Ebay wins: tulip gutters, chimney pots & verandah

Here's some more architectural stuff we've scavenged that will, one day, make its way into one or more of the buildings at Amherst. Oh how I love Ebay... I may not be able to physically make progress, but at least I can shop and find stuff that will save us a fortune in the end. :-)

First up, some amazing 'tulip' thingy's that go on your guttering and connect it to the drainpipe. Plus a roof vent. They're all brand new, handmade and we got them for less than 10% of the original price. The guy selling them said the builders put the wrong shape of drainpipes on his house and he couldn't face the upheaval to change it. If it were me I'd have got creative with making a funnel but hey, I adore them so his loss is our gain. :-)



From the description:
"1 large decorative vent and 13 period style tulips made of galvanised tin, never used. Tulips are suited for standard round down pipe and are 37 cm wide, 37 cm long and 20 cm deep"


Next, an old terracotta chimney pot. It's chipped at the base but that's OK. We haven't decided yet if this is going to be put to it's original use on one of the chimneys, or be a garden ornament. Either would be cool.




Finally, 60m worth of bullnose verandah sheets. Ironically, we're most likely not going to use these on the houses, as I prefer verandahs with straight edges or that kind of S shape. But they were so cheap that it seemed stupid to pass them up considering we're going to need loads of roof sheets for things like a carport, garden sheds, chook house, etc... and the fact that it is bullnosed will make them more interesting. :-)



From the Ebay description:
"80 colourbond bullnose verandah sheets, beige colour and no rust. Each sheet is 1.5m long and covers 760mm in width so that would give you a total of 60m of verandah 1.5 m deep"

A life-size tonka toy for Dave

Given how expensive hiring equipment has turned out to be, and just how much excavation we have to do, Dave floated the idea with Dad to invest in a second-hand digger. For the record, here's the various emails where they discussed it.

It looks like Dave will get his life-size Tonka Toy after all! :-)

________________________________

Dad said:

You asked if I thought getting a piece of equipment would be wise. At last you have come to an idea which I have long entertained.

I cannot stress how important to you and Dave it is to have a piece of equipment to do the hard digging and moving of soil to make the house and land to the shape you need. Buying one means you will save heaps in the long run, not least because you are so distant from places to rent

However, getting one piece of equipment to do all things is the hard part, and maintaining an old piece could be a factor.

But I have looked at several types of equipment over this past 1 1/2 years since I finally bit the bullet and hired the equipment to excavate the hobbithole. I have learned a lot from my experimenting, but I feel the way forward for you guys is to look at equipment being sold from such departments as councils, forestry, vicroads in country areas. I have seen such items on ebay asking for bids. These are well maintained, little used, and go for very cheap prices. Also the big equipment auction places... they sell large lots of building materials cheaply when you know what you want. I will talk at length about this if you decide to explore this concept further.

Dave replied: The more I think about it, getting hold of a tractor/excavator seems a must, considering we've spent well over $1000 on hiring them already, and hardly scratched the surface (pardon the pun). I figured we could, once purchased, put it in the garage you got off my brother.) I had a quick look online. What sort of machine do you reckon will be best?


Dad replied:

Great!!! Now we are talking.

The machine we need is this:

It must be in pretty good nick or will be a large waste of money and time when getting on with a project when you are here for a brief time

It must be affordable as a machine which will be idle most of the time and not earning it's keep.

It must be robust enough to do the job of moving hard earth reasonably well: Dingo is too gutless for your work, though good in many way.

It must endure to be versatile enough for other uses once you have shaped the land into the areas you wish level, and those which are slopes or even heaps of soil to provide support for the level areas. The capacity to carry in the bucket is necessary to avoid double handling.

I think trenching capacity is essential, as well as digging with an auger for postholes.

I believe a smallish tyred tractor with attachments is likely to be the best. Or something surplus from the forestry than is larger but affordable. I looked at a Case frontend loader and backhoe for $16,000 last year but could not get it as we had not discussed any such things, and I felt I was way ahead of the game to spend my money on equipment that I would need to sell on should you not like the idea of keeping and maintaining it. Perhaps getting such a piece would be better than worrying about the smaller function of posthole digging as to hire a machine like a dingo to posthole dig is relatively cheap compared to hiring even the mini excavator. But should you get a decent backhoe/frontend loader you would be able to shape so much of the land to retain water and soil nutrients.

Dad's ideas for verandah

Dad emailed a few days ago with some more ideas for the verandah. Here's extracts from the email, along with Dave's replies in blue:

Dad said...

I've been reading a book at the place where I work at night. It is a series published by the Australian National Trust, and this book is a two volume set called Äustralian Homesteads". The approach we take to building the verandah will be greatly affected by the ultimate design we decide on. So I photocopied some images to help in discussion.

