Rõika 15

Once it is done you will not see the huge amount of work that had to be done to prepare for some parts of a rebuild. This for sure will be one of them.

Before we started to dig we checked if we could separate the frozen styrofoam plates. With a little convincing they came apart. We put them to dry a bit and now also had measurements to see we would just about have enough foam for the floor.

To step away from the digging we also replaced part of the attic floor boards that had taken out because I either saw or suspected some woodworm in it. While doing that we found that one of the beams is in bad shape. There we will need to replace part of the beam. The good thing is that under it a wall is planned, so it will have some extra support. For the time being we placed a support beam under it.

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So, the plan was to dig out an extra layer of sand from under the floor, so we could place the styrofoam insulation plates as a base for the concrete floor.

Well, we got a lot of digging, as most of the ground was either a light stone, which only came loose with the pick, or some ground mixed with some concrete, where we would need the pick again.

The good thing was that the sand that we took out filled up the garden very nicely, so it seems we do not need to order dirt to fill up the much lower part of the garden.

To not be digging all the time we decided to also organize the stones that where still laying in the garden after we had to take them out of the container.

In the evening we went to see the memorial for the 22.000 Estonian people that have been deported to Siberia by the Soviets in 1949. A very impressive view.

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Today we picket up my dad from the airport. We went to Rõika to have lunch and to check where my dad would be sleeping. His first plan was on the attic of the garage, but when we double checked that, we found there was to much to do to make that livable. So it would be in the future livingroom.

We went to Mo’s mother to pick up one of the beds that we have in storage there and while we where there, we also took some more tools.

Back home we created a nice bedroom with reading light and toilet. Ready for the next 5 weeks.

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Since my dad will be coming tomorrow, we went shopping and cleaned up the room, as he will be staying in Rõika.

We are still waiting for the canalization papers, so our hoped for toilet has not even been started, hence we bought a port-a-potty toilet. Besides we bought a white board, for some easy brainstorming about all the things that needs to be done.

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Wednesday again, and again help from Martijn. We took out more sand so the foundation was free all around the room. Then when I wanted to show how thick the insulation material is I found next to the garage, there was a nice surprise, all the plates of insulation material where still frozen together. So there was not so much need to start digging more, as we could not try the insulation material anyway, so we decided to strip down the last wall and ceiling covering down to the bare wood, so the room would be ready for the building up part. And poof, another day was gone.

Sunday I continued the demolition of the toilet. The wall where very strong, but when they where gone, the seat almost fell apart by just blowing at it. The top of the septic tank was at the same height as the foundation.

Today I also brought a level with a laser pointer. This combined with an old land measuring stick I found in the house turned out to be a perfect way to measure how much sand we had to take out.

Mo stopped by with lunch and then we took out a dozen wheel barrels of sand into the front garden. After straightening it with a rake, only the colour difference could tell we put it in. A very productive weekend!

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With the big work done last Wednesday, the Saturday was filled with cleaning up, and digging out some of the sand to find out how much sand we would need to take out.

I found the stone foundation, which will be a nice starting point for planning the floor height

In the afternoon Mo stopped by with some lunch. We decided to also take out the toilet, as it needs to go anyway. The wall where build like a fortress, so we only took out one, behind it we the wall paper was still hanging, which reminded me of the opening scene of one of my favorite childhood show: De film van Ome Willem so I just had to do an ‘Ome Willem entrance’.

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With the wall gone, it was more obvious that the condition of the floor was at least questionable. So I decided it might be better to just get rid of it and since this part of the house would have the wet rooms in it, build a concrete floor. So more demolition.

The good thing was that today I had help from Martijn who found out I work on the house on Wednesdays and he had the day of as well. We took out the stuff that had gathered in the place and started to take apart de wooden floor boards. Under it we found about 15-20 cm of hydro granules. Under the train roof I had found more of these, so we decided to bag them and take them out. On the attic we had earlier found a jute bag full of jute bags, so no shortage of big strong bags.

After we filled a few bags and we picked the next bag, we both recognized a logo on the bag. It turned out to be an old Dutch sugar bag from the CSM brand. (Which btw has it’s 100 year anniversary this year)

A day filled with two simple tasks that sure took some time.

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After finding out about the bad floor in the hall way, I had decided to take out the entire wall between the hallway and the future bathroom. It started pretty smooth, but soon I found out I had to take out parts of the ceiling so I could take out the wood for the walls, as the wall was blocked by the beam that was holding the ceiling.

It was a fun day of work with a nice result

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Last December I started a job to close a stairway and build a cabinet underneath it. I finished closing the steps, but the cabinet still needed to be build. I finished it before I would get really busy with the house.

The cabinet turned out nice and I am pretty satisfied about it.

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