Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Backyard - Part 1

Summer is over and I feel like we hardly enjoyed it. It went by so quickly. Then when I was going through our photos I realised why.... we spent most of our spare time in our backyard, not relaxing but working hard to improve it so that next summer we can just enjoy it (that is the plan anyway). I have posted about some of our work before but I thought I would recap. UPDATE: I am linking this to the 'Show me the progress' party happening over at Serenity Now , go on over and check out all of the awesome projects people have been working on. We bought our house in 2008 and moved in on the 20th December 2008. We knew the house and yard needed work and one of the big problems was a rotting timber deck. The existing paving sloped towards the deck and over the years the water had rotted the deck. This is what it looked like before.

The paving was not finished neatly and it just was a very hard area to keep looking neat. There were big rotting sleepers being used as retaining walls and dirt and weeds everywhere.

So we ripped up the deck. Hired a dingo (mini digger) for the weekend and moved dirt around filling in the area where the deck used to be. We pulled up all of the existing pavers. Moved more dirt and the cubby house. Built a retaining wall using besser blocks and moved more dirt. We then built steps using besser blocks. We moved the carport down by the side of the house and cleaned up along the fence by building garden beds and a water feature. We did make sure that we left enough room to drive a vehicle through. We rendered the retaining wall and steps. Then we started making our pavers. We made our pavers as we went using a paver maker. You can visit the site to learn more. The pavers are made using concrete (mixed ourselves on site) and oxide in whatever colour you like. We used sandstone. You lay the mould in place, pour the concrete in and then level it. When you are happy that you have the concrete levelled and there are no gaps/holes you pull the mould off gently, turn it 90 degrees and place it down next to the last paver and start again. The concrete is not runny so provided you can keep kids, cats and dogs off until the pavers dry it is a pretty simple process. While we made our pavers for our patio, Nan and Pop (who were staying with us through the school holidays helping look after Nicholas) worked hard and paved behind our new sheds (we recylced the old pavers from the patio), moved all the wood and tidied up what they could. Aren't we so blessed to have such great Grandparents? We started laying the pavers around our existing hot water system (hidden behind the screen in the photo below). It is an electric storage system so it is quite big and it sits on the ground. Part of the way through our paving we had it replaced with an instant gas hot water system that is wall mounted and gives us more room on the patio. Finally lots of hours and sore muscles later (we moved lots and lots of concrete) we finished paving our patio. 65 square metres done. Yay!!!! Hip Hip Hooray! Next job was to move the big ugly blue pole. The last owners had a shade cloth attached to these. We didn't want them and decided we would just dig them out. We dug and dug and dug and eventually we got it out. Then I built a wall and rendered it. Rendering is not so hard except for the bending over and barrowing heavy cement render up the slope. Who needs the gym? The gap between the wall and the paving is for the drain. We fixed the issue we had with the water running towards the house by making sure that the paving sloped slightly away from the house. We had to dig a trench to lay the drainage. We were so sick of digging! I mean really sick of digging. We put this off for a few weekends until we finished the rendering. Such a horrible job, you can dig for hours and move barrows full of dirt and it looks like you have done nothing. Even Boss was so exhausted he just had to have a nap.......
I promise he is alive. I would never bury him there. I need to put the drain there.
I hope you stuck with me through that whole long winded backyard transformation. If you are still interested I will post more over the next week or so. What do you think so far? Did the blue fences scare you away? I promise it gets better.

19 comments:

  1. Wow, that was a huge job Nellie!! But after all that work, it looks fabulous and how much better use of the space is it!! May I ask how you find your gas hot water system> We are thinking of doing the same this year... Love your backyard and how cute is that dog!! I have something for you on my blog too if you would like to pop on over to have a look:) Thanks for sharing all of your hard work, you must be thrilled with how your paving turned out! ~ Tina x

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  2. Wow what an amazing transformation!! It looks much more uniform now and heaps bigger. I've never heard of making your own pavers but you've done a great job. All that hard work has paid off as it looks fantastic. Is that a vegie patch in the corner of your yard? :)

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  3. It looks awesome! I can't believe you did all that yourselves! I'm sure you will be glad to just relax and enjoy it this summer.

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  4. I am exhausted just by looking at those pictures! Wow! It's looking great. And the picture of your dog in the ditch is priceless, haha!

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  5. Oh, I feel your back pain from all of that digging and paving, but the outcome is fabulous. It will be a wonderful place to enjoy and entertain. Great job!

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  6. i thought my backyard reno was intense. girl i am tired just from reading this... cant wait to see it all complete!! i am going to look into doing the pavers similiar to yours. Inspiration at last!!!

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  7. What a big job! I know what you mean about feeling like you didn't get enough time to enjoy it. I felt the same when Summer was over here in California. I had all of these big plans for the family last Summer in our backyard, but it never happened.
    Oh well, maybe this Summer. I bet your backyard will be beautiful once your finished with it!
    Thank you for always visiting my blog, it means so much to me.
    Take Care!
    Sincerely,
    Melinda
    Alabaster Rose Designs & 15 Bella Vie

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  8. Ok, if you can take on a project like that, I am goign to keep following this blog to see what you are up to! WOW!

    ...and I love that photo of your dog in the trench sleeping. It cracked me up.

    Can't wait to see phase 2.

    Chania

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  9. You've done a fantastic job, wow that was lots of work for all of you but certainly worth all the effort. You now have a wonderful space for entertaining. I'd love to see more pictures. xo

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  10. Oh my gosh I became exhausted just looking at all the work you guys did! Fantastic! Great job! ~lulu

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  11. Holy moley! Now that's a lot of hard work. The progress is looking fantastic. I have a backyard full of weeds and can not wait to start tackling the area with pavers!

    BTW, found your link on Amanda's Progress party. :)

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  12. p.s. I featured your blog on my post for Thursday..have a great weekend..

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  13. I need to go back to bed and sleep for a couple of hours after reading about all that work. ;)

    I can't believe how much you all did! Talk about Progress!! What are your plans for the space? It looks like a great spot to entertain. Your hard work is really going to pay off!

    Thanks so much for linking up. I hope you have fun "mingling" at the party. :)

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  14. WOW!!!!GREAT JOB!!! It Looks great! I would love to get my yard in order like that too! One day... :)

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  15. You guys really have a vision! Not sure I could start such a task, but I can't wait to see it all come together - what an awesome backyard.

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  16. First, thanks for visiting my blog! :-) And I must say, your backyard is going to be fabulous. That is HARD work. Makes my dining room makeover look ridiculously simple. lol

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  17. Holy cow, that's a huge job!

    I love where Boss ended up ;) so cute! I'm excited to see more pictures - you are going to have the most awesome backyard.

    And, I live in Ohio, where it gets very cold, and I have never seen a hot water heater outside. You learn something new everyday, huh? :)

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  18. work work work - yuk - poor doggy is exhausted just watching you!

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  19. msmusesmissives.blogspot.com18 March, 2010

    Wow it is just like "back yard blitz" only it is McCarthy designs muscle work....loved the pic of your dog that wasn't dead in the ditch! I flicked through the blogs...and your Mum is a champion looking after boy and cat and whatever else was needed...so glad you had a great weekend with WH and best friend
    Love M

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