What I found under the fireplace

Today Jeff came to help me. I decided it would be good to take out the walls and floors from the former living room, to get them in the same state as the new living room.

I came in pretty early this morning and started by cleaning out the room. When Jeff came in we took out the big furniture and then Jeff started on the wall. I started to take down the fireplace, as Mo and I decided it was not nice or useful at it’s location. After we took of the concrete top part off together I could literally take apart the fireplace block by block with my bare hands. Only towards the end I needed some tools. Mostly to take out the other concrete tops.

When I was cleaning the debris of on the last concrete plate, I found a pen in a plastic bag, when I showed it to Jeff, I noticed there where to little things with it in the bag. Then Jeff realized what it was. We checked it out, made pictures and started searching the internet. His idea was correct, we had in deed found a pen gun! What an exciting find! Together with the money we found three months ago, our imagination took off while we finished our work for today.

In the early evening Pille stopped by with some meat we could put on the grill and Mo came to join this spontaneous grill meal.

Tiles

Last week we went to check out tiles. We found some nice floor tiles we both liked remarkably fast. Today we went to get them. We also got some wall tiles, bit for that we need to get something to break the wall. Let’s see what we will find.

The trip home was great, the extra heavy spring set of the Land Cruiser really did it’s job and ride was less bumpy as usual. Taking out all the tiles was a pretty big job, but looking forward to the moment I can start putting in the floor!

An plumber day

With the electricity mostly done, today was the day to start on the water pipes. Before I could start I needed to decide if I wanted to invest in the expensive crimping wrench or use screw type connectors for the pex-al-pex pipes I decided to use.

So first I made a drawing of the pipes I need to install in the house. Then I discussed some details with my uncle on the phone. And then I went to Espak to check the price of the wrench there as well. I ended up getting it at ABC, as their 25% discount made the price most interesting. I also got fittings and pipe. Later on we also bought another door, so we can replace the front door with a similar door as our new back door.

The installation of the water pipes went very smooth and after crimping a few connections I was sure I made the right decision in getting the right tools for the job. I made a nice start with the water piping.

An electrician day

After the hard start on Wednesday, today the connecting of the electricity went smoother. Mo helped and in between went to buy some more electrical wire and check out K-Rauta, a construction store I had not checked out so far, as someone had told me they would have glass fiber wall covering and in deed they had. Finally a place in Estonia where they have some choice and large roles!

Towards the end of the day all wires where done in the bathroom, sauna and washing-room. The washing-room even had a (hardwired) light, which turned out to be very good value for money. Maybe we will get the bigger brother for the bathroom later on.

Hunt for a drill

Today, the plan was to start extending the electricity system with switches, plugs and lights, but soon Martijn and I ran into the problem that the electricity pipes needed to go through a hole in the metal studs and the biggest metal drill I had was only 10 mm, way to small for the pipes, so we went on what turned out to be a quest for a fitting drill. (And while where at it we could check out some prices for some water piping material and tools and the actual switches.)

We started at ABC, the we went to Esvika, Martijn suggested Magazin since with the summer weather a short work pants might be nice, then bauhof and PuuMarket before we got back to ABC to get the best solution we found so far as the normal drills stopped at 13 mm. In the mean time we picket up a lot of other stuff which would also be useful.

Back at home we started with the electrical system in the hallway and toilet, group 1. Martijn had to leave early today and after that my day did not go very smooth, so with a lot of struggling I finished one group, installed a temporary switch and some ceiling led lights.

Building dividing wall

It almost sounds like an American slogan, but in this case it is the weekend of building the dividing wall of what will be the hallway, toilet, bathroom, sauna and washing/boiler room.

Today I went to Bauhaus to get the materials needed, as the fact that the 10 cm insulation was cheapest at PuuMarket does not mean the 66 mm version is cheapest there as well, actually far from it. Also there was a sale on plaster plate, so all in all I saved almost 50 euro which I can use on something else later on.

I did buy something at PuuMarket though, as the connection wrench for the metal studs there was 40% cheaper then at ABC.

After I replaced 3 screw connections with the connection made with the wrench, I knew the rest of the walls would be build so much faster. But first lunch with Mo who came over to help. The laser was again a great tool to put all the walls and doors straight, but was also handy to put the screws in the right place through the plaster plates.

Together we made good progress and on Sunday we continued with that. When lit up the barbecue all the wall where up except the one holding the toilet door, as we want to first check if we can get a sink we like before deciding the final placement of the door.

On Wednesday I can start to put in electricity lines and water pipes before I close these dividing walls.

A nice repair and a hard start

Before I could finish the back wall of the toilet I first needed to stabilize the wall that I had moved last weekend. It took some time to get the right parts, bit then when I put it together it seemed to work as I had intended. After the repair was done, I filled the remaining space with PU foam, which should help in stabilizing. I am looking forward to this weekend when it should be fully hardened.

After the repair was done, I could start on the dividing wall. PuuMarket made it very easy to exchange the leftover metal stud for the narrower dividing wall studs. Bauhof had a great deal on some full wooden doors in the same style as the existing doors in the house.

When I started to measure how to put the wall and the doors, I found out it would be better to first put plaster plate on the exterior walls, so all in all the wall building did not go very smoothly. I mainly moved the floor heating divider to a more permanent board.


Move a wall

Today I planned to insulate the last wall and clean up so I can start putting in dividing walls on Wednesday. The west wall went smooth, but when I was filling the uneven gabs between the wall and the insulation wall I did notice again there was a very big gab near the old doorpost.

Closer inspection learned the door post was not connected to the floor anymore and was basically hanging there and had moved about 5 cm out.

When I pushed it, I noticed some movement, so time for some heavy equipment. I took the high lift jack from the car and a wooden beam and put the doorpost and connected beam back in its place. This was very satisfying, so I treated myself to a beer while I started to make a plan how to connect this back to the floor, so it would not move back and could withstand downward force. I think I have a plan that will work…

Change a window

Mo and I went to Rõika together to discuss how to arrange windows in the washroom and bathroom. We decided there is no real need for a windows in the washing room and in the bathroom we will move one window about halfway where there are now two windows. The bottom part of the window will get sand blasted glass and the top part will have normal glass to have a connection with outside,

After that Mo helped to put up the ceiling and floor rail and then I could start on removing the windows and moving the best one.

Of course this was more work then expected, but after that the wall went faster then expected, so in the end the plan for the day was met a nice insulated wall with a window.

Wall insulation in the bathroom

With the concrete floor drying nicely it is time to start insulating the walls in the bathroom area. I had planned to get the materials yesterday already, but life decided otherwise.

So when Martijn arrived I was halfway planning what I needed and we went shopping together. Unfortunately the insulation plates I had picked where not available at the Puu market around the corner, but they could see they had them at the branch on the other side of town. So we had a nice ride to explore another construction store.

After lunch used the laser to get the right location for the top and bottom rail and then it actually worked pretty fast to put in a metal stud at the correct location and fill the created space with insulation.

While I worked on the wall, Martijn took out another window which was at a wrong spot and filled it with some art-work from the previous owner. Soon the north wall was insulated and the west wall was ready to be insulated. A very rewarding day!

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