Extreme Backyard Makeover | Great Home Ideas

You've always been there for me and, you know, as soon as Andrew passed you were like, I'm going to build this granny flat for you. I couldn't think of a way to repay you. Elise has asked for our help to turn her nan's backyard into a place everyone can enjoy. I'm overwhelmed. We all know how precious life can be and how it can change in the heartbeat, but Elise and her daughter Zoe certainly know that more than most. Yeah, they've been through some really tough times over the last few years, but they've got an incredible nan who's gone above and beyond. So Elise has called and asked for our help to show her gratitude, and we're here to turn her nan's backyard into a place everyone can enjoy. You better head out there then. That's a good idea. Knock, knock. Got a delivery for you, Norma. That's a big delivery. A bit of a surprise? Yes. Surprise. Elise actually contacted us and she told us that you play this amazing role in her life. So maybe you could explain that first to us. For the past, I want to say two and a half years since Andrew passed away, or even before that, you've always been there for me. And, you know, as soon as Andrew passed, you were like, I'm going to build this granny flat for you and for the baby. And I couldn't think of a way to repay you. I was like, oh my gosh. So I thought, you know what? Some brand new garden. Oh, dear. I'm overwhelmed. Is there anything that you particularly want here done in the backyard? Oh, I'll leave it to the experts. Something that doesn't need pruning because I'm past the age of getting on ladders and trying to prune. It's a low maintenance. Yes, yes. That's why Charlie's here, he's a man with a plan. And we can construct it and make it happen. The granny flat is sort of sitting in the garden and there's no garden around it. So we really need to bring back what you've already started and just improve it. We figured this is a nice way for you to be able to celebrate Mother's Day because we've got generations here. It's absolutely so special for us to be able to do this for you. Thank you, Nan. Thank you. OK, so we've got the main house here, and then a couple of meters away is the granny flat. It has taken up a big chunk of the backyard, but we do want to make the most of what's left of it. So Charlie, what's your plan? So I'm thinking curved garden beds. Nice, soften it. We need to soften this wall. We need to have a deck off here, Adam, where you can shine. But first I'm thinking those flagging stones, I'm going to pick those up and we can use those for stepping stones. Yeah. We'll need a retaining wall to replace them. OK, so you're going to put me out the back. Eventually. First I'm hoping you can clean this off, give this a bit of a pressure wash for us. Your time to shine's at the front. OK. Then out the back. OK, all right. I really feel like this garden bed needs some curves in it. That way we can bring in lots of planting, but I'm using a conduit to get these really nice curves. By using a long line like this, you get a simple, singular curve without any breaks or kinks in it. I put a couple of dots on the grass where I think the curve should go, just as a guide that I can assess. Once I'm happy with it, I'll spray it in and chip the grass out. OK, so we're painting this exposed concrete at the bottom of the house in, surprise, Monument. Now you've heard us talk before about how it's a fantastic colour to use either on a fence because you tend to look through it as opposed to focusing on it, or on the bottom of a house like this so it actually anchors it into the soil. But the other reason is we're going to have a beautiful garden bed along here, and when you actually put any colour foliage or flowers or even just a variety of different shades of green, it will really stand out when it's actually planted right up against Monument. Charlie needs me to build two frames. One to hide the rubbish bins and the second one to hide the hot water system. We're just using these screens that you can pick up off the shelf from the hardware store, and for the frame, I've got some 90 by 90 treated pine. I'm using some bugle screws to hold it together. At the bottom, I've just done a halving joint in the middle to hide the three posts together. Oh, what do you reckon? Nice, huh? Good. I think he liked it. Next to the granny flat here, I thought it'd be really nice to lay some stepping stones to connect what will be the new deck to what's going to be a new kids play area. We're reusing the flagging that we found from the old retaining wall, and I'm just laying it on a sand cement mix. I'm following the grade of the grass, so you don't need to be too spot on. I'm just using a level to check I've still got it. When you're laying in a regular shape like these flagging stones, you really want to work out the centre to centre. We're going 650mm, that way your steps will all be even, and it doesn't matter about the shape around the outside. Things are progressing nicely, and with the frame for my bin screen assembled, I'm getting ready to put it in place. Hopefully