Wow!!! thank you so much for responding and for the ideas. Cyn222 I love your drawing of the area I think I might try that one in another spot , I wanted to have an area for a memorial seat, your drawing looks lovely and I think it’ll suit a spot just up the path. It’ll look down over the pond. I'm going to have to work out plan as I learnt that lesson once before. lol. I did wonder about a swing, the large tree sits on the top of a bank, it then goes down about 8 meters. It’s reeeeeally steep. I do like the idea of secret gardens and seats along the tracks. I was tossing up about a waterfall over in the far corner. Since the water flows down a stream and then though the overgrown swamp at the bottom. Gez I wish money grew on trees, lol. Actually I call them ponds but they are really dams on a natural water way. Decoenthusiaste, Thank you, you made a very good point about starting with the ponds and working out. I think you are right. It’ll probably take me awhile to tidy up the area. I’ll also have to check what kind of wild flowers are around as I'm sure there must be some. It would look nice with a bit of colour, I never thought of that. The ground down at the bottom is swampy like wet lands. I also wondered about board walks through it. We are building soon on the land, so this will be the back yard. There is also lot of native bush. Here’s a photo from the side of the pond. I’ll have to get it cleaned up somehow and figure out the best way to improve the water quality. If I start with that 1st, and then do the memorial garden I can then work from there. Lol I’m keen on getting the ashes out of the cupboard. Thanks, you both have given me direction, I appreciate it.

make a path to back yard using maybe crushed gravel. Then place a unique used window or door where you want it to connect to a fence or don't build a fence at all & mount the window or door as stand-alone divider from front & back yard.

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Thanks for the replies! My wife suggested we talk to a local real estate agent, so i think that is a good idea... just that Im not sure how helpful they are likely to be if we arent selling yet :) As for saving for our dream house, I dont disagree, however if doing this up nicely over the next ~5 years or so while we live here nets us some extra in the eventual sale, then that of course will help us as well. Interesting thing happened today actually. I got a knock on the door and one of the older neighbours asked if he could take some lemons from the tree. I of course said yes. Anyway he was telling me he had lived in the street for 40 years. I asked him if the house had always looked like this, and he said no that ~30 years ago the old old owner did a massive renovation and pulled off the timber and put up the bricks and gutted the inside of the house. Interesting stuff!