What else we have done...

• 31 March - 1 April 2001 - Electrical work done this week was the wiring of the dining and living room and 2nd bedroom ceiling lights. Yay! There was no time for work on the garage but on Sunday Ben put up the curtain rail in the front bedroom and the shower curtain we'd bought the day before.
• 7 -8 April 2001 - On Saturday Andrew wired up all our powerpoints but they still need to be connected. Ben tried to work on the garage but had to help Andrew and didn't have much time on Sunday so only managed to put up a few studs and noggins for the back wall. I weeded our only patch of 'nice' grass, which desperately needs cutting. The builders came on Saturday too, to go through, for about the 4th time, all the things we'd like them to fix. They said they'd come on Tuesday and clean the bathroom grout, reseal the kitchen counter edge and fix the skirting boards.
  more pictures of the garage
• 13-16 April 2001 - Easter! On Friday Ben put up the front corners posts for the garage and hung the small blue door, which looks a bit strange without a frame. I finished weeding the patch of bent grass and cut it - hopefully it'll grow better now. We did quite a lot on Monday. Ben finished scraping all the dust and crap off the laundry walls and by about 10pm had painted a sealing undercoat on all the walls and ceiling. I painted the plaster patch in the second bedroom so we can finally put the bedside drawers where they belong. I also undercoated parts of the third bedroom and kitchen.
  more pictures of the garage | pictures of the laundry | a "tour" of the house as of Friday
• 25 April 2001 - ANZAC day. We'd done nothing the previous weekend. Ben has been painting the laundry in the evenings and last Wednesday Andrew did a bit more work but hasn't finished yet.

  Yesterday I'd come home to find a huge pile of mulch in the front yard. My guess that the stump grinding man had returned at last was confirmed later when dad rang to say the guy was at his place asking for payment for our job. I said I couldn't see if he'd actually finished so dad told him we'd pay him when we were satisfied. So this morning Ben and I raked, shovelled and swept enough mulch away to see that there were still significant pieces of stump in the ground. Dad came later to see for himself and then he rang to tell the guy who did admit he may have left pieces of stump because he couldn't see past the mulch. Too bad for him he was caught out.

  Ben moved the bricks from the front to the back, and laid some of them as paving on the path. He started edging the path with fence timbers so it looks a lot neater now. I was sick so I didn't do much except a little weeding and removal of grass from previously mulched areas. I also mulched a small part of the west side of the yard.

  Ben finished painting the laundry after dinner so we can finally move a washing machine in there.

• 28-29 April 2001 - The stump grinding was apparently finished on Thursday but we didn't have time to shovel mulch to find out. He's been paid now anyway. Ben painted most of the back of the house with the paint we bought on ANZAC day. It looks great - a sort of dusty purple colour, Wattyl Solagard Plum Purple.
  purple house
• 5-6 May 2001 - During the week the builders came back on 2 evenings - the first to fix the back door which hasn't been closing properly for a while and to get their final payment, and the next to do the last skirting board in the kitchen and to return our keys. Andrew did the wiring for the 2 new hall lights.
  example of what the builders needed to fix

  On Saturday we had friends over again to help finish the garage. It rained on and off all day which wasn't too bad as we were mostly working under the roof. By 4.30, when about half of us weren't protected by overhangs on the outside of the garage as we put polycarbonate up, the rain got heavy and we gave up.

  We started at about 10 with more noggings being cut and nailed up. They were in a line at the point where the corrugated cladding and the plywood would meet. Ben had decided to do the highest part of the walls with plywood as that would be easier to cut to fit the slope of the roof line. The studs at the front of the garage, where the roller door will be, were cut then put in place later in the day.

  By the end of the day most of the wall near the fence was clad in polycarbonate, leaving a few people grubby and wet. The left side of the back wall is mostly finished too. The side where we will have a path to the house is only half finished, as the front corner will be clad in metal sheeting which Hudson's didn't have in stock.

