Tree Change

Sydney Morning Herald

Thursday March 13, 2008

Words Julia Richardson

A pile of off-cuts could be a cubby waiting to happen.

AT THE end of a hard-earned renovation in Marrickville, home owner Steve Junor was left with a stack of discarded corrugated iron. As a long-time tinkerer and father of three, his thoughts immediately turned to a cubbyhouse. A two-storey cubbyhouse, no less.

"The look was inspired by a farmhouse, with the symmetrical windows either side of a central door and a veranda to sit on so you could hear the sound of the rain on the tin roof while chewing straw in a rocking chair," he says, describing how the project took shape.

Junor developed a plan that would see the sheets of iron teamed up with oregon pine from his father's demolished pergola, some shop-bought plywood and four hardwood posts. To minimise cutting, he sized the cubby so that the two standard 1.2-metre by 2.4-metre sheets of ply could serve as floors on top and bottom levels. "Scraps of paper were used on the fly to work out the joinery and measurements for the framing," Junor says. "It had to fit in with the existing tree so a lot of the detail was worked out as it progressed."

The cubby has been equipped with an old sink, an even older oven and dressed with curtains and fairy lights. The tree overhead sports a swing made from an old tyre and rope. In short, it has become a frenetic clubhouse of activity for Junor's kids and their friends.

The ramshackle genesis of the Junor cubby is an example of the kind of creative cubby-building advocated by Phil Lake, a furniture maker and member of the Woodworkers' Association of NSW. Lake is involved with the Timber and Working With Wood show, a roving carnival for passionate woodworkers that returns to Sydney in June.

Lake says innovation is the essential ingredient for a post-renovation cubbyhouse. "The structure doesn't have to be immaculate."

While Lake is a craftsman of high standards, he says a cubby can be built with materials that have a limited life span.

He suggests homeowners sift through post-renovation rubble for bits of metal roofing, sections of external sheeting and lengths of timber and use those as the basis for their project.

"Most cubbies are fairly temporary," he says. "Generally, the timber that's going to become available after a renovation is pine and even standard pine, as long as it's not standing in water, will probably last four or five years. Chances are that's the maximum time the cubby will be in use anyway." Lake also believes that the simplicity of cubbyhouse structures makes them easy to build.

"The construction won't be a problem for anyone who is handy. All you need is a saw, a square, a hammer, nails and a few screws: it's not a big deal."

Genia McCaffery, North Sydney mayor and president of the Local Government Association, says cubbies built on the ground are generally exempt from local council regulations, as long as they're not too big or too close to the property boundary. Treehouses, however, will almost certainly require building approval.

"There are a number of safety issues - the likelihood of falls, structural soundness, surrounding trees - that involve approval of a structure that is built off the ground," she says. "There may also be privacy issues if the treehouse is overlooking a neighbouring property."

Councils have the power to order the demolition of a structure if it represents a danger to the public. Some parents might suggest designing cubbies in a way that prevents adult access. Others might find themselves at home in the pint-sized sanctuary. Junor has been known to tuck himself into the upper storey of his kids' cubby. "It's somewhere I can escape to, undetected, with a cold beer," he says.

Contacts

Woodworkers' Association of NSW: www.woodworkersnsw.org.au

Timber and Working With Wood: www.workingwithwood.com or phone (03) 8420 5406