Tales From the Box

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Well – I can’t really claim the fireproof thing considering that most materials can and will burn given the necessary heating – but our construction of the front deck is the best that can be achieved with wood and a fiscally prudent pocket. In the leafy Blue Mountains, we get fires. Bushfires. Big ones too.

As a result of this, the folk at the Blue Mountains council have implemented a series of measures to bring building works to task over risky developments close to fire prone areas. Because most of the Blue Mountains is fire prone, it affects most developments. They have done some clever stuff. For example – all of our decks (front and back) have to be constructed out of a fire resistant timber. Since most timbers burn (pretty readily infact), timber as a product is risky to build with. However it is cheap, available and nice to live with and around. So rather than go with an all metal frame and tile flooring construction (this approach is mandated in areas deems high risk of fire) we have gone with the only wood that is approved for construction in a Level 3 fire zone (thats the upper end – the next one up is flame impact where you can’t use wood at all); Merbau. The council isn’t all good with its approach to fire; there are some rules which are plain silly and oxymoroncial in their ruling; but that is council for you…

We originally wanted the cedar slat look across the front – but because of these restrictions and because of the price – we have opted for the Merbau which we will stain with a redwood/jarrah stain and then varnish with spar varnish. The spar varnish is great for high sun/heat/moisture areas – but non traffic areas.

Anyway this week should see the delivery of the windows/doors which will see us turn to the home straight for our current project. As my wife and I wandered around the house this morning we pondered just how much work there was to do to simply bring our humble home back to where it was in mid November (the front lawn/pitch is in some serious need of love). The formal part of the renovation might be coming to a close – but we can’t see the reno being completely finished for a few years. However that does mean more random ramblings for this blog. We are just about to buy enough paint to fill a swimming pool – we might buy some shares with Wesfarmers considering all the money that we will be forking out to Bunnings over the next 6 months…