What a difference a day makes

Melbourne, beautiful weather this weekend, hence Raymond got heaps done in the back yard yesterday.

Here's the end result - I am so excited to at long last see a backyard, not just mud, weeds, & piles of dirt.

View from the back of the yard down the garage side

From the deck looking out

Looking across the backyard to where the vegie boxes will go

That means that we have irrigation to go in and in a couple of weeks (hopefully) we will actually see some turf go down - cannot wait.

In the meantime all the rubbish from the back is going out the front till Raymond is ready to start on the front garden and we get a skip, so we will at the moment have the worst looking front garden in the street :(

Home!

Sorry for the lack of updates, but we really have not stopped since we moved in here in December.

We have had ongoing tradespeople coming in on a weekly basis to fix bits and pieces and now we are both back at work, time is very precious.

Master Bedroom

Our deck out the back is now finished and we are very happy with the end result.   We will be sealing it in a couple of weeks then we can erect our brand new BBQ and put out our new outdoor furniture and start actually having people over.

We have had Raymond here almost every week chugging along with the landscaping and he has now finished all the garden bed walls, Ryan spent a whole day here starting to lay irrigation pipes ready for the turf which hopefully should be laid in the back in around 3 weeks.   Its been a dusty time since moving in, and I have become somewhat of a cleaning fanatic with Enjo duster constantly in hand.

New alfresco furniture ready to go

It very much feels like home here now and I say every day how much I love living here.   The neighbourhood is fantastic and we have met so many great people already.     Here's some picture updates, I will put up more as we progress along.

Miss Megan's purple bedroom

Decking completed

Lounge Room, with my lovely gas fireplace

Garden bed walls now completed



Dining room

Loving the pantry

Study with his & hers desks

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!!!!

We are in and Merry Christmas

Sorry for the delay in updating the blog, but we have been a little busy over the last week or so.


We officially moved on Tuesday 20th December, and from the day of handover it has been go go go to say the least.


A big thanks to Stu and Andy from 2 Men and a Truck (thanks Reinsey for the reference), who were absolutely fantastic in getting us from Charles Green to Charlbury with everything intact.   Seeing I have Kiwi relatives, it was no surprise to see these two kiwis working like trojeans!!

Finally, the front of the house

Ever since Tuesday we have been unpacking and trying to get things organised.   The curtains/blinds finished up with the last room being installed on Xmas eve (thanks Trevor from Sharon's Curtains), we have had outside blinds installed, all fans/lightfittings now complete, carpet, deadlocks, security doors & flyscreens, new TV's for both of us, and desk for David.   Need to go back to Ikea to get another desk for me as mine from the old house just doesnt suit the study.

 

Loving the house number plate ordered online!

Not many pictures yet, will update as I get organised more.

Master Bedroom

Today was Christmas Day, and we managed to have a lovely lunch with Ryan & Kris who very kindly helped with some of the food as well.

I would like to wish all my bloggy mates a very happy Festive Season and look forward to seeing all of you a lot more often now that our Avenue family is complete.

Its been a long road from Charles Green to Charlbury, but what pearls of wisdom and lovely friends I have gained along the way.   Looking forward to this new chapter of our life surrounded by great neighbours.