Grand Designs

A few weeks back we went to the Grand Designs expo at Darling Harbour.  There were two halls of great new and inspiring Gardening, building and decorating ideas.  Here are a few:

 Love this gazebo in the gardening section.

 Shaina from The Block was there to give some decorating advice

Love these examples of vertical planting:

Spring has Sprung

One year on and we are starting to see our garden spring to life.  The trees and shrubs have become established.  Just fertilised the lawn for the long hot summer ahead and after a good water it's starting to look vibrant and green.  So excited that my Ornamental Pear trees are finally starting to flower.

Camellia

Standard roses in flower

Standard Escallonia

Ornamental Pear in flower

Lemon scented conifer

The garden one year on....

All Decked Out

Yay, the back deck is finally finished.  It was a major job for Ben which took a few months to finish, especially since he was only working on it over the weekends.
It's a huge deck, almost 8m x 8m.  He used steel posts and joists as he finds it so much easier to work with metal instead of wood.  For the actual decking we decided to use Ekodeck, which is composite wood made of bamboo and recycled plastic.  It doesn't need staining or decking oils at all.  The price was the same as Ironbark anyway.

Camellias planted against the fence

Ben also used the 'Camo' secret nailing system, which screws the decking in from the sides of each panel.  This basically means you that you don't see the screws on the top of each panel.  Looks much better.

Wallpaper

During the planning stages for our house we had decided on having wallpaper feature walls in the main bedroom and my older daughter's bedroom.  She wanted the New York skyline in black and white and we managed to source that from a wallpaper/mural  supplier via the internet.  Worked out to  be far cheaper than buying it here in Oz anyway.  It came in 8 pieces.
I wanted an elegant and luxurious looking wallpaper for my bedroom.  Thanks to Ebay I found the perfect wallpaper and prior to purchasing it the seller was happy to send me a sample so that I could make sure it would fit in with my colour schemes.
The problem we had was getting the wallpaper hung.  After three "no shows" by the wall paper hangers, we decided to tackle it ourselves.
Watched a few YouTube videos on hanging wallpaper and did more research on the web.  All the websites suggest that you use a primer on the wall first.  The primer allows for better adhesion of the wallpaper and also makes it easier to remove the wallpaper in the future.  So off we went to Bunnings again, the primer and glue came in under $50.
Princess S's room was our first project and we were quite pleased with the result.  You can judge for yourself.  Took us about half a day to complete and wasn't difficult at all.

Lighting is making it look yellow, but it really is black
and white.  That's the Princess in the corner of the picture.  

My room was next and by this time we were so much more confident with hanging the wallpaper.  Love the result and the fact that we saved a few hundred dollars by doing the walls ourselves.  

I'm still here!

Sorry for neglecting the blog.  Life has been hectic.  For those who have just moved into new homes as well, I'm sure you will agree with me.  There's so much to do and time just slips away.

We started the new year with more work on the front garden.  The weather delayed us considerably.  Ben finished the two small retainer walls on both side boundaries.  We used wooden sleepers and posts from Bunnings.  Now we plan on getting some good organic soil delivered and more plants put in.

Right side with organic soil

Left side with Ornamental Pear trees planted

Finally stained the front deck as well.  Used "Intergrain" natural stain in the Merbau colour.

How are you spending your New Years Eve????

Well, guess what we're doing for New Years Eve.  Were up early this morning, did a 45 minute walk around our new neighbourhood and it was soooo quiet and peaceful.  Then got into the real work for the day.
Our two Ornamental Pear trees have been waiting patiently for us to plant them in.  Decided that it was a job we could not put off any longer.  So in they went.
Ben did some final work on the front deck, washed it off and we started the staining of the timber.  It's been a while since we finished the deck and leaving it for a while ensured that the wood leached a bit which is what was advised by a few experts on decking.  Used an "Intergrain" wood stain in the merbau colour.

So what's planned for tonight.  Well a nice quiet BBQ at home with the family.  Will be finding a comfortable spot in front of the tele with a glass of wine in hand to see in the New Year.

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYBODY!

Our First Xmas @ the ponds.

We're so excited to be in our own home for this Xmas.  Our tree went up at the end of November.  Yes, we were early I know, but we just couldn't wait to see our tree up. 

On the 3 December we went to the The Ponds Christmas Party.  It was a very popular event with over 300 people attending.  We were served a nice Xmas dinner and of course, Santa made his grand entrance.  The kids seemed to love it.  It was really nice to meet other residents of the estate as well.

Last Sunday was the Carols at The Ponds.  Wow, what a big turnout of people on a not so warm night.  It was all really well organised with food stalls, rides for the kids and we were thoroughly impressed by the lovely fireworks display at the end.

So good to see all the houses decorated for Xmas and we spend our evening walks enjoying the Xmas lights as we walk by the neighbours homes.

Just loving our new neighbourhood.

MERRY CHRISTMAS BLOGGERS!