Hard Work

I've been much slacker than I wanted to be with getting to posting this year. I thought it would be so easy to knock of January, because I have a huge back log of stuff to tell you about that I sewed all through December, but time is getting away from me. That, and a lot of the time I've spent at the computer lately has been trawling through photos and desperately deleting things so that Google will stop sending me annoying emails telling me I'm running out of space. Bah.

Actually though, the biggest thing getting in the way has been some rather spontaneous home improvement. Hooray, more home improvement. Sigh. Sometimes home ownership really sucks. Just when you think it's all done, and that the renovations are over for at least a good while, nope, it's time to do more!

Ok, ok, it's not that dramatic, but it feels that way. I'll stop stalling and just tell you now: we are putting in a water tank. It's something that's always been on the "someday we'll do that" list, and I've no idea what really spurred us into it (our neighbors got one maybe? There's a drought? I feel guilty watering our garden?) but suddenly we were putting one in.

Good news is, that we have the space for it, just had to get it ready. We'll be getting a slimline to fit next to the house on one side. Trouble was, there was already a path there that had to go first. And the ground wasn't level, so that needed to change. Nothing is every straight forward. Anyway.

Steve smashed up the path and moved it out of the way. He did lots of thinking and planning in the couple of days we had before Christmas. String lines out!

The end goal in this space is to have the water tank next to the house, a path (probably stepping stones with rocks) and against the fence a, hopefully flourishing, garden bed. Big-ish dreams, but it's good to have a long term plan right? Anyway, when we got back from our post-Christmas Bundaberg trip, Steve got the gloves on right away.

Holes were dug, posts were cemented in and you can really see things starting to take shape. Most, if not all of these photos were taken from our deck out the back. Such a convenient shady place to watch the work unfold.

We took a day's break on the work of the water tank to do some unrelated home improvement in the form of putting top soil over the entire lawn. Our lawn is pretty good, and the Sir Walter grass Steve's put around the place since we moved in is going strong. That said, it has been nearly ten years and there are some areas that were looking a bit sad post house renovation, so it was time for some TLC.

I helped Steve shift two tones of the stuff all over the lawn one very hot late December morning. It was pretty painful, but we were done by 1:00 pm, so that was a win. There was a lot of lying around that afternoon.

And now, back to the water tank! After everything was boxed up, Steve got to work making everything level and putting sand and gravel down to be a strong base for the concrete to go on top.

As I type this, it seems like this whole thing has just been so smooth, but Steve's done a heck of a lot of research and thinking about this. Not to mention the trouble shooting that he's had to do because one of our storm water pipes runs right next to the house there and is not deep enough in the ground to be out of the way. It's been tricky.

Steve had a whole week and a bit off work after Christmas, but every day had a large portion of it out in the yard working on the water tank. Which meant that I had a lot more two on one time with the girls than I had originally thought I would. Maybe this is why I haven't been able to get to posting? Probably.

Anyway, now the base is prepared for the cement and we are ready to go. John is coming round this weekend like the champion brother that he is to give Steve a hand with the concreting while I look after the girls some more.

Looking forward to ordering a water tank to sit on this pad when the cement has finally cured in a month or so. Hooray!