Insulation & brick delivery

Woot!

Huge truck! way longer than our house is wide!

Attic

Switch/plug covers

There's been some faster progress these last two weekends (at least from my personal point of view ;P), and that is motivating!

Insulation delivery, a truckfull!

We received a large delivery of insulation. We decided to do the roof insulation ourselves instead of letting the roof workers do it, so they can focus on other roof tasks, and we can do the insulation the way we want it to be. We are using different materials, which turns out to be a little more expensive, but we will have a higher insulation value, and a finished interior too (we are again using an insulation foam with the plasterboard attached, plus extra insulation between the beams).

Very fat insulation boards with plasterboard attached, for the roof ceiling.

This weekend Pim placed most of the first layer of insulation between the beams.

First layer of insulation between the beams

Even though there are still some gaps here and there (which we started filling with canned foam until we ran out - messy stuff!), the temperature difference is already very noticeable, even when we turned the little heater off. I even found my very thick woolen sweater to be a bit excessive. We think we were working at about 15° C, which is a great improvement. It was much colder downstairs!

These days are unseasonably warm (rarely under 4° C at night), it is not nice of me to say, but it has been to our advantage. However it is raining quite a lot, so the plaster and paint doesn't dry very well! Saturday I forgot to wash my roller, and I found it all fresh and ready to be washed on Sunday…

White, bare, stained

Saturday I tinted the switch plates. These are a bit challenging since they are beech, a wood that takes stain rather blotchy. I had experienced that before when I dyed my workshop desk, but had mercifully forgotten about it… I diluted my alcohol-based oak-coloured stain to 50% and gave a subtle layer to the plates. After sanding a little bit, especially the end grain which gets a bit raised, it is not too bad.

I lacquered the bedroom plates in white and we really like it. With this lacquer you can still subtly see the wood grain. I had bought it for the staircase balusters, which are gonna have to wait indefinitely.  

For the oak-coloured plates, my plan was to tint, then varnish. The varnish we had bought doesn't satisfy though, so I want to try the same lacquer I used for white in an oak tone.

The two on the bottom right I varnished, this tinted varnish is the
right shade (the wooden swatch underneath is the same than the
windows), but I do not like at all the blotchiness and finish.
It is an outdoor shed varnish, so I guess that's no good for this.

Checking the fit. This wood is bare.
My friend says this is Wall-E.
Our electricity outlets and switches are
from the Catalan brand Fontini.

The wall (insulation + plasterboard) where the attic radiator wiIl be placed got painted (light grey for this room), Pim installed the brackets, and it'll get installed soon.

Progress by the end of the weekend. The brackets on the left are for the radiator.

I also started finishing around the plasterboard joins, corners and edges with plaster. The chimney in particular was very wonky (the attic was a hayloft made without a lot of attention to detail), so the boards went on a little wonky as well. Over a chimney, we attach the boards directly to the wall with sticky plaster. On a regular wall, Pim attaches some timber to the wall first, then the boards to the wood. This leaves extra space for pipes, cables and extra sound insulation.

We decided we didn't need this weird corner in our life.

I am trying to fix the unevenness with plaster, which is turning out better than I though! a lot of work to do, still.

Plaster patchwork.

Some metal bits were sticking out of the wall, so Pim cut them off:

Sparkles!

Long weekend

We were looking forward to this long weekend (Thursday to Sunday) to have more time to work on the house. Needless to say, by now (Sat) we are already broken! Today we did some shopping and left it at that, to get some rest.

Plaster, paint, a taller ladder and some other stuff

We have been placing pipes for central heating. We have changed our mind and decided to put the kettle in the attic, where the workshop will be, instead of the laundry room in the ground floor.

Removing a few more bricks from the chimney in the attic

Cold water and gas have to come up to the kettle in the attic from the basement. All the pipes with hot water will then branch down into the floors below. This way, warm water will take a longer time to arrive into the kitchen, which is next to the laundry room (we can still place a little electric heater under to sink to supplement hot water), but there will be a lot less pipe to lay, and easy access to the collectors in the workshop, where we do not have to hide them, or not much anyway.

Warm and cold water pipes going down from the attic

Originally the collectors for the central heating would have been placed in the room below the workshop, the bathroom, but this was problematic due to the large amount of pipes and bulky collectors we have to place, and having access to them was going to be challenging.

Pipes going down the chimney hole

Once we have three radiators placed and connected, a guy can already come to set up the gas pipe to the kettle and start up the heating system. We will place the radiators in the bedroom, the entry hall and the living room. This means we have to already finish the walls behind them. The two pipes on the right on the picture above are for the bedroom radiator, and are already laid out. We made holes for the pipes leading to the hall radiator as well. The radiator is very tall but also very thin, since the entryway is very narrow:

The wall here is so thin that the hole for the pipes broke through to the other side on the lower bit. Oops. It turned out to be a good thing since we needed more space to have a wider curve for the warm water pipe at the bottom, which cannot be curved at a too tight a curve. Due to the thinness of the radiator, we better put the tap in a way that we won't hit our ankle with it, and so the pipe has to come from below, not at 90 degrees with the wall. I'll take a picture to illustrate this once it is installed.

The windowsill in the living room also had to be raised before the contractor comes to place the windows, as I mentioned in the previous post.

The old window and stone windowsill outside was removed, then two rows of bricks laid (recycled from the chimney), and the stone placed back:

We've also received the first delivery of insulation!

Picture on the left is insulation with drywall attached, most pipes and electricity will be hidden behind it (in a few other cases, like above, we have to cut holes in the wall to lay them). The other insulation will supplement behind the first one, that one it is better at sound isolation.

Delivery

The radiators were delivered today!