Unfortunately, Mac's description of the House had been only too correct.
With the exception of the one roughly finished room at its eastern end,
it was "mostly verandahs and promises."
After the cyclone had wrecked the building, scattering timber and sheets
of iron in all directions, everything had lain exactly where it had
fallen for some weeks, at the mercy of the wind and weather. At the end
of those weeks a travelling Chinese carpenter arrived at the station with
such excellent common-sense ideas of what a bush homestead should be,
that he had been engaged to rebuild it.
His plans showed a wide-roofed building, built upon two-foot piles, with
two large centre rooms opening into each other and surrounded by a deep
verandah on every side; while two small rooms, a bathroom and an office,
were to nestle each under one of the eastern corners of this deep
twelve-foot verandah. Without a doubt excellent common-sense ideas; but,
unfortunately, much larger than the supply of timber. Rough-hewn posts
for the two-foot piles and verandah supports could be had for the
cutting, and therefore did not give out; but the man used joists and
uprights with such reckless extravagance, that by the time the skeleton
of the building was up, the completion of the contract was impossible.
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