We
did not have the best of days today if you think about days where we keep track
of all that happens - but when it comes to things that happen today seem to be a
very Great day!!
Progress |
Last updated: 10 Mar 2010 15:15 |
This page is made as a way to present pictures and progress info related to the house building. Due to my massive picture posting I've parted this page into months, below you see the links to the pictures from the months passed.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
31 August 2006
We
did not have the best of days today if you think about days where we keep track
of all that happens - but when it comes to things that happen today seem to be a
very Great day!!
Tore and I
had to be in Oslo this morning, we left 0900 and just about 20 minutes earlier
the concrete truck had arrived. The problem was that he went to the neighbor
first, so no one was at our property when we left.
Which means I would get no
pictures... :-(
So, I
mounted the video camera in our kitchen, pointing out the window and looking
right at the cellar. Loaded a new 60 minute tape, connected the power cable and
turn the recording on and left the house hoping I would catch some stuff.
I did catch some work, Øyvind came
at about 0912 and nothing happens after about 0929 so I guess I got it all. LOL
In
addition to the cellar the hole that was dug yesterday in front of Steinar's
room was filled up to the top of the bedrock with concrete, there where made a
concrete foundation at the entry to our property - a little more distance from
the road then we had thought, but still more then good - and as a bonus, Øyvind
had made sure we got filled in a "waterhole" we had under the part
where a extension to the living room will be, and under the future deck.
I didn't even noticed it (the other
side of the cabin from where we normally wanders around), but it was pointed out
by Øyvind that it was done also - very nice of you Øyvind!
After we
came back, and after I had looked over a package from the USA with a great book
filled with info and pictures related to the Portland Gold Mine in Cripple
Creek, I went out to document the job done while we where gone - and sometime
later Øyvind came and did the "top coating" work of the cellar floor.
Tomorrow
evening or so we might get the walls set up, if not next week. If the walls come
up the plan is to fill in the rest of the house area from Tuesday and at end of
next week make the concrete foundation plate for the foundation for the
walls....
Till tomorrow or next week, here is a lot of pictures of today's changes:
 Here you see concrete foundation for the garbage bins, safely placed. |
 Not so "out in to the road" as I had in mind/imagined, but as Øyvind said, if it had been made where I had put the sand/rock yesterday, the big trucks would not have entered our property & we would have had more problems to deal with. |
 This is the hole from yesterday, near the door to Steinar's room. |
 Same hole filled in, just a different view as this is a more "Birdseye view" - taken from the door to the extra room more or less. |
 Last look at this filled in hole - the white in upper left background is sunlight bedrocks I think. |
 And here is all we waited for, the cellar floor! :-) It was a nice feeling to see it like this, so tiny yet so big in a way, hard to describe! |
 I would not be me if I didn't take lot of shots of such events like the "making of a floor", or more like, "the floor that was made without me present"... LOL So, prepare, this is not the last picture of this floor... |
 I took this picture because I liked the way the color and light acted. |
 Looking toward the shed and the lower part of the floor - there is a sink in there somewhere... |
 Northeast corner of the basement floor, the old entry to the cabin is partly visible in the background. |
 Then we need a new overview of this floor, you can probably tell I'm also fascinated by this stuff... LOL |
 Another picture I took just because I liked the light and color combinations and the way they act. |
 Here you see Øyvind in full work with "coating" the floor... |
 Have no idea what it is called, but it was used to "steel brush" the floor.. |
 It's vibrating and chopping, and it didn't look like the most comfortable job one can do.. |
 Neither did this, but more due to the sitting position and the hand working that took place. :-) |
 Øyvind went over the floor with his "helicopter" several times. |
 But, as you see from this picture of the northeast corner (compare with the one a little above), it was worth it I think. Kinda hard to say maybe. |
 End of the day, and Øyvind and Tore have covered up the work under this green thingy here... LOL |
|
 This is the bonus fill place, if you see here, you see how it was before |
 The southwestern part of the new house, we had a big pond here.. |
 Now hiding under half of this concrete, good to be rid of it. |
30 August 2006
For
two weeks ago we more or less had a long break, 1 week ago we had a miserable
day waiting for someone that never showed up - and today, we been quite busy.
