-DOOF blaring from the car warning of his presence within a 2 block radius.
When I first heard him I immediately thought of home... Now I just want to scream "Thanks for sharing but I'M NOT INTERESTED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" I guess I should be thankfull that he turns it off as soon as he gets home and doesn't choose to sit there with the music/doof-doof blaring :)

Monday, September 21, 2009

From this....

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...to this....
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The pile of rocks on the left is growing... - we've been 'collecting' these from the development down the road. They have an ever-growing pile of rubbish and rubble and so we've been helping them shift it Still need more

It doesn't look like much but it meant moving all of those bricks (320 of them if you're interested) out to the back, along with the leftover roof tiles and 30 granite (or basalt - depending on where you grew up) tiles. The tiles are BIG at 80cm x 40cm and 3cm thick - not light I can promise you!

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Of course with no brick pile, I now had no stand for the letterbox and so am making do with this for the time being...
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I also got halfway through staining the bookshelf before I had to pack up because it was threatening to rain - after spending the morning filling all the gaps with wood filler and then sanding it all back. I don't have any photos - they will have to wait until it's finished (soon I hope!)

So my(our) ever-growing to-do-list includes:
* finish the bl**dy blinds - you'll all be glad when they're done
* finish the bookcase - finish the staining and then varnish
* dig out the front yard so that we can get some good soil in and start planting
* continue to collect rocks for the front landscaping
(that's enough for now )

I'm really hoping to be able to get some planting done next weekend - they've been in pots for long enough! And besides I'm tired of moving them all around - the dog has decided to 'taste' the trunks and leaves of some of the larger (more expensive) plants. Here's one batch... holed up in the laundry out of harms way
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Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Photos at last!!!

I have finally finished and installed 1 of the roman blinds!!! (only 5 more to go )

It needs to be even-ed up a bit and it needs to 'settle' but I'm pretty pleased with how it's turned out. Next one is the bedroom so that we can revel in the joys of opening and closing in that room too. I'm already thinking that I want to add a sheer blind, particularly in the bedroom - otherwise it will always be down...

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And here are some more random pics of our house (none of the inside - it's waaaay too messy )

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Temporary letter box - will have to come up with something more permanent soon...
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The narrow side of the house - road base ready for pavers (pavers are in the garage ready to go!! )
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The area behind the hot water system will be concreted and we will eventually install a clothesline against the wall there.
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another section ready for pavers (front yard outside main bedroom)
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Our fancy house number - again something more permanent is called for soon!!
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Our new fence...
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Backyard complete with temporary back step (outside laundry door) and temporary dog kennel (there's a 'temporary' trend here...)
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And lastly a cute photo of Tyler... just 'cause....
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Monday, September 7, 2009

A productive weekend...

This weekend was Bryan's RDO weekend (meaning that he gets Sunday off) and so we were both set for some landscaping...

Our goal: to make a start on the narrow side of the house.

The plan: to use pavers, evenly spaced in a 'stepping stone' fashion to go from the front of the house around to the side and down the length of the narrow side to the hot water system (after that point there will be a concreted pad for the fold-down clothes line and the back will be turf). The pavers will be surrounded by small pebbles (we're thinking white pebbles with a grey-ish paver) which will also extend through the front area as a mulch.

Below is a rough sketch of our plan...
Landscape plan
Some things have changed a little - the native garden at the rear of the garage probably won't have pavers as suggested there and we are looking at concreting the area at the rear of the garage right through to the verandah (now a verandah, not just a patio). The lawn area at the back will probably be more regular (and not wavy like my drawing...)

After much more "planning" than either of us expected (we had to completely re-think some parts) we mamaged to get quite a bit done and have levelled off the area and spread and compacted about 1.5 cubic metres of crushed rock. We've also added concreted powder to help make it solid.

The strip (from the hot water system around to the front door) is now ready for the pavers when we decide on the pavers... We will leave the pebbles until after the conreting and front yard are done so that we can do it all at once.

We also started moving the great pile of bricks that has been occupying our front yard. Not sure what we will use these for yet, but there's plenty there (almost a whole pallet!).

And I finally managed to hang the roman blind in the office. It's still not quite finished and needs the battens (horizontal rods) and the cording, but I needed to see that it fit before doing those, and the best way to do that was to install the mounting board and hang it up. Thankfully it fits!!!!!!!! and so now I can take it down and finish if off.

(I really wish I knew where the camera was so that I could show what we did!)

Oh... and I also managed to unpack the bathroom and laundry. The bathroom was quite a job getting our stuff that used to fill a cabinet with two cupboards and 4 drawers into a cabinet with a single door and 2 shelves (one of which is taken up mostly by plumbing). Needless to say I did a fairly ruthless culling!

What plant is that?...

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Netadelle asked what the green blob plant was... I think that she was referring to the one in the middle of this picture? It is Scleranthus biflorus - I can'f find a common name but apparently it's an Australian native (bonus! I didn't know that when I bought it). We're going to make a bit of a rock garden out the front with mostly conifers as well as this plant and some mini cogs (Acacia Cognata). Fingers crossed it looks as good as it does in my head... LOL! :)

Friday, September 4, 2009

2 weeks on and...

...there are still boxes everywhere, except now things are starting to spill out from the boxes as we go searching for an elusive item that "i'm sure is in that box in the kitchen... or maybe it's the one in the office...".

With the fence issue now resolved - complete with the "chicken-wire-dog-proofing-solution" we now have time to turn our attention towards other things...


...but there's so much to do... where do we start...

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We are both keen to get the landscaping happening and to get some of those lovely plants that we've collected into the ground, but I also want (NEED) to get things organised inside.

I really do need to find the camera soon - it's not lost, more likely burried ;)