Landscaping

We've decided its time to tidy up the garden.

When we moved in we made the mistake of hurriedly turfing to get the occupation certificate. In fact I'm pretty sure council wouldn

't have cared if we lived in a pile of rubble for a few years. As a consequence the land and lawn were uneven because we didn't have the time to tools to roller it flat before our overseas trip.

So 2 years later it was time to get paving.

(Before with some great looking weeds courtesy of the vacant plot next door )

After

Still got a bit of work to do but looking like a more usable entertaining space..!

Work done by Chad Williams, Cronulla, 040920487.

Pavers and retaining blocks are courtesy of Amber tiles. If anyone wants 30 we have some left over!

Sexy wallpaper

So we all love Taubman's Manhattan and Moonglow but - what to do to create a bit of excitement?

Got a load of samples from http://www.lancashirewallpaper.co.uk/ and ended up opting for this one Arthouse Couture Black Damask'. Its really worth getting the samples which took 7 days as some of them look very different in the flesh. The free samples are about 50cm x 52cm. Postage of 4 rolls was just over $100a and they took 10 days, BUT one roll of similar wallpaper in AUS is $140.. so all things considered a steal.

Wallpapering itself is relatively pain free (if your pasting on your nice new home smooth walls) if there are two of you and once you get over the stress of hanging the first piece.

Key tools are:

• a plomb line or spirit level to get the first piece straight
• a large brush to brush it on to the wall
• a damp sponge to wipe off any paste that gets onto the front of the paper before it drys

The edges of the paper overlap the cornice and skirting and handy hubby used a ruler and knife to score them once dry. We pasted with a roller using our outside table (indoors) and folding the pieces in on themselves to transport them upstairs.

One feature wall took about 4 hours and total cost was around $300.

This looks very silvery - but its less so in real life.

Creating an impression at the front

Continuing with the landscaping Graham and I braved the weekend downpours to work on the front yard. Got all our plants from Rockdale Community nursery. The Box were only $10.95 for a 30cm plant, which was good seeing as we needed so many of them. Grow babies grow! Pebbles are Menai's river pebbles.

Still got to decide to do with the naf bit in the background against the fence. Currently has all the old plants we pulled out for the paving. Any ideas welcome.

Where did that come from

Someone built in front of us.. it looks better than a vacant rubbish dump. This photo is couple of months old now and its all finished. Our lovely new neighbours move in in a few weeks.