Progress

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.

27 October 2006
Thankfully, today Egil was able to come and the top coat of the garage floor, but as it was one day later then it should be, the result was not as perfect as it should been, still, it did look good for our eyes. :-)

Pictures of that day's work:

26 October 2006
Guess what, today we got the first snow for this winter, typical!! Egil was suppose to come and work the top coat of the garage floor, but with a day that started with rain and ended in snow it was impossible to do anything other then sit inside and argue and feel sad/sorry/mad!!
Story of our life with this project!! :-(

Picture proof:

25 October 2006
The big day so to speak, while I was doing some work outside the room that Steinar is to use I suddenly heard a large car coming, and it was soon clear that today, today they where coming to do the concrete floor for the garage!
Yeah!! :-)

But, of course, they took the neighbor first, so when they finally came down to us there where not much concrete left in the car so we hardly got covered a 10th part of the eastern part of the garage... :(

Still, all was not lost, as later that day a second truck came with more concrete, this time for us only... LOL But, yes, there had to be a but, while there was just enough concrete to cover the garage floor, there where none to fill the forms Tore and I had built inside our future home for foundation for bearing walls...

Pictures from this day:

24 October 2006
Tore and I spent quite much work on grading the garage, and also the plumber came by and moved a couple of the pipes so it followed my drawing a little better..
And today Øyvind came by to fix up the rest of the grading as the plan was to pour the concrete floor of the garage tomorrow. We had agreed upon the use of a drain-hole inside the garage, and not on a sloped floor towards the doors - both because it would easy up the work on Tore and me grading the floor, and because it would ease up the work for those building the walls for the garage.

The pictures taken that day:

20 October 2006
Being that I haven't updated this pages for a long time I'm now more or less in total loss about what was done when and so on...

19 October 2006
Things don't go the way we want, or need - but this late afternoon we at least got a pleasant surprise! It been gray and wet weather a few days now, the forecast been awful, and even if the last words with Øyvind yesterday when he came by to pick up some of his tools indicated that there where hope of doing the concrete floor for the garage tomorrow, it was clear for us by the time we came back from a doctors appointment in Oslo this afternoon that none would happen at all.

Øyvind had no idea yesterday when the Leca balls would come - so when I heard Øyvind's truck this afternoon at 1715 I was surprised, and even more surprised when in his tail a second truck came up the road.
Being recently out of the shower I had nothing but a towel on, so I had to run and quickly get dressed, as this I needed film & pictures of as this was the long awaited Leca balls!!!
Being around 7 degree outside I needed some cloths on... LOL

To cut a long story short, Øyvind was the guy holding the hose the balls came pouring out from, and directing them to where ever he wanted them. A dusty and quite noisy affair - and with 25 cubic meters in the truck in took a while to fill in the area. It took about 30 minutes I guess + the set out, take in hoses - the Leca truck left about 1800 and Øyvind left us at 1815 - together with the neighbor that had heard the noise and came to check. LOL

But, the plumbers had never been back correcting a error I directly dislike, that we spoke - Tore that is - spoke with the man in charge about on Monday - I want it fixed as I want that space back as available space through the wall for a idea I have!
So, when they come to lay out the water pipes for the floor heating, I want them to fix that part too!

Hopefully they can come soon. Meanwhile Tore and I will try to make the part that is needed for marking out the garage floor - with wood planks on the outer edges - as last plan is to fill the whole area with concrete now - not just parts and pieces.

So, till next time, here is 12 pictures from this evening - due to near dark the quality is not very good, sorry about that.

13 October 2006
More slow days, yesterday I had a meeting with a man I need to go visit again in early November this year - have a feel none of that will have a good impact on this project of ours...

Other then that, Tore and I was out in the cold and gray weather and played workers as we started to make some foundation boxes for extra foundation inside the house for load/bearing walls.
Rest of it was done today, with level it off, put in gravel to cover up the bottom and sides, and overall do what we can for making this a good preparation for the Leca balls that is suppose to come soon.