the holes are in the right spot. Look at that. And with it in the holes, now we just need to level it up, and then we're going to use some concrete to hold it in place. Let's see how good we are, Scotty. Nah, we're at about 100mm, mate. He must have done it. And while I wait for the concrete to set, I can get started on my decking project. The idea with this entrance is we want to extend this landing by about 1.2 metres. That way, it'll allow you to set up a nice little table here, you can sit down and look out at the new gardens. For the steps coming down, we'll have wraparound steps, that way you can access it from both sides, but also it'll give it a bit more of a grand feel. The first thing I need to do is rip out those old steps, which is nice and easy to do. So, Liz, tell me about Andrew. I met Andrew on a ship, and it was love at first sight. And he was just so full of life. He was so loving and affectionate, and we were together for six years, and then obviously, you know, he had that brain hemorrhage and passed away, but everything about Andrew is in Zoe. Yeah. Everything. Tell me more about that life that you led, because you went all over the world, didn't you? Yes, we did. We worked on cruise ships for a couple of years, and then we moved to Miami, and then we got married, and we were like, let's start a family. And I said, well, I'd really like to move back to Australia, and so we moved here. But then life changed in an instant. An instant. So, on the morning of the 6th of January at 10am, we went in, it was our three-month scan, and we didn't know we were having Zoe at the time. We were keeping the gender a surprise. And it was just so magical, because he had tears in his eyes, and it was like, my gosh, you know, we're going to have a baby. This is real. And at 10pm that night, he was rushed to Royal North Shore Hospital, having suffered just a sudden brain hemorrhage. The doctor came out, she's like, Andrew's really sick. He's really sick. We've put him in a coma. And even then, I still remember thinking, but you put him in a coma. Yeah, so he'll come out. He'll come out of it. You put him in there to help him heal. You know, 28 days of waiting for that smallest kind of sign that he was going to come back to life. And in the end, 28 days, they sat us down, they said, I don't think he's going to make it. And at that point, I was four months pregnant. He's my husband. You know, and I've got to make the hardest decision of my life to say goodbye to my best friend and the father of my child. But, you know, I'm so lucky that I've got her because he gave me the greatest gift. And yeah, I see him in her every single day. So tell me the role then that your Nana played, because you had this amazing family and friend support. I owe so much to my Nan, and just having you guys help with the landscaping is just the smallest thing that I can do for her because I could never repay her for what she's done for me. And Elyse, she told us when we came here that you didn't think your Nan would be overly surprised that we were here because she's pretty controlled and she just gets on very practical and strong and she gets on with things. So how do you think she's going to react when she sees it all done? I think she'll be speechless. I honestly think she'll be speechless. Do I need to work harder? Yes? Oh, you're watching the wiggles. Are you watching a bit of mashed potato, mashed potato? For the frames, we've just made them up in modular sections. So we're getting this big platform on first and then we'll add the stairs. We're going to utilise the slab that's here, attach to that and then just add a post on the outside. That'll be good. Beautiful. To set the height of our frame, I've just got an offcut of decking board. We'll line it up on both sides and then we'll be holding it in place with some masonry anchors. Charlie would be happy to know that the frame is finished and the decking boards are starting to go down. For that, we're using some spotted gum. Now, we've just set up the perimeter one and that way it hides the end grain. It's 20mm higher than our frame. I've had George cut these boards to size for me. That means I can get them all in place and then I'll use some 4mm spacers, mark my lines and simply screw them off. I think Charlie's going to be happy about this. Adam, I'm not suggesting you're taking a long time but would you like me to help finish off your screens? Well, I feel like I'm holding things up, Charlie, so that would be great. You are a very nice man. I did your retaining wall as well, just saying. Ouch, that hurts. Everything is coming together beautifully. Looks very nice, including your steps, Adam. Oh, thank you, Charlie. And the edging and the steppers and did anyone notice the painted shed? Yeah, the shed, wow. You can't even notice it now. I had to point it out to you. Yeah. But now... Oh, sorry, sorry, sorry. But now we're really excited. Now we're getting excited because it's time for planting. All right, well, tell us what to do. You've been bossing us around all day. How are you at, like, sticking things