Tag: hallway

Start on the hallway and some Zigbee

November passed by quickly towards the end of the month I got back to renovating. It was time for the hallway. I pulled some last pipes to the studio where I can later on put data cable through and then we started by putting the ceiling plates in. Since the hallway only needs 3 of those large plates I didn’t rent the lift, but without it, it sure was more effort. Good thing Hendrik showed up at the right time to lend a helping hand.

The next days I finished the walls, what a different view!

In between I also received a CC2531 Zigbee USB Dongle. Since Ikea uses Zigbee for it’s home automation hardware, this would be a better solution to connect the Ikea stuff to my home assistant. The setup was pretty straight forward. Ik updated the firmware of the stick, installed zigbee2mqtt in my home assistant and started discovering the lamps, switches and other tradfri items. I soon got a nice graphical overview of the mesh network formed by the zigbee units. I created an automation for the lamp in the living room to turn on before sunset and turn off at 23:00. Getting the dimming function working will take some more effort, but that will come later. It is nice to see how home assistant lets an Ikea tradfri switch turn on the WLED installation in the bathroom.

First ceiling plate in
Walls also covered
Zigbee mesh network

Changing around a door and light

Ever since we moved into this house it boggled me how the door of the living room and the studio constantly bumped into each other. With the kitchen and living room mainly done, the hallway would be next. The first thing I picked up was the door of the studio. With a bit of checking out how it was put in, it was pretty easy to take out the frame as well.

When this was done I turned it 180 degrees and put it back in. This sure is one of the things that when it is done you ask yourself why you have not done this before. It made total sense and it felt like it never had been any different.

The last thing missing in the kitchen was the light over the counter. The missing piece was a wire between the adapter and the lights. It has a very specific connector, so it would not be easy to connect the otherwise. After enough patience and checking on several European Ikea stores, I found them in Berlin, so I contacted a friend in Berlin to get a few wires and send them. They finally came in and this really finished the kitchen. Not a week to early as the night are starting early these days.

Moving the door around
There’s a light…

Walls in and out

In between the insulation I also put PVC pipe in the wall for the electricity cable before closing the wall with plaster plate. Once that was done Mo and decided it would be good to take out the wall under the roof to create more visible and practical space. This went pretty smooth, after that Martijn came to help and put in the plaster plate under the tilted part.
With this in it was time to start building the wall that would divide, the room from the stairway, as part of the wooden wall that would be staying was 13 cm think, I opted for 2×6,5 cm metal studs. This turned out nicely and made a smooth surface with the existing parts. I also put in a little ceiling in the hall ways so the chimney sweeper hatch would be easily accessible.
In the mean time Marc helped to take out the wall that had been closing the stairway from the downstairs wall way. More air and visible rest. Mattias helped taking out the nails and sorting the reusable parts and future firewood.

New wall with power and data sockets
Wall one gone.
The dividing wall
Marc taking out the last details
Mattias taking out the nails
Wall two out

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