The backyard has always been an under-utilised area that we never really touched since we moved in. This was fine when there was just the two of us as the bush outlook is amazing, or when the boys were younger – but with their ever-increasing energy levels we decided to maximise the space and create an area the kids can have a ball in now, but also be a great space in 10-15 years time too.

With plenty of trees and lots of moisture, it’s always been a hard place to grow anything – in the winter it’s pretty wet and in summer it gets so dry the ground cracks. Ever since we found our section we’ve always had the philosophy that we wanted to work with the land and not fight it so we set out to renovate our backyard with the same mindset.

In what may surprise a lot of people, we opted to use turf, aka artificial grass, instead of natural grass. There were many reasons for this – the challenge of growing grass in the area was a big one, but the major one was it allowed us to create an area that is useable in almost any weather condition.

We asked Lance from Verdant Green to help us again and he did an amazing job forming the area, including approx. 60m3 of fill being carried in by hand. Then after speaking with a number of turf suppliers and looking at their products, we chose to use Urban Prestige from Urban Turf Solutions. It was the most natural looking grass we had seen and the Urban Turf team were awesome to deal with, coming out to look at the site and to talk through specs and install details with Lance.

Leap forward a few months and we can’t believe how transformational this has been. It has entirely changed how we use our home and connects everything together, turning an area that was never used into an outstanding feature of the house. The boys absolutely love their new backyard and spend hours out there every day. We’re also pretty partial to parking up in a bean bag with a glass in hand and just relaxing in our own little retreat.

We couldn’t be happier with our decision to use turf. We were a little worried it might look a bit fake in such a natural setting, but we needn’t have worried, it looks incredible, very natural and is so low maintenance. But the biggest thing is just how usable it is – within 5 minutes of rain, it’s almost dry again and you never have to worry about mud again.

Our only regret is we didn’t do this sooner.

Scored all of these garden bargains from The Warehouse!!

Every weekend you’ll find me pottering away in the garden and tending to the lawns. Planting, weeding, pruning, mowing and establishing. It’s a bit of a never-ending job but I find it really relaxing and rewarding, particularly as the plants begin to establish themselves and the vision I have for the garden is slowly materialising.

It’s been a long time since I’ve had a garden to maintain, the last time being about 10 years ago when I was based at home in Southland. I tell you what, the growth we get in Auckland is crazy compared to down south. I’ve been blown away with how fast the plants have been growing – not to mention the weeds too!

As April kicked into gear, so too has the growth. It feels like I mow the lawns and by the time I turn around they need cutting again! We seeded the grass in July and I have been using a Flymo ever since as I wanted to be light on the ground while the lawn established itself. However, it doesn’t have a catcher and I spend a lot of time raking up the clippings.

The lawn is now pretty mature so I’ve been meaning to buy a new mower with a catcher for quite a while, along with a weed eater to keep the edges nicely manicured. But I wasn’t too keen to shell out a lot of money. We were in the Milford Mall over the weekend getting our groceries and I decided to pop into The Warehouse on the off chance they might have something.

I was genuinely surprised at the range of gardening gear they had in stock as well as the brands they sell, including Ryobi. And I couldn’t believe the prices. I picked up a mower, weed eater, water blaster, fork, hose and reel for a total price of $540. What a bargain!

Yeah I know what you’re thinking; it’ll all wear out after only a few goes. But everything feels really solid and they are made by some quality companies including Ryobi and Westminster.

I guess the proof will be in the pudding, so I’ll post about how I get on after giving the lawns and garden a good going-over on the weekend. However, now I know the range of gardening products on offer at The Warehouse, I’ll definitely be popping back more often to pick up some more bargains to keep that garden growth in check. #bargainfeeling #thewarehousenz #ourdreamhome

The garden growth has been rampant these past few months, especially the planting along the stream and the lawns.

The deck behind our bedroom pod is such a tranquil spot to sit – listening to the birds and the trickling stream. But over the past year the Kanuaka trees have deposited a layer of blackness over the boards so I’m looking forward to testing out my new water-blaster on here to bring them back to new.

It’s incredibly satisfying building a house that you’ve designed in your head, then watching it being built and to now be living in it. You spend so much time obsessing over every little detail and considering every aspect. And now to be using those features and seeing everything working the way we intended is a real buzz. The sun comes into the house in the way we hoped. We live in the house the way we thought we would and the independent pods make the home feel so much larger than its 170sqm footprint. And that roof deck. Oh yeah. So good!

To be honest it’s also been a huge relief as well. I was a bit anxious moving in, crossing my fingers that we hadn’t made any terrible mistakes. I mean we aren’t architects and we’d never designed a home before, but now we’ve lived in the house through a winter and most of a summer, there isn’t one thing that we would change. It really does feel like we live in our own little retreat – it’s so private and the birdsong is incredibly relaxing, not to mention the trickling stream. It’s like being on holiday at home which is awesome and lucky – with the mortgage we have we can’t venture too far away anyway! We’ve also been very lucky because a new bridge has been built over the Milford Marina, so we are now less than 5 minutes walking distance to the beach which gives us the best of both worlds – bush and beach.

