Bring on the warm weather!

The backyard is nearly finished!! 

My Dad and 'B' have been madly building a deck.  All the joists and framework has been completed and the merbau boards will go on next. The retaining walls are all done, just waiting for some soil and turf to go down now (we've been letting the new ground level settle and settle it has with the recent lot of rain).

In celebration *cough* call it what you will, I just "won" the following outdoor table & chair set on ebay for $898.88!  'B' is stoked when I win on ebay, no truly. He loves nothing more than driving all over Sydney picking up my winnings!

Here's a better idea of the colour, it's showing up a bit dark in above pics!

It's verrrry similar to another set I saw at BBQ's Galore over the weekend which sells for $1999! Happy with my $1100 discount, thanks very much!  And this is where I should add that 'B' truly is happy!  He loves a dollar saved, that guy. Bless.

What I love about this outdoor setting is that the chairs all sit flush under the table (with the exception of the end 2 which will sit on a separate section of deck when not in use).  Sitting flush is quite important to us because when our lovely bi-fold doors are open, they take up quite a bit of room - which has meant our ginormous, wide 10 seater setting is about to get an ebay listing all of it's own!

See what I mean?!  And I know!  How shameful I don't have a current pic of our doors!

Anyway, the budget has all but been spent now (and then some) so it will be a while before any new purchases I imagine.

** I wonder if anyone who builds a house comes in on or under budget?? **

Promise to be back soon with a backyard piccy update.