How life can behave it self. LOL
The part
about busy is mostly our own work, but we did get to see Øyvind and chat a few
words with him. :-) He even got time to dig up a hole in front of the
entry to Steinar's room - while we had to eat lunch due to Tore's diabetes.
Øyvind
came and went within 10 minutes - but it was enough for him to dig that hole and
show us where the bedrock was in that area. Not as deep as I had hoped for, but
looks like it is deep enough for use to be able to use it for the thing we had
in mind.
The bedrock slopes towards the
building, but we decided not to put the toilet against the structure, but
instead have a opening there for the entry/walkway and instead build a new house
for the toilet part - partly due to the need of having steps to get up and above
the ground, and to make the entry to the extra room a little better/easier.
Rest of
the day was spent working on our own property by us. Tore spent a few hours
before lunch moving some earth/soil around to cover up the telephone cable a
little better in a few places where Øyvind had not been able to get to with his
digger.
In addition he and mostly me have
been working on a hole Øyvind dug on Monday where we want to make a concrete
foundation to place the garbage bins on.
We dug it clean from earth down to
bedrock with a shovel, then picked some rock and threw it down and rest of the
hole was filled with many loads of a form for rock and sand mixed together - we
had a big pile as it was leftovers from when Øyvind fixed the road where he had
crossed it with the telephone cable.
I hope it is good enough to use as
a foundation for a concrete foundation, but we see what Øyvind say tomorrow.
The plan
is to have the concrete work done tomorrow, Øyvind been busy at the neighbor's
place filling in and making a form for the concrete floor for his garage,
hopefully he will have time to do similar for our other places tomorrow morning
before the concrete truck arrives.
We have to
leave for Oslo in the morning, so I have a bad feel for this things, as I'm
afraid I will not be around to catch the work done and see what they do and so
on. Cross my fingers so to speak as I so want to be able to document all the
changes that takes place up here.
But, that is tomorrow, here is the pictures from today:
 Here you see the hole Øyvind dug to see if we could fit a foundation for the toilet here instead. I have a idea in my head, we see in time if it will be a good one or not... |
 The hole looks like it can suit the plans, and it looks like Tore also want to use it for the toilet, and I more or less do agree with him. I'm just a little skeptical to use a few steps of up to around 60cm. |
 Looking toward the cabin |
 Rock in the hole along the road. |
 The hole filled in... |
 Same area as seen from the road out from our property, looks like a nice place to put the garbage bins, make a concrete foundation, put up some wood walls/roof, perfect! |
 Some earth to cover the cable... |
 Tore did keep busy earlier... |
28 August 2006
Weekend is
over for this time, yesterday we had nice weather with sun and all - today we
woke up to more rain... :-(
Øyvind
did come by around 0830, first he did a test dig at the north side of the shed
where we have Steinar's (Tore's brother) room to see if there would be enough
depth there to relocate the "old toilet" system that we uses today -
but of course, the stupid bedrock show it's ugly face just below the top soil..
:-(
So, it got time for a rethink -
have a idea, but the time was not with us today so maybe tomorrow will show how
that idea might work out.
With the
"non win" situation regarding the toilet Øyvind moved on to the other
dig operation this day - to dig a hole where our roadway enter the road passed
our property to make a foundation for a later small shed covering the garbage
bins we have - would make it easier for the garbage truck and all.
Still more bedrock shows up, but
here we think it will work out.
Rest of
the day Øyvind spent digging for a neighbor that needs a garage structure, but
as that yielded so much earth/soil we where asked if we needed some as the
neighbor did not - and it ended up with Øyvind driving of in his truck to
return a little over an hour later with a tractor and hanger for it that he used
to transport I think 6 loads of earth to a fill where the telephone cable was
partly buried under sand along the exposed bedrock on a slope.
