couple of little jobs in the courtyard today

spent an hour or so in the garden today - pulled a few weeds, put up another mosaic and trimmed the hedge plants. Some photos follow:







PS - Fi you can tell Ian that the plant he crushed has damn near recovered. We also have a serious scale infestation (white scale) which needs Adrian's skills as the family scale dr.

While it is still winter, the plants have established themselves well and as the warmer days start i am sure they will shoot up.

The crack - we still have the crack and a less obvious one at the back of the paver area. I have been guaranteed this crack will be fixed and it needs to be because it is right in the area where you walk around the corner of the house. It couldnt be in a more obvious spot:

last post - maybe

this site is now basically going to remain dormant as the jobs are done, but there should be one last post when the big crack in our "paving" is completed and it better be as promised or I might just have to make a whole heap more posts.

so if you are visiting because you are interested in past work - welcome - but if you are expecting more - sorry to disappoint.

Jeff

my other backyard blitz - officially finished

Well today was officially the last day of MOBYB. in case you have forgotten what it looked like when i started there are 3 old photos plus a couple of final photos.

Today i moved the last of the stuff which was hanging around the back, cleaned out the gutter on the patio roof, cleaned the bricks with a high pressure hose and did a couple of other small jobs. In addition, i hung some hooks in the garage to enable mum/dad to hang up some tools.

the before







And the after





Overall, they seem very happy. all in all, the job looks ok. the space is now much brighter and it certainly will take far less effort to keep looking ok.

Its Done

I finished my other backyard blitz today (except for a couple of minor jobs). Mum and Dad seem really pleased with it so that's good. the finished product:







All that remains to do is for my sister to get some of her stuff removed and then the paving will need to be pressure sprayed. Once a few pots are placed around and some mosaics hung on the wall it will look even better

job nearly done

there is light at the end of the tunnel - and it is not a train coming the other way. I put in a good days work today and managed "very nearly" to get the job finished. But when i realised i wasnt going to to able to, and pick up all the rubbish/tools etc before dark, I called it a day.

I will go back tomorrow for a few hours and then i might need to go back one day next week to do all of the "ancillary" jobs (hang some mosaics, move some pot (not that kind) plants.

here are some photos to prove its real and not blog fiction:

as it was when i finished yesterday:





finish today



jobs for tomorrow - a small number of bricks to cut and then the mess and tools to clean up.

another average day on the job

got up a bit late this morning so i didnt arrive at mum and dad's until just after 9. I was thinking i had till about 1.30 to work as I had to pick G up from an appointment at around 2.30 or 3pm, but in the end she was finished early so i had to leave at 11.30.

as a result i did not get much done. managed to cut some bricks for the back section of the paving but it was a slow old process as there were lots of cuts required.

It now looks like this is going to take another 3-4 days at this rate so i will be back there tomorrow bright and early.

the gods conspired against me today i think

went to mum and dad's this morning after breakfast (got there about 9). it took me pretty much all morning to clean up the additional area which needs to be paved because it was full of roots. then i had to fix the reticulation. I tried to patch it up, but this proved to be a complete waste of time in the end so I had to get in the car and drive to the hardware store (about 20mins away) and buy some new retic pipe, drive back and fix it. In the end it was ok.

Because of the gap in time since i laid the bricks originally, the issues with the retic and the changes which are required i had to pull up 3-4 metres of bricks I had already laid to make sure i can get it all level and solid. then when i went to compact the area i had cleaned up i found that the compacting tool we had made was missing. Emilio had taken it home so that job has to wait until tomorrow (as i picked it up again on the way home).

Then i started to cut some of the bricks which need to be cut to finish the job and the power went off in the whole area and it stayed off for over an hour. In the end i gave up, did a couple of other small jobs for mum, had a shower and left.

On the way home I got a coffee, read the paper and here i am ready to do it all over again tomorrow.

Hopefully I will be more efficient and effective.

Blitz starts again tomorrow

Its on again. I am going to pick up the bricksaw tonight and drop it off at Mum and Dad's. Tomorrow I will go out there early and start again. I think it will be a 2-3 day job as mum has changed the "plan" since i was last there. She wanted it her way and to achieve this she got someone to cut down a tree while i was gone which means i have to change the paving a little bit. in the end it wont be much extra work, but it is still a pain really.

BB2 on hold

I wont be able to complete the BB2 for a couple of weeks now as I have to go to Melbourne to do some work.