  Despite the cold and wet day all of us had fun, especially as power tools like a drop saw, circular saw, angle grinder, drills and cordless screwdrivers were involved, and a few people even offered to help again! Thanks, we may take you up on that!
  pictures from the barnraising part II

• 12-13 May 2001 - Ben worked on the plywood and I finished attaching the polycarbonate on the east wall of the garage.
  the current state of the garage
• 19-20 May 2001 - The electrician came on Saturday and with Ben's help up in the roof and under the house, got all the wiring connected to the switch box which he'd put up last Thursday. The sensor light on the front of the house actually works so we put a bulb in and won't trip on the front path in the dark now. On Sunday Ben finished putting studs, noggings and the head on the garage wall where the roller door will go.
• 26-27 May 2001 - On Saturday, with a little help from me, Ben clad the north-west corner of the garage in zincalume Custom Orb - corrugated metal sheets. I weeded various parts of the backyard, pruned the camellia tree and mulched more of the west side of the yard. On Sunday Ben put up the supporting brackets for the roller door, got the door in position by himself then tried to unroll it to determine where the guides for it should go on either side of the frame. When he cut the rope holding it together the door unrolled on to his finger, then the ground. Luckily it stayed up but we had to bring it down again because it got slightly damaged. We think it should have stayed rolled up - isn't that normal behaviour for a roller door until you want to close it? - so it may be faulty. Anyway, didn't get much done on Sunday.
• 2-3 June 2001 - We were in Bowral but we did inspect the roller door there and came to the conclusion that ours isn't faulty - it just should have been supported on its way down so it didn't flop all over the place and entirely unroll. That's what the guides at the side are for...
• 5 June 2001 - Haven't mentioned this before but the side fence on the west side (not the one shared with the other semi) is old and falling down. As of today it isn't there and will be replaced with a Colorbond fence. Not our first choice but it'll last longer than another treated pine one.
• 9-11 June 2001 - We had help with the roller door on Saturday and Monday. We've learnt so much - like the spindle should be fixed in place by screwing down the brackets, after the spring is wound, as the door revolves around the spindle. By the end of Monday, the door was up and closing easily. With a bit of grease and minor adjustment of the spring, opening should also be improved so it doesn't take more than a little push. Ben also gave the camellias a big pruning.
• 16-17 June 2001 - During the week we acquired a power point in the bathroom. Yay! Ben started to build the large back door for the garage - the one that'll give the car access to the backyard. I dug up the grass on the east side of the yard near the house and found some old brick borders. Also cleaned the front of the house, including an attempt on the screen door.
  the current state of the garage
• 23-24 June 2001 - On Saturday Ben attacked the pile of dirt and rubbish at the back of the garage. He got rid of all the grass and weeds and building materials, then levelled the mound before laying old fence palings on it for a much nicer (temporary) surface to walk on. The next day Ben put polycarbonate cladding on the big door and the narrow part of the garage next to that, while I mulched more of the west part of the yard.
  the current state of the garage
• 30 June - 1 July 2001 - We didn't have time for much this weekend. On Saturday Ben started to level off the gravel and dirt next to the garage to make the side passage more passable. The gap between the skirting board and floor boards at the front of the house, revealed by the removal of the carpet, was filled in with some gap-filler stuff so now we can't see the front garden through it anymore. During the week the 2 new bathroom lights (which Ben bought 2 weeks ago) were put up but they're yet to be connected.
• 7-8 July 2001 - Ben did a bit more work on the passage next to the garage. He also moved most of the stuff under the window in the dining room (which was a bit of a storage area) into the garage - he assembled a small wardrobe and filled it with boxes, and moved the other unassembled wardrobe out there too. Andrew came and the 2 of them fed cables to the switch box. I must have been mistaken about what had been done with that in May. Michael and Lisa dropped in after lunch and the 3 guys figured out how to use the plumber's wrench I'd borrowed and adjusted the roller door spring so opening it is about as easy as closing it. What was I doing? I weeded a bit then I had a wisdom tooth removed later in the morning so I was just recovering for the rest of the weekend. On Sunday Ben did the second coat of paint on the back of the house and also used the same paint around the laundry door, just inside the back door.
  nice clean laundry