In between all this we had some sun
- in the afternoon quite much sun actually, but rain did not quit so we hade a
few of those moments where it got wet.
The
concrete work is now postponed again, last estimate & plan is to do it early
Thursday morning - before 0900 we're told, which is good as we need to leave for
a trip to Oslo that morning at that time. Have a doctor's appointment for both
me and Tore.
So, as Monday
again ends - 3 weeks after we where told the digger would come next day - we sit
here and worries over how long time all this takes. And Tore's friend in Oslo
have no time to help us with paper work at least not until the weekend... Money
is the foremost biggest problem though, followed with how to make everything
happen in a good way - we have a problem with the roof on the cabin already, it
let waters in from time to time...
But, enough of that, for those who likes to see boring pictures of earth digging and similar things, here are today's pictures! LOL:
 Here a view of the digger trying to find the depth along the northwall |
 Here you see how fast the bedrock appears - effectively kills my idea... |
 Fully dug up, no chance here at all, except maybe in front of a window. |
 So, Øyvind put back most of the earth and left the scene of this dig. |
 Here he tries the other dig, out at the entry to our property. |
 A small hole maybe, but will as far as we can tell do the job we need. |
 Here we see the tractor hanger dumping it's second load of soil. |
 And here is the tractor it self - a John Deere of course... LOL |
 The whole consist so to speak. |
 Bring in the digger to level out the earth and soil, all to cover up the scene where the telephone cable now is laying very deep.. LOL |
 A view from the road, you see the sand in the front of the picture, covering up the telephone cable. |
 I'm fascinated by this digger and the all that - but this picture was taking just because of the view you see. |
 End of day, due to rain the hanger was left in the open position. |
25 August 2006
Another
weekend is here with the ending of Friday, and still the rain is messing things
up and complicates and bores us to death... :-(
Øyvind
came a little over 0900 this morning, in the rain... Tore had left for some
grocery shopping, but I wanted to be here so I had in the meantime started to
work on the drawing to show Øyvind where I imagine the inner support walls to
be - and he looked very happy when he got that drawing this morning.
Due to the rain and a phone call he
received not much happen at first, but during the day he have played carpenter
and made up a frame for the cellar floor and filled in some more gravel and
compressed it a little.
Thanks to
the rain and me thinking first right then very wrong I was not able to get
pictures of the pipe/tube work under what is to become our cellar floor, so Tore
and I open up the gravel to have a look at it again, and then we put the gravel
back. Tore was not able to start the compactor machine, but as the concrete work
is not scheduled to be until Tuesday I have a feel Øyvind would still go over
the floor on Monday with his little compactor. LOL
So, at
least something happen today, not much, a lot of talk, a lot of rain, the
builder Reidar Furuseth stopped by, but just for a brief stop. I asked him about
how important it was to get all the money at once on the offer he made us, and
his answer was not so good in my eyes, but truthful and quite possible the best
we will get as he said it was not that easy one to answer.
He also told us that we need to
send it all the paperwork real soon now - so I been after Tore again with the paperwork's
as after all, he is the owner up here.
Till next week, here is the few pictures I have, hopefully this projects start picking up some speed soon as it sure looks to be a long and expansive one and time is money they say. :-)
 From the kitchen window I could see Øyvind at work filling in more gravel to raise the floor even more up - not entirely agreeing with him there, but he knows this stuff better then me, so maybe his dislike of the bedrock and wish of having a distance to it is a important one. |
 Here we see the back of Øyvind busy with his compactor - a noise maker used to pack the gravel in between the cracks and opening of the rocks below to make a compact surface to put concrete on to make a floor or foundation plate. |
 After his "play" with this tool it was time to "play" a carpenter. LOL |
 And this is how it all looked when he was ready with his hammer and saw - the nice marking our of how the cellar floor will more or less look like, a nice little room to move into.. |
 As I was not able to get this picture before Øyvind filled in the cellar, Tore dug it up again after Øyvind left so we could get this pictures of the pipes and bends as next week, they get submerged below the floor. |
 The bends and pipes as seen from the east side, all those bends on the right allows the drain to be height adjusted according to Øyvind. |
 Last look at the plumbing... |
24 August 2006
Thursday
is over, one week ago I was at my parents place, today I been at our future
house site and more or less been bored to death. Wish we had stayed in Sandnes
longer.
