Materialization

17 January 2009

Muriel Street Elevation

Within the spacing of One day, the roof trusses are in place. We haven't got any eaves except for the front facade. As for the rest of the house, the roof is trimmed back nicely with the walls. Houses with little eaves or no eaves at all are really popular in Australia, surprisingly. When I first arrived, I had thought that with the absence of torrential rains, eaves or deep overhangs can be done without. How wrong was I...

Panels, gutters & fascia boards

If you have ever experienced summer in Australia, you'd understand why eaves are quite important after all. Not so much for the rains, but it is essential for sunshading! Besides, it adds to the overall aesthetic. I just can't comprehend why the standard Australian homes eradicate eaves. Not a very good way to save cost.

600mm eave ... Why bother?

High atop, there perched a birdie ...

Image below shows what would soon be our entry foyer. Nothing imposing, but I rather like the transitory space it provided. The only problem with the layout was that I could not pinpoint the exact location where my guests would leave their shoes. Coming from that part of the world, I do not entertain the notion of wearing shoes indoors.

Doggie comes home

The Entry porch is one step down, as it should but we are looking at laying some timber decking over the area. Hopefully we can get some really thin ones, 45mm thick perhaps, & still have some step leftover. Stepping Into a house is more of a journey rather than merely Walking In I reckon.

Shadowplay at 12 o'clock

Frames

14 January 2009

Just 4 days round the track, & an unexpected sight greeted us: -

Frames were up. They were not kidding about speed...

Lintels, bracing & all.

Would - be - garage

The roof trusses are packed neatly on top, ready to go.

The entire house materializes in less than a week. We could make out the spaces & just to be absolutely sure, D took a measuring tape on site to check the lengths & the widths. I'm happy to report that there are no discrepancies as yet.

Foundations

9 January 2009

So many things happened & so little time to document. When we were back from the holidays THIS was spread on the ground firmly.

Our terra firma in times to come

Plumbing. I hope the orange ring is a termite barrier......

According to the engineers, the site needs waffle pods type foundation. It costs more than your conventional slab & beams & I think we may have piers underground as ours is a cut & fill situation. The styrofoam makes up for the voids thus forming pods in a checked manner, hence we have some waffles under our home-to be. Concrete is poured over the layout & cured for 2 days. Concrete is stronger if the curing period is longer but in this case, 2 days is what we got.

Pity its not as appetizing as it sounds ...

Areas without the foam will be edge beams or simply strip footings.

Formwork - to be removed at later stage

Battered landscape.

Pre-fab wall & roof trusses

Things are looking pretty good at the moment & the good weather looks like it will hold for a while ...