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It’s always nice to finish a few chores before the end of the year, and this little bit of landscaping has been drifting on for while now! In fact I think it really kicked off in earnest in February this year.

We did think we’d finished Path 1.0 a long while ago, but unfortunately I don’t seem to have a picture of Path 1.0. 🙁

But we came to realise we made a small mistake in our choice of fill. We originally filled the path with pea gravel. Which looked good. But actually wasn’t. It was way too small, so most of it made its way into the house in our shoes, or just drifted into the gardens. So eventually we dug all that out and the path sat bare of top coat for a while.

Until today. Finally we went and got a couple of scoops of driveway chip and finished it off. Just in time for the new year!

We now jump forward to October 2017 when the next major operation of the year occurred. The Staining of the Trellis. And it did seem to be a major operation. Trellis is horrible to throw a paintbrush at!

But at least it’s now done, and hopefully won’t need touching up again for a few years. It certainly looks a lot nicer out there, and it evens out the colour of the old and new trellis quite nicely.

A bit of a flurry of activity over the last week or so. Helped by the recent public holidays, welcome babysitters, bonus labourers and last but not least the paid help.

This week saw the arrival of the paving boys to finally edge the back door path and drop a bit of base course in for the path too. Nice to see some clean lines out there finally. Now we just have to decide what to top it with that’s going to be nice to walk on with groceries etc.

It’s surprisingly hard to take decent pictures of a path that turns on a right angle, so forgive me if it’s not all that clear what’s going on.

It’s almost as difficult to take a picture of a curved path too. But finally after three trips to the buxus nursery the front path has its edging in place. I could have sworn I got enough to finish the rows on the second trip, but as I was creeping closer to the end planting the second batch I found myself thinking more and more “we’re not going to make it, no, we’re not going to make it…” and I was right. Ended up nine short. But a quick pit-stop style third trip to the nursery on the way to another appointment and we were sorted.

They’ve got just a little bit of catching up on the ones along the house, but hopefully they’ll get there.

So that’s a couple of chores finally ticked off. Not that the list is looking all that much shorter, but it’s progress.

Apparently watching garlic dry isn’t quite as exciting as I’d hoped. There’s been murmurings from the cheap seats, so I guess you’re due a long overdue update. Luckily last weekend there was something to update you on!

We managed to drag ourselves outside in the light drizzle on Friday night and play with a bit of orange paint in the back door area.

Just as well as there was a little yellow digger arriving (with driver) on Saturday morning to do a few bits and bobs. First up was to remove the big piles of stones and dirt left over from the garage project. That really didn’t take long when you have a big enough tipper truck and a fair bit of experience with diggers!

Then it was on to the trickier stuff. Especially as some of it was under the house and garage eaves. But no worries.

We even managed to get the new hedge line dug out, filled with some vege mix, planted, and the with irrigation pipe in as well. All in time to watch the cricket. Or we would have watched it if it hadn’t been rain-delayed.

All in all a good weekend’s work. Amazing what you can get done if you have the right tools! The kids even got to have a ride in the digger. They weren’t too keen on that though!

Now we just have to get some path edging in, and then the path filled up again. Hopefully there won’t be month’s between updates this time!

Just about have this year’s major additions finished now. The three new vege beds have been installed and even plumbed up with the major irrigation hoses. Just need the dirt/compost now to arrive to fill them all.

They’re the three at the back of this shot in case you can’t work it out!

And the pergola extension is looking really good. Just the two side panels to fit once they’ve been made to fit. Nots sure just yet what we’ll do for shade for the next year or two. Pondering a shade sail to go over the top for a bit. We’ll definitely need something though!

It would appear that someone placed the new garage in the wrong place, so to make things like up a bit more we’re having to add a little more onto the pergola. But to be honest we also need it to get the table fully under some cover, as it’s still really, really hot out there when the sun’s blazing down. So another few rows of pavers have been laid, and then there’ll be a bit of woodworking required, but the result should be a real improvement.

You’ve possibly been wondering just whether the garage has finally been finished or not. And the answer is……… Almost! Sigh.

It’s been a bit of a comedy of errors (or somethings) getting the garage doors on, but at last they’re on. Sort of. Tonight was the first night that they’ve both been down so it’s been a fully closed in building. So I thought a low light photo was worth taking to celebrate that.

There’s still the final openers to fit, and a bit of cable to fix, but then it’s finally finished. Even though that’s still be done apparently the council have signed it off as complete, so it won’t be long until it’s really ours.

And then the hard work begins. Painting the interior. That should be a mini adventure!

As seems traditional with any sort of building project progress has reduced to a glacial pace. The electrical side has been completed, so really all we’re waiting for is the garage doors to be installed (they’re in boxes in the garage – apparently there needs to be a bit more concrete ground out of the rebate or something before they can go in), and the drainage to be complete then we’re done except for the painting which we’ll be attempting ourselves. At least to start with. We’ll see how long that lasts!

But in other news, we seem to have managed to get a decent crop from one of our pear trees this year. In fact it’s the first pear crop we’ve really had of any description. Up until last week I wasn’t aware that you’re meant to harvest pears a little under ripe and ripen off the tree, so these might actually be a little too ripe, but we’ll take them!

It also seems that unnoticed by us the white peach tree has been quietly ripening its small, but very yummy white peaches. Again for the first crop from them. Bonus!

I suspect a lot of this is down to the extra water they’ve all received this year. Either that or they’ve finally matured just enough to deal with the conditions here. But it’s nice to finally get something back from them!

Over the last week there’s been a coating of Gibb applied to the remaining interior walls, and since this photo was taken there’s even been a bit of Gibb stopping action too. And the beginnings of a ramp built so we can actually drive into it.

Think we’re down to electrics and garage doors now. Although we still need to decide if we’re going to get all keen and paint it ourselves or just get someone who knows what they’re doing to paint it. And maybe add some skirting boards. They’re not there yet, and somehow I suspect they’ll claim they’re not in the spec.

Apologies again. We’ve been a bit tardy with the updates, but here’s a little run-down for you. Wednesday last week the scaffolding team of five guys arrived and plonked up the scaffolding. Thursday the builder and his mate put on the roof, and also added the interior plywood wall, swept the place out and called it a job well done. Friday the electricians arrived to do the pre-wire at very short notice. They left. Now I guess we’re waiting on either a council inspection, or the batts to go in. Not sure which has to happen first.

But then after that it’s just Gibbing, sparkies adding the sockets and switches, the main garage doors going in, a ramp to be constructed so we can actually drive into the thing and we’re done. Another week should do it, I reckon. Oh. Hang on. There was some sort of interaction with the council in there, wasn’t there. Maybe a month and we’ll be done then!