The rain is depressing, but we got
to see some sun today - like 5 minutes or so! :-)
Øyvind
and Egil came by around 1300 in the rain, spent some time indoors with us
waiting for me to make them a new drawing where all the measurements was the
outside ones, not the center measurements.
Didn't take that long, the long
part was waiting for me while I answered the phone call from my parents. :-)
Due to
rain and lateness of the day Øyvind was not able to do so much, he moved some
of his earlier rock fills as his marking up of the cellar show that a corner of
it was in a big pile of rock. LOL
Marked up the back wall location,
hopefully tomorrow the weather will permit the concrete work - and in preparation
for it Øyvind will make some woodwork to hold the concrete into it's place
tomorrow morning.
So, nothing of big interest here, only 3 pictures to show from the whole day...
 Here you see the white paints that marks up the location of the cellar, not a very large one, but good enough for the use we need it for. |
 Øyvind needed to remove some rock pile up he had put in earlier, so here he is having some fun. LOL |
 The cellar as seen from the kitchen window in the cabin. |
23 August 2006
Wednesday
again, and it is still mostly raining
all day today also! :-( We came back from Sandnes and my parents place yesterday
as the deal with Øyvind was that he was to come by here this morning to do some
work.
Well, he
never showed up, and it was not until We phoned Egil Åstad that we learned that
things did not go according to plan... Øyvind was to come by this afternoon
with some iron bars for the concrete work, but that was also about it. And yes,
he did come, dropped it off, had a chat with us and left in the rain again
We learned
from Øyvind that the weather had not been that great while we where away those
6 days, been more rain then hoped for, and therefore Øyvind was delayed with at
least 1 day. The hope was to come by tomorrow morning around 0800, but if not he
would come some later that morning, at least before lunch if things didn't get
to messed up for him.
The weather forecast is not that
good anyway, but hope is to do the concrete work before the weekend.
So, this single picture is all that I have to show of from this boring, awful day!
 Here is the iron bars, more to come tomorrow we're told. |
16 August 2006
Wednesday
and the 7th day is now over, and if the last two days of rain should matter, it
was not in the direction of giving us a nice day today - because it been raining
all day long today also! :-(
I'm tired of it, it makes me sad
and lazy, it reminds me of autumn of 2000 when I moved to Norway from Belgium
and it rained for months... Dreary feeling and makes me wish I was home in the Netherlands
and not in this country where winter soon will set in...
But,
Øyvind was able to do some work today also, but the weather messes up his plans
too, and it was not the most productive day. Some fixing of the road, more tons
of rocks, and a new drainage pipe under the house for easier drainage of the
roofs was about all that happen today.
We spent quite some deal talking
under rain while waiting on the builder that never came - had said he was coming
today - and even Øyvind was waiting on him as he needed to speak with him about
how the foundation should be built and so on.
Ended up with Øyvind calling him
up and getting the details over the phone.
As Øyvind
need to do some work other places we now enters a still stand or vacation for a
week. Agreed with Øyvind that he comes back next Wednesday, which gives Tore
and me a little better time to drive to the west coast and spend some time with
my family - and it gave Øyvind some more time to do some of the projects he
needs to have done too.
