4 step cornice...

I've been asked by a viewer recently as to why we don't have the 4 step cornice in the entry like we were suppose to have as it says here

So after explaining it to him, I thought I'd share the reason with you.

When we signed up with MJH, we loved the idea that we could have our pick of a tiled roof or the ever more popular colourbond roof.

Sticking to our 'Balinese' theme, we opted to have a tiled roof as we felt a colourbond roof would look too modern and wouldn't give the same effect.

We were told that we could have the tiles on the steel frame (usually tiles would be done with timber frame), though it would have to be strengthened which we had to pay extra for.

Once the house was at frame stage, we were contacted by our CLO, who calmly told us that we could no longer have a coffered ceiling to both the entry and home theatre room due to the trusses being strengthened (as they would be harder to cut), and with the roof tiles being a lot heavier than c'bond, the roof would bow.

I wanted to strangle her, and wasn't very happy at all. Why couldn't they have found this out prior instead of us getting our hopes up?

I guess it's just one of those things that unfortunately goes hand in hand when building and we were probably the first ones to have it done (think Guinea pigs).

So with determination from Geoff insisting that they come up with some other way, she got back to us within a week and said that we could have a bulkhead instead which they wouldn't have to cut any trusses, though the downfall would be that the ceiling would be the same height as all the other ceilings. We could however, still have the 4 step cornice to the entry.

You see with a coffered ceiling, the ceiling panel is raised higher than the rest of the ceilings to give it  the extra height (think cathedral), then usually the rest of the ceiling is the normal height.

(see this diagram) -

Now considering that the ceilings are 2.7m high, we were only going to be able to have a bulkhead of about 150mm drop instead of the standard 350mm (I think) as all of our doors and windows were raised to suit the 2.7m ceilings.



When they got to the plastering stage, our SS discovered that due to the bulkhead only being 150mm deep, we couldn't have the cornice on the inside (see pic below) as it wouldn't have the same affect, and if we put the cornice  underneath, it would be in line with the square set door ways to both the study and children's activity room as well as the picture recess, furniture recess and open window in the entry way.

He first thought that if we still wanted to have it, we could just lower all the doorways and others to suit which I refused to do and just told him to leave the cornice out.

He then suggested that they (plasterers) did a square set instead. At first I hated the idea as I had my heart set on having the lovely feature of a fancy cornice, a 4 step fancy cornice.


But I guess you just have to go with it and hope that it'll grow on you which I think it has.

We didn't have to pay any extra as the price of the cornice was roughly the same amount, so it was like an exchange or trade off or whatever you like to call it!

I still think our entry is nice enough when you walk through the front door and no one would be the wiser unless I told them!

Ahhhhh, the joys or should I say setbacks of building!