• 14-15 July 2001 - Ben finished painting the wall outside the laundry. I put a weather strip on the front door and also cleaned it inside and out, as it was still dusty from when the builders had been doing their work. There is some really weird peachy-brown paint with darker streaks on it - according to Tom it's something that was popular in the 70s and used to give the appearance of woodgrain. Ben did a bit more work on the passage next to the garage. He levelled it and covered it with the liquidambar mulch we made, so there's a twiggy surface to walk on now. On Sunday we got a couch and bookcase which Helen and Don don't need themselves. The bookcase is nice and narrow and is in the hall.
  Ben working on the passage
  Ben moving mulch from under the mandarin tree
  another "tour" of the inside
• 21-22 July 2001 - We need a ditch between the house and garage, so we can get electricity to the garage. Ben used Andrew's huge angle grinder to cut into the concrete at the foot of the house, then he and Kyle dug the ditch, to a depth of about 350mm. There is mud all over the east half of the backyard, going from the back 'step', past the mandarin tree and along the fence. On Sunday, while Ben deepened about a third of the ditch to the required 500mm, I mulched a bit more in front of the garage, reset the bricks that formed a flower bed under the bushy thing (it's plumbago - the one with blue flowers which Ben pruned right back about a month ago) near the Hills hoist because the level of the backyard has changed so much the bricks were found under about 2cm of soil, and weeded a bit. I was actually pulling up grass from the area I'd already mulched in January. Soon after I did that we noticed a bird picking at the newspaper until over a few weeks it was shredded to bits and since then grass has grown back over most of that area.
• 23 July 2001 - Ben was at home today so he deepened more of the ditch. There is still about a third to go.
• 28-29 July 2001 - During the week Ben was told that the ditch can't have right angles in it so parts of it will have to be redug. It rained all weekend so we didn't do anything outside. We put the dryer up on brackets in the laundry and Ben scraped a bit more paint off the wall in the room next to the kitchen which his mum had started on in March.
  the plans with linked before and after photos
• 4-5 August 2001 - It was really sunny and warm this weekend so Ben was able to reroute the ditch, eliminating the right-angles. It now goes under the mandarin tree so I helped move the mulch pile out of the way. I also tried to rescue the grass which had been buried under the mud and clay from the original digging, after Ben uncovered it when he filled in the wrong part of the ditch. Also transplanted some grass to the other side of the path and weeded a bit more. We finally started to dig out the liquidambar roots in the front yard so we can fix the path. It's amazing - apart from the main thick root, there are lots of smaller ones going everywhere like twisted cables. We started to chip the big root out using a mattock but there must be a quicker and more effective way. I also pruned the mandarin tree - it's infested with a sort of scale (from the information on this website, I think it's a hard or armoured scale as it doesn't move. However, ours doesn't look like any of the ones shown here - we have what looks like little pieces of rice all over the trunk, many branches and leaves, and some of the fruit) and some of it looks really sick, and sprayed onion grass.
• 11-12 August 2001 - It was really sunny and warm again weekend. On Saturday morning I started to refill the ditch now the conduit has been laid. After lunch Ben continued on that and started grading the soil ready for planting grass seed. I pulled up more of the kikuyu grass that I was working on 3 weekends ago. On Sunday Ben finished raking the soil and positioned the concrete pavers we bought last week. He's decided to grow grass over the concrete path so had moved the soil over it. The pavers go from the blue garage door to about halfway up the garden. The rest of the path is still paved with bricks but that section will eventually be under the deck so we didn't get pavers for it. While Ben was doing that I was hacking more of the liquidambar root out. Some parts had obviously gone under the fence on the west side as there were old cuts where the root ended abruptly. We have some sort of pipe running along the fence which we now realise probably started off buried under the soil but has been forced up by roots growing under it. I managed to remove one of them but the other root has sort of enveloped the lower half of the pipe and will require some careful digging to extract it.
  pavers in the backyard
• 18-19 August 2001 - It was sunny, warm and windy this weekend. The wind has been up to 95km/h this week so the first thing Ben did was to put up stakes on our east fence (in 3 sets of 5, arranged in an artistic fan-shape) then plant the 2 Hardenbergia violacea plants which we'd bought last weekend and which had been blowing over in their little pots. They're climbers with purple flowers and hopefully will hide the fence when they get bigger. I continued with the liquidambar root removal. The front path looks far worse than when I started, with churned-up dirt and loose bricks everywhere. On Sunday Ben helped get out the root with the pipe - he drilled lots of holes in it to make a 'dotted line' then sawed through it along the line. Our neighbour also used his angle grinder to sharpen the mattock for us which made it so much better to use. Now all the branches going to the fence have been removed, leaving the main part in the middle of the path.
  one of the Hardenbergias