So, as we enter a free time, here is the latest boring pictures - not so many today. LOL
 Telephone phone with our cable leaving the pole and going through that black pipe and down onto the rock and then down under the road. |
 Due to all the rain lately we have some pools of water on the bedrock, here is one of them, about the same area as Tore's computer will end up in the office... |
 Øyvind have been dumping some tons of rocks today also, and here he is making a larger flat area for the later house extension. |
 The area for the office, bedroom, and the technical room. |
 Here is our water supply, a 30 meter deep drilled hole where we last week measured the bottom 12 meter with water. To the right of this we partly see a redbrown pipe, this is a drainage pipe for later use for the roofs on the northwest side. |
 We see the water supply again, and the drainage pipe, and the trench for the further advances of the drainage towards where I stand and out below my tower. |
 A second pipe is laid down, and it is time for filling in the trench a little further north... :-) |
 Then a 45 degree bend was installed, and another length of pipe which was cut shorter due to not needing a 6m length, and last, a new 45 degree bend this time upwards to be used for the roof drainage. |
 Last thing Øyvind did was to fill some of the light rock down into the basement area for start of the foundation under the hopefully made basement next week. |
 Was out in the rain some time later after Øyvind left and took this two pictures showing the hole where our basement shall come, a tiny one used only for the sewer plant. |
 Last picture shows the whole cabin and the start foundation more or less for the garage part, even if this will be filled up even more with rocks. |
15 August 2006
Tuesday
and the 6th day is now over, and if yesterday was a wet day, I must admit today
was also a wet day... Been raining all day till late evening, a little periods
with hardly any noticeable rain, but most day with noticeable light rain.
Still, things got done, but the rain stops any concrete
work from being done.
Øyvind came at 0900 this morning, he had hardly got
his truck into our yard before two people working for the telephone company came
and took down the old aerial telephone line and connected the new in ground line
to the house by using the old line around the house (temporary) and at the pole
where the aerial was connected.
With that part done there is hardly any obstacles to
stop any truck from entering our yard, so now a concrete truck can come by - if the
weather clears up that is as Øyvind want to have no rain to make a better work
all t once instead of having to spread it over several jobs.
We see what will happen tomorrow, the builder is also
suppose to come by then, and while Øyvind have another job he needs to do on Thursday
and Friday we hope that things we will learn tomorrow will help us take
decisions for the next weeks to come or so about the house and where we go when
and so on.
But, that is tomorrow, for now, here is today's pictures:
 More work was done on the backside, the southeast side where the sewer pipe and drainage pipe enters the ground on the edge of our property. |
 That trench was filled in with light rock, a math, some heavy rock and then earth on top. |
 Due to the rain I wasn't much out, but I'm still fascinated with the unloading of rock so I shot this image from the kitchen window.. |
 More work pictures... |
 Even more earth moving work |
 As last, moving earth back... |
 On the way to grab more rock... |
 My darling hiding the camera from the rain, standing guard down at the fence and end of pipes... |
 Dumping the rock he collected... |
 With the trench on the backside more or less filled in, it was time to hide more of the telephone cable, here Øyvind sneaks his way into the bushes... |
 Dumping sand on the cable... |
 Dumping a mixture of sand & earth |
 When all was over and Øyvind had left us, this was the look at the end of the sewer line (brown-red pipe) and the drainage line (black pipe) down at the fence. |
 Looking up towards the cabin & shed, and the rockwork that has taken place - more then 170 ton of rocks rest here now in the holes. |
 View from ground level... |
 The view up from the fence |
 View from about ground level, there is a lot of rocks here... |
 Same, but now in view height and here you see the basement hole. |
 But, as you see, we will need many more truck loads of rocks... |
 Some water collected on the bedrock, but all will be filled later. |
14 August 2006
Weekend
is over, the same is the 5th day and it's been a wet, cold but productive day!
Øyvind
came in the rain this morning with a load of sand, and a "stone
picker" to try to pick away some bedrock that is kinda not so below the
ground level that we all feel all safe with it there...
But, first order of the day was to
dig a trench for the telephone cable, first across the road then along the
bedrock and up towards the cabin. With that done it was time to dig the trench
for the power from the other side, down the hill he went and dug he did. :-) He
even ended up ripping up an old pipe down there while covering up his trench, so
it was time to some fixing also. LOL
Near end
of the day it was time to try pick some rock. Noisy and dusty affair, some of
the rock did crack open and broke away, but most of it seemed very hard and not
willing to let go.