We where told Wednesday that they would come today afternoon or something - but the day is over and we saw none, and hear from none...

So, I don't know what is happening next, time will tell...

Till then, the work from today and yesterday, in a 4 picture series....

11 October 2006
Today been a kind of slow day, and not only due to me being very tired for some reason.

Øyvind almost made it up here before I got up today, had he been 5 minutes earlier... :-) He came around 0755 and went to work doing something with his digger.
Later he ran the "rolling machine" back and forward over the garage floor and yard before parking it for later pickup. He & Egil was suppose to use it for a later job somewhere but somehow that never happen today as the machine would not start again. They manage to get it going this afternoon, but I guess the thing they where to use it for today got postponed. :-(

Øyvind went away with his truck after the rolling job, was to pick up gravel - and when he came back he dumped some of that inside the house to use for covering up the pipes from the plumber, and as foundation for a box for some concrete foundation for a later bearing wall - those Tore and I will try to do tomorrow if weather holds up.

Other then that, not much happen today, Øyvind filled in around the garage some more, we loosely set up the east plank to mark the edge of the garage floor, got a good feel of the size of the garage there. :-)

Tomorrow I have a appointment with a man down in Jessheim from the morning, wonder how that will go. Hopefully we get some sun as today was freezing cold outside with no sun at all. The temperature it self was not that bad, but it was so cold...

Till next time, this is how it looks now:

10 October 2006
Today been a long and in a way quite busy day! Øyvind came early, 0755 or thereabout - and about 5 minutes later the plumbers where here. Never gave us time to have breakfast first as I needed to do the dishes... So, Øyvind had the first chats, then after breakfast I let Tore do the chatting while I finished the dishes.

Which turned out to be not the smartest things I could do... No, not the dishes thing, that is always smart... LOL I mean give info to Tore and hope he understand it if asked about them...

In this case he had mixed up two measurements, one was 235cm & the other was 185cm (total 420cm which I specified hard was the important one) and was so sure it was 285 & 135cm he had been given...
Which would make our washing room only 135cm from center to center of wall - way to small for such a room.

I did luckily noticed while the plumbers still where working here. I found the strings they uses to mark the walls very off and strange, so I found a measure tape and took a quick check. Boy was I badly surprised at my finds - and the plumbers had to move the strings by 50cm and take up some pipes and shorten them as I needed that wall back to where it was suppose to be!!
Can't understand why Tore did not notice it, or even think about how small that would make a room if it was only 135 over the centers - it would make a room about 120cm inside the walls...
If knowing a washing machine is 60x60cm you do the math...

Anyway, they finished at 1315 and then it was a big, and I mean big, pile/maze of red large/smaller pipes & lots of blue tubes for the water all spreading out and around each other and in total make it look like a kinda nice art piece... :-)
I found a couple of things they did odd, but I asked and was given answers to most if it - still find it odd that the pipe to upstairs has a unneeded bend (in my eyes) to take it out near horizontal before going up again after the junction where it leaves the main pipe into the old cabin. This is of course for the return water & stuff from the toilet...

It is now down to Øyvind to fill it in carefully and keep the things where it should be while doing it. We needed to call the electrician again to hook up a earth cable - and install a tube to the well area as the plumbers said they needed it. Not what he told us earlier when he was here last week, but I guess it is better to do it like the plumbers said.
The electrician even stopped by today, so he got the earth cable done, not the tube thing as he had no equipment for it, but he did have for a third thing that Øyvind meant would be very useful.

Due to the way the tubes and all watery stuff goes we also had to install the water tubes that is to be used for a later thing out at the shed we are to build with materials from the cabin to house the toilet we uses today as a extra backup one. Those tubes is for cold and hot water to a sink we plan to install later - and due to the way Øyvind though, and the way the ground it, they are not down to frost secure ground, and needs some sort of insulation on the part where they are exposed to frost.
So, in addition to insulation on top of the pipe holding the tubes, Øyvind also got the electrician to install a "heater wire" going our from the area where the shed is to be built, and into the tubes towards and partly in under the garage.

