{Dawn} SE Melb Build - Done and dusted!

Had the valuer come to the house today as I'm in the process of refinancing my mortgage.

The house was valued at $470,000 DD Kaching!!! So my house is probably somewhere around 470-500k if I was to sell it today. Which is amazing to think I spent 152k on Land (2014) and 180k on Build (2014). So, approx 333k + 20k for landscaping, window dressings and other misc improvements. So .. say 350k and now worth 470k D Winning!!

You never know when you start this journey if its going to work out okay, but I've been very lucky so far.

That's awesome! We've not had our house valued but I imagine we'd be around break even with the slump in the Perth market. Might look at getting it done if we ever backyard sorted

Oh wow Dawn, thats awesome!

Brilliant! Where are you heading with your mortgage? I've got to get our broker around to discuss ours.

Moving from Westpac to ING.

I bank with ING and the deal is slightly better so all good.

We bank with ING and commbank, I'd happily move to either of them. I can't wait to get as far a away from westpac as possible. Even just trying to change our loan payment to fortnightly after the build (which was meant to be set up to happen automatically) was enough of a drama . And their day to day banking sucks too! Not sure we would have the equity to move yet, but I at least want to change product within westpac. We have a redraw fee and it's mentally preventing me from dumping our savings into the loan account, I just can't deal with paying to get it back when I need it .

Kitty (still no consensus on a name ) is getting her stitches out tonight! She is noticeably bigger already!

Ditto. Hate Westpac but had no choice with the construction loan. Exact same issue, have redraw option only, no offset. Moving to ING, slightly cheaper rate and offset account

Haha, poor nameless kitty P Wow, can't believe already!! She's growing up. Her brother was adopted yesterday, all her siblings are gone now ;-; miss them!! And my last foster might have a home tomorrow. Then I'm all done for a few weeks.

So happy for your fortune! Quite impressive a gain! That's like 40% increase in value in only 4 years.

If all the gain in value does that alter the prospect of you building again and renting that one out?

Not really. We estimated on 450k. Not enough of a difference. Im going to wait 12months before thinkinh bout it again.

Have decided to redo some landscaping front and back.

My magnolias out the back have not coped with the bunnies or the summer heat, so I've removed them. Repotted the two that survived and had to throw out the rest.

Tomorrow planning to start changing the front around. The daphne have not survived the summer heat, so the ones that are alive I'm moving to the front garden bed, and the others are going to mum. I'm thinking I will replace them with Acacia Cognata bushes. Nice and green and soft.

I also want to move the Japanese Maple tree and daisies, its a pain trying to mow around the garden bed in the middle of the lawn, so going to change it and put a garden bed under the master bedroom window.



Photos

Before I ripped out the magnolias



After potted two by the door, look nicer there. Eventually I plan to put a garden bed across the whole back fence, still no idea what trees or shrubs I should put there, suggestions? But I want to focus on improving the lawn and levelling the yard first.



Front yard

Plan is to move the round garden to be positioned up against the window, tree in between the two windows and then make a sort of cottage garden, but need hardy plants.

The other garden bed needs more..life.. it looks thin XD .. and grass just needs some TLC. I'm thinking to extend the other garden bed forward to include the tap (also a pain to mow around) and maybe put another tree in there, maybe crepe myrtle or flowering gum. Also need to mulch the whole and change the edging to something more solid.



That garden bed next to driveway/path, I'm going to remove those daphne, look half dead. I do like the far garden bed next to the drive, only one dead plant needs replacing. Would really help if my neighbor stopped using round up on his weeds all the time, keeps killing my plants


Some gaps in this garden to fill. I have 3 daphne plants to fill them, and am thinking of doing an edging plant. Currently there are hebes.






Panda D

My poor front yard gets scorched by that west sun XD Need hardier plants.

I'm with you on landscaping, so hard/expensive. If I don't make some decisions soon I'm going to be living in a mud pit.

I love acacia it's actually the only thing I am decisive about. I have just bought 5 standard grafted acacia limelights to go down the side of the driveway. Not cheap at $125 each. Lots of different varieties but the foliage on the limelight is amazing. Just need to figure out the rest.

I'm going to try and use as many natives as I can in my west facing front yard and something a bit more exotic in the back. I'm also debating whether to have a gum out the front, look for the grafted varieties that don't grow taller than 3m, you don't want anything that will grow roots under the slab. I'm going to use boronia(pretty and smells beautiful) and native ground covers/grasses. Native irises (Patersonia) come in different colours and are very hardy. Don't forget Spring/Autumn bulbs for pops of colour.
Boronia

Native iris
I want to try and copy this but it is impossible to find a Brickie that wants to do a small job


It has been a long hot summer apparently we haven't had rain for over 45 days so I'm not surprised you have lost a few plants. Just be careful about having garden beds up against the house it may void your slab warranty. Maybe you could find a nice pot for the maple and put it in front of the window.

If you want some design ideas maybe head back to a display village. Pinterest also has some great small garden ideas. Another tip is to choose plants/trees that flower at different times.

First decent rain today in so long. Our garden is all crisp, my Japanese maple is hanging on by a thread.

Your lawn is looking great!

I love that bricked design! But agree hard to find people willing to do small jobs.

I've decided to go a little simpler. I'm going to leave the maple and daises were they are as they've grown well. I'm just gonna rip the edging out from under it and let the grass surround it. I've bought some edging to replace the stuff around the front garden and mulch. So guess what I'll be doing tomorrow D Hoping by the end of this weekend to have the front yard fully done. D Then will focus on backyard and side garden.

Some gardening done!!!

More to go but its coming together.

Wow that looks so good! What an improvement that’s really getting established now

Thanks DD

I'm really liking it. Funny I had much bigger plans, but a few small changes have made all the difference. Was really the edging and moving some plants around. I'm NEARLY done, will post some before and after shots when its all done XD

looking good dawn❤️❤️

Happy Easter everyone

Been a long long weekend but my front yard is done!!! D Except for patching some grass, but that's gonna take some time.

So here are some before and after photos:

BEFORE


After moving in


A little later on



Another angle







TODAY

Wow, can't believe the changes when I see the old photos. XD






Backyard



Changes:

- Changed edging along front garden bed and around the tree
- Replaced plants along the path
- Added plants across front of front garden
- Added some rocks
- Mulched everything






This is one of my foster babies. He is a 4 month old manx with a spinal defect that causes him to hop. I'm thinking of adopting him ^_^;


These are my other fostes. 4 x 6wk old kittens, very cute!!

All your planting looks so fresh and lush, and your little manx boy is a sweetheart!