Getting The Details Right

This book is the result of countless hours of fieldwork with a tape measure and notebook, painstakingly measuring, recording and drawing some ofthe most important details of old Australian Houses.

The designs which it contains provide all of the dimensions and construction details necessary for restoration work on a variety of Australia housing styles in the period from the late 1890's through to the late 1920's and beyond. There are chimneys, fences, gates, doors, windows, verandah columns and garages for federation houses, Californian bungalows and the various other styles of cottages, vallas and houses of the period.

These are working drawings, ready to be put to use on site, but they are also designs of great beauty and considerable appeal. Spanning the period from art nouveau to art deco, they display all the attributes of an age when attention to detail was taken for granted.

Because most of the information which it contains was obtained from actual buildings, the book in a very real sense contains the sound, practical advice of the designers and builders of old Australian houses. It is they who created the designs which are illustrated here. It is they who also tell us how to restore the building of the first quarter of the twentieth century.

The drawings are linked by text which provides a concise description of building restoration and conservational theory and practice. Both drawings and text are the result of the combined efforts of specialists in this field, making Getting The Details Right a most useful contribution to the growing body of literature on the architectural heritage of Australia.