First is the image of Gidleigh, NSW, which is in it's main house very like your house, in terms of roof and size and with a setback for the lounge portion of the house creating the interesting prospect for the entranceway and veranda.



Your house was built as a terrace house, but is now placed in a large space without the confines originally placed on it so it needs to be rounded out to look comfortable. Your idea of the L-shaped veranda, even going only partway down the side of the house facing the lake would achieve this and would be more harmonious with the new house when built ultimately.

The second image is of the cottage veranda floor. This is included as you sent some images of this alternative as demonstrated by a house in Queensland.



If we used this approach I would be costing it first, using 6x1 OB unseasoned hardwood unless you have another idea for planking, and allowing that it would have gaps between the boards once airdried. I used this flooring type on the house veranda I built at Healesville. It was cheap, and very good as it did not hold water on the floor when water was swept in by the wind. It also allowed me to do the less expensive framing approach, eliminating a complete row of stumps and bearers. Costing this approach and considering it is something I would suggest for now before we go further in discussions of labour.


Dave replied: "We like the floorboard style you suggest and will probably use that in parts of the verandah on the 'new house'. We almost got to the point of thinking to have that for the old house too, but then Lyn became concerned that it might not be in keeping with the original style of the old house... that it might clash stylistically with the level of detailing on the window frames and patterning on the top. So, at present, we've come back to favouring the T & G floor"


In this next image, I want to encourage you to seek the frieze pattern for both houses if you think making this old house harmonious with the new house is important.



I do not think the old house needs to be as nice as the new. Treat it as the "cottage"it is and you will come close to my concept of it in the scheme of the whole project.

Dave replied: In terms of the frieze, we are not sure yet what we will do, but agree that it would be an important feature for helping tie the houses together. Depending on how the sketch of the new verandah posts for the old house goes, it may be that we can manage without a frieze on that, but we will see.

We understand where you are coming from here when you say that the old house does not need to be as nice as the new. But, we want to restore and 'improve' the old house, being sympathetic to its style. The things we do to it externally and internally need to reflect that. If we wanted to be minising costs, we'd put up fake brickwork on the outside, for example. Lyn calls it a cottage because of its size. The old house isn't possibly going to be as nice as the new one, and will certainly be a lot smaller, but it doesn't mean it's not going to be nice. Lyn suggests it's perhaps better to think of it as a whimsical cousin rather than a lowly cottage.


Bear in mind that the roof material used can make a significant impact on the design of posts and roof framing. This example is with a slate roof, and so is necessarily of more robust construction. You can use a much lighter approach if you chose to leave out the ceiling. But if you ultimately want the lining of the ceiling the framing of the veranda needs to accomodate this so adding it at a later date is possible.

Dave replied: Agree about building the framing to accommodate a ceiling, but it is something we can do at a later date, unless we spot material to do it in the meantimea a bargain basement price. Ultimately we do definitely plan to line ceiling, but that particular job can be put off til we move there. Lyn wants there to be enough beams in the frame to hang hanging baskets off.


The next image is of an entrance which I thought was able to give you some ideas for the entrance to your house.



This was chosen by the architect to achieve some very good objectives:
1. It makes a statement about the house.
2. It is a gable which lifts the roof above the doorway and permits massive amounts of light to enter the passage without being obvious about it like a skylight or clear sheeting in the roof does.
3. It is in keeping with the period of the house.

I don't like the portico posts but for this house of brick it works. Certainly not on your house. But a veranda post configuration such as this could help with your desire to get the light into the passage, and if made to be like all the other posts of the veranda, but with a difference that makes it stand out a bit, you could achieve such a good effect as this entrance achieves.

Dave replied: We're having a play with verandah post configuration now. The gabled bit is nice, but it's too grand we think for the old house. We have another idea though that we will include in the sketch, as we like the principle of allowing light in without being so obvious about it.


The next image is to show you how I had planned to embellish the square posts I bought for the deck. I would work the centre part with the router and plane, and add the moldings which give it character and dress. The skirting around the post at the bottom is likewise an embellishment which can be added later.



I like the square posts for the veranda rather than the round look of the turned posts. And they are a fraction of the cost for expenditure right now. Embellishment could be done later when the style is decided and the frieze is decided. All things you and Dave could do in free time as well, given that you can wait for such things and save these sort of jobs for yourself. Getting the moldings is easy, and using the tools easy too.

If you want turned posts, these need to be done before being put in place, however, and do not lend themselves to embellishment at a later date so readily as a decision of how low to keep the unworked part of the post to accomodate the frieze must be made before placing the post in situ.

We replied: In terms of the verandah post shape. Lyn likes turned posts but is worried they may not fit well with the balustrading. So, we are in the process of designing some 'square' post scenarios that Lyn is comfortable with, and I'll try to finish those and get em to you this weekend.

