Thread: Roobarb's patch

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I think enough now on the subject of folks criticizing the Thai workers .

Roobarb's home and koman's build testify these guys ( and ladies ) can work up to a very high standard .

Enough .

...... and Roobarb - this Sketchup is damned addictive !

Wasp
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So pray tell us about your happy experiences on your build Jaspa with your highly rated Thai crew

We'd opted to go for plain white tiles for a couple of reasons:

1) If we tried to do anything interesting like have borders of the like and were not there to keep an eye on things then there would be a chance, infinitesimally small albeit, that they might misinterpret our wishes and do something different. Not wrong mind you, but different.

I know it's unlikely given the quality of the plans I'd sent them (see below) but nonetheless that chance remained.



2) I was worried that the bathrooms were already so small that trying to introduce any colour might just turn them into glorified cupboards.

3) Whilst never in fashion, white also never really goes out of date. Until I see something I like then white will do, we can re-tile them later.

Apart from in the shower areas we left the tiling in the bathrooms deliberately low so that we could do something else, such as add a border or paint the walls a brighter colour, at a later stage.

The floor tiling downstairs was also getting there too:



They seemed to have worked out the dark border position pretty well too:



The little study area has been nearly done, albeit a bit to go but they had run out of tiles by this stage and I had said we would buy another box rather than using offcuts...



Bless 'em, they even (rather nervously) sent a pic of how the border crosses the front door in case, like with the kitchen, I took an irrational dislike to it:



Not terribly clean, but otherwise it met with approval.

Whilst the tilers had been tiling, the carpenter fellow had been knocking up some, I don't know what they are called, banisters/balustrades? Anyway, the fence things to stop people falling off the mezzanine levels.



And also one above the front bedroom:



This banister over this bedroom is really more to visually balance the one that's at the other end of the room than to provide any realistic living space on top of the bedroom.

The gypsum folks had also been busy lining the inside of the upstairs walls:



Inside the front bedroom:



One area that had been forgotten about was discussing the electrical wiring. The builder's assumption was that the wiring would be outside the gypsum so could be done afterwards. My thoughts were that it should be done beforehand and so become hidden behind the gypsum.

A discussion was had and a solution found:



I don't have any pictures of the actual wiring, or come to think about it, even know if the plug sockets are connected to wires at all. Anyway, the wiring looks better for being concealed (or possibly absent?) I think.

If you want to see how I would like to imagine that my wiring had been done, but know that it probably wasn't, then have a quick look at Koman's thread.

Originally Posted by Bettyboo

If I had the choice of walking around this house or having a roll in the hay with Monica Bellucci, it'd be close.

Having walked around the house already I suspect I know the direction I would favour...

Originally Posted by Bettyboo

Having said that, the tiling needs a mention. At the back left, in the corner, why are there 2 tile cuts, 2 skinny strips? Not very brave with the colour...

There are two tile cuts because it seems it has to go around a concrete pillar. More to the point, why is there a concrete pillar? It's because I didn't specify using thick enough bricks to lose the pillars in the walls so we are stuck with them, ugly horrible things that they are too...

I wasn't brave at all on the tile colour. We had half a day to choose tiles and having finally got the floor tiles sorted out I'd really ran out of inspiration by the time it came to the bathrooms. Keep it simple and we'll change it later. Dull white tiles work for now.

^sorry, don't accept that excuse! Why not just cut one tile into the corner - would look much nicer...

This tiling lark really is the troublesomest area.

I've thought about the choice I outlined above, and I now agree with you.

The wood is starting to look really nice, and the space, light and views are excellent. Who designed this place?

Roobarb ::

" There are two tile cuts because it seems it has to go around a concrete pillar. More to the point, why is there a concrete pillar? "


Roobs ........

Re; That corner . It's only the corner of that column .

A brave decision would be to tell your guy to get a stone disc on his big grinder and he could cut that offending column back to the wall .

It would not lead to any significant loss of strength in the column .

Cut it back and then tile flat .

............... Wasp

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Originally Posted by Bettyboo

^sorry, don't accept that excuse! Why not just cut one tile into the corner - would look much nicer...

Ah yes, I get what you mean, I was being a bit thick. Ummm, probably would look nicer, you're right.

Originally Posted by Bettyboo

This tiling lark really is the troublesomest area.

I've thought about the choice I outlined above, and I now agree with you.

Darn, some competition. Would it have helped divert your attention if I had nicer tiling?

Originally Posted by Bettyboo

The wood is starting to look really nice, and the space, light and views are excellent.

Thanks

Originally Posted by Bettyboo

Who designed this place?

Some dumb prick with no idea of what it would cost I reckon.

Originally Posted by Wasp

Roobarb ::

" There are two tile cuts because it seems it has to go around a concrete pillar. More to the point, why is there a concrete pillar? "


Roobs ........

Re; That corner . It's only the corner of that column .

A brave decision would be to tell your guy to get a stone disc on his big grinder and he could cut that offending column back to the wall .

It would not lead to any significant loss of strength in the column .

Cut it back and then tile flat .

............... Wasp

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You may well be right Wasp, but I think it will remain. I'm not too sure about the quality of the concrete posts, certainly not sure enough to reduce the cross sectional area of one of them by 20% or so. The more strength the better I think.

