Keeping Busy

In my last post I mentioned I was having a truck load of mulch delivered….well it arrived! The driver rang to say he was on the way so I went to show him were to dump it. I couldn’t believe my eyes at the size of the load when it was unloaded on the verge! I asked around to see if I could borrow a wheelbarrow but no one had one. One of my neighbours instead gave me her old shower curtains which I lay together and piled on the mulch. I had done a few loads like this when a neighbour across the road asked if I wanted to borrow her wheelbarrow. I was delighted and relieved that my prayers had been so quickly answered. Thank you Lord!

I worked in 2 hr blocks spreading the mulch around the top under the trees, down the side of the communal driveway and in the garden area. Lorraine, my tenant helped spread some of it around too. It took me two days and around 10 hrs! The whole time I was aware of looking after my back and using my legs instead, boy did my legs complain after the second day. I could hardly walk! I certainly didn’t need to do any jogging for a few days!

The pile of mulch at the start with borrowed wheelbarrow and green bucket

I shovelled about half the load and left the remaining for the other units and for around the car park at the back of the units. On the weekend I returned with mum to bad some to use at her house. She held the bags while I shovelled it in. We did two car loads and there was still a little pile. The unit manager had also put it on line as free mulch but I hadn’t seen any takers.

Half the pile gone in 2 days!

One job done another to organise. My tenant had been asking me for years to pave the area between the house and the sandstone retaining wall. I measured the area then had two professional pavers come to give me a quote. The first guy definitely knew what he was talking about and I gleaned some very important information and ideas from him. The second was the total opposite, I wasn’t sure if he really knew what he was doing as he missed out on two crucial points which I had to ask him about. The difference between the two quotes was $591! I was actually planning to do some of it myself but wanted to get some professional advice before I got started which I’m so glad I did as there were things I didn’t realise needed to be done.

One of the suggestions I took on board was to pull up the existing patio pavers (which I was going to leave) and using these plus ones from an existing path that needs to be removed, as an edging for the new area. The reasons behind this was firstly it would be very hard and more expensive to match the existing pavers. Secondly using the old pavers will help tie it all together with the existing pavers on the other pathway. And thirdly it would mean I would need less new pavers and therefore lower the cost. It just means a bit more work for me to do … but what the heck I needed something to keep my busy over Christmas!

Mum assisting with bagging the mulch for her place

I had hunted for free pavers online that might match or blend in with my existing pavers as new ones would set me back quite a bit. I found several that I could take but had no means to pick them up. Then one morning on my jog I passed a house with just the right colour pavers, unfortunately there were only 7sp mts and I needed 26. Maybe I could still use them so I asked Grace if I could borrow their ute and her son who was now off school. We made a date and I headed to her place in Kwinana (nearly an hour’s drive from Trigg) to pick them up. When I arrived the ute was not there. Pius, her husband had taken it for a short run and found it was overheating. Our well made plans had been thwarted!  It was obvious the Lord had something else in mind.

I had previously looked into buying pavers on special and having them delivered, due to the recent events I was more and more leaning towards this idea. If not I might have to hire a truck and do all the labour myself.

On traveling to Kwinana that morning I had gone via Middle Swan and Armadale to look at pavers which were on special and had spotted just the colour I needed. There were only a few pallets left of the colour I needed.  Due to the events of the day I decided to put in an order for the pavers I had seen this morning. When I rang I was told there had been a mistake and there was none left. Due to the fault being on their end the woman said she would try to get an order for me of a similar colour and size from a batch that was selling as a blend of three colours.

I was so grateful as I really didn’t like some of the colours in the mixed blend. They would have make the area look patchy and cheap. She gave me 24hrs to decide whether I wanted them or not. The next morning at 7am I drove all the way back out to Middle Swan to make sure these were the pavers I wanted, they were so I placed my order. One more job ticked off the list!