When Myles and I bought this place the decking around the house was a real mess. After careful inspection we realised that no much was holding it up - actually someone had shoved a piece of wood underneath one part - leveraging against the septic tank - nice workmanship! So we decided it was a priority to get the deck fixed first. Especially as I knew I was just going to be sitting in the sun with a G&T - WRONG!
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| The finished decking at dusk - when I finished it |
We love natural timber - the previous deck was painted green - yuck. So after all the beams were replaced marbo timber was used to deck the area. Marbo was chosen due to its high resistance to termites and low maintenance. Our builder had a couple of helpers when he first started the work but once the beams were laid down those workers had an emergency and could help with the completion of the job. He was working by himself which was taking much longer than he anticipated and he couldn't get any other labourers. The builder then brought his wife along to help out - she was lifting heavy beams and bossing him around. I felt sorry for her until she said it was better than looking after their twins! LOL
Once the deck was finished I oiled it up - making it look fantastic. 6 months later it was looking tired. Today I scrubbed the deck clean with an acid wash and then applied 2 coats of the decking oil. It looks new again - dogs are banned from the deck for a couple of days! We bought a large table and 8 chairs to fit on the deck - they needed oiling to - after oiling them I never want to see timber chairs again!
The New Toy
I hadn't been shopping for awhile but always look online at company catalogues. I spotted a meat cutter from KMart at only $45. I stopped buying pre-cut cold meats when we moved here. The price, compared to 'whole meats', was ridiculous and we were eating a lot of sandwiches. Cutting the meat was never going to be as fine as a deli. But now I have this baby I will be cutting everything - hopefully apart from a finger - like bread, meat and cheese.
Hi Steve,
ReplyDeleteHow does the meat cutter go? I totally saw it in Kmart too and was almost tempted. I'm thinking of making my own Salami so I thught it'd be great for that.
Cheers,
Stirlo
Seems to be going OK - for $45 it's good. But more disturbing is you publicly announcing that you are making a salami!
ReplyDeleteA modern man Steve...thats what I am. We're dipping into the cookbook market now so I'm obliged to try my hand at a few of the more interesting options. I too made some chili sauce over the weekend...more a Jam like substance that is nice on toast!
ReplyDeleteMmmm chilli! I can imagine how controversial it will be when you offer to show someone your salami
ReplyDeleteAstronomical uptake is my prediction!
ReplyDeleteyeah those meat/cheese/bread cutters are great allright. I got one from Aldi last year some time.
ReplyDeletevery preactical