together? Yeah, what sort of things? Like a little cubby house. Oh, I'd love to do a cubby house. Okay, she's going to regret that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm glad she said that because I don't want to put 2,000 pieces together. Oh, look at you two. You both look so jacked. Can we do that easy? That's what we are, jacked. And this is one of my favourite trees. Is it a maple? It's a crepe myrtle. So in winter, you get this amazing bark gets shown off. And then spring, you get new growth. And then at Christmas time, this is a variety called nachos. It's a lovely white flower. Let's see how it looks. I'll make a design review. Yeah, Adam, it's perfect. Just so you know, we thought this was going to be a really easy cubby to put together, but it turns out it's coming 480,000 different pieces. And the instructions are really easy to read. Said no one ever. Wow. Did you enjoy putting that together, Jo? Yeah, what we got there in the end, it was definitely teamwork that made the dream work. When you've got a big blank wall like this in a garden, it's so important to get some greenery in front of it. It'll soften the whole landscape. You could put some climbers on here if you're tight on space. But I'm going for camellias because they can be kept really narrow. They've also got a shallow root system, so I'm not concerned about planting up against the wall. And then all through autumn and into winter, they get an incredible display of flowers. Hello again. For me? Am I not supposed to give you the flowers? Thank you so much. Yeah, go on. You're just stealing them from Nana, so it's fine. Oh, thank you. Oh, that's so beautiful. Thank you. Are they from your mummy? Beautiful. If you're after a cottage garden look with lots of flowers, you can't go past the combination of butterfly bush and Mexican sage. They will flower from summer all the way through autumn and into the beginning of winter. And the care for them is exactly the same. Once they finish flowering, just chop them down and they do it all over again. And then in the front of the garden, I've got pops of colour with these dahlias. Oh, how gorgeous. What do you think, Grixie? I think it is absolutely gorgeous. It's eclectic. It's pretty. Should I turn the aircon on? How come I'm the only one sweating? Oh, is it going to fit? Of course it's going to fit. Okay. Ooh. Oh, I like that. Gorgeous, isn't it? Yeah. You don't like my lanterns though? No, I do like your lanterns a lot, but I'd have to say that's my pick. I like it. I do like that. That's good. It all looks so fabulous. Yes. I think we're done, aren't we? What a challenge. Yeah, definitely. That means we get to bring Norba back. Oh, isn't that beautiful? Goodness. Oh, isn't that great? A little bit different, yeah? Just a little bit. Oh, gosh. I don't know what to do. I'm just going to use them. How's the spacing? A bit wobbly. Oh, more camellias. I thought camellias would be a good option because they can be kept quite narrow, but you still get all the flowers. Yes, yes. And they're nice and close to pick as well. A little bit of a play area for Zoe. Oh, I think it's fantastic. What are these? So that's convovulus. It's a... I know. You know it? I'll keep quiet then. Where were you for the whole shoot? And the purple? That's a salvia lucantha. Oh. Mexican sage. One of my favorites, those ones. Yeah, it smells beautiful. Oh, thank you all very much. Well, the person you need to thank is your gorgeous granddaughter. She's the one who wrote to us. Thank you for helping me out. Earlier in the year, I transformed this much-loved family games room with a splash of paint and some furniture hacks. And the homeowners had this old table here that they didn't want anymore. So I hacked that too. It was once a dining table. You'd never know it because now it's a very chic sideboard that works really beautifully in this room. When I said I had a hack for this table, I literally meant I'm going to hack it apart. Hey, Scotty. Can you give me a hand? Yep, I certainly can. Well, this is the old table from the room. It's pretty boring as it is. And what I'd like to do is extend it out. So I'm thinking, can we cut this middle section out here? Okay. Flip the ends around and then put a new piece on the top. Well, I can cut it straight down the middle here and we're finished. No, we could do that. But we want it to look a little bit more unique and have a few, you know, design features like being able to see the legs and have a nice front on it. Sounds painful, but we'll do it. We'll get there. Thank you. Oh, you've done a great job trimming that up for us. You're welcome. Thank you. So the next step is just putting these rails in. And what that will do is brace it, but also somewhere for us to attach it to the wall. So our two end pieces are now finished and I'm adding in this little shelf in the centre section as a little bit of extra storage. The homeowners can use it for records, but you can also use it for magazines or books. And then this is the off cup from before that we're just popping in the centre. Just like that. And now