Filed under: architecture
view from the front of the house, courtesy of my LG viewty’s panorama mode [the garden looks bigger than it is…]
thanks to sam, i’ve started thinking again about this blog. the house is done. we moved in december 2006. i think we’ll use this site to post photos of the house and the family. let’s see how it goes…
(wave your mouse/ pointer over any of the images here for a “snap” preview. to see the full image, click on it — i suggest you right-click and select “open in new tab”, to save you from having to navigate back to this main page after each photo)
In response to overwhelming demands from my one reader (yes, you know who you are…), I post herewith the ground floor and first floor plans of the house. These are the basic floor plans marked over with our electrical requirements.
And here are two photos taken about a year apart from roughly the same angle:
OUTSIDE Retaining wall and crossover to be properly finished at the end of works No dam to front drain, instead: a pump to circulate water into pond Subsoil drains to the soggy left rear corner of site Sloped tops to the sides of the pool and pond for invisible water-edge effect RC arches to be ‘expressed’ around the master bedroom DN to try to fabricate a gutterless system DN to obtain samples or pictures of lockable large drawers for shoe cabinet Thin timber strips for ceiling of terraces to hide underside of roofing sheets Fibre sheet roof for terraces all around the house? Cubby house to use old roof, or attap? Odd-sized belian planks from 3HP to be used for front fence
INSIDE Recondition Morgane’s antique bed Have metal beds for boys and guesthouse fabricated? Black (aquarium-type) sticker for top surface of rangehood glass Sandblast, then paint in grey, the glass splashback for the stove hobs Invisible latches for the Mondrian cabinet over the distribution box Aluminium louvers for the opening above roller shutter in front of house Washbasins in master bedroom are shallow, so bay window slab only needs holes for water-in and waste-out (check position with LG) MC suggests ‘shadowline gutter’ where gypsum walls meet timber studs upstairs DN to show us samples of aluminium windows DN to get roller shutter switches (need a steel plate as ‘base’)
GUESTHOUSE Hot water comes from tank in main house, with piping to run under deck Septic tank also under deck Termite treatment from top to bottom Lights under roof eave to shine on deck Plant creeper and guide along steel cables strung over deck between roofs Use plain switches and power-points Use antique native bowl as the washbasin, on wooden bench hung from cables to wall Re-use big shower rose from 3HP Concrete floor for shower stall Netted timber bars above the two walls facing North and South
TO SOURCE 8 wooden balls for tops of bedposts 1 sofa (AV corner) & 1 sofabed (guesthouse) 4 large castor wheels for spice table 4-way downlights (halogen v LED?) 2 ‘moon’ lights & 2 chandeliers rubber ‘feet’ for furniture to protect floor stainless steel kitchen benchtop bathroom wall tiles bedroom wardrobes/kitchen cupboards outdoor spheres (carved stone v RC?) outdoor furniture (Dedon v local?) locks and handles safe emergency (back-up) battery for DB
You just know a blog has gone unsalvageably obscure when the writer thinks it's funny to post a laundry list.
Ehnk.
5th May. One year after Servane and I conceived this project (in its current form, that is) and started discussing how we would build it. It took the architects a few months to come up with the drawings and then another couple of months for the council to approve the plans. We used a contractor and an engineer whom we already had in mind for the construction. Work formally commenced in January 2006, with a 12 month period for completion.
The present photo shows the timber plank formwork freshly removed. The concrete was strong enough to support its own weight after about two days, but we gave it a couple of extra days to ensure that it wouldn't stick to the undressed timber. It took a team of carpenters about two weeks to build the formwork.
One side was built first, then the electricians came and laid in all the conduits for the wiring and the boxes for light switches and power points. Finally the carpenters nailed up the other side of the formwork and braced it together. Because we were doing a continuous pour of walls over three metres high, the weight and outward force of the concrete was significant and the biggest fear was that the formwork would bulge and leak (or come apart altogether!) in places. Luckily this didn't happen at all…
The formwork was made of raw (undressed) timber planks. We deliberately kept it low budget and refrained from asking the carpenter to supply only nicely grained planks with no imperfection. As such, the number of instances of a nice grain imprint left on the RC wall was relatively small, and totally random. The picture above is an example of one of the nicer impressions. You'll notice that the 'board' directly above it has no timber grain on its face. There was also some 'bleeding' at the joint (the horizontal line between the nicely grained impression and the bare wall above). Quite a bit of the aggregate (stones in the concrete mix) can be seen along that line, where the planks separated enough to let water seep out. The slightly brown tint is a random effect of the concrete and it varies from plank to plank. This is because of different absorbency rates of the random selection of cheap planks. On other parts of the wall, we can see the impression of bandsaw markings on badly planed pieces of timber used to make the formwork.
Filed under: architecture, comics, construction, Mouche, RC walls, site diary
'Hit the ground running', I've been advised. So let's plonk you right into the middle of it. Relax. You've read this kind of tale before. The backstory will unfold in a quirky non-linear way to tease and (hopefully) delight. So let's start with today. Today is the first day of the rest of this blog.
All the walls of the ground floor will be made of Reinforced Concrete. They'll be 3.3m tall and poured into wooden forms. The planks making up the formwork will leave a wood-grained imprint on the finished walls. The tricky part is that we have to lay all the electrical conduits in the formwork already, as it obviously won't be an option to hack these walls later to put in switches and powerpoints. We had to do a lot of planning (and imagining) of what appliances and gadgets we would like to plug in where! The electrical plan ended up being this beautiful thing with multi-coloured lines like the London Tube Map… I'd post an image if only I knew how…
All through the site visit, Mouche (our 16 month old Labrador Retriever) sniffed around the bent nails and broken boards strewn all over the place, ending her inspection with a dive into the very-incomplete fishpond. Hmm, shouldn't post this. I've probably broken some building by-law or exposed myself to action from the SPCA now. The dog wasn't hurt, okay? She had FUN!
(If you haven't guessed, I'm a lawyer.)
Speaking of which, work calls. More shall be revealed soon. There's a method to this madness, I assure you. Alternatively, I might just keep writing along this vein.
“It’s a strange world.”
“Let’s it keep it that way.”
15 Park Lane 
