Landscaping Day 250 – Hard landscaping completed

Ben and the guys from Daviscapes have finished the hard landscaping.  All the retaining walls, decking, fences, concreting, driveways, irrigation etc are done.  Perhaps one of the most exciting developments to date has been having the turf laid.  For the past two years we have been looking at dirt and mud and prior to that where we lived had concrete paving. The greenery is certainly a welcome addition.

There are only a few things left to be completed which include finishing the wire on the front fence – which looks amazing.  The plants (can’t wait), clothes line installation, letterbox and outdoor lighting.  We also decided as a last minute inclusion to get Ben to incorporate a built-in BBQ area under the alfresco and have asked him to help with putting up the kids cubby house that we got from Matt’s Home and Outdoor Designs.  We were lucky that there was enough room to fit one of the smaller cubbies given that we don’t have a lot of space due to the slope of our block – we got the Townhouse with 900mm elevation. The great thing about working with Daviscapes has been their adaptability during the entire process. While we started with a clear plan, we have been able to make some changes along the way which Ben and the team have been really great at accommodating.

We are really happy with the way things have turned out and Ben and the team have been very meticulous  in their work. The finishes and attention to detail have been terrific.  The most recent work was oiling the decking on the front and in the alfresco which has turned out great.

Here are some photos:

Front fence looks great

Front retaining wall – the stone work complements the house facade

 

Bluestone paving up to the front decking and door

Front decking freshly oiled

We have grass!!!!

Steppers

 

Close up of the oiled decking – wood is spotted gum

Side gate

Rear decking

Rear lower retaining wall with decorative wood

Closeup of the decorative wood on retaining wall

Alfresco area

Fences painted to match roof (Woodland Gray)

Retaining walls painted to match roof (Woodland Gray)

Purpose built shed

View of the stairs to top of backyard

View of the alfresco from top level of yard

View towards alfresco and rear of house

Steppers in the backyard

 

 

103 Days of Landscaping in Review and Water Meter Relocation

Here’s our first blog post since we started the landscaping construction.

We had to re-locate the water meter as it was in the middle of where the new driveway would go.  The process of moving the water meter was a pain due to some stuff ups by Select Solutions who are the contractors employed by the water authority, Yarra Valley Water, to officially re-locate water meters.  If the water meter was to move < 600mm your own plumber could do the move, be as we were relocating it a good few meters away so it had to go through proper authorities.  The cost to move the meter was around $1,900 (booked through Reece) and involved moving the meter to the new location and then connecting the meter and tap to a new mains located under the road.

The best information I could find about relocating water meters is in the document Water Metering & Servicing Guidelines (Section 6.3, page 11).

We completed our landscaping design with Ben from Daviscapes back in early July and landscaping construction started on 9 September.  Its been 103 days since we started and we are pleased we are making some progress after some rain delays during October.  We can now start to see the landscaping take shape and its starting to look great.

Below are some pics taken over the course of the construction.

Landscape Design v3. Copyright @ Daviscapes.

Picture of the front before any landscaping works

The backyard before any earthworks. You can see the pink lines outlining the landscaping.

Digger in action. I think Ben calles it Daviscrapes!

Some of the dirt excavated from the back – there was a lot!

Back retaining wall foundations and brick going up

We like the curved wall – it softens the hard structure a bit. The curve was put in so we can put a trampoline in.

Render now applied. There was also some waterproofing underneath.

One of the guys from Daviscapes hard at work.

Rear decking going in. Makes the alfresco area feel bigger.

View from inside through the bi-folds towards the alfresco area and steps.

The boys unloading the digger from the truck

Front decking frame going in.

Front feature retaining wall

View of the front of the house.

We selectected Spotted Gum for the decking timber.  The finish of the wood is very smooth and the colour texture of the wood is great.  Another great selection.

Front decking almost complete

View of the front with concrete path base.  No more walking over dirt into the house!!
You can see Santa on the balcony.

View from the balcony

The retaining wall area – nice space.

The walk up to the front door. We are very happy with the white plantation shutters for the sidelight windows.

Nice going Daviscapes! 🙂

C&K

Day 30 – Retaining walls complete, power pole, concrete piers and plumbing

Our retaining walls are now done – they were done by 30 Nov and only took 3 days of work. You can see from the photo that the wall on the left hand side is hard against the boundary.  However, the one on the right is away from the fence to cater for the easement.

We also noticed some drains (?) connected to pipes coming from behind the retaining wall.  I assume these are the ag pipe to aid the removal of waste water and thus reduce the pressure placed on the wall.  If drainage is not placed at the base of the wall there is a strong possibility that the wall can be jeopardised and weaken the wall structure and a “blow out” can occur resulting in the wall being buckled or even worst knocked over .

Other work that has been done include the drilling and pouring of the concrete piers to help stablise the slab to stop the house shifting from its intended position.

A power pole has been erected with a meter box which will be hooked up to our underground power pit that we organised back in January.  Power will be required for the frame stage.  It seems the plumbing is also done – most of the pipes sticking up from the ground are within the house/slab boundary.

We spoke to our Site Manager during the week and he expects that the boxing of the slab base and the pour should happen next week.

C&K

Day 19: Our first bit of construction

Today we saw our first bit of construction on site by one of Metricon’s sub-contractors who do the retaining wall work, Davnic.  Up until today all work has been contractual, design, administration, resolving the easement issue, cleaning the soil of debris, digging and moving soil around.  Today’s morning weather wasn’t the best with some significant rainfall in the morning but some progress has been made.

It was really satisfying to finally see some construction beginning to occur on our block!!

 

Steel posts erected along left side of block for the retaining wall

C&K