Category Archives: House

Painting and Floors

As you might have deduced from the previous post, we have been painting. The worst part of the painting was definitely the wooden ceiling in the first floor. It was a relationship test. We passed. Favors were promised.

And when the painting was done we put in flooring…

Haustechnik

Awww Yeah! The things of that make a house function are being installed.

The big bundle of orange cables hanging down next to the fuse box are CAT7 network cables. I know, I know… Everything is wireless these days. That is true but wifi networks still suck. Mainly due to security and stability. I’m running cable so I can set up a secure media server and do it reliably. I’ll have to buy a few patch fields and a nice switch and wire it up myself, but I know how to do that.

Erdwärme Angeschlossen

Things are happening. Our new heating system will be geothermal. This has caused a lot of headaches due to the advise received from so called experts that were talking out of their ass. There are a few things you need to calculate when you decide to go geothermal. Things like transmission-heat-loss values and the thickness of insulation in your house and the types of bricks in your walls are just a few of the kinds of things used to calculate the dimensions of a heating system. Continue reading

Drywall Getting Spackled

Finishing drywall seems like something I could do. I watched all kinds of youtube tutorial videos, how hard could it be? Well, pretty hard I guess. I have a few pals who’ve decided at various times in the past that they could spackle and sand drywall. It didn’t turn out so good. So when I asked them about their experience, they asked me a few questions: Continue reading

Trockenestrich

Yesterday I installed about 35m2 of dry flooring on the top floor. Each piece was 2.5 cm thick, 120cm X 60cm. Each one weighed a little over 22kg. It was a huge pain in the ass, but we got it done. I was really sore this morning.

When the room is done, I will either put up a wall across the room flush with the hole where the stairs will come up or I will put up walls around the stairs with a door at the top. Either way there needs to be some sort of separation for when I make loud music. Continue reading

More Carpentry Work…

Where the old and new parts of the house come together, there needs to be a barrier built to hide all the old bricks and new pipes, ducts and cables. Basically, this will be a thick and sturdy drywall construction with a few panels that provide access to various things like a ventilation ducts, floor heating distributor and indirect lighting fixtures.

So we spent the weekend starting the framework for the wall. For pics, read on. Continue reading

Building Stairs

So, a lot has been happening. A new site manager (Bauleiter) is helping us out and has opened our eyes to the myriad of mistakes made by the old one. Those mistakes are getting corrected slowly but surely and progress is being made. The roof is now totally filled with insulation. The house is being heated. The brick exterior is being restored to its former glory. There are still a few legal issues to get sorted, but they are getting sorted.

Yesterday, I built stairs from one part of the attic to the other. It was just the basic structure so that we’ll know where they will be so we can plan other stairs and wall structures underneath it. Our Bauleiter helped me out and we got it done in about 4-5 hours. It was not very physically demanding, but mentally it helped remind me of the hard work that is just around the corner as we prepare to rev this machine back up and get it finished.

IMG_2051

For more pics, read on. Continue reading