Tales From the Box

In a crazed wilderness called Warrimoo their once lived a man and his wife. They sought to work the land; to tame and subdue it. Over many a year they tore down the spindle and cut away at the jungle that reckoned to invade and destroy their protected home, set aside for relaxation and prosperity.

They built towering structures that cast shadows across the plains, moved volumes of earth to satisfy their hungry delights for transport and technology and changed watercourses to catch and harness the rarified resource of H2O.

Once there was a shed, rusted and ill-formed in its appearance, that stood on a misshapen slab of stone, set down in layers of concrete so twisted that one could see the very work of the gods in its chaotic, sloping form. It had seen the passing of time and been a home to the ants and birds which played from its sheltered vantage.

The man and wife one day looked at the slab on which the shed sat with jealous eyes. The proximity to the house and position in the yard made it a suitable candidate for a watertank.

Thus over 3 days a new slab was rendered for the shed, one more level and more sturdy than had ever come before. It was cut from the earth, paved and concreted. The shed was carried in a military like operation that required skill and precision by the man and wife, brother and father.

The shed now lies upon foundations strong, further down the yard. And the new tank stands proud and strong where there once was shed.

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When we moved into The Box some 39 months ago, we were beset from would be vandals who decided that our newly purchase abode would be the best place to scribble their poorly spelled thoughts and feelings. So we purchased some rather crude lightning to light up underneath and around the house to stop this; and it worked. No graffiti or vandlism since.

Fastforward 35 months to renovation when the builders had to remove the lighting to continue the renovation. Almost as soon as it was down the odd little thing started happening (bottles in the front garden, graffiti on the neighbouring lightpole). So that made us think seriously about lights and lighting our house. Its something that isn’t always thought about when doing a reno but a considered lighting scheme can really lift the nightime appearance of a house. So we went for some funky lights at the front door (up and down lights 240v) and some regular downlights under the deck upstairs. The upstairs lights really lift the colorbond which we have added on the front facade and spill out to light up the front yeard quite nicely. However its still too dark to play night cricket. Maybe some flooodlights are in order….

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We are definitely in the home straight of our renovation race. We are at BRDAY +113 and we have only a few days until we are shipped back home.

The deck is the last hurrah, the final act of our stupendous production. And now the decking boards have been layed and the final form of the deck has taken shape.

My brain has officially entered some sort of shutdown procedure so much so that I cannot operate on any creative level, which includes writing my usually witty disarming prose. The only creative thing is the title – but since technically there is no tale (apart from my mush-like-brain), its a failed blog post.

But here are some pretty pictures…

We realise that in our renovation we are doing things back to front. Most start with a bottom storey and work up. Not us! Filling in beneath out current abode has caused us a few headaches. Mostly issues about access to the top storey while they are installing stairs. But one of the trickier things was ceiling clearance. When examining potential flooring options for downstairs we always came back to the sticking point that nearly all flooring adds height. And when you have a low ceiling (like we do!) that is undesirable.

After a lovely wine tasting tour through the hunter valley we stopped at Tempus Two winery. They had very similar styling intentions to our own – and had polished concrete right through the place. So we thought that was a terrific idea and followed suit. However there are a few sticking points to polished concrete – its pricey. Not comparatively pricey but considering when they build you a new floor they actually bring wood, nails etc to build something. With concrete polishing they actually grind back the concrete and then polish it up. Now that isn’t earth shattering – but that process was almost dollar for dollar the same as getting a brand new wooden floor built.

We could have had a smooth coating over the current slab to hide the aggregate that is in all concrete – or they can just polish the current slab. We went for option two – it was slightly cheaper and had a bit more character – however this usually results in a patchier finish.

The polishing has been done but we still have some minor issues of finish (newer concrete sucks in the polish far more readily than older floors) but overall its a very cool looking finish.

It is a curious notion that when we dig a deep hole – we have come up with the colloquial description that it’s so deep that we are ‘..halfway to China’, when really if we were to bore a hole so deep that it could penetrate the core of the earth (and withstand the 7000 degree temps!) and come through the other side – from Australia – we would come out somewhere in the northern Atlantic Ocean.

Anyway – we have been digging giant holes recently – for our big deck which will be the final masterstroke of this renovation. In digging the holes we have found a couple things – and back to the headline; we hit China! Literally. An old porcelain toilet buried in the ground. We have also hit what appears to be sewer systems, old storm water pipes and grease traps/pits. It appears that there are a couple of sewer lines that don’t appear on any map – awesome!

You might be asking, Why o why is there metal in your glorious new deck?. Well, we have to. We love wood and all its woody glory – but that part of our house (i.e. the bush-facing bit) is classified as a level three fire zone, thus has restrictions on the use of timbers in building. We are allowed Merbau decking and hand rail but not much else. Hence the Duragal posts. You might also notice the completed cladding around the bifold windows. That means we are all cladded and, apart from one or two little edging things, are sealed in dry and cool.

Maybe a completed deck by this time next week?

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I am not about to prattle on here talking about foreboding doom or whatever the ides of march are supposed to represent (just beware of them…).

Yes – March has arrived – and we have officially reached the point that every plucky renovator reaches where they just want the damn thing to be over… We have no fridge, no tv, no home cooked meals, no place to relax, no Sunday morning coffee and toast. I wouldn’t say that I am addicted to TV (although 1000 DVD’s might say otherwise…) but I just miss that place to crash after a hard day/ week at work. Currently our bedroom has the feeling of some dingy cabin from an overstocked ship.

But we are near the end! The windows went in (Glory!) and the floors are completed – although not entirely finished (to our statisfaction…more on that later). The upstairs of the house has finally been entirely cladded.