Starting on the backyard

Now that the front yard is finished, it's time to move focus to the backyard…which is currently a disaster. As part of the subdivision we will have to run a stormwater drain through the side backyard fence line from the end of the house, through the neighbours behind us and out onto their street. So there's no point in doing too much along that side as a bulldozer will be coming through shortly. What we can do is fix up the section directly below the house and directly along each side of the house.

It's a long weekend here in Oz and I sacrificed a weekend camping trip to make a start on the backyard.   The first stage was to lay weed mat so we could put stones in the large section under the house and along the path.

I created this design for the house well over 18 months ago in this post, and while progress to date has been slow, at least there has been some progress. The front section has been completed, with the front timber deck path being replaced by a aggregate path, the driveway done and the front left side garden complete (just).

Under the back of the house

The large timber deck for underneath the back section of the house is just a pipe dream (for now). It's just too expensive and the subdivision is going to tie out most of our funds for the moment. The short term solution will be to fill the space with stones to tidy up up the area and reduce the area we have to mow. At present the surface is uneven and a stack of weeds are growing in there and it just looks like crap. I've seen some amazing creations with palettes and so I'm thinking we could even make some temporary pallet furniture so at least there's a place to hang out.

We'll also put stones under the front section of the house as well, where Bella's dog kennel and the clothesline are located. While there's not as many weeds under there, the surface is really uneven and it's just loose dirt which means we drag that up the stairs when we bring the clothes in and when it rains, the space just turns to mud.

River rock 40mm

I found a new supplier for the stones on Gumtree and we've come up with two budget options. This first one is river rock and one truckload (10m3) should just cover this entire space. This is the cheapest option and I think will work ok. The rocks are smooth, unlike the road base/gravel option I was also looking at so at least won't be too harsh on bare feet.

This is the second option - tumbled sandstone. It's a couple of hundred dollars more expensive, but looks a bit more interesting with its range of colours. Josh likes this option more. I really don't mind, but saving a couple of hundred dollars does appeal.

Anyway, it won't be done until next weekend as I ran out of weed mat and today is a public holiday so I have a week at least to think about it.