Month: June 2019

Today I started early at work, so I was done early as well. I went to the house to finish the insulation. Still a bit of work, but also done quick enough.

After that I finished taking of the hard board and plaster plate from the remaining wall and cleaning up after that.

In the afternoon I got a phone call from Uve about the radiator in the hallway. In the last months a lot of stuff had accumulated, so I moved it outside and sorted it. I guess part of the wood will become the temporary kitchen later on. After that I took off the hardboard plates in the hallway. I still need to fill this side of the old kitchen door. But that is a nice job for tomorrow.

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For a morning after a party I was earlier up as I would have expected. Today I wanted to make up for the less productive Saturday. I started with connecting the light switches, power sockets and lamps, so when Uve will start building the central heating system he can switch on the lights he would need and has a power outlet if he needs it. This was also a good moment to put in the last pieces of plaster plate that I had not done yet.

In the mean time Mo put some stuff in boxes that was near the windows, as in the apartment they will replace the windows in the upcoming weeks and the windows need to be free. So we decided to already start a bit of the moving. Around 15:30 I went to pick her and the stuff up from the apartment.

Back at Rõika we started the insulation of the walls. I showed Mo how to use the power screwdriver and she practiced faithfully with more and more success, while I took out a piece of wall (covering) that would be in the way. Working together on this was very nice and we made a lot of progress, almost finishing the entire wall.

Then we put the stuff from the car on the second floor. Today sure has been much more productive then yesterday!

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I had just woken up, when my phone rang. Damn, I forgot I had to guide group through Tallinn this morning. I arranged to be picked up and poof, gone was my morning during which I had planned other thing.

When I got to the house I finished the rest of the floor. It went pretty straight forward. Then I went to the apartment to pick up Mo and some stuff for the birthday barbecue I organized for tonight.

The barbecue was a great success, this sure is something we can do again this summer.

Another thing what now has higher priority it the replacement of the future studio floor, so the wall insulation can be placed before the pipes for the heater will be placed.

So on Wednesday, my birthday, I had another nice job to do. Today I had help from Jeff, who had finished his car yesterday. The funny thing was that we both brought cake, so no need for a normal lunch.

The start of getting the floor out was pretty hard, but after we had created some space and got the hang of it, it went relative fast. At the end of the afternoon we went to PuuMarket to get some OSB and insulation, so we would be able to continue after entire floor was out. We got 1/3rd of the new floor free from saw dust (the old insulation), insulated and covered. (and on Thursday afternoon we got the rest of the floor insulated)

It is a shame these floor boards need to go. They are 4,5 thick and most of them have the length of the room, but also to many have woodworm holes. I guess I can reuse some of the boards that are not effected for something else as burning wood

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Before we could start putting the tiles in, I had to get a mixer tool, as I could not find it, so it might be still in the Netherlands. So a quick strip to ABC. There we found out there was another 25% discount weekend, so we decided to also bring switches and plugs for the floor heated part of the house. That should keep me out of trouble for a bit longer.

Back home I first connected the earthing wire to the earthing pin as it will be covered and then we started tiling. The tiling went pretty good, although we used much more glue then what the package suggested. Oh well, at least it came out very smooth with the special adjusters I got.

After the hallway was in done we moved to the bathroom to make the tiles to fit there. As we noticed the glue was setting pretty fast, we decided it would be best to glue the entire bathroom at once, but first we need to get everything straight, which was not as easy as in the hallway, as the corners where not as straight as in the hallway. But we got pretty far. In the mean time I figured we would have some more time then expected as the heater will be in back order, so it might take a few weeks to get here.

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Since now all of a sudden the heating system will be placed, there is a priority to put in the floor tiles. The hallway and the toilet will be first, but to be able to leave the house (and lock the door behind me) I first have to replace the lock of the old door in the boiler room. Good thing there is a lock left over in the old front door.

The front door lock is bigger then the old lock in the backdoor, so the hole in the door needs to be made deeper. I am lucky as the long snake drill I bought to drill the pipes through the wall fits exactly.

After more work then it seems, the lock has been replaced (I needed to open it up to reverse it as well) and I can start to make the tiles to fit the toilet and hallway. The tile cutter is just big enough for the 60 cm tiles we got and works great for the non straight cut the angle grinder with a diamond blade and a bit of patience works fine. And before we knew it the day was over. So, we’ll glue tomorrow.

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After I came in this morning, I started on finishing the water piping. The warm water pipes to be a bit more precise. I created a setup where the warm water system can be fed from two devices, the electrical boiler that was still in the house (and was bought very shortly before we bought the house) and the buffer that will be connected to the central heating, with some valves to switch between the two.

When I was done I put the system under pressure with the help of Jeff who is still working on his camper. One of the plugs had not been screwed on properly, but apart from that all was good. Another good step forward!

In the mean time Uve finally replied with some numbers for the central heating and he can start next week. He stopped by to discuss some things. The upcoming weekend will be busy getting some last stuff ready for the system.

After he left, Jeff and I went to get some plaster plate for the walls and I put in the wall in the hallway. Already motivated for the weekend!

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As the grass and other garden plant have been growing lushly for the past weeks, Mo thought it would be a good idea to at least cut part of the grass.

With the house came a lawn mower, but we had no idea in what shape it was, so after work I took it out and had a look. One wheel was a bit broken, one wheel was loose, but the air filter, oil and blade looked pretty good. So after a bit of tinkering, I got some gasoline and tried to start it. Instant success. I tried a test run through the tall grass and it seemed to work fine.

The next day we got back to actually do some mowing, but after it had been running for a few minutes, it started to run a bit more irregular. So Jeff and I took apart the carburetor and quickly found the problem, contamination in the carburetor. So soon it ran smooth again and Mo and I mowed about the first 10 meters of grass. This seemed plenty to us. Time for some food, this time I took out the dutch oven and put it on the fire to make a nice chili.

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New day, new help. Today Matthijs came over to help out. Shortly after he arrived Jeff arrived with his camper van, as he needed a place to replace the clutch and the second gear synchro ring. The space in front of the garage seemed perfect for that, especially with the weather forecast for this week.

It turned out that the camper on it’s last scraps of clutch does not maneuver as easy through the garden as my Land Cruiser, so we had a bit of fun to get it on it’s place.
Matthijs started on dismantling the old front door, while I got some missing parts for the water piping and finished the cold water part. Then I joined him in placing the new front door. Nice work if you are patient. But the result looks great.

Time for another barbecue.

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To start with the end sprint we organized another BYOT like party, as the weather looked promising we made it a Build-BQ party. Kaspar came to dig again and he did an awesome job digging a trance of 1m60 deep. Marc took care of the top floor in the old living room.

Mo and me cleaned up the attic above the bathroom area and I installed the boiler for the warm water system. Around 19:00 we started the fire for the BBQ and had a nice evening together.

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