Beams for Attic going up

After this would be the truss for the roof and of course the roof itself.  The work on the flooring will start only after the roof is up.  Actually this is a week ago.  They will pouring concrete in 2 days.  Note the ledge on the left and front for the air con compressors and a wooden louvre screen to shield the compressors and also the windows from the sun

 The other pics shows the view from the 1st Floor balcony.  One is the front of house, another is behind while the third is just scaffolding for attic.  Note there are no concrete slabs for ground floor or 1st floor.  There will just be joists and floorboards.

The Staircase

I have always disliked stairs for the obvious reason that I will inevitably trip over it especially as I get to be a geriatric.  And associated with that is the idea of my bod hitting the edge of the stairs.  This is particularly unpleasant for cement/tiled stairs as well as those with an aluminium edge.  A carpetted staircase is best but then I would have to constantly replace it.  This is why I insist on a wooden staircase.  I have ordered Merbau planks 2 inch thick by 4 feet for the steps.

 They were cut from an old dead recovered tree (so I was told).  The pics showed the planks including pieces to be joined (tongue and groove) for the landing.  The Merbau wood was an alternative to Selangan Batu, Belian and Teak.  It has a nice grain not exactly visible in the pic and it does look aged.

April Fools Day

Happy birthday to Janet, my sister-in-law who has always been our safety net when we need her to help us look after the children.  Not to mention his husband and son of course but its not their birthday :-)

The last few days have seen a torrent of articles flowing in.  My 2 gable mounted solar powered ventilators arrived from US in good time using VSHUB services !  It came along with an NBA basketball backboard and hoop which will thrill my son no end. Also another (real glass) stained glass lampshade from ebay.  www.vshub.com (I think I have mentioned before) is a company from Singapore which aggregates purchases in US and then ships to Malaysia (anywhere!) and Singapore. It is useful as it provides a US address and up to 30 days of holding your purchases before you can instruct them to ship.  The aggregation ends up with lower shipping costs.  The amazing thing is they were all delivered to my office!

Then came some original cigarette ads from Shanghai past !  Bought them from www.trademe.co.nz
They featured very nice Shanghai ladies (in cheongsam) drawn in old Chinese style watercolours!  I do have some spare if anyone is interested.  It was brought back to NZ by some Kiwis.

The house is proceeding nicely.  The photo shows the formwork starting for the 1st floor beams.  The piping is going in before concrete is poured for the driveway.  There were some coordination problems between the architect and the contractor over my changes for a side gate so that people can go in and out without opening the large sliding gate.  I did not want a recessed alcove in case nasties hide there.

There were a lot of discussions on the auto gate.  I thought I wanted to change to a swing door as I wanted to move the side gate to the right but I was told swing doors put a lot of stress on the hydraulics.  So I agreed to leave the sliding door and have a tiny side gate on the left.  Then I saw the folding gate in the Building Trade exhibition in BCK last weekend sigh.

There were some deals in the exhibition but in the end I found that buying them in KL (such as Houz Depot) was cheaper !  For example I bought a whole lot of down light fittings, 6" opening with screw in lightbulb base for RM 8.90!

In addition I was shocked by the FujiHome prices ! Stove + Hood was a cool 6k but the made in China Rubine stove (3 ring) + Hood + Oven (built in) = RM 3,200 in Houz Depot!  And the design was quite good too!