spa fencing.....

The spa fencing finally went up today...except for the gate as we are waiting on a metal plate to fix this....this was a DIY project and with Tony working 9-5 all week and the weekend it has been a job where he could only work on it for a short time after work.
I must say that i do love the look of the glass fence, it keeps the area open, now all we need to do is to decide what we are going to put on the slab to finish the job off.

Tony also got around to putting his Chiminera together today...pity its summer but it does give us a focal point when sitting in the alfresco.

The grass got its first mow today, finally the ground was firm enough for the mower to run over it...do love the smell of freshly cut grass.

The chip bark area in the backyard (litterbox) has also been finished today.

Bits n Bobs...

I tell you, the weather has been plotting against us.....

....as mentioned before, we made a start on the play area for the dogs, we paid for 5m of chipbark, but all threy had was 2m which they delivered, the rest was to come when they got more in......Tony finally contacted them to remind them that we were waiting for our delivery, so when they did deliver it, it was raining..alot! great, all that sunshine we had had and now it was raining - again!
So, now we finally or should i say Tony has finally moved it all to the play area, just waiting to put the sleepers in place and to grind the excess off the bolts then we can rake it out.
Good thing is the dogs love it...suppose it helps that Adee had chip bark at his place so they all know what it is....yep thats right, one giant litter box, but at least i don't have to go chasing all over the yard to look for it.

Tony's also been trying to get the glass fencing up for the spa, made a start last night but again rain put a halt to proceedings, hopefully it wont be raining when he gets home tonight.

Today the shutters for the bathroom finally arrived, the kids are very happy with their installation., now they will be back either next week or the following week to install the base board, which is just purely for decoration but it was something they couldn't do until the shutters were hung.

Our grass is growing really well with all the sunshine and rain we've had, trouble is is is very soft underfoot, so mowing it is a bit of a problem and believe me it needs it.

Haven't had much of a chance to get out and do more fence painting either, started on the fence around the side of the spa today, got 2/3rds of it done before the rain came, oh well, it will get done eventually.

yea giant litter box

glass panels for spa fence

bathroom shutters, the gap you can see under them is so they clear the bath, this is where they have to make the board up.

open shutters, you can see the sheds outside waiting to be erected.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.