Rear Boundary Fence and Backyard

Next on the hit list was getting the rear fence done so that we could get a better sense of scale for the size of our yard. Plus the site fence wasn't the safest with the little ones around, so i was keen to get that removed.

Not much else to be said! A fence is a fence! lol

Pictures are always good though :)

Before - just on settlement

On settlement before we had done anything to the yard

Just before the fences went in

I wasn't overly impressed with the fencers and their attitudes, lets just see if the fence actually stays up when we get some big winds ripping through over winter. I wont be using them again, have since selected another fencer for our last remaining boundary fence. Hopefully they're better guys than the previous lot.

Interior update

We really haven't had much time to think about the interior. The Financial sales have come and gone, all i brought was a new doona cover. Will save up for the boxing day sales and hope to get a bargain then!

My EOFYS purchase from adairs

Saving all the spare cash to make sure the outside things get done, still one boundary fence to go, then the grass, then paving and stones. Might leave the plants until a bit later as its not urgent.

So keen to get some nice plantation shutters in, i have got some quotes and its just a matter of working out when i can go ahead and order them, if budgeting is tight we will put up with the blankets for a little while longer. I have my heart set on getting them across the front windows. 

The rest of the rooms still have sheets up. All part of the joys of having a new house is dealing with unsightly blankets and sheets for a few months. 

We are going for the minimalist look and still have plain light bulbs for our light fittings - some might call that trendy lol - honestly though they are the last thing on  my mind, so no rush for those.

I have had my laundry measured up and keen to see that go in, a few hiccups with the planning, the size of the bench that will fit int he space is 2cm too short for a 45l tub. not to sure i could of been more particular in the planning of my laundry and requested the door to be 2cm further to the right so it didn't impact the bench. Not a huge deal, just means i will have to get used to soaking things in buckets. as i will now only get a 30L tub instead of 45L.

The laundry is set to be installed around my birthday! what a great bday present - hhhmmmm some might call it weird that im getting excited about getting a laundry as a birthday present! but i honestly couldn't think of anything better! We need all the storage we can get!

We got a bed for the spare room. Purchased from Domayne during the financial sales. Im quickly falling in love with white furniture now that i have a lot of white in the house, its so fresh and leaves the room looking bright and clean. Will post pics of it in the room when its all set up properly.

No further furniture has been brought, and with the young kids around im really in no hurry, they quickly can ruin new furniture items, so the longer i wait the less likely they will ruin it on me!

the furniture we had originally brought from the old house fits into the living space perfectly. 

Living Room

Walking from Entry

large photo on the wall our only  hanging artwork at this stage

Concrete Sleeper Retaining Walls

Retaining walls was always something that played on our mind from the very first day! We had removed the drop edge beam from our plan, so had to retain our soil and slab with walls.

We didn't want wood, and couldn't afford the block walls installed by landscapers - for our 25m approx we were getting quotes from 9-12k just for one boundary. So we had to look for a way to do it cheaper, and something we could install ourselves. 

We came across concrete sleepers. They had many designs to choose from, but i liked the wood look ones. The supplier was Concrete Sleepers Canberra they supply all the bits and pieces you need to build your wall. There are instructions and guidelines on their site so you know what parts you need to order to build the walls.

Delivery of the sleepers

The day after we moved in, the boys (hubby,dad and uncle) had to take down the current boundary fence and prep for the walls. Such a big job ahead of them, and the sleepers weigh a lot so lots of digging and heavy lifting. There were many beers drunk each night to ease the back pain.

Boundary Fence removed ready for walls

We hired a post hole digger to help with the digging, some holes had to go down 600-800mm and through the thick clay too. at one stage the thing was really stuck in the ground, and just wasn't budging, we didn't know how we would be able to get it out, it was stuck for a couple of hours, thankfully they were finally able to get it out.

When digging the holes we quickly realised that the supplied drainage plan was totally wrong, we thought there would only be one sewerage pipe in the way, which already had been uncovered and damaged previously when some fill had been removed, so we could see that one clearly. Each we dug uncovered another pipe. For those that have to dig around in the yards be really careful for the pipes that could be underneath. We had to repair 3 in the end.

Diagram shows in the red where our pipes were uncovered - to where they lead to we dont know!

3 red lines where we hit pipes

Images of all the pipes we discovered during set out

  

Once all the holes were dug the boys had to then put all the steel posts in the ground and get ready for concreting. This involved making sure every post was at the correct height in needed to be for the sleeper to fall in place. It took them a while to careful position each of the posts in place.

Posts in along boundary ready for sleepers

 putting the sleeprs in seemed to happen really quickly. The longest part of the process was setting it all out and making sure the posts were level. It was great to finally see the wall coming to life, and creating some much needed privacy for us and our neighbours.

The new site supervisor checking out the days work!

Boundary wall almost complete

Backyard wall

Looking down into backyard

Once the walls were up the next stage was getting the boundary fence back up again. To fix the fence onto the wall we had to buy extra posts and concrete them in behind the wall and then screw the fence onto them. The sleepers aren't the same length as a normal fence panel, and we didn't want to cut all our fence sections down to 190, so this was the next best way we could think of doing it. Lets just hope it doesn't fall down on us!

Prior to the wall going up the fence was about 1.4m high from the alfresco level. So its great to have a normal fence height now.

Standing on alfresco after fence was put up

The original fence height

In the end it took about a week to complete. Im relaly happy with how they look. We havent decided if we will paint them or just leave them natural. Ill decide this once the rest of the yard is looking a lot less like a building site.