25-26 August 2001 - We mostly worked on Saturday as it rained on Sunday afternoon. Ben started on the garage again and finished the plywood panel on the house side, most of the plywood above the roller door and on Sunday put up the missing plywood on the west side. I transplanted the 'nice' grass we'd saved before we dug the ditch (now we think it's fescue, rather than bent), filling in some of the gaps in the existing grass. I also finished digging up the root out the front and moved the dirt around to prepare before putting the bricks back. Then I realised that most of them have probably been lost ages ago and I don't have nearly enough to remake the path. Pulled up the prickly plant with red berries, both to thin it out and to look for bricks in the planter bed, but there weren't any. I started to use some other bricks but I'll have to decide if I want to pull up the original bricks from the back (ie. furthest from the footpath) of the path to put in the front, using mismatching ones at the back; or just plonk mismatching ones in the hole. Ben thinks I should do the former because it'll look better but that's so much more work!
the big mess that is our front path
progress!
looking towards the back of the house
Ben working on the back of the garage
front of the garage
• 1-2 September 2001 - Because of our church fete and the rain on Saturday, all Ben did was make a sieve with which to sift road base out of some of the backyard soil. On Sunday Ben sifted the soil and raked the backyard again before sowing grass seed. I continued to put the front path back. I'd done an hour's worth after work on Friday, when I decided to take Ben's suggestion and pull up bricks from the back. After another 2 hours' work, I'd dug out some more root and have put enough bricks back that we can walk from the front door to the footpath entirely on bricks. Yay!
• 8-9 September 2001 - After Andrew's work during the week the bathroom lights above the vanity work now! I did more on the path - only need to put about 35 more bricks down and then it's finished. I also cleared some more asparagus fern (or bushy asparagus) from the garden bed bound by the 2 parts of the path. Ben defined a planter area under the camellia trees with some bricks.
• 15-16 September 2001 - I finished the path on Saturday and yanked up even more asparagus fern. Ben mulched behind the garage and cleared the soil in his planter bed, and laid more bricks near the mandarin tree for another planter area. I find it amusing that according this website, asparagus fern is a "splendid houseplant" and can "become family heirlooms". I guess confined to a pot it would be quite attractive, but once outside it becomes a nuisance because it spreads everywhere and its roots can get into brickwork, as it has along our front veranda. Under all the asparagus fern we had, I found a cute little Hebe with purple flowers. Hopefully it'll grow a bit better now it's not being choked. Ben also bought some new plants but they're still in their pots.
  it's not perfect but the path is finished!
• 22-23 September 2001 - We were helping other people on Saturday so didn't do anything until Sunday. I tidied the garage a bit then weeded, while Ben planted the Autumn Crocus, Snow in Summer, third Hardenbergia and other things under the cameliia trees. He also finished putting bricks down for the planter area. The new grass is doing really well.
  the white plant is Silver Dust
• 29 September - 1 October 2001 - All we did on this long weekend was buy a barstool for the kitchen, a matchstick blind for the back door and cut the new grass before we went to Bowral. Down there we bought a couple of Hostas and a couple of pots of Lamb's Ears, and Helen gave us a lot of little plants from her garden such as Jump-Up-Jacks (type of Violet with purple flowers) and native violets.
  the lambs' ears - soft and furry! Carex is in the background.
  hostas under the camellias
  Johnny-Jump-Ups
• 6-7 October 2001 - Ben planted most of the new plants in the bed under the mandarin tree. He had the following Thursday off and made a flyscreen and put the back screen door up. He found the door frame wasn't deep enough that the screen door's handle wouldn't touch the back door, so he had to pull the outside architrave off, pad out the door frame with some other timber and put the architrave back. Even with that extra depth, the door handles get in each other's way so the screen door still doesn't close. We might have to reposition the back door handle.
• 13-14 October 2001 - Ben cut the new grass - it's so long! He also planted some more of the plants. The following Thursday he hired a belt sander and sanded the kitchen floor. We started painting it on Friday night. On Thursday Ben also sowed some grass seed on the west side of the backyard, next to the clothes hoist.
