More wiring and more detail

This past few days has seen more progress, with the removal of the plaster from the wall of the stairs, and in the guest room. The exposed stone is attractive until you reach the landing, then old fired bricks are exposed.

The electricians are working hard, and are now running cables in the what seems like kms of blue conduit.

Raphael now has a nice sized hole in his bathroom, which will be filled by a double window, some time in early August.

The engineer will supply plans for the last of the remaining steel support on Tuesday of this week.

More progress was made on the roof of the garage, where I removed the majority of steel frames that once supported the grape vines.

More gyprock, More electrical ducting

Nothing too exciting to report. The past days have really been the domain of the plasters and electricians. They are taking up quite a bit of room in the house. Their progress can be seen in the pictures. A large platform has been erected in the master bedroom so that the fitting of the new ceiling boards can take place. This will be very nice, because we will now cover the horrible nicotine, smoke damaged ceiling that currently exists.

The main ensuite is boarded with waterproof boards, so that is looking pretty fine.

Tomorrow is the weekly meeting of the project manager on site with us, and that is always fun. Andi is doing a good job, so we need to ensure momentum is maintained.

Out Shopping Today

No photos today, as we were out doing some serious shopping. Reggie and myself have been dissecting the outrageous offer from the bathroom supply company. The upshot is that we have applied a 3 pronged approach to fulfilling the purchases, internet, shopping in Germany, and taking a number of components from the Swiss supplier.

The first purchase today were three wall toilet elements, that support the toilet, and have the built in flushing mechanism.

We then purchased a Villeroy and Boch Wall toilet for the master bathroom. This came with a soft closing seat, quick release seat fittings, and nano coating.

We have been been stressing about the sinks in each of the bathrooms. Today we completed the purchase of 2 sinks, and cupboards beneath. One for Raphael, and the other for the guest bathroom.

Our bathroom remains illusive for now.

We purchased 9 LEd spotlights for the hallway, and a set of LED lights for illuminating the stair treads.

On returning home, we have been on the internet, and have purchased 3 Raindance shower units. 1000 CHF cheaper online per unit, as well as three drainage slots, 600CHF per unit cheaper.

All in all an expensive day, but worth the effort.

Time to now to see what we need to buy this week.

Up the wall

There has been lots of progress at the house these past few days. The electrician has been busy running his cable tubes around the house, which has kept Reggie and myself quite busy ensuring the ceiling cables run to the correct point etc..

The plasterers are busy mounting their steel channels to which the gyprock board are fixed, and they already started this process in Raphael room. The carpenter and underfloor heating man were seen at the site today.

We have a new offer for the garage roof which we will go with.

The only item of dispute is leaving the beams exposed in the kitchen. We feel that it is nice to expose the structure of the old house in places, but the project manager is not happy with this, as it is simpler to put in a flat sheet and spotlights. Reggie and myself have used the word precious, to describe the attitude sometimes. Maybe it is a Swiss thing, but sometimes the customer needs to take control.

Anyway. A happy time with much progress.

Fireplace and work at pace

June 15th and the fireplace is finished (well it needs a top coat later). We are very happy with the result, and look forward to being toasty warm in front of it.

A number of holes have appeared amongst much evidence of wiring ducts being positioned, and locations for draining and water pipes.

The saga of the garage roof continues as well, as it now would seem that building a second roof over the old one would be a good solution. Watch this space.

Judging by the number of workers at the house today, this week should be lots of fun.

A Burning Desire

Today the living room took a nice step forward, revealing its soon to be character. A fireplace is under construction. We purchased the fireplace on tinternet, as it was a half price find, and we are very happy to say the least. It has a glass door that slides up an down. The expert builder has been busy today with Reggie, and the result is great. Tomorrow Friday the structure should be completed. We rescued a couple of items from the original fireplace stove, and will build those into the new fireplace.

The house is currently sporting a number of fluorescent code signs which we believe are messages to the builder to drill holes and channels for the main plumbing and sewerage pipes.

Chimney pipe in place

Great news.  The chimney has been swept, and a new internal structure has been built.  This consists of a main flue pipe, and an outer insulating pipe.  We had been advised a few short weeks ago, that we would need a new chimney.  This is obviously not the case, and we are happy that we can achieve our goal of installing and operating our new fireplace.

Tomorrow is Monday June 8th, and we meet the electrician to finalize our electrical plans.  We met him a number of weeks ago, and it turned into a free for all, with myself, but mainly Reggie adopting a blue sky thinking approach (a total wish list).  After receiving the new offer we realised that a tone of measured optimism should be adopted.

We will probably go ahead and replace the garage roof with another flat roof.  We have read up on how to make it a green roof, and this will be our preferred model. 

We are expecting some action in the house this week, namely the carpenter, plumber and electrician.  

We have also been active in the garden.  The vegetable patch has taken on a life of its own, and it was way past time to attack this jungle.  We have listened to advice from friends, and instead of weeding it, we decided cover it in black plastic for 3 months to kill off any weeds and their roots.   On Friday evening we attacked the jungle with a brush cutter before raking away the grass and weeds.  During this episode a rake jumped up (no not a snake a rake) and bit Reggie on the top of the foot (more on this later).  We laid the black plastic and weighed it down with stones.  We found a stone in the garden that turns out to be a Baselland boundary stone.

Back to the attack of the rake.  Reggie had a dreadful sleep on Friday night due to the pain of her injury.  At 5.30 am on Saturday morning Reggie Raphael and myself set off to hospital.  Reggie being heavily supported by myself.  Her pain level was quite high.  At hospital, she received a tetanus jab, and an xray, along with a heavy dose of pain killers.  She was sent home a couple of hours later with an immobilized leg and a pair of crutches (40CHF).

 Today on Sunday she is really on the mend, and is walking freely again. So in conclusion the house has now sent both Reggie and myself to hospital once each.

First week of June Update

The initial building phase is all but complete.  There are currently a number of plans being drawn up for the next phase.  This is where the carpenter gets to work, the electrician starts his trade, and the plumber gets busy.  We are also in the process of defining the direction we need to take in relation to the garage roof.  The brother of Reggie has tendered and we like his offer, but we need to wait for the bid from the carpenter who is quoting on a pitched roof.

Reggie and myself need to go through the bathroom suppliers offer, and do some purchasing on the internet.  We need to make some cost savings, and we are happy to do the work.

Role on the work schedule.