Over the half way point

Starting to see some light at the end of the tunnel.
Work progressing well on the outside, another week should see it nearing completion, or at least all the main aspects of the exterior.
Indoors, we have put up the interior walls, drywall boards on one side, electrician has paid us a visit or two, now the majority of the wiring is in place, switch boxes fitted, so we can get on and insulate the internal walls and apply the boards to the other sides.
We have had the fireplace built, it's made from Finnish soapstone, a light grey in colour with a steel chimney, we need to buy an offset element for the chimney as it is going to penetrate the roof at the wrong place.
The fittings have been made for the taps and plumbing so another job taken care off.
Started putting the boards down on the outer terrace. but I probably wont get it all finished before moving day, it will probably wait until next spring.



Fireplace elements, these are precut in the factory, all that is required is assembly by a suitably qualified person. (not me)




More of the elements-





coming together









nearly ready



just the doors to fit and it's ready for action, 3 hours to assemble



there we have it





How handy, an indoor bbq





The fireplace works on the storage heater principle, 10kg of firewood is enough on any given day to heat an area of about 60m2 in our case that would be the two bedrooms, livingroom, kitchen and hallway.



Spaghetti wars, the day after the electrician





wiring hidden in the wall recess




wall studs and wiring in the bathroom area






tap boxes, just need to fit the taps now.







Exterior wall boarded, not with normal "Gypsum" board, this is a stone based water resistant board, similar properties to asbestos, without the health risk






Screwing of normal gypsum board onto the studs.










Now to the exterior.

Back of house, as high as we can go without scaffolding





Before, front corner






after, front corner all done, facia and soffit boards in place





Front terrace, soffit boards underway




Nearly there






cutting the last board




another small part completed, Tarja proceeded to paint it for the final time after we had nailed it into place, she is following along behind us to do the finishing touches.





Facia boards



Tarja, cracking on with the painting, 3kms of wood panel went into this house, along with another 1.2 km of facia and soffit boards, it has been painted 3 times, glad I'm not a painter.






detail of corner.




corner after the list has been fitted.





Small roof over the utility room door














Tinplate flashing on windows










Placement of the terrace boards.






Rami, doing the terrace boarding. all I need to do now is a buy a sun lounger and a crate or two.

Busy time had by all.

A busy few weeks have gone by, busy being the operative word, the house has its roof, windows and doors, even more importantly locks, so the building can be secured. Done the first layer of insulation and work is underway on the outer cladding.
We are at the 50% stage, next 20% goes quite fast, then the last 30 which is the finishing touches takes a lot of time, still it's a good feeling to have achieved so much in 12 weeks.

Ari and his son laying out the packets of tiles ready for laying, these are concrete tiles, they have a special surface on them to protect them, it has a 30 year guarantee, so I would expect never to have to do anything else with them.

MONIER PROTECTOR



lifting the tile packets off the pallet, we had a crane on hand to lift the pallets up, makes the job a lot easier.




House with the roof done on one side. Excellent weather for it,




While the boys were cracking on with the roof, Ari and I proceeded to get on with the windows and doors, living room and kitchen were the big heavy ones, the kitchen in particular as it is triple glazed with toughened glass, it took 4 of us to lift it into position.




Living room window, 2.1 x 1.6m





from the inside





The other on the gable





from the inside




Kitchen window and door, this will give access to the glass terrace.




Door to the main terrace.




Door from utility room to back garden.





Main door.





all windows and doors fitted




That is the building secured now. It is now time to start on the first layer of insulation on the inside walls, this consists of sheets of ´´rockwool´´ it is a fire resistant insulation made from fibres taken from molten stone, in the first instance the insulation is 150 mm thick, on top of this comes a vapour seal then horizontal battens. After the electrician visits we can then do the second layer of insulation, this time 50mm then drywall boarding on top.



Packs of insulation material.




What it looks like, 150mm




The sheets come in a standard size to fit the normal frame width, in this instance the frame is set at 60cm intervals, the insulation is 56.5cm to fit snugly between the frame posts.




fitting the insulation, it is important not to compress it, therefor retaining the insulation properties





Just tuck it nicely into position.



For the places where the frame posts are not 60cm this can occur for various reasons, mainly the position of the door and window frames, then it's a knife job, using a long bladed fairly stiff knife get as straight a cut as possible,




How it looks when its finished. The insulation is carried on up to the attic space, this avoids what we call a cold bridge.




Insulation packs in the attic space, these will be fitted between the roof trusses and the ceiling, on top of this will come 30 to 40cm of granule insulation.





Vapour seal, insulation sheets up in the attic space.



Vapour seal on wall and ceiling, any holes made in this will be taped closed.





vapour seal and horizontal battens in place, just require an electrician do do his thing and it can be drywalled.




It was time to move to the outside, start to take care of that 3km of cladding timber, this is Spruce panel, 28mm thick with a profile height of 75mm.
It is nailed straight onto the battens that were fitted same time as the weatherboard, the battens ensure the free transfer of air, avoiding moisture build up, which in turn extends the life of the timber.


Panel in profile





Corner of terrace area, I will be making a special list to cover the corner.




Around the front door and window.




Front of house done as high as I can reach at present, I will do all way around the house this way, then a visit to the tool hire to get the scaffolding back on site.




One more small job to do for this week, I have to assemble one of the dividing walls in the house, this is the firewall, as the fitter is due to arrive on Wednesday to fit the fireplace and chimney, this may be lightly problematic, we are having a little difficulty getting the chimney, it was due to arrive last week, unfortunately, last week has come and gone and still no chimney, if it does not arrive tomorrow, then we will probably have to cancel the fitter, when he would be able to come again is any ones guess.

Firewall, this is just a normal stud wall, the exception being is the board that is screwed to it, it is a stone based fireproof material. Once it is fitted I will be facing it with ceramic tiles to make it even more durable.




Half way tiled, cement based glue applied with a toothed trowel.


The finished article, now all I need is a chimney.




Next on the agenda, finish off the cladding, or as much as possible, drywalls on the outer walls, do all the studs for the internal walls, fit the plumbing sockets for taps etc, electrician can come back and fit switch boxes, finish off the drywalling. Then I might have a beer or two.