It was nice it was thought about, and that is got done so quickly. Øyvind also spent all day up here, while plumbers worked he had fun picking rocks... And cleaning off some trees on the ground, and a couple of rocks - then his grabber had one of it's tubes for oil burst and therefore went out of order.
But he had done most of the job needed - we ended up taking another tree down, and remove a few more rocks - but I think this will be a good thing in the end - and it sure looks kinda nice now!
Will be even nicer with more green trees - read evergreens! LOL

I guess that was it - now to the "thousand pictures of today"...

9 October 2006
Today been a busy day in many ways! Øyvind came around 0930 and after spending near an hour chatting and discussing, including learning of a new way of doing the house foundation/floor that we had not been told about - he went to work with pushing down a tree, digging earth, and in many ways make a wreck of the land. :-)

As he can't do more at the house extension till the plumbers been here - tomorrow we been told - he cleared away some earth and rock around the area where we want to set up a shed like structure with the toilet we uses today in the cabin as the content of that shed.
We already had a hole, but wanted to clear away the earth and refill it with rocks and gravel in order to make it a better foundation for a later structure and pathway here.

But, as we saw with the house stuff, the bedrock is very strange, it goes up, then way down and always seem to be in the wrong spot for out plans... There where some heavy & large stones/rocks also in this area, but Øyvind seemed able to move them up from their long resting place - sorry mother earth.

He also had a play with his picker, lot of rock came loose, but a particular place is stubborn and refuses to give in - will try it a little tomorrow also we where told.
Other from this destruction work he also moved/replanted a tree from just outside the door to the4 shed, and to a location not far from our entry to the cabin, and in good view from the living room so we can use it as a outdoor Christmas tree for instance.
We plan to replant a few more green trees (evergreens) around the area north of the house.

Lot of pictures today, lot of stuff was done, but it is not that visible stuff - and might not been of the most important type of things - but I for one feels it been useful and is happy it got done!

My fixing/redrawing of the house plans is a slow process, I'm real tired of it, and it struggling with accepting the way I made the bathroom upstairs as I sort of can see the outline of a much better bath, just is not able to draw it...

So, I better get back to it, and till next time, here's today's pictures:

6 October 2006
Today been a bad day in many ways!

First due to the fact it was not a nice weather, then for the fact I was stressed a little, third for the reason we needed to go to Oslo and leave Øyvind alone up here, fourth for all this made me angry and bitchy and I had a big argument with Tore, and fifth for the fact that we had a reality check in a meeting in Oslo that more or less let me say to Tore and his friend: "I told you so"

Not that nice really, and I don 't like the option that is more or less forced down my throat...

Not much got done up here, Øyvind came this morning with a new concrete ring for the liner around our water supply (drilled hole) as it will be inside our new house as a hatch in the hallway floor.
The builder came by, as usually he was "kinda slow" in his responses back to questions, and often very "out in the air" with his answers - but he didn't see much problems in replacing some of the floor system for second floor from all wood to some element system in concrete and Leca beams. End price would be more or less the same he said...

It was a idea from me due to it would give us a roof over the garage without a need for the second floor yet, and without using money on a temporary roof, and it would give me water floor heating in the hobby room, which I find quite useful.
Øyvind said earlier one could get water proof concrete so that is a good thing.

While we where gone it seems like Øyvind have removed the earth/soil along the north wall of the cabin - down to the entry door we uses where he stopped due to the fact there is a powerline down at that corner and he wouldn't risk breaking that on a Friday.... After removing the soil he replaced that with rocks and gravel and made a start approach up to the garage.

We stopped by Øyvind's house on the way home from Oslo to discuss a few things, and I hope/think both him and we are happy with the result from that stop in the rain...

