resting on our laurels

HARDLY!!!

We've been in our home now for a few weeks and have all settled in beautifully!!!  We've been super busy with all the unpacking, shopping, organsing quotes, shopping, landscaping, shopping ;-) ....you get the drift!

Here's my youngest with his tool belt on feeling all important!

And here he is helping his Poppy put together a kitchen in the flat!

And did I mentioned we've been busy? Mainly thanks to a lot of landscaping that poor ol' 'B' is pretty much doing solo.  He's doing a cracking job though and it's going to look fabulous when it's all finished.  Though I definitely need to shout out a big thank you to 'B's' brother 'S' who was a huge help for a couple of days and 'B's' mate 'M' who is giving him a hand today!!

This is a before shot.  Swampy much?

And from another angle.  The weather was against us in the first week.

Here's 'B' carrying one of the many beams that will be part of our retaining walls.  He makes it look light!

And here he is with the kanga hammer digging holes for the posts to go into.  Each hole is 900mm deep and majority of them were through slate!  'B' now has muscles on top of his muscles!  If you've ever lifted one of these machines you'll know what I'm on about.

And in enters Russell and his excavator!!  Saving us, oh let's see, 1000 hours of manual labour!

Here he is out the front excavating our drive-way

Here's dedication for ya!  Once 'B' got everything out of the hole, he'd scoop the last out by hand to make a flat surface for the post.

You can see the excavated back yard here...

 

And wasn't it a relief to get a drive-way put in!  We had rain for the first week and it became so muddy.  Not great when you have a very independent 2 year old who was most put out when not allowed to walk through it when getting in the car!

We received 3 quotes for the drive-way:  $6200, $5300 & $4600.  Pays to shop around!

Its just plain concrete at the moment to match the existing section of battle-axe drive-way.  Once all the landscaping is finished, we'll clean it with a gurney and then paint it.

Yay for Dave the concretor!

Before you think it just looks like a whole lotta concrete, once the fences go up and we put our decking on the porch and landscape at the side of it (where the huge mound of dirt currently resides), it should look much nicer.  We also needed it to be reasonably big so we have the option of turning around when coming out of the garage.

On a final note, we had a few things to be finished off by Eden Brae after handover and I was naturally a little wary, wondering if we'd become yesterday's news once the house was officially ours and never hear from them again.  However true to his word, our Site Supervisor has continued to get some of the last few bits and pieces finished off for us since we've moved in, which has been terrific!!

If you're after a terrific concreter, call Dave from Ferral Concreting on 0415 221 001.

If you need an excellent excavator / bobcat operator, call Russell on 0418 220 372. 

Herringbone anyone?

I've found driveways a bit of a stumbling block for some reason.  Perhaps it's because we really want a liquid limestone driveway but it's near impossible to get them here in Sydney.  Or perhaps it's because we are in a battleaxe which already has a concrete drive up to the building envelope and whatever we do from there needs to gel with the existing part of the driveway...

Just to recap, here is our existing driveway

And in no particular order, here are the different types of driveways I've been exploring:

Liquid Limestone 

Pros: Natural product, cool all year round to walk on and looks amazing!

Cons: Is in abundance in WA and is about triple the price in NSW and unless you want something done on a commercial scale here it is almost impossible to get it done (still exploring this option).  Would also not tie in overly well with existing concrete drive.

Paved

Pros:  Can look quite nice.

Cons: We'd need to have concrete poured as a base especially as the drive will slope up towards the garage.  So it becomes quite expensive and labour intesive. Would also not tie in overly well with existing concrete drive.  Also with the brick of the house, could just be a bit too much brick goin' on.

 

Hmmmm! This one just hurts my eyes!

 

Painted or Plain Concrete

Pros: Looks modern, comes in eleventy billion colours and is cost effective.  It means we could also paint our existing part of the drive so it looks seamless. You can get a textured finish to assist in being non-slip.

Cons: Would need to be repainted and sealed every couple of years.

Really like the squares in the concrete. Simple but nicer than just plain.

 

 

Stencilled Concrete

Pros: Would create a seamless driveway as existing drive could also be sprayed. Texture would be useful as a non-slip measure.

Cons: Needs to be sealed every couple of years.

And here is an example of why I generally don't like a lot of stencil driveways I see.  Just too bright, contrasty (yep, I'm making up words!) and cringe worthy...

 Stamped Concrete

Pros: Reasonably cost effective. Broad range of colours.

Cons: Wouldn't be able to match the joining driveway.  Don't know if I love the slate look.

Exposed Aggregate

Pros: Ummm....

Cons: Not nice to walk on, is quite expensive and looks dated to me.

 Asphalt

Pros: Economical, meant to last for 20 - 30 years! Textured surface good for being non-slip.

Cons: Very hot & sticky to walk on in Summer.  Wouldn't match up to existing driveway.

 Painted concrete or stencilling is most likely the way we'll go. What type of driveway do you have?  And what do you love / hate about it?