Paving the Way

Our Wind Sheltered Patio has been a very nice addition to our lives, but aside from that little patch of ordered infrastructure, the outside of the house has still been a building zone since we started building.

Let me make something clear.  We didn’t come into the wilderness to concrete over everything; we didn’t come out here to have a nice bland GJ Gardener display home + landscaping plonked in the middle of the bush; we don’t have any of the pressures to beautify in order to impress the neighbours or to fit in with the rest of the street.  We have resisted bringing order to the outside world, leaving it in the hands of the traditional custodians of the land (the wallabies).  But little by little, we have found that we are civilising the space immediately surrounding our house.

There are always practical reasons for our projects whether it is fencing to keep the geese from pooing on our doorstep or pathways in front of the house to reduce the dirt being tracked inside.  But after seven years of living close to nature, I can no longer lie to myself: I actually PREFER the signs of civilisation on our property, and not just for the practicality.  I prefer the order.  I PREFER having a zone around the house which we can bring to heel.

Anyway…we decided we wanted a nice orderly area in front of the house: a sitting paved area (The Wind Sheltered Patio), an outdoor kitchen, and a pathway linking the two.

Pathways

What to make the pathways out of?  As always, we needed to consider cost, skill required, durability, as well as aesthetics.  We discussed the following options:

1. wooden decking and pathways.  PROS- I LOVE wood decking, love the look of it, love lying on it.  CONS- under the boards is a SNAKE HAVEN.
2. Gravel pathways and gravel sitting area.  PROS- cheap.  CONS- Ongoing weed management. Unable to walk on gravel in 6” high heels. Leaves/food from BBQ dinner/goose poo cannot be swept from it.
3. More cordwood, like this.  PROS- we could easily source the material on our property.  CONS- There is such a thing as too much of a good thing, when you don’t want the carpet to match the wallpaper. Plus, being organic, this pathway is going to deteriorate over time.
4. Pavers.  PROS- they are low maintenance, durable, and look great.  CONS- Pavers are expensive, and require more skill to lay.

Over 7 years of working on projects, we have learned something the hard way: If you don’t do something PROPERLY the first time, the job will never be done.  We are sick of re-visiting projects which we thought were done and dusted, and for that reason above all else, we bit the bullet and bought ourselves some pavers.

Once again, we found ourselves faced with the challenges of a 16-sided house- no straight, easy pathways here. Much boring, finicky time spent with stringlines and a bevel to measure angles, blecchhh.  Time for me to make myself scarce.  Yes, that’s right.  I personally did NONE of this. I believe in recognising one’s strengths i.e. contributing the creative element (“let’s build a path!!’), being a motivator and providing direction (“when is this stupid measuring going to be finished so we can start paving??) and delegating tasks when appropriate (“I’ve had enough, I’m going inside to read a book”).

Here are some photos of Peter being awesome and creating order where there was none before.

Creating the awful, time-consuming angles.

Levelling the path with gravel.  Oops, that’s me in the photo.  I must have joined in the project just in time for the photo opp.

Laying the pavers.  Looks easy when it’s reduced to a few photos, doesn’t it?

Paving RIGHT UP to the door.  Niiiiiiice.

Perfect Slave #2 covering the space between the house and the path with gravel.  Good job, Slave!!

The dog approves of the new paving.  I’m not kidding.  This is one, happy dog.

And the front of the house is transformed!  It could almost be a GJ Gardner home!  Hurrah!

This may seem like a frivolous project, but it isn’t just the dog that appreciates the new landscaping.  We are definitely tracking less dirt inside.  When we need to duck outside briefly, maybe to throw a bit of compost out, every single one of us has been guilty of walking out in SOCKS.  The luxury!  And there is a very definite psychological benefit of having this new, uncluttered area; it just feels nicer.  We can envisage summer pizza nights out on the patio, a whole new social life in store for us.  We will suddenly find that we have new, exciting friends, all drawn to the fine angles of our patios and pathways.  We will spend more time outside because it will be such a nice place to hang out.

In fact, I might go and do that now.  Excuse me while I go for a nice, casual stroll.  In 6″ heels.  As you do.