Landscaping begins

At long last our landscaping and deck have begun!!

This is why we can't get into the garage!

Our carpenter, who happens to be our ex next-door neighbour has been given the job of contstruction of the deck, and worked 3 days this week and we now have the foundation stumps in the ground ready for the bearers and joists.   After getting everything unpacked so we could both fit into the garage, our garage is now full of timber, so we have to park outside for a while longer.

Our picket fence at the side of house

Luckily our daughter-in-law's brother is a landscape gardener, so he has been busy on his holidays this week starting our garden retaining walls using the Austral bricks Coolum Bluestone range of blocks, very happy with progress so far.

As the old saying goes, it won't happen overnight, but it will happen!!!

Here's some pics:

Austral bricks delivery

Progress so far

Foundations dug

Posts in

Hoping for steady progress from now on!!

Totally Exposed

  

Lots of activity at Charlbury Manor these last few days.   Firstly, our landscaper Raymond brought the bob cat in and totally cleaned up our backyard, removing 3 truckloads of rubbishy weeds and bad soil in preparation for the landscaping work that he will begin soon.   He also needed to dig out around 20cm of soil in our Alfresco area ready for the deck to be constructed, which we hope will also happen soon.

 

A blank canvas to work on

Excavation under the alfresco

The pressure was on because we got a call from our concreter to say that he was ready to start on Friday morning, and once the driveway is down we can't drive on it for around a week!



A spot to put the rubbish bins behind the garage door



The boys started at our place at 6.30 am Friday morning and worked solidly preparing the formwork as the exposed aggregate cement was arriving around 11 the same morning.   Luckily for them, I had baked muffins, as I was also up at 6.30 that same morning and were expecting visitors for morning tea and lunch as well, so baked in readiness for the visitors, so while they were waiting, and waiting, and waiting for the cement delivery they were chief tasters of the muffins and gave them the big thumbs up!!



They worked solidly all afternoon and Dean finally went home around 7.30pm that night after a massive day.

                                                                                     



At long last no dirt under the clothes line!





Our verandah before being pressure washed

 

The path from the footpath



He was back again today to do the saw cuts and seal our lovely new driveway and path.   We are very pleased with the end result, and it provides a perfect frame-work for the front garden, of which I am still in design-mode for.

The finished result!!

Life at 3977

Well, we are almost 2 weeks into our new house, and I can say that out of 96 boxes, we only have around 10 left to unpack - very pleased with that I must say.

We have managed to survive Christmas and New Year and our beloved pussy cat has now joined the family and has settled into her new house quite easily. 

But the best thing of all is the wonderful people we have around us, and this weekend has been the best.   We caught up with neighbours at Reinsey's and then today our lovely across the road neighbours plus Deb & John had a very pleasant afternoon despite the 40 degree heat in Melbourne today.

All I can say is how lucky are we!!!!