Will be back in mid June

Day 5

went and spent a couple of hours at my other BB today doing some "odd" jobs.

Put up a wire for the climbing plants:



and at the back - built the frame, put up the fence and painted it :



All I need to do now is finish all of the cutting for the paving and then build a little retaining wall around the plants out the back.

my other b'yard blitz - day 4

went to my other BB again today. The weather was a bit off - pouring with rain. But as they say you only get wet once so i did and i carried on.








I hired a brick trolley and i moved all of the bricks off the drive (9 slices, then I finished of levelling the area along the back and laid most of the bricks, except those which need cutting.

There will be some bricks left over by the look of it even when all of the cuts have been made. Not sure what will happen to them but they can always be saved for a rainy day i guess.

I think it will look quite good when it is finished, but at the moment it looks like a bit of a construction site

construction work now underway

spent another day at my other backyard blitz - my back is now officially killing me.

Managed to get a bit done

- laid the path down the side (except for a couple of bricks which need to be cut
- built the retaining walls and "paved" in front of the shed and planted some climbing plants which will "hide" the shed
- laid some bricks right down the back; and
- flattened the sand on the back fence area ready to pave tomorrow or some other day
- prepped some timber I intend to use to build a little fence at the back and to secure the wire for the climbing plants

a little more work completed

went to the hardware store this morning with Sue (on mothers day - doesnt everyone do that) and bought some herbs for our garden and some hardware (paint) and plants for mum and dads garden.

later in the day Ash and I went to the house and i completed a couple of little prep jobs - finished painting the shed (it looks brand new) and prep'd some other timber i need to use.

Tomorrow I intend to build the walls and finish the preparation for the paving. On Tuesday i intend to get as much of the paving done as i can. If i need to i will skip french on Wednesday to "finish" the job. Might need to come back another day and do the final cuts.

Only thing then left to do will be to remove some stuff Nicky and Emilio have had stored around the back for a while.

my other backyard blitz - day 2

spent another day at Mum's digging and getting all the rubbish out of the way and preparing to build the retaining walls. I also painted (or almost) the shed - it makes it "disappear" compared to its original state (galvanised). When it has some plants in front of it you will hardly be able to see it.

fairy lights

the electrician came today and installed the lights. they make the garden look fantastic. Paul (the Electrician) - thank you.

my initial request was for some "sockets" i could put some Xmas fairy lights into to drape on the plants along the wall (Sue wanted this), but following a site meeting several weeks ago i accepted advice to put some additional lights in. they werent exactly inexpensive, but i am sure you will agree this has been money well spent.

now we have a beautiful night garden.

My other backyard blitz

When my dad had a stroke recently Mum asked me to do some "paving" at her house to ensure she didnt have to deal with the weeds/garden etc.

she has gone off to Singapore (yesterday for one week) to visit some old friends. She needs the break. Before she left she ordered the paving bricks and left me with the strong impression that she hoped the job would be finished when she got back (seeing as i dont have anything else to do).

the bricks



I went there today and started the job. As usual i did not quite get all of the logistics sorted - i didnt order a miniskip bin - so i will have some double handling (more than I thought but manageable). While it looked like it might be a relatively small, straightforward job nothing is every really that easy. I cant believe how much rubbish there was hidden away in the corner (photos later). When i started moving everything the place was like cockroach/spider heaven - they were everywhere.

I arrived at 9.30 and left at 3.30 and i did not stop at all. I have made a pretty big dent in the "demolition - removing plants and rubbish" but there is still a fair bit of soil to remove and a bit of construction (repairs to retaining walls etc) to complete.

I took some before and after photos, just for the record. Lets see if we can get this job done by Wednesday next week (it will be a stretch).

The before shots:

I have to fill in the gap down the side path, pave in front of the Shed, pave all the garden bed down the back fence (except where i have left the 2 trees). To do this i need to repair/replace some of the retaining blocks and "adjust" the reticulation.









the after shots:











following is an example of some of the "rubbish" saved just in case it was needed later. It was part of the stuff in the bottom of the "ice chest" - now completely empty - on the wall in the after photo. there were literally hundreds of the little limestone offcuts - god knows what for.



Just before i left the bin turned up (good service). An added bonus - a larger bin because they did not have the size i ordered. GOOD JOB with all this rubbish. The first job tomorrow will be to put all the rubbish laying around it, into it.