The sun has set for the old jungle hut
Gaz was feeling a bit nostalgic about it, not sad but sort of reminiscing as he did build the veranda bit with his dad a few years ago. The rest of it is much older, being there all along and came with the garden when we bought the property.
Summer of 2011
It was fun seeing the veranda take shape as it was being built and even more fun decorating it, filling it with knick knacks, some of which were from our travels, to help give it that 'look' of being more at home in a tropical country, or at least in a warmer place. And the jungle hut itself served a decorative purpose too, influencing its surroundings and helping reinforce an exotic feel to an exotic and jungle style of garden. A jungle hut in a jungle garden - sounds like a perfect combo doesn't it? But most important of all, it was a nice place to sit and relax, on rare occasions that we do sit and relax.
Knick Knacks galore!
Alas, its life span was cut short when it got severely damaged by fire last July. Too damaged to be repaired and just patched up, it made more sense to just tear down and remove everything then start again from scratch. On top of the aesthetic damage, the building was weakened by both fire and water rendering it structurally unstable. And even if for sentimental reasons we wanted it saved and repaired, the cost of doing would be so high that the difference between repair and having a brand new one would be very little.
Just a shadow of what it used to be
There were still a few items left there that were meant to be saved and set aside. All of these were shifted into a smaller shed last night
Scorched and sooty.
One was saved and one was skipped
The veranda bit, built much later than the rest of the building was scorched but pretty much remained intact and at first looked savable. But it was built in a way that it was bolted on to the original building and if that went, the roof of the veranda would by unsupported. As for the thick wooden pillars, that was concreted in rather than metal bolted so cannot be adjusted if a new roof would be installed.So there you go, it all has to go....
Hold on, not quite! There is actually one feature of it that will be saved due to popular demand - the bamboo balustrading. When the insurance assessor and builders delivered their verdict of removing the old jungle hut and starting all over again we have pretty much decided that all parts of it might as well go. But much to our repeated surprise the bamboo balustrades kept getting mentioned by the builders and even by previous visitors that we have spoken to recently without receiving any prompting from us. It seems the bamboo balustrades have silently made its mark on a lot of people and have grown fond of it and would want us to save them. And we would be delighted to save them indeed, they will be re-used and has been re-incorporated in the design of the new jungle hut.
The bamboo balustrades, to our pleasant surprise has a small legion of fans! Didn't realize until recently how many people are fond of it. They will be re-incorporated in the new jungle hut.
On a more cheerful note, just look at those survivors!
And what about the replacement one, what are the plans and what will it be like? We finalised the design over the weekend and Gaz made sketches of it for the builders to follow. We'll feature more about this later on a separate post.But for now we say farewell to our beloved old jungle hut.
Before you go, take a bow jungle hut, we give you our applause, you deserve it!
Mark :-)
