Rim Locks

I like the idea of fitting old-style latches to the internal doors. Down here in Oz, rim-locks were frequently used, so I'd like to use these inside (although I can't envisage a use for the key!). I like the look of them over mortice-locks as used these days. They seem readily obtainable, but the prices seem somewhat high. This frustrates me, as I am sure that they are probably made in India for $2 each. Here's a photo below of one:


A rim-lock from an Indian exporter

Slate Roof - and Mashed Potato?

We have chosen a slate roof, and I still feel guilty about the expense. So much so, that I feel that we will be eating sausages and mashed potato for the rest of our life to pay for it!

The roofers have done about half of the roof in slate shingles now. We fell in love with a pattern often used on slate roofs back at the turn of the century. To my surprise, we could have this pattern put into the roof for no extra cost! So we have three rows of slate where the corners are cut-off the shingles, to give the effect in the picture below.

In Australia, slate is laid on softwood battens, spaced 200mm, with sarking (foil building paper) under that for additional protection. (Is it laid on plywood panels in the USA?).

Our slate comes from Spain, and is guaranteed for a long time (70 years). But it is not as good as Welsh slate, which costs about 2-3 times as much. Our slate looks good, but I guess we won't really know for 20 years if it is actually durable.


South side of the slate roofing in progress.

Fireplaces

This week ,the brickies arrived to put the fireplace & chimney in. This needs to be done now, as the roofers (who have also started) need to make the penetration through the roof weather-proof.

Our fireplace will follow conventional design practices here in Australia (double brick walls, slightly angled covings, narrowed throat (100mm), smoke shelf, parged chimmney walls, an s-bend in the internal flue, with a damper at the top). However, in looking around the net I found some information about the Rumford fireplace design of the late 1700's. Its fun to read, as it is in the style of "Jane Austen". He makes some good points, and fireplaces are still built to his design these days. A key feature of the Rumford design is that the covings are angled at 135 degrees to the rear wall to reflect more heat - as shown below.

House Names

We are thinking ahead to the day we move in to the new house, and wondering what name we could give it. I found a database with Melbourne house-names in it, and have extracted these names into a complete list. These names are from the late 1800's and early 1900's. We are not sure that we really like many of these names, so we are still thinking of something creative that reflects both of us in some way.

As an aside, I read that house names were very common once, but when the telephone system was introduced, a house numbering system was needed for the phone directory. Not sure how true that is.

Unorthodox Dutch Gable

Down here in Oz, the roof line we have chosen is quite un-orthodox. We see "Dutch gables" here frequently, but in our case, the Dutch gable extends the full height of the roof (which makes its a full gable) except that we have retained the fascia and guttering beneath the gable (see pic below). I have seen this sort of thing on American buildings though. Of course when you design these things, its never quite possible to appreciated the complexity and additional assembly time. However, I do now!

In the photo below, the battens have be laid, ready for the roof cladding. The battens at the gable-end have not been cut-off yet (my carpenter will do this, and fit the fascia and gable cladding). A single row of slates can just be seen above the guttering at the gable end, along with some flashing ready to be positioned.

So why is the sarking (foil/paper lining) coloured blue!! Well, its to stop the reflection of heat from the sun onto the workers face/eyes. A long time ago it was just silver-foil colour, and the brickies/roofers would get sun-burnt / blinded. I am not sure if this colouring is just an Australian thing, or if its a feature in other places too.

Battens - R - Us

The battens have now been fitted to the roof, with foil/paper sarking underneath.