Thread: Roobarb's patch

Originally Posted by Roobarb

It's a bloody good pic that one Betty

Indeed it is.

Originally Posted by Roobarb

It was actually the window incident that made me realise there was no point in having the place if it was going to be a battle in creating it

The uneven window will add character; parallelism is nice and structural, but controlled deviance is art...

Originally Posted by Roobarb

corporate ass kicking

That will be seen as gayism in these here parts...

I gave up the corporate 15 years ago, miss the money, but not dealing with all the stuff. Enjoy...

And so the rush continued to get the roof on before the rains started.



It was a near run thing but ultimately they didn't make it:



A major drawback was that the guy who was welding the roof together, and was assiduously following local health and safety practices, managed to get a welding spark in his eye and then as he jerked backwards one of his safety flip-flops got caught on a beam and he fell off the roof.

Thankfully he was just above the bedroom on the right in the photo above and his fall was broken by the bedroom's ceiling rafters, but nonetheless he had to be taken to hospital to get his eye seen to and was off work for several weeks. Happily he did make a full recovery, though didn't seem to have learned from the experience. The welding mask bought for him remained unused as far as I know.

Originally Posted by Bettyboo

Originally Posted by Roobarb

corporate ass kicking

That will be seen as gayism in these here parts...

I gave up the corporate 15 years ago, miss the money, but not dealing with all the stuff. Enjoy...

Yup, hate all the stuff (and nonsense) but it's paying for this place at the moment. I just have to grin and pretend to be a part of it all...

Sabai sabai.

Where's that pic of Jack?

So whilst waiting for the welder to reappear, the rest of the crew busied themselves as best as they could with some of the wooden framework. Here are some more windows going in:

There was also a bit of work going on to fix my changes down below as well.

The hole for the back door that I decided against has been filled in, the other wall knocked down and single lintel replaced with two. The two window frames have also been installed:



The kitchen window frame that I had cocked up was also replaced with one the right size:



All in all I was giving them plenty to (re)do.

It was about this time that both the roof and, separately, the welder showed up.

As mentioned earlier we went for the Colourbond sheets, dark brown as it would not make the house look too obvious, and with insulation attached to the bottom.



The sheeting comes in different thicknesses. I can't remember what we went for but it was the thickest they could do this particular colour and style in.

Originally Posted by bankao dreamer

^^^^
None of us realised there there is a difference between manufactures until our lads tried to fit the stuff covering our rear balcony onto the sheet that came with our house. 30mm difference in the tile spacing and 4mm in the depth Doh Doh. They got it to fit eventually and it doesn't show up that bad as its on the back of the house. Same colour as ours that Roobarb. Oh yes stunning views you have there mate.

Yup, we went to three different suppliers to try to compare prices and soon discovered that it comes in different thicknesses, as does the insulation, and each manufacturer's presses for making the tile shapes was different too. It hadn't occurred to me that it would be that complicated, I thought we were getting the equivalent of corrugated iron sheets.

Ultimately my wife chose the one we went for so I'd assume that price won the day. I think ours is 0.35mm. Any thicker and we were told that we would need to go for the straight corrugated type that they use for factories rather than being able to have the tile effect. The insulation was a choice of 3mm or 5mm. We had the space so pushed the boat out and went for 5mm.

I've just checked an old email to see if my wife sent the final specs but she didn't. She did say that it was apparently about Baht 100,000.00 for all the roofing sheets including insulation. No idea on how many square metres the roof is. The covered area (between the posts) is about 176 sqm but the roof rises to about 10 feet on the ridge and there are gables, overhangs and all sorts of stuff.

A bit of an odd thing about this was that when the termite man came to lay down his termite pipes before we concreted the floor he looked at the roof, smiled, and said something along the lines of 'You'll be getting me back again soon enough to deal with the rats you will. Mark my words, they love that there insulation stuff they do. Chew it clean off the metal sheets. Arrr, pesky little blighters'. (OK it was in Thai and he didn't have a west-country accent, but you get the drift).

I'm just assuming that the fellow was a little unhinged, possibly from years of inhaling methyl bromide or whatever it is they use to kill termites, but I do now have this slightly surreal image of hundreds of inverted rats clinging onto the roof and happily chowing down on the insulation. Perhaps we should have gone for 3mm instead of giving them the full happy meal?

So we jump forwards again. Another welder was drafted in temporarily to help whilst the first one contemplated what he must have done in a past life to deserve the injury.

