Basement stories

The best renovation news since the dining room: we finally have a floor at the basement! At the beginning of the week we prepared the basement for the concrete casting. The plumbers installed first the floor heating pipes and then we placed the iron bars to the floor. The concrete professionals filled the floors with 8 centimeters thick layer. After the rooms were filled they felt low. Maybe because we were since May without a floor and used to the higher ceiling. Anyhow there is still enough room height. Now the basement starts to look more like an area, where we can live and work. It's not anymore only a construction area. The plumbers placed all over the floor the heating pipes. Now it will be cosy for feet at the winter time. The professionals did the installation pretty fast. Tobi and Christoph cut the iron nets in the right size and placed them to the rooms. Concrete alone is strong with pressure, but weak in tension. The job of the iron is to make the floor handle more tension in other words to make it stronger. The blue round things will be the floor drains. Because the floors were covered with several iron net pieces, they needed to be tied together so they would be stable for the concrete casting. Susanna tied them together with steel wire. The tying technique was fun to learn and Susanna did a pretty good job.
Two big trucks brought 7 cubic meters concrete to our yard. The concrete came out from a big and long pipe, which was lifted over our fence with a high lifter. Tobi and Christoph were helping with moving the pipe from another room to another. This was the first time for us, when we saw how the concrete floor is done. It took about 4 hours to make the floor for over 70 square meters. We were quite impressed about the speed and the quality of the work. You could tell, that they knew what they were doing. The day was rainy and dark and one moment the electricity was even gone, but that didn't cause any problems. Now we can walk on the floor and start with the walls. The floor is completely dry in 8 weeks, one centimeter per week. So the earliest point for showering is at the end of October after the tiling. Altough we still have a lot head of us, we feel like we've achieved something. We are motivated to make the rooms ready!

Action all over the place

This week has been a lot going on. Our yard has turned to a construction area. The new waste water system has been installed. That included digging of two big holes, laying tens of meters pipes, more digging for the pipes and making holes to the wall for the waste water pipes. Also the 200 meters deep hole for the geothermal heating system was drilled. Not only the yard was under a lot of action, but also the basement. The isolation for the floor was installed and the pipes for the fresh water. We were taking care some of the work, but the most of it was done by professionals. We are feeling happy, that the renovation took a big step forward. Now it's possible, that we'll be having a bathroom at the end of the year! Tobi made a hole through the wall, so the waste water pipes for the kitchen, bathroom and the sinks were possible to install. The pipes are going through the backyard in a 1,5 meters deep path. The hole for the geothermal heating system was made with this machine. The drillers came here at early Tuesday morning and finished the work in the late evening. They needed more than 12 hours to make the 200 meters deep hole. We were looking mesmerized as the machine went deeper and deeper to the earth. The sound was reminding an old steam train. The machine was spitting the earth out. At the beginning bigger pieces of stones and the deeper it drilled, turned the stones to a finer sand with a reddish tone. The huge green tank is for the poo and pee. We needed a separate tank, because the river is so close to us. The environmental laws are not supporting all the waste water systems, when the water is closer than 100 meter from the living area. The capacity of the thing is about 10 000 liters, so we don't need to empty it for a while. The tank is now located near to the old waste tank. This bomb looking thing is a tank for the grey water - showers, sink, washing machines. There are now two of them and the water will filter through them both before it comes out and goes to the nature. The tanks are located 50 meters from the river according to the regulations. We had a helping hand all the way from Germany. Tobi and Christoph were putting the stones around the pipe, so the purified waste water that comes out will flow better. Tobi ended up in the tank. It's still pretty clean inside! It looks quite a chaos around the house, but we are pleased that the renovation project is finally going further. If we are ready with the basement at the end of the year, we will be having a New Year Eve's celebration here. We'll keep you updated and welcome then!

The sauna garden

The sauna building by the river has been working as our bathroom now over a month. We wanted to make little changes to the surroundings. The bushes around the house had growed too much. When the plants are growing too close to the house, in the long run it might cause some damages to the building. As we were taking the old floor out of the basement, we found beautiful and big stones under the concrete and so the idea was born. We removed the plants and build a stone wall. We wanted to keep it pretty natural, so we used stones with different sizes and forms. The finishing touch was made with plants, wich made the house look appealing.
To avoid the coldness and greyness, we added some plants between the stones. They are originally from our garden and because of the new wastewater system they needed a new place. So it was also a rescue to the plants. We hope that we made a successful work and the plants will grow there the next year even more beautiful.
We added small stones to the front of the sauna so it will be nice to walk on them. Some of them we brought from our forest and some we collected from the sea. Now when we are cooling us from the heat of the sauna, we are picking the stones and wondering, how cool they look.
We'll be continuing this garden project along the way and the next years to come. And we promise to post new things soon. There has been a lot going on lately. But now we're heading to the sauna!

The daily reality

This time we want to show, how the renovation really looks like - rough, dirty and chaotic. On the photo above is our future sauna. It's located in the basement. The future door takes us to our bathroom. The house is full of weird and sometimes also dangerous solutions, that we need to renew. For example the electricity is going to be renewed all over the house. We have still a pretty long path head of us, but we believe that all will turn out beautiful. Lately our lovely friends have been visiting us and gave us support and also a helping hand with the renovation. We are overwhelmed and this keeps us going. One of the biggest changes will be the new wastewater system. The workers started already with laying new pipes. Tobi and Susanna's father did quite a job, when they dug all the paths for the thick pipes. We are temporary sleeping upstairs till we get our bedroom ready. Some of our things are still just lying around and waiting their places. And there's also lots to sort from the things, that we found from the farm. Some of the things we want to keep and some recycle or repair and the rest should be taken to the dump. The traces of renovation can be seen all over the place, from the paint stains, dust and the disorder. This closet above is dedicated to our renovation equipments. It's getting a little bit too small. We need everytime more patience and a flashlight, when we want to find something. Maybe the most disturbing things are the already finished rooms, that are partly unfinished. The little details are missing - cabels are hanging and the ledges are not there yet. The rainy weather makes also moody. It's already getting darker and we are still waiting the lights in the kitchen and dining room. At the beginning of September we should have electricity for the lights. Untill then we have to keep our minds sunny despite the weather.