It is Finished!

Our water tank is in! Project complete. You can re-read or catch up on Part One here, or Part Two here. Check out this finished side project. So good right!

Steve has been amazing with organizing this whole thing. So much planning and thinking involved, especially with the plumbing side of things. But there he is confidently rerouting our down pipes into the tank and back out again.

What a champion husband I have. And  you will be pleased to know that the rain did end up filling the tank all the way up. Hooray!

I'm also really excited for the new things to grow. I got to plant some things in pots as well as the garden bed there too. It looks like there should be enough space for some more things in pots too, but no rush. On advice from a gardening friend, we planted some more flowers to keep the garden bed dirt alive and happy while we wait for summer to cool off and we can plant real things again. Some of the things from our initial planting have survived, but the carrot and cucumber plants did not like the heat.

The break has also meant I've been able to keep an eye on the garden bed a bit more too, and have noticed one end gets significantly less sun than I originally thought. So much so that I'm not sure anything but lettuce will grow there, but we will see. I can always prune the tree back some more I guess.

On the other side, in the garden bed we moved from the back to the front pre-renovation, the tomato plants that came out of the compost have really taken off, and we have so much fruit. It looks so messy in there now, because I didn't really bother to trellis the plants, but the tomatoes still taste good.

Back to the water tank, now I have to paint all of the new pipes we have to match the house again. The work is never really done.

The Work Continues

Though summer has continued to be almost unbearably hot and sweaty, Steve has endured it to labor on the area around the side of the house. You can read about the first installment here. It's now ready for the water tank, thanks to some extra help from Steve's brother with the concreting.

You can see we rigged up some shade for the boys (and the concrete) to help it not dry out too quickly while it was setting.

Rachel gave it a thumbs up.

Most of the ground there was dirt and mud, with only a little of the grass remaining. We talked about leaving it, but in the end, we found we just wanted to finish it properly now, rather than let it go. So, more hard work for Steve, and more daughter watching for me.

Basically we just put in a raised garden bed along the fence, and cleared the rest of the area for a path which we are going to make out of cracker dust, pavers and river rocks. I say "we", but really, Steve did most of that. Although, we did use a date night to get the wood, so I like to think I helped a little.

The girls and I planted a range of veggies here. They were really excited about growing carrots, though I have really no actual hope for their survival at all. We also planted capsicum, cucumber, bok choy and lettuce. I also got a passion fruit, which I plan on growing up and then over the path and training it along the water tank on the other side. The idea is that it will give the water tank and pump some shade from the sun and hopefully everything will last just that little bit longer. The plus is that I'll also get passion fruits and a small shady patch to grow lettuce. Fingers crossed.

The coolest thing we planted was Steve's ID tag from DDD last year, which was made from recycled paper with seeds in it. I'm so keen to see what grows!

Steve finished the path just this week, wanting to get it done before the forecast rain made an appearance. I'm planning on putting some potted growth at the end of the water tank area there too.

All in all, I think it look fantastic. Steve has worked so hard and now we are just waiting for the water tank to finally be delivered next week. Here's hoping the rain will hold off until it's all connected up and ready to go. Or at least, give us a second showing so we can at least get some water in the tank.

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!