Ta-da!

So, here it is. The very-nearly-so-close-I-can-taste-it finished front courtyard (or whatever the correct name for the space is).

Firstly, some of the early before/progress shots...

And now, an after...

Another before...

And an after with the shade out

And some more pictures because I'm feeling pretty pleased!

Took a lot of convincing but A finally let me write our names
in the concrete drain...

...so long as I covered it up with some pebbles

After my jitters yesterday I've decided I really do like the black. It does make the area look a bit smaller but I think it looks more defined and, well, finished. 

So, what's still to do? It's really just the patch of dirt you can see in the 5th photo. We haven't decided what to do with that just yet. Garden? Garden with path? Suggestions welcome!
Also on the list is sanding and doing the front door the same colour as the bifold doors and probably painting the front step in Domino as well. A powerpoint out there would be nice too, so we can remove the cord running out the bedroom window to power the awning!

For the moment though I think we've earned the right to sit back and enjoy and start shopping for a nice outdoor setting!

For a look back at the whole process click on the 'frontyard' label.

Paint it black

Today's project is painting the retaining wall. It's been a long time coming but finally we've had a few days in a row without rain! If nothing else, at least all the rain meant we had to leave the render for more than the recommended time before painting.

When we first looked at pavers we liked two colours in combination - Athens (which we chose) and Prague. Prague was a charcoal colour which we considered using for a border. In the end we decided with the strange shape area we had a border probably wouldn't work and as a alternative we'd paint the wall as close to Prague as possible. A trip to our second home (known to most as Bunnings) and we found a match in 'Domino'.

One coat went on this morning and after being used to the bare render for the last couple of months it looks very different. If I'm being honest, I'm a little unsure about it but it will probably just take some getting used to! A second coat and a picture will be on the way tomorrow!

Paving progress

As promised here are some paving progress photos. It took so long. We are still not completely finished but here is what unfolded 2 weekends ago. And a look back at what we started with here.

Last weekend we filled in the gaps, compacted, brushed paving sand into the gaps. As there were only two of us on the job I didn't take any photos. It's blowing a gale and raining at the moment - first test to see if we got the levels right, fingers crossed there's no puddles - but I'm not going out to take any photos now either!

Jobs still to do...

-sand and paint retaining wall

- put in small drain and permanent supports for edges of paving

- stain new bifold doors and give the front door some love

- paint front step

- replace plant that got squashed by 5 falling pavers - doh!

and in an ideal world, get rid of the bottle green fascia, drain pipes and window frames.

It's looking pretty good though, if I do say so myself! Can't wait to get some furniture out there and enjoy it!

What we've been doing - the front yard saga continues

It's possibly a bit over the top to say our front yard landscaping has been a saga. It hasn't been overly dramatic. Just a really long process when you can only dedicate weekends to it.

Week 1

Week 2

Week 3

We are having a weekend off this weekend as the pavers and sand won't be delivered until next week. It'll be nice to not feel like we should be working even though we'll probably find something else to do!

On a different topic I went to see my school year 7 and 8 drama last night. They did Andy Griffiths' Just Macbeth. It was hilarious. I was so proud of them. At one point I was nearly crying with laughter. So much fun

Have a lovely weekend!

Yard progress

A (long) while ago I posted about tackling the old BBQ area. The plan was to render the back wall of the old brick BBQ and then put the hand-me-down spa in front of it. Well, we did do that. I have never posted any pictures of it as quite frankly, it's still a disaster area. So the last couple of weekends I've been working on fixing it up. 

Way back when, before the work began

The next job was to render the garden bed in the foreground of the photo above and as the garden bed is empty at the moment it seemed like the right time to start.

Supplies

The offending garden bed

End of day 1 - You can kind of see the spa and other wall at the far right

This last weekend I finished it off so, weather permitting, it can be painted next weekend. The bare patch is staying bare. Eventually there will be decking that comes right up to the edge of the garden bed so while it looks a bit strange, it's strategically saving time and money!

Meanwhile, out the front of the house, A has been tackling the infinitely more challenging retaining wall issue. Being that we want to pave the front area but when we dug it out to prepare the base, we had to dig below the footings of the retaining wall. And, the wall is kind of cobbled together and not flat so rendering as is would be a nightmare. Solution, attach frame and blue board to existing wall and render that. Doesn't sound too difficult...right?

The offending wall

Area to be paved

Wrong! But it's getting there. There's been about 3 days work in getting it built and covered but it's starting to come together now. Next weekend we'll be rendering out here.

Oh to have a shed full of the right tools and 20 tradies to do the work for you, huh Block, you make it look so easy!

What we've been doing

Our 3 day front yard working bee in pictures.

When we first moved in.

Creating parking space

New garden bed for screening plants. The space between the garden bed and the front window will be a paved courtyard area. Inspiration pics to come! The brick wall to the left of the house was previously obscured by bamboo that was taking over the front garden. Getting rid of that was the hardest part. We had to do a little bit each weekend because it was so hard to hack out!

 Creating second garden bed and effectively reducing a lot of mowing (hell yeah)! The bamboo has been replaced by a grafted lemon and lime tree. Hopefully it will do better here with a north facing brick wall than the poor thing in out back yard!

 Garden beds edged and mulched. Awaiting plants in spring time. The frosts are a bit too much here already! I can't believe how cold May has been! We will re-sow grass in the area that is still bare, once again, waiting for spring with that.

It is still a bit of a mess but we have made some progress which is always a good feeling!

Here's a bit of a breakdown of costs so far.

Stone for parking space - free, we just had to shovel it out of someone else's driveway ourselves, thank you classifieds!

Sandstone - bargain of the century $30 for a trailer load, thank you again classifieds!

Weed mat - lots $80

Mulch - two metres $100

Topsoil - left over from veggie gardens
Excavating soil for parking space and from in front of retaining wall + spreading of stones - 1 case of beer for our brilliant neighbour who conveniently has a little bobcat!

Total - $210 plus a case of beer. Not too bad really.

What we've been doing

Is turning the front of our yard into a disaster zone. It's OK though. Usually things have to look worse before they look better, right?

Before

So what's the plan? We are turning that bare patch which doesn't grow grass no matter what into an extra parking space that goes along the front - see the black weed matting? That will be covered with crushed brick pebbles that were free (so long as we did the shoveling and carting of them out of one of As colleagues driveway). Yay. 

During

Between the black matting and the retaining wall (that you can't see in this picture) we're going to plant a row of Leucadendrons that will grow to a metre high and create a bit of a privacy screen so we can put in a little courtyard/deck just in front of the windows you can see on the left. On the road side of the screening plants we'll put in the Strelitzias (that A's mum gave us from her garden, that are still sitting in pots over a year later - opps) and maybe some Kangaroo Paw because I am in love with Kangaroo Paw at the moment!

Leucadendron - Devils Blush via Garden Express

Kangaroo Paw via dicktay200 on Flickr

Strelitzias by Gurney5 on Flickr

Apart from loving the colours of these plants, the leucadendrons are frost and drought tolerant, a must in Canberra. Strelitzias must be tough as despite serious neglect in their pots for the last year and a bit, they just keep on coming back and any plants that we grow, despite the best of our intentions, need to be survivors!  Kangaroo Paw can be difficult I'm told, but I plan on hunting down the gardeners at work for advice as we have the most amazing Kangaroo Paws in the gardens there.

In other news, chair progress is slow. I've pulled two apart and worked out how to fix up the sagginess but trying to choose a fabric is a nightmare! Will post some thoughts on that later.

Hope all is well!