I’ve been embracing my inner green-thumb and spend most of my spare time pottering in the garden or obsessing over the lawns! I’m loving learning about the native plants that will and won’t grow on our section – which ones prefer sun, shade or part shade. And the ones that like it wet or like it dry. It’s pretty cool watching the plants maturing, the lawn growing and the house settling into its surroundings so nicely.

I’m slowly chipping away at taming more and more of the bush area – ridding it of the ginger and other weeds, and replacing it with natives (the birds are doing a great job helping me too). I’ve got plans to make wee paths through the bush and Kylie would love a spa under the trees one day too!

You’ll probably note how the cladding has weathered over the 8 months as well. We really like it, but I will be applying another coat of oil before next summer to ensure the timber is adequately protected and the colour holds at about the same tone it is now. From then on, it should only be a coat every five years.

We worked with the Shane and his team at Dingo Groundworx – they were awesome. Very knowledgeable and easy to deal with. They came in and scraped out the crappy muck that was on the ground, and set the levels. Then spread about 100mm of top soil, with another 100mm of lawn mix on top, before spraying on the seed.

Now the grass is about 60mm long I need to give the lawn its first cut. It’s still pretty soft underfoot though with all that new soil and the amount of rain that we keep getting. So I bought a Flymo mower off Trade Me and plan to walk around the lawn edges, while the Flymo floats over the top – stopping any foot or wheel marks ruining the lawn.

Then hopefully, once the rain stops and a crust forms, she’ll get nice and solid over summer. Plus the root system will bind everything together.

Have also just seeded out behind the living pod, so looking forward to seeing that sprout soon too.

We’ve set up a bunch of automated schedules for some of the key functions in the house. Our exterior and security lights turn on and off at varying times of the day that we’ve decided works with when we are coming and going. This is an awesome feature, especially arriving home to a well lit home at night. Functional and beautiful!

Our under floor heating and towel rails are also on schedules, which are quite different between the weekend and during the weekday. Which makes sense, we’re home more during the weekends so it’s nice to have the underfloor heating going, but while we are at work there is no need. Since we’ve had these schedules in place we’ve definitely noticed a reduction in power.

One of the coolest and most convenient features is being able to open and close the front door remotely, and turn the alarm on and off. Last week I was in Christchurch and Kylie was away as well, but wasn’t sure if she had set the alarm. I was able to check in on my phone and set the alarm from the econnecx app. Genius. There have also been numerous times that I’ve let tradies into the house without the hassle of having to wait around for them, or leaving a key out. You can even give them access that is time specific, so they can come and go based on the time of day, but outside of those hours they don’t have access.

We’re still waiting to connect up our central heating which will be really good. Plus add a couple of internal lights as well.

Home automation is one of those things you don’t think you really need until you have it. It hadn’t entered my mind during our planning stages as I assumed it would be really expensive, but econnecx is really reasonable – about $3k to set up and install, even into an existing home. Then $92 a year covers all the software upgrades and any support you may need during the year.

It’s super easy to set up too. Your electrician does all the work, then you can just play around creating schedules until you find ones that suit how you live.

Highly recommended.

At a glance we can see which of our connected devices are on, off or open in the house.

Sitting at work or in a different country, we can open the door for tradies, friends or family. We can check if the alarm is on, or set it if it isn’t.

Once on a computer you can add and edit your schedules. Here you can see our underfloor heating and towel rails. It’s very intuitive and automated, right down to dusk, dawn and public holiday settings.

Mmm. Mm. M.

By choosing a double layer, we also have full flexibility, leaving just the sun shades down reduces glare and provides privacy during the day, while still letting in some light. Then at night, we just bring down the block outs, giving us complete privacy.

The sun shades partly down over the Level Step Stacker – we can control each blind with our remote control.

And fully down – from outside you can’t see in at all during the day, while inside you get a lovely filtered light.

While the block out layer provides complete privacy with the touch of a button.

Similarly beside our dining table, the double layer is so flexible, and the light grey of the sun shade makes for a stylish and complementary feature of the house.

We used Sugarloaf Island Half by Dulux for the feature wall in both rooms, along with Little Manly Half for the other walls, trim and ceiling.

Curtains custom made by Kresta, Smart Strand Silk carpet from Carpet Court, bed from Freedom, throw from Freedom, bedsides from Freedom, artwork and feature pillows from Shut The Front Door, lamps from Lighting Direct, paint by Dulux.

Custom made curtains from Kresta, Smart Strand Silk carpet from Carpet Court, table from Trestle Union, chairs from Freedom, sofa bed from Smooch, artwork and plant from Shut The Front Door, lamp from Lighting Direct, paint by Dulux.