Cleaned and Turfed

Started talking to painters about quotes to get the externals and newly plastered walls painted. I know we should probably embrace the whole home-owner renovation experience and get our hands dirty, but in truth I'm just lazy and would likely guff it up. We got two quotes back and one seemed ridiculously cheap so we decided to go with that one. The painter as it turns out is the owner's son and seems to have undercosted the whole job. Let's hope that his painting is better than his cost estimation.

With most of the messy work out of the way and cheap paint coming along, Alison and I forked out for some boys to give the house a good clean and scrub. Yes another job that I should be manning up to do but hey, I value my time. Watching the water turn grey as they brushed the weather boards gave me a strange sense of satisfaction. There was a moment of panic when I realised that the jet spray of soapy water was flooding the house through the many cracks in the doors and windows, but nothing that a scramble for towels and frantic mopping couldn't fix.



Saturday was another big slug fest in the garden. The mission this week was to get the front yard turfed and presentable. To begin with, John showed us how to rake up the left over rocks and get the ground levels right in preparation for the soil to be delivered. Tiring work, but before long we had a trailer load of left over construction rubble to be taken to the dump later.

Then the good soil was delivered and had to be wheelbarrowed and raked across the area to be turfed. We left a couple of strips bare for garden beds to come.


Just when we'd pretty much finished getting the ground ready, this huge truck pulled up with piles upon piles of good Sir Walter turf. Our two pallets were dropped off and we immediately got to laying the strips.


We've always liked Sir Walter as it seems to stay green in the worst conditions. Particularly important in during the current drought. I'm also rather fond of the texture on your feet as the blades are wide and bouncy. Should be nice and soft to lie down on one hopes, as long as those nasty green ants don't decide to spoil the party.

This stuff turned out to be a lot heavier than we'd expected so our arms got a real workout. Especially when you're paranoid about getting good coverage and keeping the lines straight. We even had a pleasant surprise when our neighbour Manni donned his gardening gloves and came over to help us move some left over dirt to the back. Much appreciated as we were exhausted by that point. It took a while but we got there in the end.



John's estimation for what we'd need was scarily accurate, but even so we ended up with three strips left over. Not keen on wasting expensive turf we thought we'd have a teaser strip for the backyard so that we could imagine what things will look like eventually. Looks rather smart next to our new outdoor dining table I think.



We're going to have to water the lawn pretty frequently over the next month. Initial soakings are taking forever to do but it's important to get the roots to grow deep and establish themselves. Good thing there's a relaxation on water restrictions at the moment for home owners installing new turf.



On Sunday we popped out to the markets to pick up a tray of mondo grass to plant on the border between the turf and driveway. We packed them in fairly densely so hopefully it won't take too long for the clumps to join up.



We still need to get the garden bed next to the car port planted up to give the cars some shade from the morning sun (thinking a hedge of moraeas at the moment) as well as another bed next to the side path down to the lock up area, but overall the front yard is pretty much finished. Backyard is the next big job...