Alfresco deck

This weekend was the alfresco deck's turn to get a scrubbin with the Flood PowerLift Tannin and Deck Sealer Remover - I have the blisters on my hands to go with it! I don't have any before and after pictures at this stage as I made a start late in the afternoon so the PowerLift cleaner wouldn't dry out (must be kept wet the whole time) and it was too dark by the time I finish to take a good picture.

We bought three pandanus trees for the front yard, but now that we have them we don't know where to plant them?! I'm finding landscaping design quite tricky and I'm scared to plant anything in case we mess it up and it looks crap ha! The trees have been planted in a makeshift posse until we can draw up a landscaping plan. I looked into having a professional draw up our plans BUT it is insanely expensive and I wasn't prepared to fork out $3k just to receive drawings and plant list. If you are landscaper and you create landscape plans for DIY at an affordable price then please comment below with your details,we would love to hear from you.

Landscaping can really make or break a property and I think it adds great amounts of value to your home. Doing it right the first time avoids costly mistakes of having to re-do it later down the track.

This weekend sees us starting the massive job of cleaning the fence to prep it for oiling. This job will be a killer!       

Portico deck + retaining wall extension

Here's a before and after shot of the portico deck after our cleaning efforts last week. The Intergrain Ultradeck Oil has come up really well. We may need to do another coat yet, which will make it a tiny bit darker. Alex also extended our retaining wall to the right of our block to support the driveway - another two sections had to go in. One bonus with all the construction happening around us at the moment is that a concrete truck happily came over and poured the holes with cement for free and dumped a heap of cut dirt to back-fill the wall saving us a bit of cash! Our retaining wall to the opposite side of the house also got a slight clean up with an extra length of hardwood added to the existing wall for more height (it runs approx 600mm off the fence line so we plan to fill it with soil and turn into a garden) so the stumps could finally be cut-off to height. They will also require another layer of oil, we used Linseed Oil for our retaining walls, before we back-fill with soil and prep for the garden to go in.    

 

 

 

Exciting things like... side gates & curtains

You know your life is sad you're building a house when certain things like side gates and curtains are exciting!

Alex and I conducted a little drive-by stalker-style survey of our estate to try and get inspiration on what style we wanted for our side gates (after finding a gate, jumping out the car taking photos and driving off again), we then set to finding all the pieces to build our design with. Direct Line Timbers were our go-to again and provided us with the steel frames, latches/locks and the merbau timber. Alex had a crack at putting it together and this is how is looks! I think he's done a fab job! It's not 100% complete yet but they are coming along well.

Our portico, alfresco and fence have finally started to get to the blonding stage (as you would know - fresh timber should ideally be left for two or three months before they're oiled or stained, to allow the sun and rain to help tannins leach out of them) and are ready to be oiled. We used Flood PowerLift Tannin and Deck Sealer Remover to clean the merbau to give it a nicer more consistent look before oiling but plan to only use a  high pressure hose for the fence before we oil it. We've chosen to use Intergrain Ultradeck oil as it's a good quality oil and retains the natural merbau colour, which we love.

I also finalised things to start the manufacture of our curtains! Hoorah, only took 3 months ha! (plus another 4-6 weeks for them to be made) Sheer curtains will go in all the bedrooms with a sun-blockout roller blind behind them and sheers for the stacker doors going out onto the alfresco area. Plantation shutters are planned (but not ordered yet) for the bathrooms, toilet and media room. Nudie runs no longer!

Not easily seen in the pic but the timber slats are different sizes

Sheer in charcoal for bed 2,3 and 4.
images from Block All Stars

Sheer in white for the stacker doors and master bedroom
image from the Block All Stars