it's really starting to come together. To cover over the joins, I'm using a thin six mil piece of MDF that Scotty has here and I'm going to set it back a little bit so we still have a beautiful edge profile and then a coat of paint and we'll all be seamless. As always, don't skip the undercoat. We've got a couple of different materials here and the undercoat will just ensure that our end result is the perfect finish. For the top coat, I'm using aquanamal low gloss and again in lexicon quarter strength because this table is going to be up against that back wall and having it in the same colour means it's going to disappear, making the room seem a lot bigger. This really was a pretty clever hack, even if I do say so myself. For an unwanted piece of furniture, it's now a fabulous credenza that I think the family will get a lot of use from. It's much longer, there's this storage space underneath and you can see these beautiful legs. So it's now going to become a feature in the room. If there's anything that I love, it's a decorative cushion and a lot of people don't really know how to display theirs at home but there are a few simple tips and tricks that I can give you that make it a little bit easier. The first thing I would say is to work in uneven numbers. So on here, on this couch, we've got seven cushions and that works really nicely. The other thing that I would say is if you're working with patterns, I'd have a large solid cushion in one colour and then a medium scale pattern and then a smaller pattern in a smaller cushion and that way, it's not too overwhelming for your eye. Here, we're working all with neutrals so we've broken it up with this stripe and I've also added in this white which not only adds a pop of brightness, it helps to define the colours in the other cushions. And if nothing else, cushions are super, super practical. This lumber cushion is excellent for lower back support. It always makes me smile how a great garden can transport you to really an enchanted world, especially in autumn. As the leaves are changing colour, we're surrounded by these towering trees. The crunch of leaves underneath your feet, it feels like you've been put under a spill. We're perched on the edge of the World Heritage listed Blue Mountains National Park. On Mount Wilson, in the beautiful Breen Hull Gardens, 45 glorious hectares. It was established by the Breen family back in 1965 and has been lovingly cared for. In fact, curated with thousands of exotic and indigenous trees. The garden is incredibly multi-layered so wherever you go, it's a place where you can sit, relax and just sort of breathe in the fresh air. Surrounded by cedars, spruce and fir trees. And then of course, as the skies turn this crystal blue, clear, free of clouds and the night temperatures drop below zero, then the autumn colours really start to kick in. You can see the green here on this American pin oak. That's the spring and the summer shades. And as the plant draws the energy that it needs for next spring out of the leaves, that gives us these wonderful claret colours. Australians know Japanese maples really well because a lot of them are smaller trees and great colour. But there are a lot of other maples right across the Northern Hemisphere. In Canada, of course, the Canadian maple, where they get the maple syrup from. And in America, it's often known as the sycamore maple. And there are maples right across Europe into the British Isles. This one here has a beautiful pointed leaf just like a plane tree, like platanoides as they sometimes refer to it as. Glorious autumn colour, all of them. But they're fairly big trees. This is definitely a landscape where trees take centre stage. So it's not only about the autumn foliage deciduous trees, it's these incredible rows of conifers, these fir trees. But there's not just this grandeur at the entrance. They go off in every direction. So who has the courage, the bravado, to plant something as spectacular as this? Well, come with me. We're about to meet his son. Now, it's a big garden, Tom. It is. And I suspect this is one of the hearts of the garden, is it? It is, yeah. My father wanted to create an area that was open and more like a garden rather than all the trees that surround it. I understand it's called the celestium. It is. And when I took the garden over, managing it, this was just grass. So my wife and I designed this with some help. Put in the lavenders. Beautiful salvia. Yeah, and the beautiful salvia. But it's still minimalistic. You know, you've just got small azaleas in, so it's not overpowering. No. So it's, yeah, it is a very Italianate in design. Now, this wall has a bit of history. All this stonework. All this lovely sandstone, yeah. Back in 1865, the famous Anthony Horton family built a mansion at the end of Darling Point in Sydney on the harbour. Retford Hall, which was a beautiful colonial pile, and it was demolished to make way for a lot of home units in 1965. So Father, in his wisdom, bought some sandstone from it, trucked it up here, and we created celestium from the sandstone. And this was built in the late 