New Hedge

We've just finished planting a lilli pilli hedge along the fence line. The main reason is to give us a bit more privacy. They're fast growers, and should grow to a little over 2 metres. Once they're established, we'll look to clip it into a hedge, which should act as a decent privacy screen from the street. It'll also be better to look at than the plain fences. It's interesting looking back over the old pictures. The garden's come a long way since the days of the before shots :)

Leaking

Around 15 months after completion, we're still chasing up incomplete items on our 3 month maintenance inspection. Eden Brae were relatively good during the build, but our experience of their processes in resolving post build issues is nothing short of woeful. After identifying a leaking balcony at the 3 month inspection, not surprisingly the quick "bodgy" fix didn't work, and it's continued to leak through, now making the gyprock mouldy. We've chased them up a few times since, and are yet to hear of a resolution. We had some other dodgy fixes. Patched gyprock that looks at least as bad as what they were attempting to fix to begin with, and a damaged skirting board from where the carpet layer hammered a tac in to pin the carpet down. We also have an unpainted bathroom ceiling from after the patching. Score for satisfaction on the post build maintenace, 1 out of 10.

Blessed with a rather large deck!!

I spent a very worthwhile 5 days over the Christmas break constructing a deck to extend the alfresco area. It extends it outwards by 1 and a half metres and adds a 3m by 1.8 m BBQ area to the side. I've also decked around the side of the house so that the french doors open up onto it.

All up, it cost somewhere around $2.5K to construct. The bulk of that went on the boards which are white mahogany. They were $1500 delivered for 460 lm, from Windsor auctions, less than half the price from the local wood yards. The lengths were a bit irregular, but it's great quality, and it worked out fine, with limited waste.
It makes the alfresco area much more useable, and means that we're no longer cramped in the original smaller space. I've got some trimming up to do around the edges, and staining to complete, but i'll leave that until the blisters have healed. It's solid as a rock, thanks to the 30 odd bags of concrete used. It's probably over engineered, but it should last. The dogs are happy with it anyway. They now have a new favourite spot.