Oh a heatwave.

We appear to have hit a speed bump in the build, either we are working to fast, or things have slowed down considerably.

We did most of the ceiling panel, just the utility room and one bedroom left for us to do, now that the heater/dryer is inside, well it is just too uncomfortable to work indoors, with the temperature at 30 deg c, not the best of environments. Work moved to the outside, not much of a temperature difference, at least the suntan improves.

PRESSURE TESTING.

TEST METER, TAKING IT UP TO 10 BAR.

Monday and Tuesday, just carried on with the ceiling panels, Wednesday, aaaargh, shopping, time to go and order more supplies, the more and more we reach completion, the more and more we have to visit different suppliers, be it appliances, wallpaper, tiles, well you get the drift, it takes up a lot of time, you can really write off that day.

Thursday and Friday, that saw work beginning on the back terrace.

We had the plumber pay us a visit too, they did the pressure test on the pipes that I had fitted earlier, fortunately, no problems, so no need to start opening up walls, also on the agenda, the fitters for the rainwater gutters and drainpipes arrived, they fitted the downpipes for the guttering, another job out of the way.

TARJA, APPLYING THE WATERPROOFING TO THE WALLS.

REINFORCING FABRIC AROUND THE TAP FITTINGS.

FIRST LAYER OF WATERPROOFING ON THE WALLS, IT NEEDS MAYBE 3 TIMES, OR UNTIL A SUITABLE THICKNESS, ABOUT 1 TO 1 AND A HALF MILLIMETERS.

Tarja did some of the waterproofing indoors, but as we had the dryers on, that work had to come to a standstill, no point in adding to the moisture content, when you are trying to lower it, one reason we cannot begin to do the wallpapering, or any of the other internal jobs, hopefully one more week should suffice, then we can crack on apace, hope so, we have to be living there in 8 weeks.

FRAMEWORK FOR BACK TERRACE.MORE FRAMEWORKFIRST TWO PARTS DONE.
THE MAIN PART, LATER (2009) THERE WILL BE AN ADDITIONAL TERRACE ON A LOWER LEVEL, THIS PART IS JUST TO GIVE US EASIER ACCESS TO THE HOUSE.

DIMENSIONS OF MAIN DECK, 5M x 2M

TEST DRIVING THE TERRACE, THE FIRST OF WHAT WE HOPE WILL BE MANY BEERS HERE.

The terrace frame was made with 100 x 50 treated timber, the decking is 28 x 95 treated timber, most of the frame was screwed with zinc treated screws, this avoids the chemicals in the timber from destroying them over time, the decking is screwed down, for some reason, if you use galvanized nails, they seem to work loose on the decking, using suitable screws avoids this problem, one less maintenance job for the future.

Second fix

Now we have started on some of the ``second fix´´.

We had to pay a visit to the timber yard, we were buying the ceiling panel, at first we were going to fit an MDF panel, upon taking a closer look at it, decided to fit wooden panel, it is Spruce panel, laquered white, so the woodgrain still shows through it, it was quite a bit more expensive than the MDF, about 5 euros a square metre, that put us 600 euros over the budget, it is a lot better looking though.

Ceiling panel, main bedroom.

Ceiling panel, front porch.

View from front porch.

Tarja has finished doing the base painting on the inside, we have the dryers in place now, we must get the place dry enough so we can do the waterproofing , the humidity at the moment is 64%, that has to come right down. The dryer works on the principle, it sucks air into the machine, extracts the moisture from the air, then expels the water into the drain, pumping dry air back into the room, we have 3 of these dryers, it should take about 2 weeks for the place to be dry enough for us to continue. It would be better if we could just leave the site for a couple of weeks, just seal the place up and let the dryers do their job, unfortunately, we are now working to a timetable, we have agreed to sell our present house, so we must be out by the end of September.

Most of the external work has now been done, a little touch up on the paintwork, still have the flashing to do on the gable ends, then another visit to the timber yard to by all the treated timber for the decking and steps.

The almost finished exterior.

Continuation

This week was just a continuation from the previous.

Tarja is still working on the internal walls, getting them ready for final decoration, be it painted or papering, a very time consuming job, she should be ready next week sometime.

I just carried on, doing the finals on the outside, mainly the corner boards, window boards and the two round pillars we have on the back terrace.

Whenever it started to rain, I just moved indoors and found something to occupy myself with.

Preparation of the pillar, plywood sablon, cut to the right diameter, this is for the panel to be nailed to, there are 5 on each pillar.First couple of panels in place.Nailing it fast.Almost there.The finished article. Later on a treated timber decking will be laid out in this area.front porch, window decoration in place.

Stone effect tiles, these are on one of the Sauna walls, the heater will be placed against this wall.Close up of the tiles.The finished wall.