1960s. Isn't that beautiful? He obviously had a dream to create this, Tom. He did. He came up to Mount Wilson as a young boy, fell in love with the place, and said, one day, I'm going to have a house up here. And he didn't do things in halves. My father certainly visited some of the lovely gardens in England, Italy, and France. Right. He was certainly inspired by them. I think he just developed a vision. I mean, it was largely in his head. Right. One of Tom's favourite stands of trees is called the Ballerinas, which is particularly personal, as his mother and father first met at the ballet. I probably wouldn't be here had it not been for the ballet Bruce. And of course, you've got a garden that's virtually dedicated to that visit. There's a wonderful circle of trees, which like, they pirouette. They're in a circle. And if you half close your eyes, and the Mount Wilson mist's there, you can see them dancing. Isn't that beautiful? So I call that ballet Bruce. Mum died sadly, and she was only 56 in 1958. And this became quite, in Dad's mind, quite a memorial. To her. So what's your role now? My role in terms of Breenhold is to keep it going. Right. For as long as we can keep it going. Prior to Facebook, we used to have 400 or 500 people come through over a seven or eight week period in autumn. Yeah. Now we have 20,000, which is huge. We are looking after this garden forever. It's quite staggering when you think that one man created this epic garden here on Mount Wilson that generations would enjoy well into the future. The great charm of this heritage listed Breenhold estate is that even though it's quite vast in size on a scale rarely seen today, as you get more familiar with the garden as you walk around over time, you realise that there are quite intimate spaces like here in the Socrates Garden. And they're all accessed by these beautiful archways in the walls. Now, these are huge garden beds. At the moment, they're just heavily mulched with lovely shrubs and the autumn and wintery colours coming out like the salvia here. Over on the other side, a beautiful little fairy rose, a cyclamen tucked into the wall and a hydrangea relative just coming into bloom. Quite different, isn't it? It's not filled with garden beds and flowers and perennials. It's a wide open space filled with glorious trees and full mature glory. It is a space where people come to take photographs and just to enjoy the solitude that's created here. But there's a reason why all of this is so successful in these enclosed spaces. And it's all because of these walls. Amazing brick walls. This one here goes for miles right across the side. There's also basalt walls where the stone's been collected over decades and rendered to create walls also going for another kilometre right across the garden. The dry path walls made from basalt where the texture combines beautifully all these decades later with the bark of the radiata pine. There's living walls that created in the compass garden with variegated conifers. You see, in the beginning, this area here was exposed to horrendous winds that came from the west and the south. None of these trees or the gardens themselves would exist without these wonderful windbreaks. Now, here's an idea from Breenhold that you might like to borrow at home. If you've got an old fence or an ugly wall, just cover it with what they commonly call Boston ivy. Now, in spring and summer, it's a lovely lush green. Then in autumn, you get these incredible burgundy and reds and oranges coming out as the season changes. It's really beautiful. Ornamental sculptures and urns are scattered throughout the landscape. That's because Tom Breen, the creator of the garden, was inspired by his visits to gardens in England and in Europe. Tom, the current owner, is continuing that legacy by building a huge coppola that was rescued from a demolished building in the city. It's looking really great. Only a couple of more weeks before it'll be finished. As you head further away from the formal garden, into this incredible forest, you realise that this is yet another windbreak. Over half a century old, thousands and thousands of these Pinus radiata. They just go on and on forever. One of the great achievements of Breenhold is how they've been able to incorporate and blend in the thousands of exotic trees with the native plants and the flora of the region. So as the Californian radiata pines finish, the tree ferns and the gum trees and the scenery of the Blue Mountains takes over. You know, there is nothing quite like it anywhere in the world. Breenhold was a visionary project and it's certainly grown and matured over the years to what it is today. And for Tom, of course, it's a very personal story about he and his family and his father and his mum that are all involved right the way through that journey. The great news is today its beauty is being shared with everyone. These days, more and more people are keeping a couple of chickens in their backyard. I mean, let's face it, there's nothing like fresh eggs for breakfast. But sometimes things go astray. You've got it. Trouble in