The roof was beginning to take shape, with the balcony roof structure in place too:



The builder had opted for 1 metre overhangs. In retrospect we could have done a bit more but still, we've got plenty of shaded space and the back of the house (the south side) has the balcony roof for at least half of it so the only walls really exposed to direct and prolonged sunlight are the south facing walls of the master and rear bedrooms.

A few more pictures of the roof structure:





Still no first floor bathroom windows - best not to ask I think...

I had at least proof of one victory on the window front. Probably not millimeter perfect, but good enough for this place:

Work had also been coming on well with construction of the wooden frame, in spite of the interruptions from the rain.

The front bedroom is beginning to take shape. They laid the floor here to give themselves a bit of a platform to work from. Many of the floorboards were still being used in the worker's hut.



The place was beginning to look like a house. Seeing the little windows it seemed a bit of a shame to fill the walls in as it would block out much of the view, but the opportunity to change the design to something more racy had long passed. Keep it simple Roobarb...

The upstairs living room was also beginning to gain its proportions, although walking around here was a bit tricky as the 'floor' was in reality just bits of old siding wood loosely stacked two or three thick. Fine for your average Isaan builder, but not for my clodhopping weight.

This is a picture looking from the master bedroom, the staircase from downstairs will eventually be after the Q-con bathroom walls:



.. and then a view from the front bedroom doorway over the upstairs balcony:

And then, finally at the end of June, a roof was beginning to appear:



Not a lot of roof it had to be said. Unfortunately the week they started was marked with strong winds and rain so crawling around on the roof with great big roofing sheets was not always advisable.

Not that it seemed to stop them though.



The rains had been making things a bit boggy, with some large puddles forming around the place, so a few more truckloads of soil were brought to give the water something to drain into:

As good as it all was, I was beginning to get a bit frustrated at the quality of both photos and the information. After all, having spent the best part of two evenings painstakingly drawing the thing whilst watching the telly I felt a sort of paternal pride towards the place. There was my baby being born and brought into this world without me having any part of it.

I designed (?) the place, I'm paying for it, I want a say in how it's all coming together...

... to hell with it, I'm coming out.

I did feel a bit like Cousin Avi from Snatch - for those that don't know it:

My language was less colourful, but I did understand his position.

^^^^^^^^

At least you wont encounter any Fecking Pickeys.

Nice place though mate I really like it.
Over here laugh or cry but it will be worth it in the end.

Originally Posted by bankao dreamer

^^^^^^^^

At least you wont encounter any Fecking Pickeys.

Nice place though mate I really like it.
Over here laugh or cry but it will be worth it in the end.

Nothing like a good bit of Snatch to liven up a construction thread...

Yup, should be worth it in the end. I'm actually doing a 'Cousin Avi' tonight as apparently they are finishing the place at the moment so the end is nigh. At least they think it is, I suspect in a rather Churchillian fashion that it may just be the end of the beginning.

I really do need to get a move on with bringing this thread up to date...

Cor all that lovely timber RB, ,, I can almost smell that lumber.

I'm gonna put me Dewalt apron on to make dinner tonight

Originally Posted by nigelandjan

Cor all that lovely timber RB, ,, I can almost smell that lumber.

I'm gonna put me Dewalt apron on to make dinner tonight

What's on the menu tonight Nige? - Chicken Teaka perhaps...

Actually you're right, there was some lovely wood that we managed to bag for this project. The challenge I've had is in trying to get the builder from hiding it all away behind gypsum panels. Not something I've been terribly successful with I have to say.

At least you havnt gone for the purple cushions or are they on order ? I love dags do you love dags

Snatch what a great movie so many one liners

Hov much you pay for the roof ? m2
Maf

Hov much you pay for the roof ? m2
Maf

Just realised how big that house is and asked the missus how many did she think could abode there, she says 8, she's the youngest of 9 which leaves a question for another time.

Coming on lovely Roobarb

Looking great Roobarb! It does seem to be a nice big house, which can be handy if you need to find a place to to hide from the world.

Looking good Roobarb. I share your frustration at not being able to be there to oversee things you want. My wife gave me a pink colored office for crying out loud !!

Originally Posted by Dillinger

Just realised how big that house is and asked the missus how many did she think could abode there, she says 8, she's the youngest of 9 which leaves a question for another time.

Coming on lovely Roobarb
__________________

Yes and yes.

There is no way that he will be keeping the inlaws outta that Mansion. They'll have a dozen in there, it'll start small with an elderly aunt staying there for a couple of days to be close to a local temple, blah blah blah, but it will end with a massive family living off of Rhoobarb...