The land in the back yard has been built up, levelled out and paved to the far fence to make the ground not so steep. If your weren't told how deep those back garden beds were, you would never have guessed. There's 12 tonne of road base under those pavers out there, as well as 2 tonne of sand. I'll give you one guess as to who transported it all into the back yard by wheelbarrow (before my bone disease) At the end of Hubby's work day, he would also help with a few barrow fulls, but by then it was time to finish up for the day.
When we were looking for a house, like other first home buyers, we had expectations of what was needed. First priority after affordability and bedrooms etc; was that there had to be room for Mum to build a dwelling in the back yard. After looking at over 50 houses, and losing out on one house, we finally put a bid in for the home we live in today.
I love our home, it's not fancy, there's no style...because I have no sense of the word...(lol), and it's not huge and new like the double story houses that are popping up in the new estates around here. If you go for a drive in a new estate roughly 12 months after the houses are built...You would be amazed at how many of the freshly completed houses are up for sale. Why so quickly? I can't help but think if the young couple bought outside their budget and were living beyond their means.
You MUST live beneath your wage, otherwise there is no true way of earning and saving ANY money.
I see and hear of it all too often around here, people buying a huge house, adding a lovely new car to the mortgage, and while they're at it, adding a pool too. It's like free money when it just gets added on to the end of your mortgage. But it couldn't be further from ideal. It seems there is a reputation of new mortgage couples want it all today. I'm talking of the lovely huge house, the new car, the new swimming pool and possibly a boat if they enjoy fishing. Most of the new houses don't have access to get a boat out the back yard anyway. What about other scenarios like including a huge salary sacrifice if the newly weds become pregnant and one parent has to give up work early. All of these possibilities can spell trouble if you buy above your means.
When it comes to repairs and maintenance on the family home.....
The more you can build, repair, replace, grow and cook....the better off financially you will be. Whenever we find a new breakdown to add to that ever evolving list of household tasks, we try to do the work as soon as possible or as soon as we can afford it. I know we have saved thousands in work labour alone, having done most of the work ourselves. (Except for when I was really ill, stuck in bed with my Bone Disease ).
This brings me to Repairing the Fence!......
With two fence posts completely rotten at the base...2 whole fence sections have been on a lean that has been propped up for too long....That has all changed now, and has been corrected. Shopping around at the metal recyclers...We found enough angle iron to repair the side fence. Both my boys helped me with all the work.
*First you need to clear the soil from around the problem post/s....
*Then break up the old concrete from around the post....We hired a Jack Hammer for this job and I took small turns with DS17 and DS20....I was extra proud of my boys and the work they did that day. Although this is a very labour intensive job, it does need to be done, because wet concrete does not stick to dry concrete. (sorry for the bad news)....
*Cut away any dead rotting timber from the base of the posts....
*Measure and cut angle iron to 1 and 1/2 depths of the hole dug....
*Pre-drill the angle iron to the correct size of the bolts chosen....
*Pre-drill the timber posts while holding the angle iron on the post and pulling the fence back into alignment....
*After mixing 'quick mix concrete', pour it into the hole....
*Pull the fence post into alignment and place the angle iron in the future spot that will fit with the timber post. You can judge this by temporarily screwing a few bolts into the post and angle iron. Gently allow the fence to fall back away from the angle iron...it's critical at this time that the angle iron does not move in the wet but setting cement....then allow 24 to 48 hours for the cement to set well....
*Once the cement is well set, pull the fence post into alignment with the angle iron that is set in the concrete....
*While someone is holding the post in place, have someone else put the bolts in. Then screw them in tightly....
And there you have a fence.....all fixed!
It's much cheaper than replacing the fence...The fence is fine for many years to come...it was just the timber that is in the ground.....when the others go, they will be repaired the same way. I hope you can save some money by doing a fence repair this way.....There's still some life left in the old fence!
