Day 45b: Floors and Bathroom

Day 45 (14th March) brought some more surprises, which warrant another blog post. The tiled floors have now received their grouting. When we had to decide which tiles, kitchen doors, etc., we wanted, we were totally puzzled when they gave us the choice of various grouting colours. Who would've thought of that? Anyway, we thought it looks most natural if we use the good old plain grey concrete colour, which nicely sets the large floor tiles apart while still being subtle. The only thing missing is the final attachment of the tiles replacing skirting boards, which have not received their grouting yet.

Here's a view at the doorstep between utility and shower room. The shower room has smaller tiles, and an elevated door step has been made of these tiles in order to prevent water from flowing out of the shower room.

Another view of the shower shows that the wall tiles also have their grouting now. Here we chose white grouting, which disappears everywhere except around the brown tiles behind the shower.

Also the laminate in the living room has appeared now, in anticipation of a possible early delivery of the kitchen on Monday. Currently the laminate is in the kitchen only. Unfortunately it's completely covered up by corrugated cardboard for protection, so one can only see a small area where the kitchen furniture will be located. By the way, the upright package contains the sauna benches!

Day 44: Floors Tiled

On Day 44 (13th March), the floors were tiled, and that meant pretty much "access denied," because the floors inside both doors are tiled. Thus the only access was via the terrace door.

The small bathroom looks great with the tiles and the light-green paint, very fresh. We can't wait to see the rear wall painted. The paint for that we selected to match an old Finnish poster, so we'll need to get that framed soon, too.

The final photo for Day 44 shows the view into the utility room. In the far end there's the lower part of the door to the outside just visible, still covered up with protective cardboard. Off to the left at the far end, i.e. behind the protruding wall, lie the shower room with attached sauna.

Day 42: Paint, Tiles, and Sealant

This is a weird coincidence: It's Day 42 (11th March) of the construction of Our House, and it's Douglas Adams' 61st birthday! And, no, I wasn't tweaking the counting to match it, it just happened. Fantastic.

A lot of amazing things happened today. The shower room received three coats of sealant paint, which makes walls and floor watertight. Then the tiles were put on the walls. The photo above shows the area, where the shower will be, highlighted by one column of dark tiles. The funny strings everywhere are the spacers between the tiles, they will be removed later when the seams will be filled with grouting.

Here's a view of the utility room just after the first layer of sealant paint had been applied. Before, the walls were painted with a first coat in their final colour ("Soft Ice"), a very light beige.

Also three walls of the toilet were already painted in a light green shade ("Chablis"). The remaining wall opposite of the door will receiver a much stronger green ("Lime") later on. Here the floor had only received some sort of primer, and the same grey sealant paint was applied just after I took the photo.

Finally, the area where all the valves for the floor heating are, also had received the sealant paint, and then the lower end part of the hoses had been encased in plaster. The valves will eventually be hidden behind a panel screwed in front of this recessed area, which will then end up behind the wardrobe of the entrance area.

Day 36: Stuff Arrives

On Monday, 4th March (Day 36), a lot of new material arrived, and also a new subcontractor of the house company came to install it all. Quite amazing: one man will spend three weeks in Our House, and when he's done the ceilings will be installed, the walls will be painted, the floors will be done (both laminate and tiles), and also all the built-in furniture including the kitchen will be deployed. The photo above shows all the laminate "honey oak" flooring. We chose this throughout Our House, and in the kitchen it will be complemented by a work surface in the same shade of oak, while the kitchen will otherwise be white.

The next photos show the tiles we selected for the entrance area as well as the utility room, which houses geothermal boiler, ventilation system, washing machine, tumble dryer, and also the ulich.org server computer. And, by the way, this is not a funny design, it's white plaster dust from smoothing the walls, which produces these shapes on an otherwise dark olive-brown tile.

Shower room and sauna will be tiled in a very similar colour, but the tiles are smaller for technical reasons. I guess they can better follow the sloped floors towards the drains.

The next photos shows the large, white tiles, which will cover the walls of the shower room. The sauna walls came readily clad in pine wood from the factory – i.e. in the standard, classical, must-have sauna colour.

The final photo shows the smaller, white-ish tile, which will be used in the kitchen for the bit of wall between work surface and wall cupboards.

