Starting on the sauna bench, first screw a batten onto the wall, the height of the batten should be about 110 cm above the floor, on a previous post I have the image of the support behind the panel, put a 5mm spacer between the batten and the wall, this batten is 1,2m long, using 3 x 100,mm 6mm screws, this ensures it will stay in place and give enough support, the bench is designed to carry 5 normal people, or three policemen.
Main frame for the upper bench, right hand side, this is made from pine, size is 95 x 46 mm, edging is from moulded Red Alder.
Main frame, left hand side upper bench.
Upper bench, seating element.
Right hand side, upper bench, fitted and almost ready for use. the seating element is detachable, making for ease of cleaning, it is in 3 parts.
Left hand side upper bench, fitted and finished.
detail of corner element.
Middle bench, this is just a straight bench, set to a height of 70 cm above the floor,
Upper and middle benches in place.
The finished benches, with the safety rails and support leg, NOW it is ready for use.
With a small foot stool, this is about 35cm high, just makes getting up easy. After having used the sauna for 3 weeks, I can assure everyone it is really comfortable, it takes about 45 minutes to heat up to a temperature of 85 degrees, (that's at ceiling level) ambient temperature is about 70 degrees. gives an excellent steam when we throw water onto the oven. (sorry no pictures).
IKEA finally got their finger out, the hallway unit duly arrived after a few heated phonecalls, the shop is excellent, staff are very helpfull, but customer relations after the fact leave a bit to be desired, I don't know if it is``we have your money and don't really care´´ or what? It certainly didn't impress me much.
Fitting the sliding doors.
Fitted and in situ, spent more time on the phone to IKEA than it did to fit the wardrobe.
After these jobs were done, it was just a case of taking care of the list work, skirting boards and architraves,
Mitred joint on internal door frame.
Butt jointed skirting board, the reason for the butt joint is quite simple, as the wood shrinks, if it is butt jointed only a small gap will become visible, if it was mitred, both ends would shrink, making the gap larger.
Mitred joint on external corner, not feasible to do a butt joint here, as the end of the timber would be visible, not a very pleasant view.
Once all this was taken care off, it was just a question of cleaning up the mess I had made, I really am rather adept at making piles of sawdust, thankfully Tarja is just as diligent about clearing it away. after that, well we could move in, just a small matter of getting the towns engineer to give us permission. As I stated at the beginning of the post, we moved in, so take it as read that permission was given, it is really only a formality, they check that the house is safe to live in, no exposed wiring etc, hot and cold running water, well you get the idea.
The living room.
The bedroom, with Her Majesty duly in her place.
3rd bedroom.
The kitchen.
The fireplace, with moodlights, as mentioned earlier, this fireplace is connected to the ventilation system, via a steel pipe, there is an extraction vent which recirculates the hot air from the heat magazine via the ventilation machine, effectively, it raises the temperature by 2 degrees throughout the whole hose, cutting down on our necessity to use the electric heating,
OH, go on, stroke me if you must, Bandit, having a well earned sleep on Tarjas lap, she already had her first kill, at least we won't have a rodent problem.
The house itself, we still have a lot of work to do on the outside, terraces, for the all important beer drinking and barbeque's, the garden has to be set out, Tarja will be doing the planning of that over the winter, asphalt on the driveway, that will be done at the same time that the council does the main road.
Not something you see very often in a residential area, that explains the rodents and the need for a couple of hired killers.
Meanwhile, as there is no lawn to speak of, one can't let the grass grow under one feet, I decided to make a start on the garage, hopefully I can get it at least weatherproof before the onset of winter.
Main frame of garage, this is pine frame timber, 150 x 46, or 6x2 for you imperial bods.
Detail of the upper frame support timbers, rebated into the upright frame posts, double timber above door opening.
Door opening, there will be a 5 metre wide door operated by remote control, sometime in the not too distant future.
It is just a question of waiting for the roof trusses to arrive, they should be here anytime soon.
