April

I have not updated in... a month!!
To be honest, I have been distracted with the garden. I don't mean I have been only working in the garden, but when it comes to blogging, it appears that's what I've been doing.

Of course a lot has been done in the house as well.

Let's see what I wrote about last...

Floor

Indeed, still going at it. Still a lot left. Less than half, yes! it is a lot of square metres and 3 layers.

Aïda sanding

Boxes upon boxes

Electricity

This is what we've been working at the most. Trenches (?) for the cables, plug boxes, installing switches etc. LIGHTS ARE WORKING! sorry. Yes, this is a big milestone :) The main lights for the bedroom, bathroom, "library", "parlor" and entryway are working. All the cabling for the staircase is installed, so are most of the lights, but the switch is not working yet (the timer we needed is backordered at the moment).

"Parlor"

"Library". I'll try to restore this medallion from its atrocious paint "job".

Entryway. Still doubting between a medium and a
dark grey for the ceiling.

That's a mane of internet cables.

Switch guts.

Holes to add wiring where there's none.
Staircase.

New staircase lights.

Much finishing to do.

Due to the inclined ceiling, at the top of the
 staircase we are putting the lights on the wall.

Hallway.

STUFF!

We've been receiving several deliveries, stuff for the bathroom: shower tray (enamelled steel plate, but of course) with fittings, shower glass (stripy!), washbasin, bathtub with fittings & the thermostate for the shower. We should very soon receive all the taps, I can't wait to see them.

Bathtub fittings. Drool.

Washbasin on its approximate placement.

I couldn't find brass fittings that I was sure were going to fit,
so I ordered a porcelain click-clack closure made by the
same manufacturer that made the washbasin.

It is actually chrome, but you cannot see it when installed.

We found a box of these marble stripes for a steal.

Here come a few dreadful phone pics:

The stripy shower glass.

That's all you (and I) are gonna see of the bathtub for now.

Apart from this claw. Talon.

We've also decided (that was hard) on the floor tiles and ordered them, this may take up to a month. We have matched them to an edging of antique tiles we bought and will place in the centre of the bathroom as a feature. The colour scheme is white, pale grey & sage green with brass hardware and medium oak furniture. This is all I have for now, a phone pic taken at the shop:

Top and bottom tiles we already have.

Since we finally chose tiles for the floor, we have to reinforce and straighten the beams, which will be a lot of work. Tiles will be a lot of work too, but we want it to be well done and functional, so we discarded the idea of wood in the bathroom floor.

The bathroom is still a bit of a battlefield:

Pipes and more pipes.

Update

I guess I am due a little general update.

I have kept on working on the floorboards we have, which is slow going. I thought that the wood needed a little sealing before applying the waterproof oil (which I think is linseed oil based), since oak is so porous. On my tests, the wood ended up very rough after just oiling over the dye, even after lightly sanding with 280 grit. I thought of shellac, but sealing the surface to the extent that it wouldn't absorb the oil concerned me, so I did a little research. Reassured that sealing with shellac isn't a black or white business, and that wood can be just partially sealed with a relatively thin concentration of shellac, I made some tests which were satisfactory.

I have a good Spanish furniture restoration book somewhere in which there are recipes, but I couldn't find it, so I turned to the internet, which of course churned out anglo-saxon recipes with pounds ad gallons and so forth. Very confusing, not indicating if ounces are fluid or by mass or what? I simply made my own "recipe" and tested it: 250 ml rubbing alcohol to 30 gr of shellac (the shellac I find locally is "lemon shellac" flakes - fairly light). After I used 500ml of this on a number of boards - it goes down fast! since I ended up giving two to three layers of the more diluted mix, I then made a 250ml/55gr mix that I still have to test. I then tried the oil on top of the shellac on the boards I had ready (after very lightly sanding 280 grit + 000 steel wool), and it certainly didn't absorb nearly as much, and a second layer would have just sat on top, so after 24h I wiped the excess and proceeded to sprinkle my test board with water. I left the water there to dry, and apart from some hard water deposits (to be expected, our water softening system is not running yet), the wood was unmarked.

Water droplets on finished floorboard

This will never be as protective as a polyurethane varnish, but I strongly dislike the plasticky look and feel of it, plus I do actually enjoy maintaining the wood, so we will go with this finish. It can always be refinished if we tire of it. We are also planning on adding a few tiled areas in the bathroom to minimise water damage.