Day 26: Work on Fireplace Commences

The work on the fireplace began on Thursday, 14th February. In the meantime, the floor was left to dry out more after pouring the concrete. It needed about a week to be strong enough to be loaded with about 4.5 tons of material for the fireplace. All week, I brought bricks, cement and other materials into the house. The photo above shows the first pile of bricks, about 750 kg for the firewall, which will be placed between the fireplace and the wall to our bedroom. The second load included some more specialised bricks, and 300 kg of cement. These loads proved that our old Land Cruiser pick-up is capable of smooth rides and comfortably soft suspension – if only preloaded by at least half a ton of bricks...

The first task was to cut the floor open, in order to reveal the special foundation of the fireplace, which was put in place with the rest of the foundations, and consist of a huge reinforced concrete block. As seen on the photo, some insulation is missing, and thus the structure of the house floor is revealed. It is interesting to see that the concrete layer on the floor is really only just thick enough to cover the hoses for the floor heating, a couple of centimetre.

First, polyurethane foam was used to seal the house against the concrete foundation, then the empty spaces were stuffed with FinnFoam (yep, that one again), and then a first layer of large, light-weight bricks was put down. Another layer will follow later in order to bring the foundation up to the level of the floor in the house. This will be done later, in order to allow the first layer to dry out properly. In the meantime, there are a lot more bricks to be brought into Our House to warm up and dry out.

Day 25: Floor Drying and Roof Inspection

Not much has happened in the meantime, very little work has been done. Instead, the floor was left to dry after the concrete was poured in on Monday, 4th February. The photo shows the situation after four days (about 96 hours) of drying. The mists have gone, and so has the tropical climate in the house, which was prevalent on Tuesday and Wednesday. But the floor still shows wet patches, and the hoses of the floor heating show up as dry areas, since some lukewarm water is already circulating in most of them.

On the same day, 8th February, the building inspector of the local administration came to inspect the roof construction. We climbed through a tiny hatch into the space above the ceiling and encountered a maze of wooden beams holding the roof up. The roof is supposed to withstand a load of 300 kg of snow per square metre. Flat on the floor of this loft there are many diagonal planks, which will prevent shear. The white pipes are for the air ventilation system described earlier.

Day 24: Shiny Floors

On Monday morning, the concrete for the floor was poured in, resulting in very shiny floors. Shiny, because a thin film of water on the floor still waits for evaporation. The floor heating hoses are now encased, and they are already warm. Also, the chemical reaction in the concrete is heating the floor, which is hardening rapidly. Apparently after only a day one can walk on it, but it takes some two weeks to dry out completely. The view above is from the edge of the back door, looking across the full length of Our House all the way to the terrace door of the living room.

An additional powerful fan has been installed in order to get rid of the moisture created by the drying floor. It is essential that the floor is completely dry by the time the floor is completed. Otherwise moisture will be trapped causing the flooring material to warp, or the floor itself to create mould.

The final photo shows again the shiny floor, and two machines. The tall grey machine is the geothermal heat pump including the boiler for warm water supply, and the small white box suspended next to it under the ceiling is the air pump of the ventilation system discussed yesterday.

Day 16: Roof Almost Finished, Floors Closing

When visiting Our House today, the first thing that was obvious was the progress on the roof. As seen above, the roof is complete now. All metal sheets have been installed, and so have the bridging bits at both ends of the roof, and two air vents (little chimneys). These air vents are for the extractor fan in the kitchen (closer by) and for the air exchange system of the whole house (further away, hard to see with a tree in the background).

Also the under side of the roof overhanging the walls had been covered on the western side with the help of some makeshift scaffolding. The eastern side was just waiting to be tackled next. The image above shows the two sides in comparison in a before-after fashion.

Also the floors and walls are being worked on. Our House was delivered in four large modules, and these were placed onto the foundations with a gap of about half a metre in between them. The photo above shows the gap, seen from inside the house, above the centre wall of the foundations. The red and blue hoses are for the water supply from the boiler to the kitchen.

The next image shows the gaps in the floors being closed. First a wooden panel closes the bottom, then rock wool is filled in the gap, and finally another wooden panel is placed on top. The gap in the walls is closed in a similar fashion. The transparent blue sheets of plastic will be closed across the gap. They will help to make the house air-tight, which is a requirement for highly effective insulation. The air exchange system mentioned above will be the main way to ventilate the house. The system employs a heat exchanger in winter in order to pre-warm fresh air using the heat contained in the outflowing air.