Herbman Andy

Front gardens

2009-04-13T08:27:00.002+10:00

I've also mostly finished the front gardens. I planted only native plants - banksias, grevillias, paperbarks and native grasses. I planted many varieties of each plant. Mostly I used tube stock because they grow well and only cost $1 per plant instead of $8 - $20. When planted as tube stock most native plants will outgrow the more mature versions.

I still have to get some banksia ground covers for one small section of the garden, but I'll do that next Sunday at the markets.

Only thing left to do out the front is to deal with some drainage on the side of the house at the end of the drivewa and to get turf to fill in the gaps.

Garage and study now in use

2009-04-13T08:22:00.003+10:00

We've had a 4 day weekend for Easter so I've been working hard on the house inbetween studying.

On Friday I cleared out the garage and set up the study. The garage still has a little way to go because I need to move the rest of the shelves in there -but that has to wait until we have shelving in our cupboards first.

Nesting

2009-04-04T10:55:00.003+10:00

1. gravel then ag pipe.

2. fill with gravel

This is my first weekend at our new home that I don't have to go anywhere. No cleaning the old house or trips to the dump. It's the first morning that I've just been at home relaxing and pottering around. Some call it nesting - am cleaning, going to try to connect the dishwasher, going to try hanging the clock and the towel racks. I've even watched a movie this morning in our comfy loungeroom with the soft carpet.

I saw a wallaby on the lawn this morning and heard whipbirds out in the bush. The quiet was only disturbed by my noisy moving 2 square metres of gravel in behind the driveway retaining wall. Got the country music cranked up on the stereo for company.

***

Dit is mijn eerste weekend in ons niew huis waar ik nergens naartoe moet gaan. Ik hoof de oude huis niet op te ruimen. Het is de eerste morgen dat ik gewoon kan relaxieren. Ik ben aan't pootsen, de vaatwasser aan't connecteeren, en de handook 'rack' installeeren. Van morgen heb ik nog eens en film gekeeken in de huiskaamer met lekker zagt vloor bedekking.

Ik zag en wallaby op de graas en vogels in de boss. Ik heb van morgen ook 2 metre steentjes achter en muur ge daan (zie fotos). Ik heb de country muziek lekker hard en ben er mee aan't zingen.

Driveway being installed

2009-04-02T20:10:00.003+10:00

The driveway is going in slowly because it has been raining a lot this week. The first pour was completed yesterday but today we got sooo much rain that I don't think the second pour will happen unless we get at least 2 days of complete sunshine to dry everything out. Good to know we get good rain here. The water tank overflowed today ... good sign for a gardener.

De driveway wordt geinstaleerdt. Maar het gaat langsam omdat daar zo veel regen is. De eerste stuk was gisteren gedaan. Maar ik denk dat de tweede stuk niet tot volgende week gaat gebuuren omdat zo veel regen heeft gevaalen dat de zon teminste voor twee dagen moet schijnen voor dat het droog genoog is. Good voor mij dat het veel regend want ik ga en mooie tuijn hebben.

Bond issue resolved - cost $150

2009-03-31T15:01:00.002+10:00

The rental bond issue has been resolved. They will deduct $150 cleaning fee and the RTA will contact me about return of the balance.

I know she was being unreasonable and that's all that matters. Didn't cost me any more than if I'd paid someone in the first place, but I know the house is immaculate for the next poor soul who rents it.

Am at home this lovely Tuesday afternoon doing some uni work in our fantastic new home!!! It's so lovely. The grass has taken well and is lush and green. We're hoping the rain goes away so that the driveway can go in. We've got a list of things we need quotes on so that we can organise them.

Loving the new place. It's so peaceful and spacious and relaxing.

Now I best finish this assignment *laughs*

Rental bond problems

2009-03-29T20:04:00.002+10:00

After I spent 9 hours cleaning the rental property the real estate has sent me a list of issues:
- window tracks not clean enough
- a few patches of floor not sufficiently cleaned
- fly screens not sufficiently cleaned
- ceiling fans dusty
- light fitting not sufficiently cleaned
- laundry tub and shelf dusty

I am livid but have decided that I am taking the moral high ground. I could rush around and get angry, but really what's the point. We're never going back to the slum and I told the real estate so.

