Wall mural

If you had told me at the start of the weekend that I would graffiti our side fence, I would've responded BS!

For some inexplicable reason, I was compelled to go through our stockpile of spray paints and began vandalising our old fence like a mad woman. As you do on a lazy Sunday afternoon. I know, why wouldn't I just paint the valance instead? That would take all the glory from out-of-action Jason, that's why!

Anyway, I had fantastic ideas which I sketched on paper and when it came to transposing it on a larger scale onto the corrugated iron fence it did not work as well as I liked. I take my hat off to the graffiti/street artists of the world (not the tag vandals because there's no talent in that) as spray painting is not as easy as they make it look!

This is one of my favourite street art images found in Melbourne.

image from here

I also had visions of an abstract mural similar to the one found in the modernist Rose Siedler House in Sydney...

But I will need to work myself up to something as fancy as the stencil graffiti and abstract murals. So in the meantime, I'm sticking to basic spring flowers - a little bit of a nod to Orla Kiely, the great pattern reinterpreter.

The corrugated iron fence is not the prettiest thing in the world. Jason and I are happy enough to make it a blank canvas for something more interesting. We will change it every few months depending on what captures our imagination. I have hope the kids will do something cool for summer.

The painted fence will probably be the only bit of spring colour that we will see in the Sow's Ear's garden this year!

Fence repair

As I said last week, it certainly sucks when you have to repair something that was damaged accidentally...

Thank goodness Jason is handy because it would've been a pain (as well as embarrassing) to have someone else repair my dreadful mistake.

As it turned out the damage was not so bad. The post was still rock solid in the ground (Mr D builds them to last) but reversing into the gate while it was closed caused the post to split. Lucky it was something that could be repaired.

With some glue, some nails and Sikaflex, Jason was able to put it all back together again. He's done a terrific job. Mr D was kind enough to drop by to see if he could help when he heard what I had done...(the grapevine is alive and well in our neighbourhood) and was very impressed with Jason's repair job. Mr D may hire him as an apprentice if Jason ever decides to chuck in his day job...

With a bit of paint on the post, no one will ever know...unless you read the blog!

Why you should open both gates...

You know that opening scene from Four Weddings and a Funeral where the first words uttered were different intonations of the F word? Well that kind of describes my weekend.

Saturday morning was going to be a busy chock-a-block day. I had lots of jobs to do, places to go and people to see. I walked down the driveway to the front fence and opened  the right-hand side gate. I checked to see if there was anything in the mail box and was momentarily distracted by the frangipani tree, which was still in flower...I smiled and picked a small bud for my hair...because it was so pretty...

Then I walked back to the car, started the ignition, put the car in reverse and 

BANG! 

I slammed straight into the gate that I had forgotten to open. Yep, the left-hand side gate was still closed when I was reversing.  I was on complete autopilot and didn't check my mirrors. If I had, I would have seen the gate in the rear view mirror.

F@#$!

Jason checking the busted fence post

So, the damage: a split fence post, crumpled bumper bar and loss of face with the boys. The actual gate itself is still intact, although the gate bolt did fall off. The fact it is a relatively brand new fence just breaks my heart.

The boys are giving me heaps of flack over the flower picking...the most expensive flower I have ever picked I would hazard a  guess. My brunette hair colour is even being questioned! Nooooo!

damage to the back bumper bar

It's not like we don't have enough to do around here already...but when I'm responsible for creating more work for poor old Jason to fix up...it can really suck.

He was really good about it and set about fixing the fence post straight away. I don't feel so much like a loser, now that I can't see the damage to the fence. And I've booked the car to be repaired as soon as possible.

All I can say is, thank goodness it wasn't the French car. Phew!

Side stairs progress

You gotta love tradies who will work on a public holiday. Mr D and Scotty arrived at 6am and commenced constructing the new side stairs.

The morning was like this:

Mr D the builder clamping the timber in place..

This was first thing in the morning. The boys put the tall timber posts into the metal stirrups.

Throughout the day we could see steady progress. Jason pitched in as the first year builder's apprentice. He got all the monkey boy jobs, like priming the timber ends, holding posts and beams straight and passing tools to the lads.

Jason must've been a useful part of the team, because later in the morning the lads whisked him away to have smoko with them. He's in, our wannabe tradie Jason.

The first of the timber stair stringers is being fitted

Mr D uses an awesome pink drill, which will now be referred to as the lifestyle drill (I've made a mental not for Jason this Father's Day)

Jason took the opportunity to pull down the side fence which had fully rotted in the supporting posts. It was starting to get to that dangerous stage, so Jason dumped most of the fence into the rubbish skip Mr D had organised for the stairs.

We'll widen the path for easier access to our backyard

We'll also be removing the garden bed closest to the house as it narrows our path. It will allow us to have a wider more direct route to our side stairs.

Later down the track, we'll probably reinstate a new side fence, but that can wait until we have more time and money!

By late afternoon, the boys got through quite a bit of work with the stairs very close to completion. They'll be coming back over the weekend to finish the balustrades and nail the final few decking boards onto the back landing.

almost complete stairs

The second stage of the process is to add a roof, but we have to wait until Mr D and Scotty are between building projects. They're busy people.

