Sunday, November 21, 2010

Backyard.....

Finally getting around to doing something in the dirt pit out the back.....Tony has ordered a stack of 200mm sleepers to mark the pathways and box in what will be the dogs area.  Of course you realized that once they were delivered it absolutely bucketed down for a couple of days....so that got put off until it became finer.

We had made a plan up of what was going where in the backyard, measured it etc etc, then while the boys were doing the dog area it all got changed, yep Tony changed his mind....not a great deal tho.  So now our paths are wider and the dogs have a huge rectangular area to be filled with chipbark.

The area is hard to describe...think of a rectangle 20m x 7m, in the bottom right hand side is the spa area which is 4m x 6m the remaining 3m to the backfence will house a largeish shed for the dogs complete with some grass and a stone path, this area will be fenced off. Right beside this area running along the back fence will be a 3m x 1.5m storage shed, opposite this and running along the house will be a similar storage shed of the same size.
Up along the back fence will be the chipbark area for the dogs, this is a raised area 2 sleepers high with stones on the bottom and chip bark on the top, much kinder to our heavy dogs, this also doubles as their loo and play area, this is 6m x 4m and yes we can fit all 5 Berners on there comfortably.

The clothesline (when i eventually get it) will go along the left hand side fence, any area that is not a shed or chip bark area will be a path, we were going to use crushed rock but found (courtesy of one of the houses in the estate) a really cool material to use for paths, it is crushed bricks, pavers etc...recycling them, it comes in varrious sizes we like the 7mm one, so it looks more like exposed agg.

Currently the dog area has been erected, the stones and half the chip bark are down, we are waiting for the rest of the bark to arrive.  Last night Tony started bricking the areas for the sheds.

I got very excited yesterday as there was NO wind...got up had breaky, organised myself...thought..hmmmm will do the area beside the spa where the dog shed is going, halfway through doing the fence up sprung the wind...by the time i'd done the 3m with the spraygun i looked like a speckled hen, grrr...so it looks like again i will have to use the brush.

Once the back is done then we can concentrate and finish off the front yard.

Chip bark area under construction

Close up of the sleepers

Men working...between Adrian (in the forground) and the house will be the path

The dog area, where the bricks are will be one of the sheds, we will use its wall to form part of the fence to keep the girls in their area, the gate should come to the end of the spa fence.

Where the second shed will be

Play area partically done

Mia and Nikki checking it out with Lulu and Sorcha watching...Tucker was away on holidays

The area for the dog shed, complete with part of the fence painted.

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Master....

At long last I have finally cleared all the excess stuff out of our Master bedroom.......the only things in there that shouldn't be are the cream chair and its ottoman, the small chest and a few boxes in the corner of the room, all these will go into the craft room when it becomes available.

Have also finished doing the first coat of paint on the other front fence, I have done this by hand so that its done and doesn't look unfinished, hopefully I can get the final coat done tomorrow.




Sunday, November 14, 2010

Fence Painting....

Finally, the weather was kind enough for us to start painting our fences......every day that has been fine has also been windy...not good if you are going to use a sprayer to do your fences, the only days that it hasn't been windy have also been bucketing down with rain.
Yes, this morning we had neither rain nor wind....so out we go to start the fences...first tho we had to read up on how to use the sprayer.....yep, figured it out...had a bit of a play on some cardboard first, then Tony showed me how to use it.....much easier than using a brush although we had to be really carefull around the render, ended up using a brush on that area, the only problem is that you have to keep refilling the container up with the paint mixture, so we have decided that we are going to buy the suction accessory to stick straight into the paint, then, it will be much quicker.
Only got the side fence at the front done, yes, you guessed it, it started raining again.

Had some sleepers delivered on Friday to start laying out the paths down the long side and for around the back of the house but its been too wet to even do that.

Monday, November 8, 2010

Fences are finished....

Finally our fences have been finished.
Our fencer returned this morning to put in the gate down the long side of the house and to put the small fence up between the garage and side fence.  Now all that is left to do is to paint them.....big job....thought we would act smart and buy a sprayer to do the fences with but it is so darn windy up here, so it looks like its back to the old fashioned way and grab a paint brush.

no, the house and fence aren't on a lean...its the photographer (me), in my defence i couldn't see what i was taking cos of the sun...truely

Gate down the long side, this is the only access point into the back yard.

Sunday, November 7, 2010

Pretty lights....

We finally got the spa connected yesterday.
So now she is filled with water and has been chemically treated, now all we need to do is to bring the cover over from around the backyard to help keep the temp in and the dirt out! we ran out of time yesterday before Tony had to go to work, so that is todays plan.
Went out last night and took some pics of her with her lights going, there are small lights around the waters edge plus most of the jets are back lit.

you can just see the lights on the waterline





there are a few more colours but i didn't want to bore you.