Almost there...

Argh! It's frustrating when the finish line is in sight but it seems to take forever to cross it. Due to a series of communication snafus, we didn't get any electrical or plumbing work done this week. The sparkies for some reason were under the impression that the job was done, even though the fans, lights and external power points haven't been touched yet. As for the water works, the wrong sink was ordered and would have been far too big for our toilet. At least the electricals should be done tomorrow, but we'll be without down pipes, the sink and the new toilet for a while yet.

There's not much left to do with the actual building. All the doors have been installed now in the store, which is a relief as we can finally lock up the house.



The old front door was sticking a fair bit so we got that replaced too. Since this was pretty much the last bit of work to be done indoors (aside from one more set of light switches), I immediately ripped off all the drop sheets and rolled out the carpet again. It's nice to have the place feel like home again. At least until we have to start painting everything.



To kick the weekend off we started with the final trip to the dump. It was a big load but we got there without incident thanks to John's clever use of rope and a cargo net.



With the rubbish out of the way, we dove into the designated project of the week. In this case the corner garden bed. We knew we'd like to have some shade from here eventually so the big feature will be the red grevillea at the back. It's a little small and whispy now but this should hopefully grow to provide cover. To fill out the rest of the area we planted an assortment of agapanthus, grasses and a giant yucca we had growing in a pot. The old lilly pillies behind may not survive but we're still willing to leave them in and give them a go. Then it was all covered up in our favourite mulch, hoop pine. We think the results are rather fetching.



Next we headed along the retaining wall. To get started, John filled a layer of river rocks to help keep the dirt from seeping through. Then we shovelled in filler from the holes that were dug in the corner garden bed, before topping up with some nicer soil from the landscape suppliers down the road. To break up the wooden fence we planted a line of stripey white liriope. Hopefully they'll spread to meet each other.



Tomorrow should see the last bits of the building finished, as we just have the patio out the back to seal, a few touch ups and the front gate to be rehung. Oh, and the lights of course but we've had our hopes up before. Then it'll just be the plumbing. Come on, let's finish this sucker already!