In Our Own Backyard - Part 2

I hope you don't find this too boring, but I want to document the changes in our back yard since we moved in.

As we had over four months until the purchase of our new home settled Mick started scheming on his new shed.  He loves nothing better than sitting at the kitchen table scribbling ideas in his notebook.  After a few false starts he came up with his design. 

The shed had to be as big as possible, without taking over the yard, have a workshop, somewhere to store motorcycles, somewhere park his ute and trailer under cover and somewhere to store a future caravan.  That meant that it had to be high - like a 3.2 metre high opening. We did not want the shed to dominate the streetscape, which would be a little difficult considering it's size, so we kept it in line with the set back of the house.

There were a few limitations.  Outside the yard, on the footpath there is a street tree, a lamp post and a small telecommunications box.  Therefore, he only had a small area in which he could locate the gate.  It was moved slightly sideways from where it was originally located and widened slightly.

He had the shed ordered and the plans submitted to Council before we even owned the house, so that he could hit the ground running soon after we moved in.

If you want to refresh your memory on what the yard looked like when we purchased, have a look here.

Firstly, Mick moved the clothes line and removed the path.  Next, in early April, his mate brought in his excavator and the garden was ripped out.  We were sad to do that, but there was no alternative.  As many plants as possible were relocated and as much garden was saved in the corners as possible.  The lawn that was remaining was not allowed to be damaged.

We always joke that it doesn't take us long to trash a joint.  We certainly made short work of it this time.

After removing a few truck loads of dirt, a few loads of granite were brought in for stability and to reduce dust and mud.  A very good move, considering we had a little rain, but not too much.

It only took a couple of days to have it looking like a building site.

Then it was time to put in plumbing, storm water drainage and a little retaining wall, so that next door stays next door.

Mick is a rather handy fellow to have around the place, having done most of this himself.

The next activity was the shed slab.  A team of fellows came in and drilled the footings, before setting out the mesh.

Mick likes to have a relatively dry concrete mix, which is harder to work, so not popular with concretors, but they went with the flow.

They were fairly late starting and the weather wasn't too hot, so it was getting late in the day when they were finishing off the slab.  Mick would think that it was done and they would go over it again and again.  The final finish is really well done.  They finished up at 11 o'clock at night!!! Then they were going to another job, the other side of Orange, about 80kms away, to finish another slab.  What a day!

The next job was to cut the expansion joints, which was done by another mate.

Then Mick had to be patient, as the shed wasn't able to be delivered until early May.

More soon.