But Øyvind was not giving in
either, so it was man & machine against plain old Norwegian Granite... LOL
We had
some sun, much rain, some gray but not rainy time, and overall it was a wet and
cold day where neither me and Tore spent much time out doors. Not even after
Øyvind had left, we had eaten dinner, and sun was out.
We did try to use a shovel and hand
cover some of the telephone cable with the sand Øyvind had left behind, but it
soon got clear Tore is not in a great shape, and mine was rather poor too, and
when Tore gave up I had to give up too - I could have continued some, but it
started to poor down with water from the sky...
So, here is today's boring lot of pictures! :-)
 Digging on the road... |
 Time for a pipe... |
 Filling back the road |
 Test run.... |
 Trench building along bedrock |
 Trench up towards cabin |
 Time for digging up the ground for the power cable pipe, down the hill he went... |
 Close-up of the digger |
 Coming back up, better watch out! |
 Digging trench for power and telephone near the house - as seen from inside the entry hall. |
 The trench from power pole up towards the cabin & later house |
 Digging the rest of the trench where the telephone cable is to be. |
 Telephone trench is ready - seen from inside living room due to rain and mud on the outside... |
 Sky cleared up a little, so here is telephone trench from outside, looking back towards the cabin. |
 Another look at the trench, going parallel with the cabin about 3 meter away from it. Which is a good thing said Øyvind. |
 Power cable trench has got the pipe for the cable laid, now to cover it all up... |
 Another look at the power cable pipes, this time against the area on the cabin where it should enter. |
 Telephone cable is to be filled in with sand and then earth on top. |
 Time for some rock picking! |
 Quite hard rock, and a very noisy way of digging away some rock.. |
 Rock will not cooperate, but it do give way a little at least... |
 Was fun to watch the action... |
 Pouring rain messed things up, but at least as you can see, some of the bedrock gave way for the force... |
 Bedrock afterwards, seem to have helped some at least. |
11 August 2006
Fourth
day is over, it's end of the week so no more work for a couple of days. Today we
had to be out a trip so I couldn't keep track of Øyvind, but before we left he
was here early with a load of rock, dug up some extra ground on the northeast
part of the area for the garage and then left for more rocks and on our way out
we met him on the way up to us with that second load of rock.
We where gone for about 3 hours and in the meantime
Øyvind had covered up the exposed rock so I got no picture of it, filled in a
large area with large heavy "blasting rocks" (was sad to not been here
and se those be dumped into the hole, no help I got to see later dumps today.
:-( ) and maybe some other stuff.
He had also this morning after he arrived, while we had breakfast, started to
dig the trench for the telephone cable, but met more rocks and such so postponed
it to next week when he have his "rock tools" with him to
"pick" the rocks apart. :-)
After we came back both Øyvind and Egil was here with
several loads of rocks, both the heavy large sized type and he more normal type
we seen used - in total we had 6 loads today with two different trucks - and I
have most of those on video except the early ones this morning.
Can't help it, I'm totally fascinated with this stuff!
From looking at what got done today it looks like a
productive day, got filled up with work, pleasures, chatting, and showing off my
new hat that I bought (okay, Tore paid it... LOL) while out as I need some protection
against the sun in addition to the sun block cream.
The builder had taken the day off so we couldn't speak
with him - Øyvind was pretty sure he was on a fishing trip with a few friends
when he heard that, so we have to wait till Monday to find out who do what now.
Need to make the basement now, so Øyvind can fill in around it afterwards to
make that needed rock foundation for the concrete foundation on top of that
again.
