Six months on, we have landscaped!

So yes here we are - almost six months on from our move in date and we have landscaped back and front yards. All our own work and we are extremely proud of the blood and sweat (no tears that I can recall) that we put into this little piece of work!

Below is the sub-surface irrigation for our new lawn.


Then the lawn starts to roll out. Note - curved lawn edges are trickier than straight ones, but oh so cool when standing back and appreciating your own work.


Our pergola, custom designed and built by us.


Pergola roof detail.


Multi-coloured fence screens.


Fence screen and feature artwork.


Frontyard cleared, blank canvas.


Front is done!



Here's how the back yard looks now that a few plants have grown and the lawn and dog are getting used to eachothers company. Note - three months on and the pergola is still standing!

We're in!

Bamboo flooring

Handover is over

Last Friday evening we had handover with our site supervisor and it all went smoothly, sure there are a few things that are still to be sorted out but nothing that we were prepared to hold up things for.

A bottle of bubbly and a few other gifts helped seal the deal (not really, but it's still nice to get free stuff) and before you knew it we had started moving our things in. The bamboo floors go in later this week and then after carpets we can move the big furniture etc in next Thursday and then we can actually move in!

A note to anyone planning on having hardwood/bamboo floors installed after handover: Please ask your builder to 'loose-fit' the skirting boards. I just spent the best part of today ripping our skirting boards off through our big open-plan living area. If you cannot remove them (or choose not to) then you have to put up with beading along all walls that the floors butt up against. We weren't going to live with that, anyway it's done now.

Look! Yesterday I made a gate! I think it looks pretty good, it's big too, just over 1.3 metres wide. When we pave and I get the final level I will attach the last slat at the bottom (don't worry I wasn't going to leave it like that).

Here's my gate and the new plantation shutters that were installed today.

The plantation shutters cover both the study and the main bedroom, basically all the front windows.

Shutters from inside the bedroom.

Close up of the shutters.

The facade showing our plantation shutters. Will look better with a bit of landscaping (eventually).

The facade

I see the lights

We now have the official word, Friday next week is handover day!

The final electrical fix is getting there, a couple of minor things to be straightened out but nothing to worry about. According to our site supervisor a few things will be finished off early next week and then we are in business.

In the meantime, here is one of our energy efficient downlights.

Downlights in action.

I know there look to be a lot but remember they are energy efficient!

Our vanity light in the ensuite.

The vanity light in the main bathroom.

Up-down, down-up light on the front of the house. We have four of these, they are nice.

Our portico has been capped and hopefully this will be the last photo we have with the ugly pipe out the side. This should be capped off quite flush very soon. With any luck they will fix up the leak from the gutter too, then the painter can finish his job.

Finally a garage door

I think it looks slick.