This is the last of the tiling that can be done at the moment, we must hire some dryers, the reason being, there is still a lot of moisture in the floor, the air humidity is also relatively high at this time, no where for the moisture to evaporate into, we cannot do any waterproofing until the base is quite dry, about 1½%, so quite a ways to go. probably need the dryers for about 3 weeks.

Still, there is plenty to be getting on with, the ceilings can be panelled, just as soon as Tarja has finished painting, the Sauna can be made, just have to get to the timber yard and collect the materials required.

Things are still on track, not fell behind schedule yet, hard to believe, the floor was only laid 5 weeks ago.

Something new

The great thing about building is, you get to do something different all the time, you know when you wake up that the day is going to be different from the previous.

Monday was no exception to this. It was time to fit the fireplace, this was a first for me, our previous houses were completely different, we had a brick built in our first, a soapstone in our present, this time around it was an element built around the complete unit.

Steel baseplate for fireplace, breather pipe protruding through.The HEART, as it is called, a completely sealed unit. Above is the vent connecting the fireplace to the ventilation system.Breather pipe attached.The heat magazine.Stone casing fitted into the heart.Door fitted to the heart, this door has a seal around it, making it impossible for smoke to escape.The first chimney element, it is a steel pipe, encased in fireproof and insulated wool, with an outer pipe covering the whole.External shell, some elements in place, others waiting to be lifted. the shell is made from concrete, it acts as a store for the heat, there is a pipe connecting the heat store to the ventilation system, thereby recycling heat around the house, hopefully, as stated earlier, our heating costs will be reduced.Joni and I lifting the main casing element into place, there is a heat seal fitted directly on top of this, ensuring that the heat is forced out of the front grill and not directly onto the ceiling.The completed assembly, the upper part is purely decorative, it just covers up the chimney, all in all, it took 4 hours to install.

The chimney, as it passes through the attic.

The outer casing on the roof, blame the Swedish designer for the weird look. Again, this job took about 4 hours to complete, the fire is now ready for action, as there was nothing in the way of bricklaying involved, a minimum drying time required for the adhesives is a couple of days, this job was a lot simpler than I had imagined.

So never be put off, just because you have never done it before, the fitter wanted 1120 euros to do this, not only did we learn something new, we saved a bundle in the process.

Tuesday and Wednesday, that saw us starting on the ventilation systems insulation, we bought specially manufactured joints for the angles and joint fittings, they are a bit on the pricey side of things, but they do save a lot of time and there is little wastage, if you make a sablon to cut your own, then there is quite a lot of left over bits, they cannot be used anywhere. We bought normal sheets for doing the straight sections, these come in rolls, 7m long and 900mm wide. just cut to the desired length and wrap around the pipe. This is a really uncomfortable job, you are in cramped conditions, the material itself is quite irritating, if it's a warm day, well enjoy it.

It is just one of the many mundane, but important jobs that need to be done.

Ventilation pipes, wrap around insulation.Some more of the same.The ventilation machine, all rigged up, we wont be switching it on until the build is complete, too much dust, no desire to have to clean the system this soon.

Thursday, for a change, I got to work with wood, it is becoming a bit of a novelty, I started on doing some of the finals on the outside.

Detail of weather board, on the base of the house.Corner boards and weather board.Window decoration, as the house is manufactured in Lapland, we opted for the traditional Lapland window decoration.Bedroom and Bay windows completed.

In the meantime, Tarja was continuing with the joint filling, getting things ready for the base painting, so I can't really complain about doing something mundane, I couldn't find the level of concentration required to do this task, not to the same standard that Tarja sets.

Tarja, taking on one of the joints.The first coat of paint, next time, Tarja will go around with the halogen lamp, checking for any imperfections in the jointing, if any she will repair them and repaint, it certainly gives a different feeling when a coat of paint is applied, puts a whole new aspect on the attitude. On every build there comes a period when depression sets in, you have worked like a sledge dog, nothing seems to be happening, it's the same every time, one coat of paint and your spirits lift.

One other thing of note, the men arrived to fit the gutters and ladders to the house, they will come back later and fit the downpipes, once I've fitted all the corner boards.

Rainwater gutter, above is the snow stopper.Snow stopper in the corner. This is for the obvious reason, no one wants a couple of hundred litres of wet snow down their neck on the Monday morning. Really puts a damper on the day, it is really quite a job to shift it, if it falls off the roof, it gets really hard packed, better leave it up there to melt in its own time.Ladder giving access to the roof, there is also a bridge to the chimney, this is mandatory in Finland, the chimney sweep does not carry ladders around with him.

That takes care of another week, some things interesting a lot of the things mundane, that's just the nature of the job.