The green, green grass of home...

One of three pallets of turf.
The variety is a soft leaf buffalo called Palmetto. We got the turf from a company called Advance Turf.

Final preparations to the soil base

Big thanks to our turf helpers, brother Cam and mate Travis (above)

Finishing off the back

                             

Watering it in...

 

                              

Putting the finishing touches of sand on.

How lush is this???

The special helper Hamish in his new sandpit...lol

Getting us some grass..man,,, PART ONE!

After many days of soil carting. rolling, levelling, more carting, more rolling and more levelling we finally got some grass down in the back and front yards.We cut it fine in terms of getting it in before summer really hit.

We decided to go ahead and excavate/prepare the soil ourselves and lay the turf ourselves too. It was backbreaking work (so I'm told as I didn't actually do any labour other than provision or food and drinks!) but the results were well worth it both aesthetically and on the budget.

It was slow going for the first 15 mins, but once Cam got the hang of it, boy did that little Bobcat move quickly! Helpers for the day include our Turf Advisor aka my brother Cam who has experience with turf from working on a golf course in horticulture and Cam's Dad Hugh who is a jack of all trades.

One excited little boy watching the digger!!!

Our extra special helper was our nephew Brant who was staying with us for the weekend. He is only 15 but his muscle was much needed! And he loved it too!

Hang on a minute.... is that Spiderman driving the Bobcat?

All the excess soil was taken from the front around the back. In addition to this Cam and Cam (Cam squared he he he) moved another twelve cubic metres of topsoil into the backyard by bobcat and wheel barrow.

All filled, levelled and rolled!

The front yard all ready for turf!

Wait for the next post to see how it all turned out!

Kirst xxx

Dining room REVEAL...duh duh duhhhhhhh

Its been a long time coming hasn't it? I finally decided that the dining area of our house is an ever changing beast and I would never be completed settled with how it looks. I change the centrepiece weekly and the number of chairs alters depending on our entertaining needs.

So anyway here is an assortment of photos from straight after we moved in, pre and post pendant lights, all set for Christmas lunch...

Enjoy the visual feast :)

The kitchen. I absolutely love the coloured stools and the bright pops of colour from my toast/kettle combination. They are KMIX by Kenwood, you've probably seen them in the shops. Orange is supposed to be a colour that promotes digestion... how appropriate for the kitchen/dining.

Lovely ranuncula centrepiece.

The view from the rumpus

Looking down whilst standing on the kids table. Have a look at our stunning dining table made of reclaimed timber from old Melbourne houses. It was custom made by Glory Days Furniture.  It measures 2.4m x 1.2m. You might remember we talked about this table HERE.

We love the chairs we got online. They are easy to clean and look great. They are a replica DSW Eames dining chair and are in gloss white with timber legs.

Cam's lovely Dad is a sparky and installed the pendant lights here. They are a 500mm drm pendant called "Yvette" from Beacon Lighting. I lurvvvvve them so much. They throw out great light even with the gold diffusers on the bottom.

Oh, and you can see we have blinds in this photo too...

Our table set for Chrismas Lunch

A simple setting using out Gordon Ramsay for Royal Doulton dinnerware and fabulous Royal Doulton cutlery set.

No Christmas is complete without the obligatory poinsetta (oh.. and obligatory Ikea high chair in the back too...lol!)

Until next time (hopefully we can finally reveal the finished product out the front of the house soon. 

I know its like waiting for the paint to dry... which is actually what we are waiting for before taking photos!!!!

Kirst xxx

90 day Service Inspection

It's come around very quickly but our 90 day service inspection has arrived.

So, we met with Paul from M re the items we had listed and supplied to the office previously - plus one or two more we omitted by mistake.

Not an exhaustive list at all, with plumbing being the main focus. The stormwater at the front of our house has been problematic from day one and again doesn't flow. From crushed pipes, inclining 'run off' pipes to 90 degree joins secured by silicone rather than an elbow joint, the plumbing has been below par. If we do get any real rain it will flood our garage. Ideally, a pit is installed in that area to assist with future access but it will be interesting to see how they fix it......

Paul arrived at 7am, as agreed. We went through each and every item. He was a supervisor previously but now focuses on the service side of things. I suspect he would have been a great supervisor. He was very interested in hearing about our overall build experience and also gave us a tip here and there re ongoing maintenance. Very knowledgable, informative and a pleasure to deal with.

We agreed on all the items, signed it off and it was all done in around an hour and a half (incl. chat time).

As soon as suppliers trades are back from the break he is keen to get things done asap. All we need now is for the trades to play their part.

Until next post, which will be soon we promise!

Cam

Busy!

In case you've been wondering where we have been....

We are having a well-earned break on the stunning Sunshine Coast!!!

So much has been done on our place and I promise we will get up to date posting after Christmas!

Love Kirst

Retaining it all - Part Two...

 The foundations for the front retaining wall were laid about a week after we moved in.

The bricks were laid and the centre cavity filled with cement.

The back of the wall was covered in a waterproof membrane for protection before the whole wall was rendered. The rendering happened after the concreting was finished.

What an organisational nightmare it all was, getting the timing and availability right. Cam was the mastermind and head organiser and did an amazing job!

There will be grand reveal of all the finished front in a few days... stay tuned!

Kirst

Retaining it all - Part One...

Quite a while ago work began on retaining the boundary of our property and creating some paths down each side of the house. It was an absolute mess when we moved in!!!

So we engaged Ben and his team from Daviscapes to assist us with the retaining walls. We found Ben through "Service Central" when we posted a job to quote on our concreting. He responded, quoted on the concrete (didn't get that job), but Cam liked him so much that we decided to get him to quote and subsequently engage him as our hard landscaping guy :)

This is the side path with the sleepers in.

  

The join between the front and back. Sleepers are behind the gate and brick rendered retaining wall out the front as it looks nicer.

The put plastic on the backside of the sleepers to protect them a bit more (even though they are treated pine). 

They they filled it up with rocks for drainage. (not yet done in this pic)

Backfilled and then stained. In this case it has one coat of Merbau stain on it. I stopped him short of a second coat as I dont really like merbau and our decking is all gorgeous spotted gum.

It was capped with aluminium in Colourbond Monument (same as out gutters, fascia and garage door). They also filled the gap between the wall and the path with pebbles (which are a little bit dirty in this pic). My brother ferried wheelbarrow upon wheelbarrow of topsoil, compacted it and then added another layer. He's a gem!

Finally Lachie and I planted some vegies and herbs to enjoy. We have climbing beans, baby carrots, tomatoes (my boys eat cherry tomatoes like they are going out of fashion!!!) rocket, coriander, basil, thyme and parsley.  All currently tended to by Lachie (with Mummy and Uncle Cammy's help of course). Since this photo the vegie garden has gone nuts! The plants are so tall. It must have been great soil :)