Month: April 2019

This weekend ABC had 25% discount on all their products. A good moment to buy some of the materials we need in the next week or two. In a flyer of Espak we say a circular saw by Makita on sale and it turned out the same machine at ABC with the 25% discount was still 20 euro more expensive as at Espak, so we first went to Espak, that wah we could check out the prices of some of the other materials we where planning to buy

It turned out ABC was (with the 25% discount) easily cheaper, we we just bought the circular saw and then went back to ABC. The lady at the cash register was more then Estonian friendly, like it makes sense to me that I first pay for the loose stuff I bring to the cash register and then have them make a bill that I can pickup and pay from the warehouse.

Anyway, the guys at the warehouse recognized my car from before and where very helpful. They loaded the OSB, insulation material and concrete reinforcement mats on top of the car with the help of a fork lift. It fitted nicely, but I guess it was be bit to heavy. Good thing we only needed to drive about 2 kilometer of mostly straight road.

In the afternoon Marc can to help again. He and my dad did a great job making the ground around the yesterday finished sever pipes level, while I picked up some last stuff we forgot and then fixed the floor around the water meter so it could be closed down. Mo worked on the garden.

When she left to start preparing dinner, I was about done to put the floorboards in, I just needed to move the flexible pipe from the old sever system a bit down. While I worked on that the rusty water pipe broke just before the main tab and started a fine spray of water, which got bigger quickly. I put a piece of wood in front of it so the water would not spray all over the room. My dad came to help. I called Mo so she could call the water company to close the main tab in the street. Then i got some duck tape from the car to cover the hole as good as possible.


About 15 minutes later a car from the water company stopped in front of the house, they found the main valve quickly and shut it down. I found out that unlike the Netherlands, where all the pipe before the meter belongs to the water company, here everything after the main valve is your. Which means we are responsible for the replacement of the rusty lines. Oh well, two steps forward, one step back.

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After a good start on the sewer system yesterday, today we spend again digging the last trance towards where the toilet is planned. My dad was not disappointed, as he could play with the pick again to get through the top layer. Then we puzzled the pipes together and where able to fill the holes again. To pipe where the toilet will be connected to sticks proudly up from the ground. A small step closer!

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When I arrive at the house, we first have lunch. Today, April 4th, was the first day we had lunch in the garden in t-shirt. It was very sunny with little wind.

With the holes in the foundation we could start to put the tubes and connectors together. Of course we forgot a few connectors when we went shopping on Saturday, so after we talked through what we needed we first went to ABC, as it was such nice weather we went by bike. A great bike ride!

We asked Mo to come over for a cup of tea, so we could discuss some of the new ideas we had about how to use the space and in that regard, where we have to put canalization pipes before they will be covered by concrete.

The we started the puzzle of connecting all the parts. Towards the end of the day the first part was almost done and the plans for the rest of the system where clear.

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Between today and Saturday there is a construction fair, so we decided to go there to find more information on roofs, insulation, (central) heating and woodworm treatment. But before we could go there a drilling company stopped by to check where the holes in the foundation needed to be drilled.

After we explained with hands and feed and drawings what needed to be done they got the drill from the car and started drilling. 55 Minutes after they arrived the wholes where drilled successfully.

The fair was bigger then expected and we got all information we where looking for (except about the woodworm treatment) and some nice extra information on home automation and LED-lights. The biggest break-though discovery was a Estonian company who makes pellet central heaters and made a rough calculation for a heater, radiators, piping and installation for about 6500 euro. This sounds like a good solution for our heating question.

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Because of the sunny weather we decided to take out the windows next to the front door. Getting the wood off (in a way it can be reused) took my dad all morning.

When I arrived we took out the first window frame and measured the size of the wood we needed to get to will in the parts of the window. Then I went to get the car to get the wood and nails.

I could not get all the right sizes, so I first brought home the most needed wood. I guess finding a wood wholesale store might solve the size issue.

Getting rid of the first window took time, but was successful.

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Monday afternoon we dug another test hole in the font yard to see if we could find the bottom of the foundation. There we also tried to drill some test holes. All in all it was not very successful. So we decided we would hire a company to drill a few holes through the foundation.

Once the decision was made we tried to find out what we would do the rest of the afternoon, but a lot of the work depended on the finishing of the sewer and the concrete floor. But then we remembered we had decided to get rid of some of the windows and there was a bad beam that needed partial replacement. So plenty of work to do.

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