Garden pictures

Here is the garden. It is grassed and now just needing the garden beds to be planted.

This is the backing pad for the car at the front of the house. this was the grass that layne planted - not great but Mr Smillie is going to fix it next spring.

The street verge. Looks much better now that it has been relaid with readylawn and all the concrete and rubble removed.

The back lawn area. The rhodo will look all right once the dirt is smoothed out and I might lay some limestone chips around it to improve the look.

lawns done

the lawns have been laid by mr smillie and they look great. readi lawn is a great invention and i am annoyed that i did not do it last year in october.
the weather at the moment is great as the rain is really soaking in and i am hoping that it won't have too many dry spots.

kitchen floor and drains

The kitchen floor has been laid. You can see the tiny feature tile around the edge which looks really cool. The window will have a roman blind in a bamboo style so it will add an extra texture to the room. Just wait until the appliances are in - all new for me this time around. This will be the first new appliances I have had since I bought a microwave in 1992.


All the drains for the water, sewerage, electricity and telephone have been done and unfortunately they had to dig right across the road to connect the sewerage. More Cost!!!
Today hopefully is the inspection day and then they can be filled in and the landscaping done. the third photo is the front garden which will be predominantly grass area with a minimum of gardens. yeah!

Its Exciting

The side fence is going up as fast as you like. The boys have done a really neat job of it and it is amazing how much more space there is without the hedge.

Also today I have mostly decided on the curtains for the rooms and they will be very safe but should be nice. The only choice left to make is the conservatory but think I will be leaving that until next year after finding out how it goes.

The old house is nearly on the market, Jacki has put the signs up and I am hoping that there will be some of the Northland girls to help do the gardens and clean the outside of the house over the coming weekend.
no photos today as it would not upload but better luck next time.
diane

Driveway is in!

Saturday 30 August started early with the builders arriving to start the concrete laying for the driveways. It was quite exciting to see the truck with the black concrete being unloaded and laid around my back steps. You can see Shane, Matt and Murray laying the concrete with the assistance of an extra worker.
Here is the last bit of concrete being smoothed out before we had morning tea - supplied by the owner. small thanks for working extra on the Saturday. The afternoon then turned out really warm and Murray was a bit worried about the concrete drying out quicker than expected. I then spent some of saturday and sunday watering the concrete so it would not dry out too fast and crack.
Monday the earthquake lines were cut in the concrete and by Thursday it was fine to walk on. Really exciting on Friday night - the garage door has been connected to the electricity and I can now park the car back in a garage. Really great as Monday and Tuesday this week have been wet so I don't get too wet getting into the car.
Yeah another step on the way.

Major Movement today

There has been major movement onsite today with the outside work starting.
The digger arrived and the camellia went by 10am. Next was the driveway so Bertha (my car) will be living on the street for the next few nights until the new driveways are put down. It was quite a major as the concrete was very thick in places and certainly had not been shifted for a number of years.



A slight accident with the digger and Murray thought the house had been disconnected from the electrical grid but fortunately not.

Also being done is the removal of the back fence and the replacement of the fences with new (second hand) ones. Hoping that they will happen over the next few days as the weather is supposed to be good for at least two days. This morning started with rain and then some sleet and then it has been sunny so here is hoping the change will stay. It will be great once the concrete is down not to have a big puddle outside the back door.

Plastering is done

The plasterers have been in and done the plastering so that is another step along the way. Don't know what is next so hoping it is painting and papering.
I have chosen the one paper for the whole house as well as the one paint colour. Will write more later.
Diane

Slow Progress - March 2007

Getting nowhere fast - we are waiting for the roof iron to be delivered so the boys took out the back fence although the hedge would have been a preferable option. Now we have a temporary fence to keep jessie in. Murray managed to get posts the same as Bertie and Melanie's front fence and the palings are all painted ready for the day when they will be put up.
I still have to decide on my fence but momentously on Thursday 3rd July was talking to Murray and we will have a block base to the fence so the grass can be levelish and then some block pillars with palings in between. It will then drop down where the gate will go in and go along to the edge of the driveway. I have asked if I can have the pavers that grow grass for the turning circle, otherwise I feel like it will be a lot of concrete (and some of you know how i feel about concrete).
The letterbox will be built into the fence so vandalism hopefully will be a thing of the past as well.

In the Beginning

Late 2005 I finally decided to go ahead with the subdivision of the block and look into building my new home. I had this done and by October 2006 I was talking to builders and looking at how big a house I would be able to build on the back lawn.

By some judicious creative thinking we were able to get three bedrooms but no ensuite. I decided I did not need two bathrooms to clean when there was only me living in the house.

At the beginning of 2007 I had contacted builders and a draughtsman and got started with the drawing up of the plans. You know how things go. You think you are on target for a certain date but everything seemed to take much longer.
We did spend some of the year cleaning out the section and following are some photos of the various days that we spent clearing up gardens, fences etc. Terry decided about september time that the fence had to go and so it went. It really opened up the section and then I had my washing out for all to see. See Dad getting rid of the Flowering Cherry which I had hoped to keep but it was rotten so it was sacrificed.

I had hoped to have the final plans by the time we went to Perth for our family holiday in July but they were still a draft form.