Till next week, here is a bunch of pictures related today's action here on Bjørkås, Gullverket, Eidsvoll!!:
 First inspection after we got home from our trip - hi Darling... :-) |
 Øyvind came with his 3rd load for today, had to picture that... |
 Øyvind came with his 3rd load for today, had to picture that... |
 About 1 hour later Egil was here with his truck & today's load # 4. |
 You can see how Øyvind stands and keep and eye on things - me, I'm so fascinated with this I just had to take film and pictures... |
 About 1,5 hours later Egil is back again with today's load # 5 - and again I was out with camera... |
 Ain't this fun? LOL |
 A few minutes later Øyvind is back with his load of blasting rocks, and I'm ready with camera in hand. :-) |
 While Egil was away for another load of rocks Øyvind kept busy showing us how to play rocky pinball with his digger... LOL |
 Not easy to get the experience from a still picture though - was quite fun. |
 Have a feel I been sitting here on my fallen tree for more hours then I been in front of the computer this 4 days - and I have had way more fun this way then any computer can give me! Øyvind is fabulous with his digger, and it's been amazing to watch him work! |
 Then it was time for today's load number 6, delivered by Egil Åstad him self for third time today. Nice old truck from 1979 if I don't remember to badly. |
 And off the truck the rocks slide! |
 After Øyvind had flatten that pile of rocks out he also left for the weekend, and I was able to make some more still shots of the work done here today. |
 This is looking down into the small basement we need for the sewer plant we will have installed (Biovac), you can see the red pipe down there for the sewer-water out. |
 A close-up of that pipe from the (yet to be built) basement area. Looking up towards the old cabin. |
 More or less the same as last picture |
 And a third one, was hard to decide so I included them all. LOL |
 Don't know why, but I just love this picture, it looks so special!! LOL |
 Last "work done" picture for the weekend, looking down south. |
 I mention I bought a hat today, here's a couple of bonus shots... |
 Tore say I look very cute and lovely, I'm not that sure... |
10 August 2006
Third
day is over, no more digging, but more talk, a needed surveying of the heights
involved, much info, some
chatting, some work, some pictures, some film, 3 trips to the rock supplier, 2
drop offs with larger rock, and 1 with finer and smaller rock, work with pipes,
and overall quite a nice day. After Øyvind left we got thunder, rain and dark
sad weather.
We also got hold of the people having the new telephone
cable, so one of them came by late afternoon with a new cable to be used on the
ground, this holds also a part fiber optic which is a great thing - was told it
was the standard now a days to put in such cables.
Hopefully Øyvind gets the trench for that cable dug tomorrow, he spoke about
filling in a little more where the garage shall be, and dig up a little more
earth to make sure the hole is wide enough for the work to be done.
We also had the "blaster",
Egil, come by, the man
owning the company Øyvind work for, and looked at some rocks I had earlier this
years estimated to be about 2 cm below the garage floor, a depth that is not
very good so the advice was to blast it off.
But, we are a little hesitated to spend the needed amount of money, so when
Øyvind brought out his surveying tool to check heights with I was very curious
what it would show.
He used the existing entry hall as a Zero-point, 16mm
below the floor laying there (which it self is 12mm thick) and thanks to the
fantastic toy he had he could use that to see that the rock we all feared
actually was about 8-9cm below the floor we use as measuring - great!!
That depth should be enough, and the fact I can (don't really want to, but can
LOL) raise the floor in the entry if needed by about 3cm made blasting not
needed - great!
The basement is in the way I designed not so crucial
where the floor ends up, but Øyvind's calculations showed today that my drawing
is pretty correct at that aspect, again, great!! :-)
Now to find out who makes what, Øyvind said he/they could do it, but the
builder Furuseth needed to say if he or they should do it. It should be about
ready to start that either later tomorrow, or more likely, Monday I think. Not
sure if it will happen though, but we see.
