Side Garden Bliss

We put on our gardening gloves and went to work on the expansive mud patch at the side of the house, Manually levelled the junk filled surface as best we could and after some side paving was completed we went for tuscan pebbles to a depth of around 6 cm (3"). looks sensational and so its bye bye mud cakes.

Ad in and ons

Still progessing the landscaping at the front yard. It look great with the from gates and driveway gates and the new exposed aggregate drive and pathways and we choose red scoria to cover the garden beds and it looking like a professional job, its amazing how much rubbish is imbedded in the ground after the build, I have dug up so much crap, be it bit and pieces of the old house, whole bricks under the surface, Tiles, Gold nuggets that turned out to be a bottle top, broken glass, bits of wood and old dead roots. It takes like an hour to slowly dig a hole for a small ornamental grass, the hole for the palm took me and a pick like 3 hours and of course using a normal shovel is pretty much impossible.

We had saved / rescued a heap of old red brick pavers from the old house and I'm slowly doing an amateur pave job at the side of the house - anything beats muddy feet, so once it's done I need a new pair of shoes.



The inside finishing is taking place and we have bought / ordered a range of big format framed prints and they look a treat. here are some snaps, and there are more to come.

Open Sesame

Well the Weekends - fade to lost but the results are very satisfying, Bunings were the base for sourcing materials for the Fortress Gates and timber panels, paint and steel post hardware. Then came the Electric Gates supplied by APC in Morabbin. Its was a hard slog dyna-bolting steel to brick and concrete, metal to metal, drilling, bolting and hacksawing to steel plus wiring, trenching and control systems, but alas it was finally finished. A gate sort of puts the fort into fortress. Overall the front yard is really starting to shine.


now I really need to rest - until the next thing called the backyard!

Artification

Funny how the old art, which looked great in the "old" house now seem dated or doesnt suit the new home design. Big house means you need extra big prints - this a new acquisition for the entrance hall.



Now to hang it

Gated

Well long week end lost is upon us. Commenced the gate install and here are the initial pics. Used fortress gates and cut them to size and also 50 x 50 steel for end posts dyna-bolted to peers. Electrics gates / motor arms will be fitted once gates are in a painted.

Firm underfoot

Driveway finish is great, and the layout and drainage works a treat. Melbourne gave us a massive downpour last week and the drainage passed with flying colours

Driveway Bliss

After The big FO Brick Fence was completed it was then time to get the Driveway and pathways sorted.
Got a number of quotes and we decided to go for exposed aggregate. We choose a mix called Tambo, which looks great. In the lead up I collected around a tonne of Mud underneath all my shoes and increased my height be around 5 centimetres. every time I walked outside.

We decided to add some curved angles into both the driveway and pathways layout, that added a flowing / fluid effect that worked well in providing contract to the House which is straight lines everywhere. The guys took about 2-3 days to set out, pour and clean up. 7 days later they applied a sealer which takes the harshness out of the exposed aggregate. end result was brilliant.