Builders nearing completion

Well.  Into the third building week, and things have really moved along.  We have doorways in places that there previously wasn't any, and we have walls were there were doorways. Our key structural changes are complete.  

We have agreed who will build the new chimney and fireplace, and on Wednesday we have a serious planning session with Urs and Andi.  We are certain that the budget monster will raise its' head.

The builders should complete their tasks by mid-week, and then should come the carpenter and under-floor heating specialist.  

Last Wednesday we placed the order for the new windows and frames, as well as a number of fly screens.  Living next door to a horse stable will require some protection.

We also measured up for the new sliding three panel door for the rear of the house.  The brother of Regina is about to furnish us a quote to replace the concrete slab which comprises the roof of the garage.

All in all.  A solid work period.

Corridor ceiling Away..plus...

Today the mission was to remove the ceiling in the corridor.  We have decided to do this to improve head height and expose some of the old structure of the house.  We have a number of discussions with the architect about whether we should or shouldn't, but we pressed ahead.  It also allows us to be more creative with lighting in the corridor rather than opting for standard flush fitting down-lights.

We always expected the job to be horrible, as we had already experienced a similar task in the kitchen.  Little did we know what lay above the ceiling.  As soon as we removed a part of the ceiling, showers of oat husks came cascading down.  These were stored above in the barn, and had fallen between the timbers to lodge in the cavity.  What a mess it made, but Reggie and Raphael helped in the removal.  We are happy with the result, but it will require us to sand and clean the beams and infill with new panels.  

As we removed the ceiling towards the rear door, we uncovered a damp area (with damp husks).  We knew that we had to replace some cracked tiles of the barn, so after completing the corridor we replaced the tiles.  This task turned out to be quite easy.  The first tile was a more modern overlapping tile, and this proved to be very easy.  I had to replace two of the very old tiles, of which we have many spares in storage.  These tiles hook onto horizontal batons the same as modern tiles, but do not overlap at the sides.  You need to locate a thin piece of wood at the joint so that water runs away.  Job done.

In the coming week we expect the new doorways to be cut (three).  One has already been started on the oldest part of the house, where the walls are incredibly thick.  We expect the steel supports to be positioned, and possibly the new part dividing wall between the kitchen and living room to be started.  We have to pick up the free standing bath from the warehouse in Basel.

May 14th New Floor

We are chuffed.  The new concrete floor was laid today.  It is just great to see material going into the house after so much removal.  That is not to say that more material will not be removed.  We have two new doorways to be cut, and I need to remove the corridor ceiling this weekend.  We have been visiting the house every day to watch the progress.  On Wednesday we had a meeting with the fireplace builder who told us that we might need a new chimney.(OUCH).  We will call in an expert to decide this.  

Today we received a sizeable quote to replace the garage roof.  The concrete slab was cast in 1966, and has had water permeating it for a few years.  It makes no sense to not fix it. (OUCH).

We will keep our chin up and scrutinize the budget for savings....again

It is wonderful to see the progress

The builders have really cracked on this week.  Today they have set the footing in the living room and flattened the material to a wonderful flat finish.  More of the dividing wall has come down today, leaving just a meter or so.  

The walls of the house are incredibly thick but are made up of stones of varying sizes.  As I have written before, the house has been developed in different phase over a number of centuries, evidence of this being two pieces of a headstone which was found in the wall dating 1822.

Just a final observation for this week.  The builders are working well, and they leave the place so clean and tidy each evening.

Roll on next week.

Rapid progress on structural elements

Day 4 of the official build, and the progress has been great thus far.  Today we arrived after work to find the wall between the living room and the rear rooms had been breached.  It really makes a huge difference, and we can now already start to visualize the finished layout.

Today we had another constructive meeting with Andi from our architectural firm.  He is our project manager, and has a very good style.

It has been decided to remove the whole wall between the living room and kitchen, as it is full of holes.  The middle section will be rebuilt, and a new fireplace and seating bench constructed.

So after 4 days we are happy with progress.

 

Support for the Farmhouse

The digging out for the living room slab is now complete, and a number of support beams have been established as more and more of the walls that we need removing are slowly being taken down. It is wonderful to see inside ceiling cavities to see the old beams, and it really makes you think about when some of stones last saw the light of day, and who laid them during the reign of Charles the Second.

May the 4th be with you....The work begins

May 4th 2009.  The great news is that work has begun.  We arrived home from work to find one skip full of stone and rubble.  The back of the house has had the wooden windows removed at ground level, and there have been some other stones removed and most unfortunately two unforgiveable holes cut into our lovely old ceiling.  

Ok, we know that these can be repaired, but the fact that these have been made has really annoyed us.  We have expressed time and again that this needs to be preserved.

Strong words will follow tomorrow for sure, to back up the email that has already been sent.  

We are still unsure about the company who has quoted on the bathroom fittings, so the general feeling is not fully positive.

Oh well.  No need to dwell, but we are happy that work has begun.

Cleanup before the workers begin...Weird

This is really weird having to clean up before the builders arrive on Monday.  We had a request from Urs (the architect) to make sue that the place is tidy before the builders arrive.  This is amazing as any building site that I have ever been associated with has been a tip.

We had two main tasks today.  The first to clear the dead grape vines off the roof of the garage, along with most of the supporting wire frames (A new roof will be laid over the current one).  The second task was to remove the last of the wood from the drive way.  You catch a glimpse of this in video blog number 1.

The weather was fine in the morning but clouded over and steady rain started to fall.  This happened just as we had completed the roof work.  The resulting green debris filled the trailer.  We headed off to the village green container and unloaded the material.

We had a BBQ lunch under the pergola (due to the rain), and Reggie then went shopping.  This left Raphael and myself to load the remaining wood onto the trailer, and offload it at the village wood shed.

This task completed meant that all is in readiness for the arrival on Monday of the....

An April Update - Impending launch

As you are all aware, the demolition component (well our part in it) was completed in the last blog entry.   Since then, the Architect Urs, and his assistant Andi have been inviting many different firms along to quote on the work to be completed.  On arrival back from a trip to Australia on April 21st, Reggie and myself had another meeting to review the first offers.  We were not surprised that the quotes ran over our budget, but that means we go back now and ask them to improve their bids.

Thursday April 30th saw Reggie, Andi and myself meeting at a large bathroom company SABAG AG.  This was a fun morning, where we chose toilets, shower fittings, sinks, taps and a few other items.  We were surprised that a large company could not offer better prices over the same product on the internet.  We feel that there will be some tears soon (for them, not us).  

On leaving SABAG we priced up a very expensive toilet for our bathroom on the net, and it came in a third cheaper .  

Today we met with our electrician for the first time to discuss the location of electrical sockets, lights etc.  This was interesting, and we started at our home looking at the plans before going to the farm to finalise ideas.  Of course, as soon as he had left we remembered that we had not discussed extractor fans in each bathroom, and the finer detail in the kitchen.  We had the impression that we had to make all of the decisions, and received few if no ideas from the electrician.

Monday is May 4th, and is the day the real work begins at the house.  The builder will start his work on that day.  We will be keeping the blog as up to date as possible. Reggie and myself are getting very excited, and all we can do now is keep meeting with the architect, and ensure that the bidding process works for both them and us.