the hen house. And that is where I come in. James, Harry. G'day Harry, how are you? Nice to meet you. And who is this young lady here, this very athletic young lady? Lily. Lily, it's my pleasure to meet you. You really are. Do a swing for me. Show me what you can do. Wow. Oh my heavens. Is she all right up there, James? Yeah, 100%. Is she really? Yeah. I would like to be that young and hatched bit again and I suppose most of us would. Yeah. Mate, what's the problem? Chickens. Well, they're not a problem in their own. What's actually going on with the chickens that's worrying you? They're not laying like they should be, I think, at their age. Okay, now you've got three birds. Yes. How old are they? They would be just under two years old. Okay, so just under two. How many eggs did you used to get on a daily basis? Probably up until two or three months ago, we would have had six a week from each. So virtually it was one a day. But yeah. That's what you'd expect? Yeah. How many are you getting now? I'd be lucky to get four or five in one week total. That's all? That's all. Whereas previously you'd have got close to 20. Probably, yeah. That's about right for this age. That's a lot of eggs that aren't being harvested by you anymore. Yes. So James, did you build all this stuff? Yes, just constantly swinging things out of the tree. What an inventive man you are. Do you lie in bed at night, James, thinking about all of these things? I bet you do. Absolutely. Hey, good for you. Good for you. All right, time for chickens. Let's get into the henhouse. Come on in. Watch your head. Watch my head? How can I watch my head? I'm watching the ground. Did this come in a two-story version? Yeah. Not much room in here, is there? What have I got here? So in there, there are two little divided sections for roosting. Let's have a look and see whether there's any eggs, eh? Lift him up, Lil. Let's go. What have we got? Oh, look at that. We've got an egg. It's a good egg? That's a good egg, I reckon, isn't it? Yes, that's what makes me think one of them is laying quite regularly. Yep, okay. All right, that's the evidence. And that's the one we collected today, right? Correct, it is, yes. Okay. So that one has got a date going back two weeks ago. Yes. Feel that whole shell. Yeah, the whole shell of this one is rough. Okay. Sandpaper-like. That's right. Whereas this one's quite smooth. The one we picked up today, quite smooth, quite shiny. Okay. And that particular egg just there. That's not just rough, it's actually deformed. It's quite deformed at the end, isn't it? Yeah. So you're getting to the stage where the eggs themselves or the shell on the egg itself is no longer normal. So pick any egg, all right? Would you like me to get a good one or an old one? Get an old one. Get one of the older ones, all right? Okay, so let's crack it open. Let's look at this egg. Now, the thin white is watery, but that is super watery. It's very unlikely that that egg, if it were fertile, would hatch because this is just far too watery. Okay. Look at the shell. How thin is that shell? Yeah. Really, really thin. So this is an indication of... I'm getting old, mate. I'm a hen, but I'm getting a bit old, right? An ageing process is causing this to happen. So in a lot of these birds, they're coming to the end of their laying cycle. Okay. Now, that doesn't mean they're going to stop laying all together because they don't, all right? But you get problems like deformed shells. Okay. And weak shells. I think they get in there and they accidentally tread on themselves or one of the other birds is going to get in there and lay and it's going to break the egg because the shell is weak. Okay. And having broken the egg, it will then eat it. Yes. Now, you can certainly tell in most cases which bird is going to be the egg eater. I want you to just take one egg, put it on the floor in there and see if any of the birds go to peck at it. It's almost certainly that bird, the bird with the orange ring. And yes, it tastes great. If you were to put that in there, they'd all eat it. They love it. So they become egg eaters and we look on that as being a real problem because how do you control that situation? It's very difficult. You've got to be there to grab the egg every time and that's our problem. How do we go about protecting the eggs that are laid? Other than isolating the chickens, I can't imagine, unless it drops away from the chicken after it's been laid and go to a spot where it couldn't be pecked at. Do you think you could design something like that yourself? Yes. Why don't I just give you something that'll do that job? Sounds great. She lays the egg there, rolls down and rolls out. Away from the beak. How good is that? Fantastic. This will solve your problem. Okay. Nothing is going to solve the problem of the misshapen egg and the problem with the shell because that's an aging process in the birds. We're all getting older. Absolutely. Look at the top of you and look at the top of me. We're brothers in arms, aren't we? And on that note, I'm going to shoot through. Catch you later. Thank you very much.