The progress of our renovation
In the beginning of December I finally build some shelves under the kitchen cabinets to house Mo’s collection of Moomin cups. Something Mo almost gave up on as it took forever to get to this project. But now it is in place, it really dresses up the kitchen.
The rest of the month went by in a blink. It also helped we had a little holiday with Loeke en Carla in the Czech republic.
While cleaning up the attic of the garage we came across the upper shelves of the old kitchen. It made sense to hang them in the garage kitchen so we have more useful space and more unity.
In between I made a few holders for the french cleat wall and I arranged a bench for the home gym, which starts to look more complete.
November is also the month Mo has her birthday. As long as I know here she never celebrated it much but this year she planned a real party in combination with an exhibition of some of her art. The art rails really showed their purpose and even the bathroom was brightened up with a fitting work.
This also was a good excuse to refit the kitchen sink and finally move my standing desk and office chair from Mo’s studio to my office. This involved building up scaffolding so we could move it in there through the window.
For the party I spend a day in the kitchen making beautiful and tasty snacks for the party, which gave me nice memories to the time I worked in the big kitchen of Amsterdam Rai.
We also visited Mo’s mother, who had an issue with a toilet pot that was leaking. It turned out to be an easy fix by replacing the bold that connects the water reservoir and the pot.
October is often a month for finishing of things outside and start with inside things again. This year was no difference. After another trip to Ikea, I put the blackout curtains in the bedroom. Nice in time for the dark months ahead.
On the roof I did some finishing touches around the chimneys, screwing the finishing profiles to the chimney and applying sealant for a water tight connection.
On the west wall of the house, I dug a trance next to the wall as deep as the gravel would let me to put some foundation insulation there. Once I have this put up around all the walls I will need to put some finish on it to make it look better then it does now, but for now it will be insulating.
Inspired by cleaning up the corner of the garage for the home gym I finally changed around the work bench and cabinets and made a start on a french cleat tool wall, which was on my wish list for a few years already. It really helped to get things organized. I guess this wall will fill up one tool (rack) at a time.
The 3D-printer was standing on the floor in my office. That had to change, online I saw a lot of people use Ikea’s Lack table to put it on and there are plenty of little hacks you can print for it as well. So of to Ikea.
While there I found the Hornvallmo blackout curtains, which would likely be a good solution for the bedroom, as the support rails guide it nicely next to the glass so no movement through a draft and to be opened from the top and/or the bottom. At home I measured and we decided we should take them on a next trip to Ikea.
The second layer of paint on the house took way less effort. It was a joy to paint and the result was amazing. It seems 2 layers will be enough.
Toward the end of the month Marc had ordered an olympic barbell and 177,5 kg of weights. I had seen a squatting and bench press rack on the Wise marked place and after consulting with Mo, we decided this would be nice birthday present for the boys, as it is always hard to find something for them. But where to place the rack…
A good reason to clean up the garage and create a little gym area in the back. For now we put a leftover piece of linoleum, but I guess at some point some rubber mats would be better.
August was the month that broke the odd months only work on the house trend.
First I finished the wooden shell of the front dormer. But then the exciting part started. Well exciting for the anticipated result, not the work. We started scraping off the paint from the back of the house.
It went pretty easy, as the paint had been weathered more then good for it, but surprisingly on the entire wall there were no bad spots except for one small edge at the bottom, although there the wood was still hard, so it seems the damage had a different cause.
With the paint off the house already looked better, but it also showed the need for some finishing touches like the frame around the doors. I did the back door and the utility room door and then came to moment to get the paint. I went to see Majatochter to check out their linseed oil based paints. The paint is significantly more expensive, but it should use much less and unlike the modern paint who seal off the wood, this paint lets the wood breath. Something to consider.
But first the dormer on the back needed a finishing cover. I used the scaffolding as a long ladder, which made it easy to work on the dormer. Another one of these amazing finishing touches.
And then the weekend came where we would start painting. We did decide on the Allback paint. The first layer took more effort then expected. The wood was so dry, it seemed to suck up the paint as soon as the brush touched it. But the result of the first day was amazing.
The next day I also painted the veranda and it started to become a unity, this new wood painted a lot easier.
The weekend after we put on the white paint for the frames and windows. This was the change that made an even bigger difference. The contrast between the yellow and white and the black roof over it. Wow, just wow!
We looked up an old picture of the back of the house and the transformation is just amazing!
