Home & Garden Archives - The First Page

Flatbed ute loaded with translucent corrugated roofing sheets and a wrapped roll of flashing strapped to its timber tray, with lengths of timber stacked on the ground beside an open gate and a pergola frame in the yard beyond

The Roof Over the Patio: Choosing the Sheet, and Ordering Everything Else

Four structures get called “a patio roof”, and they are not the same job: a patio, a carport, a pergola and a verandah each want something...

Open plastic drain inspection point set in a backyard lawn beside a red brick wall, its lid resting on the grass with a coil of camera cable running from a reel on the turf beside a damp patch

Home & Garden1 week ago

Before You Book a Drain Camera: What It Shows, and When You Do Not Need One

A drain camera turns a guess into a picture. A picture is only worth paying for when it changes what happens next. What it sees: the...

Empty living room mid-clean in bright morning light, with bare floorboards carrying faint scuff marks, a vacuum cleaner against the skirting, a bucket with a cloth draped over the rim, cleaning spray and paper towel by the window, and a bare kitchen through the doorway

Home & Garden2 weeks ago

End of Lease Cleaning: What Actually Gets Your Bond Back, and What You Can Skip

What you are obliged to leave is a reasonably clean property, judged against how it was when you moved in, with fair wear and tear allowed...

Outdoor storage hot water cylinder on a concrete pad against a red brick wall on a suburban side path, with insulated pipework, a brass valve at the base, a damp patch on the concrete and a coiled green hose beside a galvanised bucket

Home & Garden2 weeks ago

No Hot Water: What to Check in the First Ten Minutes, and How to Tell Repair From Replace

It is usually one of four things: the power, the gas, the water, or the unit itself. Two questions narrow it down before any tools come...

Cabinet door laid face down on a garage workbench with its two concealed cup hinges exposed, beside a screwdriver, tape measure, a saucer of screws, a mug and sawdust

Home & Garden2 weeks ago

Cabinet Hinges, Decoded: Overlay Types, the Cup Measurement and How to Match a Replacement

Two families of hinge: concealed cup hinges, which hide inside the cabinet, and exposed hinges, which you can see. Almost every Australian kitchen built in the...

A wet Australian backyard in the rain, with a stormwater grate set into the concrete path and a grated pit in the grass beside it, and an older brick house and timber fence behind.

Home & Garden1 month ago

Stormwater or Sewer? What the Drains in Your Yard Do and Who Has to Fix Them

Two separate systems leave a property: one carries sewage to treatment, the other carries rain off the roof and the yard. They look alike in the...

A neat Australian backyard vegetable and flower garden in early spring with freshly turned dark beds edged with light mulch, small seedlings showing, and gardening gloves and a trowel resting on the path.

Home & Garden1 month ago

The Spring Garden Checklist: Soil, Mulch and What to Plant First in Australia

The short version Soil comes first. Loosen it, add compost or well-rotted manure, and check drainage before anything goes in. Mulch after planting. A layer of...