My main aesthetic concern is actually the pillars downstairs, and I'm certainly not going to attack them with an angle grinder.

They're rustic, a bit like the rest of the place. I'm sure I'll come to love them in time...

W ........ " A brave decision would be to tell your guy to get a stone disc on his big grinder and he could cut that offending column back to the wall . "

Roob not sure enough to reduce the cross sectional area of one of them by 20% or so.


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It's just one of those small items that becomes majorly annoying because every time you are there you see it .

My guess is that you would reduce it maybe 8% .......... but I concede to your greater knowledge .


................ W.

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Perhaps in the longer term if it continued to annoy me I think I would build the wall out a bit with another layer of bricks rather than cut into any of the columns, but I appreciate he suggestion as it hadn't occurred to me as an option.

The tiling in the bathroom is not a permanent solution so it would be easy enough to fix as and when we we get around to changing the tiles.

Originally Posted by Roobarb

cut into any of the column

What could possibly go wrong?

"No it'll be alright Ethel, trust me, I'm just gonna shave a couple of inches off the column."

Originally Posted by Bettyboo

Originally Posted by Roobarb

cut into any of the column

What could possibly go wrong?

"No it'll be alright Ethel, trust me, I'm just gonna shave a couple of inches off the column."

^

I'm already half expecting that to happen anyway, cutting back the columns would only make it more likely...

Originally Posted by laymond

think again helge,marmers an aussie?

Originally Posted by Roobarb

Yes, "Vegemite the Dog" somehow lacks the same ring

Sorry

To all aussies

Originally Posted by Roobarb

We'd opted to go for plain white tiles for a couple of reasons: 1) If we tried to do anything .....................

2)
To be honest I kind of get off taking a dumb in small rooms having that morque atmosphere

Hmm

Originally Posted by helge

To be honest I kind of get off taking a dumb in small rooms having that morque atmosphere

Que...?

Ah, got it.

Originally Posted by helge

To be honest I kind of get off talking dumb in small rooms...

----

To your point - at least I think it's to your point - it hadn't occurred to me that it would look morgue-like Helge. As mentioned earlier the white tiles are not a permanent solution.

Looking on the bright side though, now whenever I take a dump there it will remind me of you...

It's a kind of immortality, at least until I change the tiles. Some people strive for a lifetime to achieve that. Congratulations

I'm honoured, Sir

There are many odd features to this house, but perhaps one of the more peculiar is the upstairs mezzanine floor.

This came about for several reasons. I do like ceilings that go up into the roof space, and initially wanted to do this for the bedrooms as well as the 1st floor living room area, but realised that if I did then we would end up with a series of very tall rooms, each on a fairly small footprint which could seem proportionally wrong. There would also be the issue of the front bedroom and upstairs bathrooms which would require large walls going up to the ridgebeam of the main roof. No problem with constructing it, but I reckoned that the scale of the walls would seem a bit overbearing from the 1st floor living room.

I like the idea of opening up the house during the daytime so the breeze can blow through, and wanted ready access to the roof space that we could easily open up windows there during the day to ventilate the top of the house.

And so the mezzanine idea sort of gelled. Good ventilation during the day should keep the roof space relatively cool (as opposed to having a 'sealed' roof area). That in turn should keep the bedrooms below from getting too hot. Whilst it's not designed to be living space, the cost of putting a proper floor up there was not that much and ultimately allowing it to be a sort of extra space if needed.

Picture of the main mezzanine area taken from the roof of the front bedroom:



The lower section of the roof in the picture above is about 9 feet high at peak, so there is room to walk fully upright underneath the central section.

And so, having crawled up the near vertical staircase that's not a ladder but should have been to the main mezzanine area, a few photos from up there.

The roof space above the master bedroom:



And then standing in that roof space looking back along the house:



The floorboards in the centre of this section of the roof were new. We had run out of old ones and, as much as the idea of going and felling another village house for them appealed, common sense dictated that it was probably not a viable option for about 15 sq.m of floorboards.

The problem was that, being relatively new wood, it clearly hadn't been dried out for long enough, so gaps began to appear between the planks fairly shortly after the floor had been laid. As it's nothing more than a glorified attic space then I'm not going to lose sleep over it.

Looking down into the roof space over the back bedroom:



It's more narrow than the roofspace above the master bedroom, but I can still walk upright down there without worrying about hitting my head (I'm 6'2").

Finally, looking along to the roof space above the front bedroom. Not sure what it will actually be used for, but it's there if we need it I guess.



... from the same vantage point, and looking into the 1st floor living area and out onto the balcony:



They've managed to sneak some tiling in on the balcony without us getting any pictures of it.

It's still missing a handrail at the end though...?

Quick view looking into the house from the downstairs terrace:



The door apertures are meant to be getting bi-fold doors in them - these sort of things:



It was becoming apparent that the builder was getting a bit stumped by these, not having come across them before.

The frame thing he had just installed was not a good start so we decided that rather than go to the expense of having doors made up that either wouldn't fit or wouldn't do what we wanted them to do, we would ask the builder to leave it until we got out there. If these sort of doors are badly installed then you can end up with them not opening properly.