I was never at all satisfied with how the switch covers turned out, even after trying out so many different lacquers and so many layers. I decided to sand off a switch plate and try something else entirely.

Excuse the phone pic. I'll get better pictures  and comparison pictures soon.

I only sanded the flat part, since the routed part did already look pretty good and it would also be nearly impossible to get it done well and quickly. I got rid of all the layers on this area with an orbital sander and 120 grit paper, and lightly sanded the edges by hand with the same grit. I then dyed it with the same walnut shell mixture I used for the floorboards. I was afraid it was going to be blotchy, since it is beech, but it was better than the water based tinted lacquers I used before. I then sealed with 3 or 4 layers of shellac, then finished with 3 layers of gloss polyurethane varnish. I liked the result, so proceeded to do the same to a bunch of switch covers. Why polyurethane varnish, which I just said I don't like? Well, these few are for the workshop and bathroom, where you often have wet or very grimy hands. I will do the same for the kitchen plates, but will probably try out something else for the rest of the house.
I have to think about it. Switch plates always get so dirty!

Pim has been working a lot on the electrical installation. Both upper stories already are working! there is electricity on the plugs and the lights can be switched on in the electricity cabinet which we have placed in the basement (the switches haven't been set up yet). It is a great development to be able to use power tools and lights without long and extremely annoying extension cords all over the house (for technical and safety reasons, we had disabled the old wiring on the first and second floors a while ago).

The electrical cabinet

Pim's dad has now installed the rest of the windowsills - all the windowsills for which we had a stone, that is (still missing ground floor toilet and workshop - which perhaps will be wood), and Aïda and Pim have also been working on the insulation and pipes for the bathroom. The bathroom is our main goal now, since once it is set up we can start up the heating (it is getting so warm, though, that we may not need it!) and… move in! Lots of work to still be done in the bathroom, though. Floorboards, walls, tiling, evening out walls, installing shower, sink and toilet, radiator… We have already ordered the shower glass enclosure (actually only half closed), and we are about to order taps, washbasin and shower tray.

If we could move in this summer it would be great!

Oh! And finally we planted a geveltuin! (façade garden). This is something I have really been looking forward to :D We sent the request to the townhouse last year, but it took a long time to be approved, so it was too cold to plant at the time. This winter has been so unseasonably warm, with only two days of frost (!) that in fact perhaps we could have planted in autumn anyway. But we planted now. The last days have been very warm as well.

Not very impressive just now!

I have been pining for a Boston Ivy (a Parthenocissus tricuspidata Veitchii in particular) and we got one in the garden centre on Saturday and planted it yesterday. We removed some floor tiles in the street next to our façade and replaced some of the compacted sand with nice soil and a little dried manure. I also added some supports and recycled chicken coop wire that I found in the garden, to protect this still very fragile young plant. So looking forward to the climber to grow. Grow, little plant, up the wall!

In fact, last year I already bought one of these in anticipation for the townhouse approval. Since I was afraid it would languish in the little pot, I planted it against the back wall, at the beginning of the garden.

Last summer

It already began to climb up the wall on its first year! It is a very sunny position, and these seem to prefer half shade, but it did alright. The façade is north-west oriented and gets very little sun. I hope it'll be alright as well. The leaves will probably be less red in the fall. I am really looking forward to this year's progress for both of them :)

Floorboards

We purchased the floorboards for the first story:

Carload!

We have been thinking about the upper storeys' flooring for a long time, and finally decided to place massive oak planks over the current conifer floorboards. We bought the boards with no finishing on them. It seems all that is fashionable at the moment is sterile whites and greys, and that will not do.

These floorboards are gorgeous and great value. I love working with wood, and have a lot of fun even though the job of finishing is a little monotonous.

A light sanding is sufficient.

Tinting the oak.

I use a very wide brush which works nicely.

I am using walnut husk dye crystals ("nogalina" in Spanish and "beits walnoot" in Dutch) from which I make my own dye, mixing it with water (I am using distilled water to avoid surprises, unlikely, but who knows), until I get the intensity I want. 

I don't remember where I first learned of this, at art school perhaps. It is an ancient product that has been used to tint wood and make ink for centuries, if not millenia, so I find it a bit strange that I do not find a lot of information about it in English on the net. The crystals, which are very cheap, don't seem to be readily available, or else I do not find the right terms. This is the Spanish wikipedia, which doesn't have any links to other languages. 