I told her to organise a cleaner and that it shouldn't cost more than $150 and that we anticipate she won't dock rent. Ultimately, I don't care anymore. It's money we didn't have anyway. Hopefully we get at least $500 back so I can get my motorbike repaired.

I did call it a slum to her. And I mentioned that I wish that I'd checked the Residential Tenancies Act while we'd lived there because she failed to keep the house in good repair.

Oh well - live and learn. That's why we own our home and don't rent. Let the slum lord continue on her way - karma is a bitch!

Upadted contact details

2009-03-29T20:04:00.001+10:00

To anyone who has received my blog in email form and tried to respond I haven't received your emails.

I have changed email address. Am using my hotmail address - I've now worked out how to update it and if you reply to this I should get your emails now.

Sorry if I have not responded to you ... it's because I didn't get the emails.

Making it a bit homey

2009-03-28T18:51:00.004+10:00

It's a slow process, but we are making our place home. We've put up retaining walls out the front and laid turf and put in some of the garden (you can kinda se it in this picture)

And we've laid turf over part of the backyard too. It just makes it a bit more like home. And there's less problem with mud.

Dad was a trooper helping me lay turf, building retaining walls and helping move furniture. He was at our house the whole 7 days I took off work.

More 4WDing ... this time with sand for under the turf where it was very wet. That's me - and yes I did do some work too *haha*.

The adventure of moving in

2009-03-28T18:27:00.005+10:00

Not having a driveway and with the front of the house being a total mudbath, we resorted to extreme measures to move in ... We had to engage 4WD to access the our back patio ...

Fortunately my Dad knows what he's doing in the mud ...

I was sooooo happy to be moving in. It was a LOT of work - but so worth it.

Our first night was a bit of a camping adventure. I'd asked Sharon to join me at our new home but had forgotten the mattresses to both queen bed - oops. But it was something to remember. I had a single mattress but no bed. So Sharon slept in relative comfort while I tried out the new carpet.

Moved in

2009-03-13T08:36:00.002+10:00

Just a short note to say that we are in the middle of moving in. We slept at our new home for the first time last night. Sure - it was on the floor in the spare room because we couldn't fit the mattress in the last load. It was kinda like camping.

With all the rain this week the surounds of the house are like a mudbath ... there's red mud EVERYWHERE. But so far we've managed to keep it out of the house. Moving in gum boots - quite a laugh.

I'll upload some pics later when we're set up a bit better because I'm using internet at my sister's house.

We had our first visitors last night and are having our first dinner party on Sunday night. In the mean time - I am just about to head back to the old house to tidy and pack the last of our stuff (you know the little bits of stuff that don't quite fit in the bulk of the packing or that you're too afraid will break).

Hopefully the rain stops soon. Yesterday we were fortunate and didn't have to cross town with our stuff getting wet on the ute.

Don't think there'll be much bobcatting being done this coming weekend because rain looks like it's here for a while.

Moving in & Starting the landscaping

2009-03-08T11:41:00.002+10:00

We should be paying the builder and getting the keys on Wednesday afternoon. It was to be Wednesday morning, but in typical Simonds style they have not done what they said they would and despite arranging handover for Wednesday (we were told work would be complete last week Thursday) we were told on Friday night that they cannot finish the window service and final clean of the house until Wednesday. But hopefully, they organise themselves *coughs* and we can get the key Wednesday afternoon.

Dad is helping me move everything on Thursday and Friday; and the carpet layer is booked for Friday morning. That means we could be spending our first night in our new home on Friday night.

Yesterday Dad helped me organise a bobcat / excavator guy to help prepare the front of the house for driveway and landscaping. It was a massive job as you can see from these photos:

This is the front of the house before we started work.

