A Double Feature with Scott Weston - There Goes The Cottage

Written
by
Jenny Butler
Writer
Jenny Butler
5th of May 2011

After dedicating yesterday's post to the Point Piper Apartment, today Scott Weston focuses in on the Rozelle House. From demolition to the delicious details, Scott is discussing it all. And I'm holding onto his hot tip about coloured grout like it's solid gold! - Jenny x

Rozelle House

Demolition and concrete pours always bring an abrupt end to dry weather and the inevitable mud bath during excavation plus extensions of time. Why do Architects tend to wear black to site meetings during these times, do they think mud never sticks on suede shoes?

Rozelle house demolished and the careful siamese twin separation of the outdoor can from the neighbour's brings a round of thunderous applause.

Over the next 3-4 months the timber frame is up, steel work in place, shiplap cladding fitted and 15 degree skillion roof lightly placed, overhanging the Northern face by 1.2 metres. Retaining walls are built and the landscaping of two levels and outdoor BBQ area begins to take shape.

The joiners have been to site to check measure and we make intermediary trips to the factory with the client to inspect the joinery and the order of the works, from kitchen through to the walk-through master bedroom wardrobe. We like to invite the client as often to site of a Friday for essential meetings and to sign off on the finer materials and finishes prior to installation. Every other week it generally is just the Architect and Contractor discussing weekly issues, programming and defects checking. Here we are signing off on the colour grout samples that are cobalt blue, a light blue and a green prior to grouting. A tip for young players... 'The trick is to use white grout and Dulux paint tints to achieve the matching grout colour'.

Amongst the additions we manage to protect the only feature in the house worth keeping and she's an absolute doll. Just needs a bit of plaster discreetly placed, a light sand, paint and hey presto an as new bracket arch support.

The bulk of the building work is now completed and the finer trades are now on site to fit boutique steel work, sand floors, install the BBQ facility and finally, colour match approved, grout the tiled walls.

Another quick trip to the joiner's to inspect the wardrobes for master bedroom and children's bedrooms. The secret door through to the ensuite will be an absolute surprise to the client, and my colleague Nicole Jessup from Laminex has come by to see what can be done with their great products. Then off to lunch with the Laminex team that have really helped me build the joinery and not compromise on quality.

The all important staining of the existing and new timber floors. We don't want the floor to look red brown (we hate red brown) and we bring our colour samples to mix a warm walnut brown. As Milton the Munster used to say 'three drops of essence of terror and 5 drops of sinister sauce' make for a full rich deep chocolate brown floor with timber grain proudly displayed.

The final carpentry is being fitted and the staircase of black-butt had just been installed and it too requires the chocolate brown treatment, fortunately we have kept a liquid batch to one side.

The childrens' wardrobes are fitted and the floors are now traffic-able.  The Internal carcasses are in Lamiwood and contrast with the metallic white exterior and graduated green full extension drawers.

The big reveal tomorrow... only one more day of blogging.

- Scott

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