Letterboxes

When we decided on the fence style for the Sow's Ear, we forgot about including a letterbox into the whole  scheme of things. Because of the style of fence we will be opting for a post mount letterbox which sits slightly higher than the top fence rail..

Anyway, holy letterbox choices! When I went looking on the Internet and at the letterbox shops I was hit with a plethora of choices...But not all letterboxes suit our requirements.

We don't want a letterbox which needs a key to remain shut as we like to be unimpeded when we check the mail. It needs to be large enough to accept large envelopes and small parcels (because Jason is an eBay junkie) that the Postie can leave easily. 

We also want to have a slightly rounded letterbox because our fence is on a slope and was constructed following the lie of the land. We think a round letterbox would suit it best.

Anyway, here are our favourites:

Mrs Kelly by Robert Plumb 

Cadrona Letterbox

Classic post mount copper mailbox
I don't know whether this mailbox can be shipped to Australia. Boo! 

Fence painting

Jason doesn't like to waste a minute when it comes to painting bare timber. He was on to the fence painting gig as soon as possible.

He spent most of Saturday undercoating the new fence so lovingly. While he was out the front he said that someone stopped to ask for the details of our fence builder, Mr D.  That was the third enquiry we've had about Mr D's availability. The Sow's Ear is getting a lot of admiring glances from passers-by, now the fence is so close to completion.

By Sunday morning all of the undercoating was done. The man is a machine. I need to invent a way to bottle all that motivation Jason's got...I'd be rich!

I also went on a reconnaissance for a new mailbox...but the only ones I like are too expensive and I can't get my head around paying that much for a letterbox. At least not at the moment. I have to be feeling reckless and carefree.

We are just going to recycle the old one for now as it is perfectly adequate. Jason's given it a coat of white paint. It's just a little timber box shaped like a house. You can just see a glimpse of it on the left of the image above.

Fence progress

The fence is looking fab. Mr D is doing a great job despite the rain playing havoc with his schedule. He's working on the gates now that the main fence is done.

The big thick posts we used for the gate posts look impressively substantial, don't they?

Hopefully all will be finished next week if the weather holds up. And then I need to think about a new mail box. Any suggestions?

Queenslander fence

Another thing to be painted!

Fence posts are in

More progress has been made on the fence despite the wet weather we've had the past few days.

Late last week, Jason was slapping on the oil based primer on the hardwood fence posts. They had to be primed before going into the ground. Jason put his hand up for that job...as you do...The primer protects the wood and gives it a fighting chance against rot.

That's Jason painting the posts before work one morning.

Mr D was here early on Saturday morning to concrete the posts into the ground. Jason wanted to make himself useful and hung around Mr D for most of the morning.

Jason has a blatant disregard for safety given his predilection for bare feet while helping Mr D. Mr D is thankfully not so cavalier.

Mr D who studied Forestry confirmed my suspicions about the Kwila timber for our fence and said we may as well paint the fence posts red as they are not orangutan-friendly. We've never really been aware about the sustainability aspect of purchasing timber, mistakenly assuming that the timbers which enter Australian shores would be sourced from well-managed forests...but it's not always.

You can read about buying imported timber from Timber Queensland if you want to be informed and feel confident about your purchasing choices.

The posts waiting for concrete

This morning we weeded out the front garden beds which were looking quite sad. It's a bit tidier now, ready for Mr D to construct the rest of the fence.

Showery weather has been predicted this week, so we have our fingers crossed that it won't hold up the fence progress.

Fence timber

We had the timber for the fence delivered today. Mr D went all out and ordered us some fine hardwood timber. He is going for a quality dressed finish for this particular fence. It will make a big impact in terms of giving the Sow's Ear a more polished look.

I asked Mr D if the Kwila timber posts were from renewable plantation forests, as we like to have green credentials. He couldn't say, so I fear the drops of orangutan blood will be on our fence...God forgive us!

Timber delivery on a wet miserable day

The thick timber posts will form the gate posts

Not fenced in

For the next little while we will be fence-less. Yes that's right. We are in fence construction mode at the Sow's Ear. 

And it will be the first non-DIY renovating for quite a few months. Hallelujah!

It almost feels decadent watching all the action from the sidelines (from Jason's perspective of course, since I am a sideline dweller anyway). 

It's been suggested to the fence builder, Mr D, to go shirtless to entertain the masses who read Fun and VJs. Mr D was told there is a certain standard to be maintained when contracted to work on the Sow's Ear.  He laughed it off not realising I was serious.

I didn't go so far as to ask for shirtless portrait shots when he quoted for the job, but I think that will be a prerequisite for future building contractors. For the sake of the blog of course.

Here are some shots of the first day's work:

You can see the old fence has been removed.
The skip is being delivered. It was due to arrive first thing this morning...it arrived at midday.
The skip company must operate in the Dubai time zone ie  six hours behind Brisbane time!!

Thick old timber posts which have seen better days

Hmm...I need to weed! 

The old fence is gone.  I can't wait for the new one to be constructed.