At the end of the month I bought a 3D-printer. It was on my wish list for already 10 years and now I found a heavily upgraded one on the company marketplace. Let’s see what I will be using this for in the upcoming months. At least I have a rain measuring device I finally want to finish.
It seems this is the year of work in the odd months, as again in June not much worth mentioning was done. We just enjoyed the nice weather, ate a lot in the garden and where happy in our great home.
In July we went on vacation, during which we collected all kinds of alcoholic beverages from the different countries we have visited and on the way back we also got a bunch of drinks from the Super Alco on the Latvian border. The price differences where impressive. But back at home there was the question where to store all these bottle.
We found the chimney wall next to the heater would be a good place. I showed Mo the shelving system I know from every time we moved home back in the Netherlands and combined with some nice oak shelves, we soon had a very nice liquor cabinet.
I also brought the art piece by Ed from the Netherlands and we thought it would look nice against the dark blue wall in the stairway. So months after I had bought the art rail I finally put it up. Another nice finishing touch.
In April winter came back from time to time, so there where no weekends to take on another part of the roof. We did some pruning of the apple trees, but nothing major. On April 24th we had a surprise 10 cm of snow, but on May 1st, it was as if a switch was flicked and it seemed like summer.
In shorts and t-shirt Anton, Glenn and me took on the first part of the main roof. Here I had to replace the feather board as well. With the new feather board on it showed that roof had sagged a bit over the past 70 years. Since the construction is otherwise fine, I left it like that and will see if or what I will do about it. At the end of the weekend the first part was done.
This screams even more then before for a fresh coat of paint to compliment the new roof.
The next weekend I spend on some details. Skirting around the chimneys and the finishing strip between the small roof and the house. I always enjoy these type of puzzles and the results are also rewarding. I also added the roof ladder to reach the chimney sweep platform.
The weather was very stable, so another weekend, some more roof work. The last part of the roof around the dormer was more puzzling. It also was a good moment to insulate and finish the dormer with the same wood profile the main house has. Labor intensive so after the weekend it was not done yet and it took a few nights after work to finish the last part of the roof. But when that was done… It looks like a brand new house, well, almost.
We still need to paint. Let’s see when we get to that.
On of the last days of the month I rented a machine to turn all the pruned branches into mulch. A nice day of working on a tan while cleaning up the garden.
The winter moved out slowly, so time to restart the roofing project. First part the smaller roof that is over the bathroom and sauna. A relative easy roof, mostly straight forward and just a chimney to work around.
So Mattias, Marc and me dressed up in white, took off the eternit, then the asphalt and around 20:00 after the sun had set the damp barrier was on, so the roof would be waterproof enough for dew or a light rain shower.
The next day the wooden frame was build and we could place the metal roof. Marc had invited his Turkish coworker Megmet, who was pretty handy and had good spirit.
Just around sunset the roof was on. And again, it looked amazing. I guess the big change is what makes this so much fun after the work is done.
The good thing about such a project week, is that it motivates again to pick up the bigger projects. So I continued on the attic which will be my office.
Finishing the inside of the Velux window is another one of those big changes.
There was still one piece of floor board that needed to be placed, but since I wanted to organize the heating pipes a bit better, as there is a difference between pipes on an attic and in an office, I had postponed that.
It was great to see the improvement of the organization. All nicely next to each other, it looked nice and neat. Although I did think I should make a box around it, both for insulation and so I could easier put a cabinet on top.
Next up was the outside wall. Building a frame, putting plaster board against it and finishing off around the window. Very rewarding. Yet after that I did not do anything worth mentioning until the end of March.
Since the building of the sauna over the end of year vacation season, it has become pretty much a tradition to take on a bigger project to finish in a week.
This year the utility room was on the list. It still was waiting for a ceiling and the top pieces of the wall. Then plastering, glass fibre wall covering and painting.
There was a nice little puzzle around all the pipes that are going into the ceiling towards the rest of the house. I first drew it out on a spare piece of plaster board and once I had drilled the holes and had sawn it in pieces, I could fit it. After that I could transfer it to a full piece of plaster board and put it in. The rest of the ceiling was a breeze compared to that corner. As mentioned in the blog more then once, it instantly made a big difference.
Next I plastered all the seams and while that was drying I cut out a life size washing machine front from card board to check how high to place the washing machine. The platform I will have to build later, but at least I have some time to think about the design.
We used leftover paint from the hallway. The light yellow and bright green really transformed the ‘shed’ into a room. Another project finished.
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