Back Breaking

Do not be alarmed.  No one is injured. Today was a tough day.  Simon could not make it as he has come down with the flu.  Not surprising considering the cold weather we have had these past weeks.

Ilya arrived at 10.30 and Uwe soon after.  The goals today were to load the skip with all of the debris from the chunst.  Yes it will be finally gone.  The second goal was to demolish the wall between the laundry and guest room as well as the brick shower unit, and the third goal was to remove the upstairs combination boiler, cooker- sink unit. Reggie and Raphael supplied hot coffee and sandwiches.

Ilya tackled the upstairs unit on his own, and Uwe and myself tackled the debris.  We managed our component by 13.30 when we all knocked off for lunch.  Uwe had the bright idea to take the scrap metal to the scrap metal bin in village on the way to lunch.  This we did, and then settled into a lovely lunch (cooked by Reggie)of risotto veggies and stew on the menu.  After a couple of pain killers (glasses of wine) we headed back to work.

Ilya continued upstairs with great success and Uwe and myself continued with the demolition and debris removal tasks.  We all completed our jobs as the light started to fail. The skip holds 7 tons, and it is full to the brim.  We will sleep well tonight for sure.

A huge thanks to Ilya and Uwe.  And Simon.  Do not worry there is lots more to do.

Pre-Work Blog

No pic today.  Good news.  The trailer is now registered and should work hard over the coming months and years.  I have got some help again tomorrow with Iilya returning and Simon and Uwe getting involved.  

We have had a large skip delivered, and this should prove most useful when we load all of the stone and brick debris into it.

I look forward to posting new pics and details on this blog on Saturday.

A productive day

Today was a very good day.  Ilya (a friend) came around and offered his services. We decided to tackle the laundry, which entailed draining and removing the boiler, removing the bath, and demolishing the shower.  We achieved these tasks, along with removing the fitted cupboard and door plus its frame from the room which will become the guest bedroom.

I then started on the kitchen cupboards upstairs.  These I removed in quick time, and threw them down the stairs to soften them up.  IIya was busy in the kitchen.  We had some detective work tracing the plumbing back to the mains, but after some time we drained the kitchen boiler and removed the sink and boiler unit together.  

We are making sound progress, and next Saturday will allow us to remove the upstairs bath, and the stove and boiler unit.  This should leave our demolition tasks to rubbish removal and wood chopping.

Away with it

Well we are really getting on top of the huge green beast.  It really has been hard work, with the incredibly hard stones that have been baked even harder.  Another week or so and it should be gone.  We have decided to call in a skip, so that I can offload the rubble out of the window and directly into it.

It is incredible how the soot travels through your clothing turning everything black.  I managed to scare the neighbor when I returned home today.

Well what else has happened this week?  The fact that I am now back in the office has slowed us down, but we still managed to get the 380 volt supply wired in, along with some high amp 230 V.  

This morning we have received another set of drawings from the architect, and we will be meeting in the week of Jan 26th.  This should see us pretty close to final layout and ideas.

Tonight we will take a long look at these when the prince is asleep.

It just has to go

OK OK, some people would say keep it, but we just did not want to have the huge chunst in the middle of the family room.  I started to take it down today, and removed the first level.  It is pretty easy going, and I will just chip away at it over the coming two weeks.

So what else did I manage today.  Well I removed the food smoking cabinet from the first floor landing with the help of Marcus a friend from the village.  This cabinet is made of cast concrete all round, apart from the from doors and frame which are steel.  I think we both needed  to rest after removing the object in several pieces to the workshop where it will be rebuilt and put to a savory use.

I moved a few doors and the cast iron stove from the laundry.  This will end up at Phils' cabin in France.

So another progressive day, and we are still looking forward to the the Tiba cast iron stove being sent on its way on Sunday.

A family affair

More deconstruction today.  All three of us focussed on the hallway of the house.  this has previously been lined with wood up to waist level making the hallway narrower and darker. Reggie and Raphael soon got into the swing, and made short work of the task.  All of the wood has joined the rest of the other wood debris in the cow stall.

The wood removal really felt like work, so Reggie decided it was time for some pleasure.  She went back to removing plaster from the stone wall of the original farmhouse dating back to 1678.  It was a fun hour or so, as we revealed what we believe is either an original window that has been bricked up, or a doorway. Either way it will be left exposed as part of our scheme to expose the heritage of the building.

