Trusses and Attic

Here are some pics from the attic.  It shows the metal trusses construction and how they are joined.  From my experience, it seems a lot stronger than wooden trusses where they tend to be nailed together.  In the case of metal trusses, it is bolted together, to the columns/beams or screwed on.  Originally I expected it to finish in 2 weeks but it looks like it will take 3 weeks and maybe a little more.  All sides are covered now and it looks like reinforcement of the edges remains to be done.

The contractor didn't like this design as there are a lot of sub roofs and even gables.  Means more work and higher costs.  However these features allow shaded areas on the roofing to allow for heat release.

The pics also showed a rather large attic with plenty of head room and spacious.  There will be windows and solar powered ventilators.  In addition there will be a ventilation channel from the 1st floor to ensure flow of air out from ground to attic and outside.

I am hoping with all the above features, the house will be cooler.

Furniture for the new house

My wife felt strongly that she did not want to transfer the old furniture as they may be infected with dry rot and fungus so I have been looking at ways of getting new furniture.  We already have solid belian dining and seating.  I think we will go IKEA for the lounge.  Bedroom however has so far been from China.  They are Russian pine as we all like pine, its smell, colour and the grain.  After some search of Alibaba (www.alibaba.com), I moved to www.aliexpress.com as this site is an offshoot and caters to retail.  Alibaba  really caters for volume sales particularly to US.  I also settled on a manufacturer www.walfors.com and have order some beds and desks from them.  They arrived safe and sound.  There were some issues on imports.  I must caution that don't expect them to be cheap.  They don't cost as much as IKEA but it is not much less.  However there are many models to choose from. I am now moving next to cabinets and other beds.  Below are some samples, price included but not including freight.

This is a solid pine bunk including drawers and desk USD 533

This desk plus cabinet is USD 306

This cabinet is USD 162

Sigh - After a long break

Its moving again. I ran out of money and my housing loan was stuck because of variety of reasons.  The lawyer, even thought nominated by the Bank was inexperienced in such transactions. They are more familiar with a developer environment than a customer building your own.  A key sticking point was the requirement for the contractor to sign an undertaking to return the money if he abandoned the project.  The contractor refused to sign as he and I thought it meant not meeting the schedule.  The contractor also took advantage of Chinese New Year to divert his workers to a more urgent job.  Then their contracts ran out (they are all Indonesians) and he had to get new ones.  So 2 weeks ago, they restarted work.  Pictures below show a sequence where the trusses are being assembled.  By the end of this week, the trusses would have been completed (2 weeks) and the kliplock roof will start to go on.