The building of our fence

Saturday 26th December, Matt and family set to work to build the fence. The dad's helped with the labour, the mum's helped with the babysitting and food, and I was site supervisor ;)

We made a quick trip to Bunnings to buy some last minute supplies - like the circular saw.
We were underway with construction by 10am.
After measuring the boards which were supposed to be 90mm wide, they were more like 94mm wide, so we decided to keep the board + gap at 100mm, so our gap reduced from 10mm to 6mm.
We also measured down from our finished height to determine where the first board should start.


Just by chance we discovered that the rod of the Stanley screwdrivers were 6mm, so with 3 screwdrivers as our spacers (plus a 6mm drill bit) the boys assembled the first few boards.


Because the boards were 4.8m long, and the front portion of the fence was just under 4.8m long it made it quick work for the main section - just a matter of picking over the boards for the best looking ones (no knot holes, no cracks or splits).


When the boys were one board from the top they sawed off the posts level so that they wouldn't be seen from the front. The circular saw was just short of going right through the posts (185mm blade?) so it was finished with the hack saw.
Here is the front portion finished.


Australia was doing well in the cricket, we'd had our lunch break - even if it was almost 2pm, so then it was on to the alcove part, which required the cleat to be dynabolted to the bricks - with the cleat needing a notch out of it for the tap on the backyard side of the house.


So at stumps on day 1, we had the front section complete, with 3 boards high in the alcove.


And here is the view out the double sliding doors in our dining area. From inside the yard looks quite small (which it really is - approx 10m from new fence to back boundary fence and approx 8m from house to boundary fence) but it seems a lot bigger when you are standing outside.


Sunday 27th December, another 3 hours of measuring, cutting and screwing meant our fence was complete.
This is the view from the backyard.


View from the front.

So now we will wait approx 3-4 weeks before cleaning and staining with a Merbau stain. We purchased Intergrain Merbau stain which is waterbased, and according to the man at Bunnings, the waterbased stains outlast the oil based ones 2 to 1 - meaning the stain we will be putting on should last about 2 years before reapplication is necessary instead of 12 months. I also like the sample a lot more than the Cabots stain - which seemed too solid to me, whereas the Intergrain showed the grain in the timber.

Lots more planting to do - mostly natives including grevillea, banksia, possibly kangaroo paw and some lomandra in the backyard. Trying to keep it simple, low maintenance, low water and similar colours (purples, yellows and white) but aiming to have a pretty garden in 12 months - 2 years time.