I am very glad I could find this in the local drugstore here in Belgium as easily as in Spain. I am pretty sure it was used to colour all of the antique oak furniture I have to a slightly darker and warmer tone. It also goes nicely with our windows. In my opinion it produces the most gorgeous shades.

A batch of tinted floorboards.

Comparing the original and the dyed boards.

A little bit of water shows the colour closer to what the finish will be.

After tinting the switch covers, beech wood, which takes dye badly, it is such a pleasure to work with oak.
Beech is always difficult, but I wonder if I should have given up on propietary dyes and tints and give a go to this natural walnut dye. I know I still had difficulty with it when I dyed my beech workshop desk, though, so perhaps not...

I intensely dislike polyurethane varnishes, so I am testing a waterproof oil finishing treatment. We will place floorboards in the bathroom as well, so I hope it works nicely.

I think the wood is perhaps still too porous after the dye, so I will perhaps seal it a little with shellac. I have to think about it.

Windows &

Much has been worked on since I last posted, but it was mostly more of the same.

Some news though. We got another 4 windows and a skylight placed:

Large window where there used to be a door.
Living room.

Tiny window in the corner were we will install a small toilet.

Large-ish workshop window. Yay.
The plugs and switches and the radiator for this
room are already installed as well.

This used to be the hayloft window in the attic.
It is now a smallish low window in the workshop.
I have window seat thoughts.

Workshop view (windows halfway done here)

Skylight in the living room. 

Skylight from above.

The skylight being blue... that is certainly not an aesthetic choice, I really, really dislike the cold light that it produces. However we didn't know that the skylights with the higher insulating capabilities are blue. We will have to find a way to warm up the light that comes in, with a gel film that we can glue to it or to a glass that we can place from below.

Any suggestions very welcome!

Some more random images:

Aïda working hard in the attic,
placing and finishing plasterboards.

Pim working hard in the driveway, installing
 the copper pin for the grounding wiring.

Pim's dad working hard in the stairwell,
 placing a windowsill.

The neighbours' talkative cat.
Cats don't work very hard at all.

More attic

Placing these heavy boards on
the sloped ceiling is very hard work

The insulation for the attic is all up! Boards upon boards of it. I only have started finishing with plaster, however, but since structurally it does what it's supposed to do, other priorities will come first.

I do really enjoy working with plaster, though, it is fun, although difficult to get it perfect with the little experience I have.

Plaster goo

This is a lot of fun (really)

5 radiators are up, 3 to go

The attic bedroom radiator is up and connected. We still have 3 to go: the bathroom (which will probably be delayed for a long time since the floor and the tiled wall need to be done first); the workshop, also in the attic, sometime soon; and the dining room in the back building, which is hibernating right now.

So we will probably start the heating system when the workshop radiator is installed, to heat the house up, and leave the rest for later.

Installing gas pipes, cool threading machine on the right

In order to install the kettle, the natural gas pipes had to be brought up to the workshop in the attic from the basement. For this Pim got help from a professional and they installed it in two days and then tested it for leaks.

Installing the warm water and heating system

Then he started connecting the water pipes to the kettle and the collectors. A single kettle takes care of the warm water as well as the central heating.

"Library"

I like the above image since it shows all the "layers" of the work we are doing on the walls. You see the wooden studs, the yellow glass fiber sound insulation, the polyurethane boards with plasterboard on top (and first stages of plaster finishing of the joins and covering of screws), the water and heating pipes, the electricity cables, and the gas pipe.

We caught a good deal at the DIY shop on some tiles we had been eyeing for the bathroom, so we bought them:

Bathroom tiles

They are, as it couldn't be otherwise nowadays, metro tiles ;P I could say that I truly have always loved them (several Ferrocarrils stations in Barcelona are covered in them), but who would believe me?

I was actually leaning towards flat oblongs for a plainer look, while Pim liked a bezel more. These have a very faint bezel, and everyone is happy. We bought 44 boxes with 44 tiles each.

I also finally found a suitable, cheap second hand chandelier (originally from Ikea) to use as a base for my bedroom lamp project. I have already started working on it... I'll have a dedicated post for it later!

As usual... the pictures are pretty bad. In fact, slightly more so than usual, since I have dropped my camera and the zoom lens is a bit broken, so we had to use our mobile phones to take pictures.