This is the front after the excavator dug up a lot of dirt and moved the wall back a few metres from the front door. Old mate used his bobcat to drill the holes for the retaining wall posts. Dad (and the bobcat operator) helped me put the posts in place. Well actually, I carted water because the tank pump didn't work properly and carted bags of cement while those more practical than I made sure everything was straight.

This is the wall at the side of the garage before we started working.

We moved it right back so that we can retain on the boundary. We'll fill the neighbour's block back in after we put agpipe and gravel and whatnot in behind the retaining wall.

This is the front of the house after all our work. It's taken from the same spot as many previous photos. You may notice that it's much more open.

Next weekend (14-15 March 2009) the bobcat/excavator will be back to do lots of digging etc around the back and to spread all the dirt that got dug up from the front.

Am sure this blog will now be updated more regularly. Hopefully some of the pics are going to better show what we do than these.

The house is painted

2009-01-23T05:33:00.002+10:00

The house has been painted. The colour may not come out brightly on these photos but they it really nice and subtle.
This second photo shows the side garden on the small side of the house with the new fence our neighbour organised. There is actually heaps of space there - more than we expected so we were pleasantly surprised. More space to make gardens.
This is the entry to the house through the larder. On the right is the garage, the window is the theatre room, the door is the larder and on the left is the dining area. Still a lot of mess, but once that's gone it will be interesting to see how we retain this area (there's a big drop that doesn't come out well on the photo).

It's starting to look awesome

2008-12-21T13:25:00.002+10:00

The front of the house. Not yet painted, but the garage door has been installed and they've done some tidying up.
This is the dining and famly room. The door in the top right of the picture leads to the back patio. To the bottom right of the picture is the kitchen, and out the windows on the far left of the picture is the garden.

How good does the patio look with the tiles! The rendered pillars and walls have yet to be painted - so they will still change. But am totally loving the tiles.

The ensuite.

The front door and porch. Think it looks stunning. Glad Sharon was insistent on the fancy door rather than the standard one.

Plastering finished

2008-11-03T20:22:00.002+10:00

The patio with plaster in the ceiling.

Ensuite

Kitchen / dining. Am loving the windows.

How messy are the builders?

Render is complete

2008-10-26T14:22:00.003+10:00

Ater some 3-4 weeks of zero progress we again have some action to share.

The render is complete (not yet painted so colour will change) and the plasterers have been in (they were working on Saturday this week).

Finally the bricks are finished

2008-09-29T05:39:00.003+10:00

They've taken their time, but finally the bricks are finished. Funny how 90% went up in 3 days and then the remaining 10% took 2 weeks.

The rough wiring and plumbing has also been completed.

We are now up to site supervisor #5 in 4 months. No wonder nothing really gets done - though there's a lot of empty alcohol bottles / cans on site. Didn't mind while there was work being done, but not happy that we're paying for people to socialise without working.

Oh well ... one day the house will be finished and we can move in and make it home.

Bricks are coming along

2008-09-14T17:22:00.001+10:00

Wow - what a difference a week makes. The bricks are almost finished and the glass is all in.

Roof is on

2008-09-01T17:56:00.000+10:00

The roof is on. That's called progress.

Windows are in

2008-08-24T08:52:00.002+10:00

The windows have been installed. Starting to look really good.

Windows delivered

2008-08-16T17:28:00.004+10:00

The roof trusses are pretty much finished. We can see our roof-line and how high the ceilings will be. It's really exciting.

And the windows have been delivered, so no doubt they will go in shortly.

More framing action

2008-08-13T17:18:00.014+10:00

There's been some more framing action this week. And the roof trusses have been started, and you can really start to see how the house is going to look. The bathtubs have also been delivered.

These pics show the start of the entryway being constructed and the gutters that have been delivered. The middle picture is a view towards the backyard from the patio. Our backyard extends into the trees.

The picture on the left and in the middle were taken from the same spot at the bottom corner of our block. The white posts that you can just make out on the left of the pictures are our boundary markers. The picture on the right was taken from the top of our block down towards the bottom corner. The white posts you can just make out in the left and middle pictures run up to the post with green paint in the right picture.

