The patio is done and we put the soakwells in this morning. Hard work, but done and pleased with it.

The guys from Grand Patio's (Dixon Rd, Rockingham) finished the patio roof on Thursday, so all that remains is the paving. As the roof is ~50 sq.m, proper drainage for the down-pipes was important. 

We bought some Enviro-cubes (polypropylene cubes) from Reese's Plumbing (also on Dixon Rd) plus the other bits and pieces (90mm PVC pipe, 90 degree bends, geo-textile fabric etc). These cubes are great, as they can handle 1,000kg load, so there is no worries about sagging into the future. We started at 6:30am and were all done at midday, before it got really hot. Wohoo!

Can't wait to have it all done so we can chill. Soon....

Just before 7am and the digging began. Luckily WA soil is very sandy, so not that hard to dig in.

Eugene busy on the hole for the second soakwell.

Almost 700mm deep, with Lily doing inspections every minute or so...

Karla, being nearly 18, gets up a little later than the rest of us.
She started at around 8am, but was flying along. 

Second hole 700mm down.

One of the cubes wrapped in geo-cloth, which keep the sand out.

90mm Drain pipes in, levels checked, and we start to back-fill.

All done! Now all that remains is paving.

Patio progress...should be all done tomorrow..(and I feel useless with severe back-ache)

Sorting the retic and shed concrete before the patio & paving...(next week Thu & Friday)

Mini-skip for the grass to be removed for the new paving.

Sean ripping up the lawn we took 3 years to maintain. Eisch!

Geno helped me dig up the retic so we could remove, and bypass the old system.
Don't want any leaks under the paving...

Soon, ...soon I can sit back and watch him do it all :-)

Gene in a hole he dug,...for no reason,...just for fun,...in the WA heat. Lekker mal.

Building the garden shed;...two days of hard slog, but it looks good.

Eventually, months after pouring the concrete slab, we finally got around to putting up the shed to house the bicycles, lawnmower and firewood. It look two days of hard slog, but Karin and the kids were a great help. Some small bits to finish, but it is basically done. Phew....

We started putting bits together in the garage, as it was a bit cooler in there. 

On the Sunday morning we really cracked on with the side panels and completing half of the roof. This needed doing first, as the shed was to
be put up flush with a wall (i.e. we would not have rear access once it was up).

Yes, there was some blood, as is to be expected when working with sheet metal.

Ons liefdes wat help. X X X !

The shed taking shape...

Sandri also dropped in after returning from NZ yesterday. She was also a great help with man-handling the roof and
shed into position.

Tippy Toes...

Sweating in the nice warm environment in the shed. Yep, good for shedding a pound or two, haha!

95% done. Final concrete lip to come, but that is minor.
Some other bits to follow, but we'll wait until some other bits are completed around the house in the next fortnight.

Baking "begrafnis koekies" with the kids, and some Spur-sauce marinated, smoked (hickory) lamb riblets...

Another typical Sunday for the Van's this time of year. When it's mid-summer we tend not to do too much during the day, rather in the mornings and evenings. This morning we went to church, then went for a coffee and headed home. Karin and the kids bakes some South African cookies (Begrafnis Koekies) and then later in the evening (6pm) we baked some bread on the Weber Q and smoked some marinated lamb short-rib on the "real" Weber. As always, delicious ;-)

Mmmm! Some with coffee icing, some with peanut-butter icing...

Some of the left-over ribs...yeah, they were pretty darn tasty!