We've also been experimenting with some ideas about the animal protection bit under the floor level on the verandah. We saw a picture of one that was recessed back a set of stumps, to allow shaded space for garden and/or for animals to rest. We think this is a good idea to try on at least part of the house.


Finally, this next image is to give you some idea of the roof structure of the hobbithouse I plan to build.



I will have a veranda on it of course, and it will be built in a crescent shape following the hill it is carved into, but the roof structure will be quite distinctive and time-consuming. The whole will be quite unseen from your house or the roadway, but will be a pleasant surprise to discover when walking. I will obtain a permit for the structure first as I want it to be a building you can use as a bed and breakfast. But at present it is my dream on paper and in my mind. By getting the permit, I can proceed in a sensible sequence with my foundations and Treebeard and his Entwives which will be posts to support the whole of the structure. (NB: Treebeard and his Entwives are Dad's names for the big tree trunks from the trees taken out at Mum's house).

Dave replied: It'll be great when it's done! It is very interesting, I bet there won't be another house like it in all of Victoria!

Cottage verandah quote

We're picking up again on plans for the old house, aka the 'cottage'.

To help give us more clarity in the decision over what type of verandah, and how big, to install Dad roughed out a quote for doing a 3m area which I then put into a spreadsheet.

Basically, for the 3m area it comes out to near enough to $1800 if you include all the fittings like fancy fretwork and railing; or $1100 without.

Now we have a proper understanding of the materials cost, we've decided to make a little cutback on the verandah area. Now, except for a landing type area near the backdoor and laundry, we're not going to put verandah on the back side of the
house. Instead it will be L shaped, running along the side facing the dam, and partially across the front.



By our calculations, using the scale on the plans, this smaller area is 17 square metres. So, as a rough estimate, the cost would be (17 divided by 3 =) 5.67 times the cost of the 3m section. So, materials cost around $11000 in total, but dropping to around $7000 if we delayed on investing in frieze, fancy balustrade, etc.

This is still a sizeable chunk, but it'll be a worthwhile I think. I don't think we can reasonably cut out any more verandah area without it looking stupid or feeling cramped. I imagine we'll live on that verandah a lot of the time. :-)

Understanding impact of El Nino

It's often mentioned that 'El Nino' is what causes droughts in Australia and that it's because we're in an El Nino year that it's been so dry. So I thought I'd find out a bit more about El Nino and see if I could find a connection between El Nino and the Maryborough historical rainfall.

Here's what I learned (I wish I'd paid more attention in school now!)

For Australia, the key El Nino metric is the SOI = Southern Oscillation Index. As the bureau of meteorology says:

"The SOI is calculated using the pressure difference between
Tahiti and Darwin. The SOI gives an indication of the stage of
El Niño or La Niña events in the Pacific Ocean. The accuracy of
the SOI in determining the three-month outlook for rain around
Australia is highest between midwinter and midsummer in eastern
Australia. A strongly negative SOI (below -10) is characteristic
of El Niño, which is often associated with below average rainfall
over eastern Australia... A strongly positive SOI (above +10) is
characteristic of La Niña, which is often associated with above
average rainfall over parts of eastern Australia..."

Weatherzone's site expands on this a little:

"A strongly and consistently positive SOI pattern (e.g.
consistently above about +6 over a two month period) is
related to a high probability of above the long-term average
(median) rainfall for many areas of Australia, especially
areas of eastern Australia... Conversely, a 'deep' and
consistently negative SOI pattern (less than about minus 6
over a two month period, with little change over that period)
is related to a high probability of below median rainfall ...
However, it is important to remember that the pattern of
relationship between SOI and rainfall can vary depending on
the particular season and region. Additionally, the change
in SOI over a specified period can be as important in
understanding relationships between SOI and rainfall as is
the absolute value in SOI".

Finally, some more from the bureau of meteorology:

"El Nino events occur about every four to seven years
and typically last for around 12 to 18 months... Each
El Niño event is unique in terms in terms of its strength
(as measured by numbers such as the Southern Oscillation
Index or changes in ocean temperature), as well as its
impact in terms of altered rainfall patterns... For example,
the 1982/83 and 1997/98 events were both very strong as
measured by changes in the Pacific, yet their impacts in
Australia were completely different. Eastern and southern
Australia was gripped by severe drought in 1982/83, but
in 1997 average to above average falls were common in May,
and a dry spell over winter was broken by widespread and
heavy rains in September. Severe drought can sometimes
result from a relatively weak event, as occurred in 2002/03.
Furthermore, changes in the Indian Ocean can enhance the
general tendency for reduced rainfall in eastern Australia,
or mask it by contributing to timely falls".