Tomorrow will see some effort being made on the upstairs kitchen (removal) and upstairs bathroom (removal). And Sunday will see us waving goodbye to the cast iron oven, as the buyer comes to collect his prize(lucky person).

Planning takes off

It might be freezing cold but lots of heat was generated from the collective brains of our Architects Urs and Andi and ourselves. We had a serious planning meeting today whereby the initial ideas that had been supplied to us, and the summation of the ideas of Reggie and myself came together in a great 2 hour planning session. Urs led us gently into the process, listening to what we had to say and then soliciting his ideas from both a design and technical perspective.

We managed to find agreement on a new staircase and cloak room, as well as floor levels and heating and plumbing systems.

We would like to join the village community heating network, which will supply heat to our underfloor heating system, if that is not possible we will explore an earth pump or air pump system.

Reggie and myself have simplified the upstairs layout, but have also added requests for a glass brick wall, a new staircase, a rainwater collection system to supply water to the toilets and washing machines.

So what about timing for the project? The detailed planning will take place between now and the end of February. The main construction work will take place for the following 4-5 months.

Reggie and myself will continue to remove the old kitchen, old boilers and other objects no longer required.

So in summary. A good meeting which has left us excited and fully engaged. As soon as we get more detailed plans, we will post them for you to look at.

Movement in the kitchen

It is amazing how you go shopping for one item and come home with something completely different.  Today I went to purchase a new number plate holder and came home with a rotary hammer.  It can be seen sitting on top of the old oven. Why so I hear you ask? Well it was so incredibly cheap with a 2 year warranty that I just had to have it.  No seriously, I need to remove the big green chunst, the shower and some other items in the house, which would ordinarily require hammer and chisel.  This baby does that task, being an electronic hammer chisel.  

One returning home I changed into demolition man clothing (old tatty but very warm) and proceeded to remove tiles and brick surround the immovable cast iron oven.  Well guess what?  I managed to move it.  So in summation, today I did not use brute force, I used technology to help things along.  If that is the case, why do I feel tired?  Oh well, time for a cuppa and a shower.  

A chip off the old block

Temperature in Tenniken -7.  Temperature in the house. -7.  With these low temperatures Reggie and myself had to really keep moving to keep warm.  We removed the remainder of the wood cladding from the ceiling revealing even more of the lovely old farmhouse ceiling.  After removing all of the debris to the cattle stall we then paid some attention to the kitchen.  Reggie attacked the cupboard under the stairs, and removed the panels that run up the side of the stairs.   This focussed our thinking on the width of the stairs and the wall surface.  We have a desire to expose the wall to show the original building.  Reggie who is a daughter of a builder soon had the plaster away in a sizeable area to show what we can expect.

We also spent a couple of minutes trying to move the old cast iron stove.  It just would not budge, so we have assigned that to the too hard basket.  I will call a friendly neighbor and hopefully he will have some ideas. Whatever happens it will be gone this weekend, as someone has been lucky enough to buy it.

The afternoon was spent preparing the trailer for its MFK.  A bit of paint and a small adjustment of the brakes should see it right, but who knows in good ol Switzerland.

On Thursday we meet our architect for a planning meeting, which we are really looking forward to.

A Happy New Year to all

First work day of 2009, and the electrics of the old house really need disconnecting by a pro.  A call to Rene ( a local electrician, and soon to be neighbor) and he promptly turned up and made all safe.  

Today was the day of removing the debris from the broken down walls and starting on removing the wooden tongue and groove ceiling in the lounge room.  Guido Schelker supplied the trailer and some labour and the 360 kg of material was soon loaded ready for offloading at the local recycling center (actually a very expensive exercise).  

As more and more panels were removed the lovely old ceiling comprising wooden boards and beading was exposed.  The fact that we want to keep the ceiling will require us to add insulation beneath the floors in the bedrooms.

As the pine ceiling material mounted up on the lounge room floor, my mind quickly turned to what could be done with this material.  The obvious thing is to cut it into useable lengths and burn it. It really is beyond reuse. 

Guido Schelker (the father of Reggie) has a band saw in his garage which he would like to see located in our barn, so a new plan has been made to locate the bandsaw.  This will require some heavy lifting, and a supply of 380 volts.

On Tuesday I will hire a builders power board which will be attached to the main electrical supply.  From there we can run 230 volt machines and 380 volt machines.

Tomorrow Saturday is a road trip day to pick up  the trailer that we won in an auction today, so little will get done on the house until Tuesday.