But now, the boring pictures from today part. LOL:
 From this morning, when Øyvind came he brought some rocks with him that he dumped to be used as fillings at the "bottomless drop" |
 Later that morning he was out getting some much finer rocks, smaller and more useable to cover the bottom rocks to make a good foundation for the sewer & drainage pipes that will be at the bottom. |
 As you see, it starts to fill up again, and while it is kinda sad to see the rocks be covered it is needed in order to get the house built here. |
 Pipes are in, the red is for the sewer and at the right for it, below the rock, the black drainage pipe is resting forever. |
 Covering up the pipes with more fine rock, all done after making sure the drop on the pipe was good. |
 The black thing you see on top of the fine rocks is there to protect the pipes below, especially the drainage pipe as the later fills of rocks and such can/will hold some finer particles that can clog up the holes in the drainage pipe, this math acts as a filter and stops that clogging. |
 A close-up of this math, always nice to have pictures of things never to be seen again... LOL |
 As he didn't need all this fine rock today, but needed the truck to get more heavy/large rocks, he dumped his load here - and as I'm like a child and totally fascinated with this stuff, I just had to have a picture of it... LOL |
 Near end of the day he came back with his 4th load of rock, and the math was covered up and I guess never will be seen again... |
 Close-up of the work... :-) |
9 August 2006
Second day, more digging
was done, more talk, the builder came by, some discussions, some ideas, some
chatting, some work, some pictures, some film, some thunder, some lightning,
loss of power and telephone a few minutes, some rain, sun, ate some blueberries
and had some rocks for dessert... (in reality, had some rocks to start filling
in the holes arriving) - and that was this day!
Here's some pictures from today:
 Got rest of the hole needed dug up on the south side of the old cabin. |
 And, the trench we need to drain the hole and hold the sewer & the drainage pipes. |
 Close up of the same trench where it enters the forest... |
 Near end of the day Øyvind, the digger, was out collecting some rocks to start fill in some of the holes in preparation for the foundation making. House will rest on a rock filling on bedrock, not directly on bedrock due to the massive amount of work and cost that would make. |
 We needed some shots of the hole and bedrock holes before Øyvind fills it all in, so here are Tore coming after me on the rocks... |
 Looking up the drainage trench towards the house (from southeast, ant the fence marking the end of our property) |
 On the other side of the fence, on a neighbor property (we had permit to dig there) the stupid bedrock surfaced again and the drainage trench was not getting any deeper... |
 Back up in the hole/canyon up at the house we look up to the part where the garage is coming in a months time or so. |
 180 degree around from last picture you see down the drainage trench. |
 The digger... |
 Due to the telephone line, Øyvind could not tilt/tip his truck to unload so he had to dig some of it out as a foundation to drive on. |
 Then he got far enough back to clear our telephone line, and of the truck the rock slided off fast! |
8 August 2006
Today the first official work was started on the still long project of
making the "Tårnhuset" ("Towerhouse") a reality!
It really wasn't meant to be this fast, but in a way it
was good, and it left me with a good feel inside today. That in spite of my
husband Tore feeling ill and not very good today.
Luckily he felt better after lunch so he could be up and around with me, having
fun watching the digger do his job on our property. :-)
Yesterday, Monday, we had first a short meeting at our
location with the builder we want to have to built this for us, not the best of
meetings, but sure as hell not even close to the worst meeting we have had in
this process with various people. :-)
He advised us to start the process as fast as possible, so we phoned a man we
have been talking with before regarding some blasting and such - and he wanted
to come up to us, so within an hour he was here.
And, after talking and looking around he said that he
wanted to start tomorrow, which is today, as the earth was so dry and good now,
and he didn't want to waste that.
So, more or less before we really had grasped what
happen we where now giving him the job of digging up the earth down to the
bedrock and do the ground work.
Hence, this morning, he and another guy was here, and
that later guy has spent his day digging around, moving earth, tailings,
scraping earth down to bedrock and overall done quite a lot, even if there is
plenty left to dig and do.
Still very concern over if we can afford the whole
house now, and a some other problems been creeping up, but in a way it feels
good to have had a go at this, even if it more or less happen before we could
think it through.
Still need to talk to the builder some more, and make
sure we have filled out all the right papers and such, but I hope we get there.
For now, here is some pictures from today:
