February 2016 - Hello Owl

I am getting in early here. I know it is still summer in Sydney at the moment but give it just a few more weeks and it will start to get cold. It won’t be too long until I can have my dream backyard and one of the items I wanted included in the garden design was an awesome fire pit. The only problem is I haven’t been able to make my mind up about which one I would like. So, I thought I would try something new and reach out to you to get your opinion. For those that have been reading this blog regularly you would have discovered by now that I am an internet research warrior. I love researching the various options available and then presenting a summary to you of what I find so if you are ever looking for something similar you won’t have to spend the hours researching. That is one of the main reasons I started this blog, plus I want to reach out to people with similar interests and start a mini community of sorts, but I digress.

I found that most fire pits come in sizes of between 20 inches and 50 inches. This may not be entirely accurate but I did find that most of the smaller pits came in a bowl type shape. I would like to have a medium sized fire pit and I need to be wary that I can’t place it too close to my fence or any plants. I’m not sure exactly how far the heat travels from the fire pit itself but I assume I will want chairs to be around 2 metres way which should allow for comfortable heat. There will be a small hard surface area in my new backyard design for entertaining purposes so I hope to place the fire pit on it. Given the surface will likely be made of hard stone or tile, it will be fire resistant which is great.

Upon reading up on fire pits I discovered there were actually many different types available. A google search for fire pits yields results for sort of built in, or bricked type large pits with seats and then a fireplace in the middle. Unfortunately I don’t have the room in my townhouse backyard for something that big so I am after free-standing fire pits.

My pre-requisites are as follows:

I want it to have rustic, damaged metal type look. Something that looks weathered, not shiny and new looking.
It has to look unique. I would like my family and friends to say, “I have never seen one like that before”.
It has to be of medium size. Not too small that it is barely noticeable, I want it to be a centrepiece of sorts. Not too big that it dominates the smallish backyard that I have.
It has to be movable so that I can move it into the garage or to a temporary storage area during summer if I need to use the space for something else. I am not expecting miracles here, I know it will be heavy and I don’t expect it to be ‘easily movable’ but I would prefer that it wasn’t permanently fixed to the ground.

Without further ado, here are the options I settled on. Which one do you like the most? Let me know in the comments below.

Option 1 and 2 are available from outdoorfirepits.com.au whilst Option 3 is available from thefirepitgallery.com.au

Option 1

fire pit option 1

Option 2

Fire Pit Goblet

Option 3

Kangaroo Fire pit

Trees, plants, the smell of freshly cut grass in the morning, I love it all! I keep dreaming about having the ultimate backyard landscape, a place I can sit and relax with a nice cup of tea and/or entertain friends for lunches and dinners. Unfortunately, whilst I love all things outdoors and I consider myself a green thumb, I am not great with all of the manual labour needed to complete landscaping which doesn’t look DIY but looks like it was done by professionals. I also feel there is a real skill to landscape design and whilst I definitely have an interest in it, it is something that you can tell when it has been done by a professional.

I have been thinking about my backyard for months, do I want to redo it myself? Or do I want to engage a professional to do it? If I do it myself it would probably take months and to be honest I know I would make mistakes so the cost would probably end up exceeding what I would pay someone to do it anyway. If I brought someone in to do the work, it would get done fairly quickly and would no doubt look terrific providing I chose the right company. I went back and forth between both options before deciding to get a professional to redo my backyard.

Let me set the scene. I live in a small townhouse like complex in Sydney. I have a smallish backyard which still has enough room for some plants, grass etc. I love spending time outdoors and I currently have a fairly good garden in my current backyard. The problem is, it doesn’t look fantastic like the many examples you see on the internet such as these from Houzz.

I started to scour the web to try and find some examples of what I would like my backyard to look like. There were a heap of different landscaping companies available but I wanted to see photo examples of work done in backyards similar to mind. I stumbled across this company called Sand and Stone Landscapes. What I liked about their photos was that I could see two which were too dissimilar to what I was dealing with such as this:

Example One

Example Two

Judging from their website the first example is from a townhouse in Balmain, whilst I love the look of what they have done I don’t need somewhere to park the car (I have a garage to the side of my townhouse) so would prefer to use my space for more grass and plants.

The second example I have attached is fantastic! I love how they have a perfect mix of entertaining area plus garden space, plus lawn. Having something similar to this in my backyard will allow me to maintain my green thumb (plus I want to share all my success and failure with you here on my blog).

I will be giving Luke a buzz to sort out a price and to discuss the work I want to have completed. This also got me thinking, I want my blog to be a good resource for people who share common interests such as myself. I found myself working through a checklist of sorts when choosing which landscape company I wanted to go with so I figured I should share it with you here.

My checklist for choosing a landscaping company

Are they a ‘one man band’ or do they have a team of people employed to get the job done properly? I would prefer a team of people.
Is their website, nice, clean and up-to-date? I know this has nothing to do with the quality of work they deliver but it means something to me, if the website is old I feel like the company may be struggling to make ends meet.
Have they been around for a few years? I want to know that they will be around for at least a few more years should I have a need for any further work to be done down the track.
Do they have photo examples of work they have completed on their website? Are they good?
Do they have photo examples of work that would fit with what you require to be done?
Are they licensed and have an ABN?
Are there some nice testimonials which show customer feedback? This might be on their own website or via their facebook page.
Have they won any industry awards which verify the quality of their work?

Archives for February 2016

Help me choose a fire pit…please :)

First step towards my dream backyard

My checklist for choosing a landscaping company