OK. What I take from this is that the SOI is only one factor to consider so not a fully reliable indicator... but useful to some extent given we're in Eastern Australia.

So I decided to try and see if I could spot any correlation between monthly rainfall and monthly SOI for Maryborough.

Here's a graph showing the monthly SOI's. (Click on it if you want to enlarge). The data came from here.



A rough scan of this suggests that the most pronounced periods of El Nino and La Nina were as follows. The years in bold are those where the effect was possibly particularly strong, because there was such a prolonged and high spiked period:

El Nino (relating to dryer times):

• 1878
• 1881-1882
• 1885
• 1888
• 1896-1897
• 1905
• 1911-1912
• 1914-1915
• 1919
• 1923
• 1925-1926
• 1934
• 1940-1941
• 1953
• 1957-1958
• 1961
• 1965-1966
• 1969
• 1972
• 1977
• 1982
• 1987
• 1991-1994
• 1997
• 2002
• 2005

La Nina (relating to wetter times):

• 1879-1880
• 1886
• 1889-1890
• 1892-1893
• 1898
• 1903-1904
• 1906
• 1908
• 1910
• 1916-1917
• 1921
• 1924
• 1928
• 1931
• 1938-1939
• 1942-1943
• 1945
• 1950
• 1954-1956
• 1960
• 1962
• 1964
• 1968
• 1971
• 1973-1975
• 1981
• 1988-89
• 1996
• 1999-2000

Here's what it looks like plotting each of those years against the historical Maryborough rainfall.

El Nino:


La Nina:


Overall, there's some correlation but it's not perfect. There are a few extreme anomalies that I don't understand, but maybe it's to do with the timing of the high SOI's (it's more pronounced in some seasons). Maybe for another iteration I can look at the seasonal factors in more detail, but I'm a bit el-nino'ed out for the moment! It's curious though.

historical monthly rainfall for Maryborough

The kind people at the bureau of meteorology in Australia have sent me even more historical data about Maryborough's weather... thank you thank you thank you. :-)

The most important variable for me is the rainfall. Here's a chart showing the rainfall for each year that they've kept records. Every bar represents a year, and is made up of the rainfall by month, in order from January at the bottom to Dec at the top. The shading represents the season: red = summer, orange = autumn, blue = winter, green = spring.



I'm still surprised about the amount of rainfall that falls in summer.

Overall, to be safe it seems we should count on getting around 400mm per year, which will be the case for 70-80% of years. Other years we'll get more which will offset against years where we get less. Even in the worst years, there's still some rainfall, around 250-300mm, and last year counted as one of them. (Ignore the year 1899, it wasn't really that low, but the data is missing for 6 months).

Talbot is booming, according to Weekly Times

Today my Mum emailed me an article which appeared in The Weekly Times (a big country newspaper in Australia) on January 3rd 2007.

It seems Dave and I aren't alone in stumbling upon Talbot and its environs as a place to migrate to when we make our downshifting escape. Which is brilliant news, as it means we won't be the odd ones out for having lived overseas. :-)

As the article says... "What is it about this little town, perched on the edge of hard, old gold country that pulls savvy business types and human curios from cities?"

Speaking still as a part-outsider I reckon it's a combination of things... it's close enough to Melbourne you can get there if you need. It's got lovely old buildings, walking down the main street on our first visit it felt like it had just been put gently to sleep 100 years ago and was just waiting to be brought back to life. And there's an underlying buzz and friendliness to the place that gets more every time I visit.

The article says that a vintage clothing shop has opened there now, and there's plans for an art gallery as well as a permanent museum dedicated to the history of communications - from aboriginal days right through to mobile phones. (how ironic considering what I do). Maybe I can get involved, donate some time to helping them with their 'what's coming in the future' exhibit if they have one. It would be nice to be able to start contributing something to the town. Hmmm.

Click on the pictures to read.

Historical Maryborough weather

After I did the 2006 weather post, I contacted the local bureau of meteorology to see if they had any historical information. A few days later I got a friendly email from Tim Forster, their Victorian information officer, who sent me some summary sheets with information about averages and weather extremes for Maryborough.

Here and here are the files he sent me, and below are some summary charts I put together using the information (although there's a lot more in the files than what I used). Thanks so much Tim. :-)

This first chart shows the average monthly rainfall per month for Maryborough. The lighter green bars are the average based on the 100+ years they've kept records for. The darker green bars are what happened in 2006. It vividly shows why there's a drought. Even though some months, like July, there was tons of rain, about a third more than the average, in every other month it was less. And for many months less than half the average. Wow. Depressing.



This second chart shows the temperature range. Average max/min temperatures per month, plus the extremes of each. Click to view the chart in detail and see the legend.