Exposed Aggregate...

Thanks to Russell and the guys for such a great job. We used the 'Buchan' mix from Mentone Premix. This was initially scheduled to be completed in September/November, but for all sorts of reasons was delayed, supply issues, then ultimately the weather!!!

Anyway, it's finally done and we're really happy with it. Scroll down to see the progress shots.

Maintaining Merbau...

Melbourne has had some serious hot weather, and it was without doubt going to have affects on our new boundary fence. It was given its first coat of natural oil when the wall was constructed, but as soon as the heat subsided, I headed down to our nearest Bunnings and got myself 4Lts of Cabbots natural oil with Merbau tint, an applicator, and got stuck into it. Applicator worked great, and oiled up the redgum sleepers with a nice fat brush. 2nd coat all done in a couple of hours.

3rd coat will be done in a month or so, then it should be fine for once a year maintenance with top quality oil (PPG).

Stairs off rear verandah constructed

After initially thinking of making these steps out of merbau, we decided that we had enough merbau to maintain, so decided to construct these out of concrete. At least they will last forever, not have the same maintenance requirements etc. We'll just use the same external tile that we've used in the alfresco/verandah to tile the stairs. The guys that did our exposed aggregate driveway did this for us also.