Garden infrastructure (or The Ridiculous Price of Paving)

Today, work started on paving in the garden, which will put some structure around the piles of dirt and sand and areas of rock-hard clay. I'm not sure how long it will take, but the Paving Man (let's call him Sam) started today. He brought a jack-hammer with him to break up the clay in the narrow passageway down the left-hand side of the house, and has been taking out wheelbarrows full of lumps of the horrible stuff. Worth the price, I think!

Here are the before photos.

Soil as hard as rocks

Once this is paved, we will be able to walk to
the clothesline in much more style and comfort

Roadbase (the foundation,
apparently, of all good paving projects)

Today there was only one Sam, but he
brought two wheelbarrows, so I'm
expecting him to turn into two overnight -
some form of binary fission, perhaps

The other side of the house, which
will get a step as well as paving

The area of the garden soon to be
known as "Gail's Summer Yoga Spot"

The next project is to build the trellises for the fruit trees. That will require the kindness of friends - and a post-hole digger to get through the clay.

A herb and wildflower nature strip

Well, I'm not sure if the nature strip will be exactly as I imagine, but the experiment has started ... we've planted herbs and groundcovers after preparing the nature strip by digging up the clover and grass, and spreading gypsum and soil over the hard clay. It took help from our friend Jo, who borrowed a mattock and helped us to break up the horrible rock-hard soil.

Most of the seeds won't have germinated for a week or so, but within 8-12 weeks, the nature strip should be a riot of colour: oregano, marjoram, thyme, strawberries, sage, dill, nasturtiums, verbena, alyssum, nemophila, nigella, daisies, forget-me-knots, dichondra, and Bunny Tails. I wanted poppies, but couldn't find seeds ... they will have to be added later.

For now, the garden bed looks like this - far too organized, with those few plants marshalled in rows:

Gail's evidence that I don't know what
"random" means. It's neat, though!

Evidence of the clay that still lies
under the black "vegi-mix" soil.

Thyme, marjoram, and strawberries.
The seeds are too small to see.

Settling in nicely

Well, we are settling in nicely, and the unpacking is almost complete. There are a few more boxes in the second sitting room, and Gail has put some of her unpacked boxes in the (very small) garden shed, but all in all, it's coming along.

Once the garden is planted, much
less of the garden shed will be visible.

The Kangaroo Paws - three
different types - lining the driveway

The plants that were put in about 4-6 weeks ago
are starting to grow beautifully now
that the weather is warning up.

Next time I clean out the fish pond, I'll
make sure that it isn't on a lean.

Some red and orange pigface, ready
to be planted out, in the green tray.
The herbs in the background were
a present from Gail's friends Meg and Allie.

This morning's job was to add a few extra
plants to the row of broadleaf myoporum.
(Sedum Autumn Joy and Iceberg.)

There are more plants in this garden bed than
are immediately obvious from this picture.

The front steps with the Kangaroo Paw plants in the left.

Tomorrow, Big Josh (thus named, because my friend Jenn called her baby Joshua James, too) is coming over for a spot of gardening. I think we might tackle the nature strip, which I want to plant with ground covering herbs and wild flowers. The first part of that job is to dig out all the weeds that have grown there, and to spread some soil. That will take us a couple of hours, at least.

The unpacking is half done, anyway

Here it is: proof that at least some of the unpacking is complete. My back isn't bending as well as it should this week, but we have places to sit.

Of course, it's not all perfect. The washing machine broke in the move, so that has to be repaired on Thursday.

It's not bad, though!

The day after the move

We had the energy left yesterday to make up beds and find toothbrushes and towels ... but that was it.

Today the unpacking continues.

Good thing the kitchen has many, many cupboards.

I have no comment.

The fish were unpacked yesterday.
They seem happy in their new home.

The outside of the 99% complete house

Pictures of the outside of the house.

The newly-landscaped front garden
(yes, there are plants in there)

Some very dirty front steps and
Gail's magnificent mailbox, newly
attached to the front fence by Tim

Another view of the splendid mailbox

See? - plants! The trees are cherry

Steps down from Deborah's bedroom door

Visitors note: this is the front door
and the bell is on your right as
you come off the top step

The Eastern side of the house,
to be paved in the near future.
The fence on this side was installed
today, along with a gate.

The back patio ... a bit boring at the moment

Another picture of the front garden

An artistic photo of the house

The side alleyway, also to be paved quite soon

This is where the garden will be in a year or so

The site of the garden shed

The back of the house, outside Gail's bedroom

The Western alleyway, from the rear

The pump for the rainwater tank

The house is certified for occupation

It's now official: the house has been certified as suitable for occupation. According to Tim, it's 99% ready for us ... and we have keys.

Today was the official handover day - and the keys came with a bottle of champagne, a charming card, and flowers from our building company. I think they are all as chuffed with the house as we are ... and why wouldn't they be? The testing on the energy efficiency of the house has demonstrated that it is performing very well - the best of those Jigsaw has built to date. The design is perfect for us, and the construction is sound.

The Energy Efficiency Rating is 7.3. Given that the climate in Canberra makes it very difficult to achieve ratings of more than 8 with current technologies, we are happy with that.

Perhaps of more interest is the air leakage test that Jigsaw routinely performs on all of their houses. This test isn't yet common in Australia, although it is used in other parts of the world. Fan depressurisation is used to measure the rate of air leakage through the building envelope. The number for our house is 4.8 (air changes per hour). The UK standard aims for less than 10. At 3, there is a risk of compromising air quality, and mechanical heat exchange ventilation systems are required.

So ... it should be toasty in winter and cool in summer.

Here are some of the photos I took this afternoon.

Deborah's bedroom, complete with Murray's blind

Deborah's bedroom door; the purple and
pink stickers indicate marks in the paintwork that have to be touched up

Deborah's study nook

Tim and Gail investigate the
paintwork in Deborah's bathroom

I took your advice, Allan, and went for a higher toilet seat
Note that Gail has already installed loo roll in both bathrooms

The other end of the bathroom

The Eastern sitting room, complete with
reverse-cycle air-condtioner

The space in the laundry where the washing machine will go

The other end of the laundry

The space in the kitchen where the fridge will go

Lots of glass doors and windows - all double-glazed

The Western sitting room

The pantry cupboard

Tomorrow I'll take some photos of the outside of the house, including the magnificent mailbox.