Frames are up

2008-08-09T20:51:00.003+10:00

The frames are up.

View from the entry

Looking up the hallway towards the entry

Me being silly pretending to cook in the kitchen.

Having a cold drink on the patio for the first time.

First cheque

2008-08-08T19:55:00.001+10:00

I've just written a cheque for the first progress payment. Kinda scary. But also exciting because it means everything has really begun (even more so than the dunny being delivered).

Preparing for slab

2008-08-04T18:19:00.006+10:00

Things are getting serious - the dunny has been delivered to site.

The foam blocks are being installed and covered with the reinforcing mesh.

The digger has been working hard. Maybe Mum can convince them tomorrow to move a bit more dirt (the area it's sitting on because that wall is right in front of our front door).

The back retaining wall area is suffering with the rain. I hope to speak with the site supervisor on Thursday afternoon to see whether he will allow me to engage retaining wall people to work on it after lock-up. Don't think I want to wait until after summer's downpours. There's been a lot of run-off from the last rain.

Apparently they hope to pour the slab tomorrow (Tuesday). Yay.

No work last week

2008-07-25T06:18:00.003+10:00

There's been no progress this past week.

The concretor got held up on another job, so we have to wait our turn in the queue.

Meanwhile - it's decided to start raining again. That will make the wait longer.

No estimate on how long the concretor will be delayed.

Frames have arrived

2008-07-20T17:30:00.005+10:00

The frames have arrived at our block. Things must be getting ready to progress out there despite the rain.

The meter-box has been installed so we know we'll have electricity.

And the drains have also been installed. In the background you can see the porta-loo. Guess that means they expect to be working hard enough to need toilet access. Another good sign.

Here are two views of the garden.

<- Looking up through the trees from where the native food forest will be

A view of the rear of the house where we will be creating terraces for the vegetable gardens ->

Waiting for it to stop raining

2008-07-19T15:36:00.001+10:00

No updates on progress of the block because it's been raining the past 2 weeks.

Apparently the slab should be going down during the week, but it's soooo wet out there that it's anyone's guess whether it will be possible to get it in there.

Still raining

2008-07-08T05:59:00.002+10:00

It's still raining. While nothing's been confirmed (because that can apparently only be done once a week - grrr), we expect the rain will cause significant delays to the slab going down.

There are unlikely to be pictures uploaded this weekend unless the rain suddenly stops and a very strong sun comes out to dry everything. Hopefully I can work out a way to upload some drawings I have done of plans for the back retaining wall and vegie garden.

2008-07-05T14:48:00.008+10:00

We braved the pouring rain this morning so that we could check progress on our new house.

The piering has been done; that's all the concrete splodges all over the place.

As you can see, a lot of rain fell this morning. We expect that this will cause some delay to the slab going down.

My parents came to have a look today and gave us some excellent ideas about the landscaping. They are difficult to explain, but stay tuned for more information and pictures.

Thinking about the massive cuts

2008-06-29T22:20:00.000+10:00

Today we went out to check out the block again. We thought about all the options of dealing with the big cuts.

We went to see Suwati & Warren and realised that they also had a big cut. We chatted with them and that helped come up with some more ideas.

I've emailed a heap of retaining companies to see whether any can come and give quotes and ideas. We think we will have to retain some areas while others may be able to be back filled.

Once the slab is down we will have a better idea.

In the mean-time my poor family will all be dragged out to the block to give their advice on different options. The more ideas we get, the better decision we are likely to make.

Here is a picture of the main concerning area. That big slope on the left is very close to the back fence. We're just going to back fill the slope coming down towards the trees, but we think the one going left will need to be retained.

The dream is underway

2008-06-28T18:59:00.000+10:00

We bought a block of land about 12 months ago. It's 1200m^2 and 50km south of Brisbane. The idea is to build a nice new home and start a wonderful new edible gardening experience.

Two days ago construction began. The block has been cut in preparation for building. Today we went to our block to look. The extent of cut & fill took us by surprise, but it also opens all sorts of exciting opportunities for landscaping design.