  new grass!
• 20-21 October 2001 - On Saturday Ben finished the first coat of paint - Berger's paving paint in Charcoal Dust (I think - it's a dark bluey-grey) - on the kitchen floor while I was at work. On Sunday, while Ben did the second coat on the floor I started painting the kitchen walls with undercoat. The floor was finished just before dinner and it looks great.
• 27-28 October 2001 - On Saturday I put 2 coats of White Friars over the undercoat I'd done on the kitchen walls while Ben undercoated the back wall, which I hadn't time for, and the ceiling. Ben also did one coat of ceiling white before giving up in exhaustion for the night. On Sunday he did another coat of ceiling white. I did the back wall with White Friars and touched up bits which had gotten ceiling white on them. That leaves the doors, and window and door frames to do in enamel paint.
• 3-4 November 2001 - Earlier in the week, on Monday night, Ben started on the window frame and back door. We didn't have time for much else except about an hour's worth of weeding on Sunday afternoon.
• 10-11 November 2001 - On Saturday afternoon we tackled the front yard. Ben pulled up the most of the rest of the asparagus fern and I pulled up all the grass and weeds that were growing out of the mulch and sprayed the new bits of liquid amber coming back up from the remaining root. It looks neater now but we'll have to decide what to do to make it look nice.
  front yard in the sun
  lovely Christmas bush
• 17-18 November 2001 - There was no time until Sunday afternoon to do anything. While Ben was up the ladder clearing the back gutter of all the jacaranda flowers and twigs and installing gutter guard, it started raining again. Good thing he finished the job as it didn't really stop raining for the rest of the day. During a short dry spell Ben planted some more flowers, from seed this time.
  ...why the gutters were full
• 24-25 November 2001 - I got back from yoga last Thursday to find Ben had built a little table in that weird concrete-floored corner of the dining room (see here). It's where we had the phone for a while before we painted the kitchen floor and had to move it out of the way to put equipment. Ben painted the concrete in Charcoal Dust then used some MDF and a table leg to make a place for the phone stuff to go. It'll also act as a bench for things to go in and out of the fridge. Because the fridge door is hinged on the right there was nowhere to put stuff before. On Saturday and Sunday Ben planted more stuff - he'd bought more things on Thursday like Lambs' Ears and azaleas.
  little table
  Charcoal Dust floor
  kitchen as it looks now - we will be moving the fridge back, soon...
• 1-2 December 2001 - Just a bit of gardening - Ben cleared the rubbish near the plumbago and used some bricks to define a small vegetable patch where he'll plant spinach. On Ben's day off he started painting the little table, and the skirting boards in the kitchen.
• 8-9 December 2001 - I think this was the week that Ben solved the problem with the screen and back door handles. He just turned the screen door handle upside down and there's no clash now.
• 15-16 December 2001 - I can't remember what we did, so I'll just give an update on what the garden looks like, as Ben moves the plants around a bit. The Silver Dust plants grew too tall and were hiding the Snow in Summer, so they're now on the mandarin tree side of the garden. The plants are in bands - next to the brick edging are Jump-Up-Jacks, then Lamb's Ears, then Silver Dust, then some coriander, then a type of Carex (an ornamental grass). There is a palm between the mandarin and jacaranda trees. Under the Camellias, starting from the brick, are Snow in Summer, Lobelias, Autumn Crocus (not real Crocus, but of the genus Colchicum), and Hebes.
• 22-23 December 2001 - On Monday I brought home from my Great-Aunt's a pot of basil - hopefully this one won't die, and a pot of Yesterday Today and Tomorrow, which has scented purple/white flowers (in case you're like me and haven't heard of it, here's a link ). Ben had Friday off and he drastically pruned the camellia trees to let some light down to the new lobelias and other things underneath. On Sunday Ben finally got back to painting the skirting boards, door frame etc which he'd undercoated a while ago. He didn't get very far - just some white oil-based gloss paint on the laundry door frame and the skirtings on that wall. I did some weeding.
• The new year...

Last modified: Fri Jan 04 08:04:24 EST 2002