Day 52: No Chimney

Today we were supposed to build the chimney through the roof to its final height. However, the morning started at –25°C, but the temperature rose to only –2°C at lunch time. It was a perfect, beautiful, sunny day, but at the height of the roof the wind was so cold that work was not feasible. Thus we did some preparations and installed some planks on the roof to move about safely, and we shall try again tomorrow.

However, today the interior got the finishing touches, which means that all skirting boards were installed, and the remaining corners were tidied up. Also, the windows and doors got their final touches: the wooden strips were put in place, which hide the gaps between door frames and adjacent plaster boards. Also, the blinds where released and tested. Above is a view of two of the living room windows.

Another team from the house company arrived today. One of them will do the plumbing, i.e. place sinks and toilets and install taps, while the other will do all the electrical stuff. Today the latter managed to get all electrical, aerial, and internet sockets installed, and most of the switches. The photo above shows the corner where our TV will be located and where all three types of sockets are present.

Also the thermostats appeared in most rooms, thus we can now control our floor heating in a per-room fashion. Nice.

By the way, I learnt this morning that our houseshow will take place on Thursday, 11th April 2013, between 1700h and 1900h. Then the sales person will be present and anyone can come and have a look.

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 23: A Name on the Door.

On Monday, 28th January (Day 19), a new team of workers began with the installation of the ventilation system, and with the further insulation of the roof. In modern houses built here in the North, air does not get exchanged by periodically opening all windows or some such. Also, the houses are built nearly completely air tight, and therefore ventilation must be enforced. This happens through a series of large pipes installed above the ceiling under the roof. Modern ventilation systems include heat exchangers, which use the outflowing warm air to pre-heat the fresh air from outside and thereby conserving energy.

During this past week (Days 19 to 23), also some electrical work has been done. Next to all outside doors there are lights installed now, which gives everything a finishing touch.

Upon closer inspection, we found that there's even a name on the door now: the door bell button is installed, but it does not do anything yet. However, we have now become one of the large amount of families in Finland, which all go by the same family name. I guess our future address will have to include a completely useless "c/o Friedland" – useless, because half the population is in care of Friedland.

The most impressive progress is the installation of all that hose pipe on the floor, which forms the floor heating. The photo above shows the distribution point from which hoses branch out into every room, and also the return flow is coming back together here. Controlling everything is a series of valves, one for each room, which are remote-controlled from thermostats in the rooms. The ball of electrical cabling is visible behind the folio, and so are red and blue valves for warm outflow and cooler return flow, respectively.

Here one can see one of the key features of floor heating: the hoses are closer together along the walls and windows, and further apart in the middle of the room. This makes sense, since the loss of heat is larger near walls and windows. The strange excluded area in the top-left is reserved for the fireplace.

The next step is to fill the entire floor area with very liquid concrete to make a smooth, even surface, which will eventually be covered by the flooring.

A lot has happened in the past week, but due to time constraints, blogging daily was not possible. Normal service will resume this week – we hope.

Day 17: Front Porch and Floor Heating

Today the roof was finished. Even the rain gutters were installed, and the house looks quite complete on first sight. Work was still in progress on the roof of the front porch as well as the covering of the ridge of the roof.

Another lorry came today, but delivering only a tiny palette with hoses staked high. These are the hoses, which will become the floor heating. The floor heating will be installed next week, after which the hoses will be encased in concrete. Somehow I can't imagine that this small amount of hose is enough...

We got a phone call today indicating that the bricks and other materials for the fireplace will be delivered tomorrow. Those won't quite fit on one palette: there'll be about four tons of material coming. Tomorrow we will also have the first visit from the Sodankylä building inspector to see if the roof was done properly, and our mason will drop by to plan the construction of the fireplace.