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The brick laying is slowing down considerably now that I get higher but getting thirsty with the prospect of finishing the dome.
Hi Paul,
I'm now at chain number 6 and wondered how much you trimmed off the bricks, it proving to be a challenge to keep the gaps to a minimum on the inside.
I still have to oil the deck, I need to a minor bit of sealing and I also want to ass another coat of waterproof on the dome. The plan is to finish it all of this weekend. Hopefully the rain will stay away.
No beer rations but if you have too many the bricks end up crooked!
The 46 beers are only those that were consumed at the end of a building day. I was good to have a cold beer while clearing up after a sucessful day's building, or if things didn't go well it was good to have several.
.... continued from above....
Of course deck builders get hungry so the pizza oven was fired up and I cooked several pizza for lunch. The ones in these pics are chicken & caralamised onion which is topped with avacado & rocket and the second pizza is bacon, pumpkin, rosemary & black pepper.
Now where did you come up with those pizzas? They sound great!
Now that the deck is finished it was a weekend of gardening around the pizza oven and some electrical work.
All of the ivy that had overtaken the fence was ripped out and my wife planted palms along the side fence and a bougainvillea behind the oven to grow over the rear fence where the ivy was.
I have also added some 9w LED spot lights mounted in the palm trees to light up the oven and deck and some 1W LED uplighters in the garden bed to highlight the new palms. It looks great at night now but I might add some more LED lighting to light up the wood storage area.
The other major work was to remove all of the beer bottles from the fence.
If anyone wants to know, it takes 46 beers to build a WFO!
The deck is now complete and ready to be oiled. The last few pieces were a bit fiddly to get finished but it was worth the effort as it looks great now that it is complete.
The last pieces
The two fury helpers love sitting on the deck but generally it is right where you were trying to drive the next screw or on top of the tools!
All Paws on Deck!
Last night was very pleasant sitting on the deck in front of the fire & relaxing with a well deserved beer.
Finished
This week end it was a year to the day that we cleared the jungle from the corner to start. Here is the "before" shot to compare with what there is now.
I have also installed the wiring and transformer for the lighting. There will be a couple of 12V lights in the trees lighting up the oven and some up lighters in the gardens to highlight the plants.
Over the last couple of weekend we have stated to install the decking. The decking is hardwood Merbau with SS screw fixings. It has has taken a long time to cut to size because of all the angles.
Merbau Decking
After the border and the first few planks went down we got into quite a system where I would measure & cut, both Karen & I would get the first few fixings in place and make sure the board was straight and then Karen would drill and screw all the other fixings while I was measuring and cutting the next board.
The Decking Team
Meg, our Golden Labrador likes company and always wants to be nearby the action, often sitting right on top of the part of the decking that you are attempting to screw down!
Meg soaking up the sun.
At one stage yesterday she was lying beside the pool with her tail in the water wagging it. She kept spraying me with water until I moved her along.
Of course deck builders get hungry so the pizza oven was fired up and I cooked several pizza for lunch. The ones in these pics are chicken & caralamised onion which is topped with avacado & rocket and the second pizza is bacon, pumpkin, rosemary & black pepper.
It will probably take another weekend to get the deck finished and then we will start on some planting around the deck and the lighting.
It has been almost 3 months since I last added any info or pics of the latest progress so I thought that I was about time I added an update.
The tiling around the base of the oven is now complete (although I still need to seal between the oven render & tiles.
Details of the tiling
The framework for the timber deck was completed out of treated pine. There isn't enough height to use a tradditional bearer/joist system for the framing so the joists are supported from concrete pads every 1,200mm. The framing wasn't made any easier by the shape of the corner where the oven is and the fences all around.
The decking joists completed
I was planning to finish the deck at the palm trees but the lady in charge thought that the deck would look better if it was cut around the trees. This added a bit a complication and took a while to complete (of course she was right and it will look better!)
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