Due to us being away I have hardly any pictures - o joy I can almost hear you say. LOL:

5 October 2006
Today been a even slower day. We had expected Øyvind early as he said so yesterday, meaning we couldn't be away, and hence we didn't get to see the "roof man" as hoped for.
And, not much was done home, Tore was in the shop this morning and went by the post office and found three packages to me, spent time with them this morning. :-)

Øyvind did come around 1225, by then it had started to rain and adding in the cold air it was unpleasant to be outside. The time he was here he dug up a trench through the garage area, put down tubes for a future water pipe to a shed, was out getting another load of gravel, and filled in most of the area that is to be the garage.
He made also a little more level place for a extra parking place along the road we have into the house.

Not much in other words. I my self discovered much to my dismay and irritation that due to the sloppiness of the foundation building the center point I have on my drawing and had figured would be 17,1cm into the wall on the old cabin is now a extra 8 cm into the old cabin... :-(
Which messes things up a little...

I can work around, but it annoys me that I have to do it. Have put down a string now that I hope to, and will try to, keep as long as possible at the location it is now as that is for me a marker where I have a line on my drawing fitting to a known location on the real life structure.

How it will go, we have to wait to see, till then, today's action is below. LOL

4 October 2006
Today been a slow day, but some stuff got to be done. The electrician was here twice today - first time he came 0745 and left 1100 where he in that timeframe had installed a new outdoor contact with what we call in Norwegian directly translated to English: "Three faced contact for 3 faced currency" - sorry, my English is not that good.
He also put in some more tubes in the part that is to be floor in the extension building part, and connected the earth cable into the fuse box.

Then around lunch he had to come back as I had discovered while washing my hands that the water pipe in the kitchen no longer took the water out of the sink area, but instead dumped it into a small tub like thingy I had luckily enough placed under the water lock due to earlier problems with that lock.
Somehow the pipe from that lock down into the basement had come loose and disappeared into the hole down into the basement - but that problem was soon fixed when he came back to check it out.
And yes, I know that is a plumbers work, but this was caused by him most likely earlier today while working the basement, so... :-) Who ever the reason, the problem got fixed.

Øyvind came by at 1558 with a load rocks to use in upping the level for the part where the garage is to be standing - and he also could share the sad news that the plumbers will not be back before Tuesday next week!! :-(
Very sad news, but what can we do...

So, that is, that is the day, Øyvind will be back tomorrow, and we might need a fast trip to Oslo also as my graphic card for the computers had one of its two fans die on my this evening. :-(
Already bought a new one on a netshop, but need to go pick it up either tomorrow or Friday - we already have a Oslo trip on Friday.

Till then, today's real boring pictures:

3 October 2006
Today things started to happen again up here in Norway. Not that time have stood still since last update, but nothing has happen of usefulness to this pages of mine regarding this building project of ours.

A few things regarded to the house project it self has happen, but no pictures where made due to most of it being in my head and on my computer with regards to the drawings I been thinking and rethinking and redrawing on for a long time now.
We also been in touch with a carpenter about the tower structure, and while things are not going the way I wanted them to go, I think we are on the right way.

Especially since the carpenter seemed like a good place to pre-make the tower - I just need to have a chat with the guy in charge with the roof - and so far I have not been able to have that chat. :-(
The knowledge I gained the last two months stuck here in Norway have made me see the drawing I made in a different view, and I have discovered to my sadness a lot of bad designs and things that would been very very very hard to built according to the drawing.

I have however found a way to keep my 16 sided tower and still have a way for the water to drain it self - but it forces a change of steepness on the various roofs, and a new drawing approach.
Due to bad weather, bad moods, tiredness of being here and the money problem - and a big miss of my life/house in the Netherlands the last week have not been a good week - neither productive when it comes to redrawing, or when it comes down to feelings.

Yesterday it rained almost all day, so no plumbers came. I however had to tear down - or as I did it, take down some of the wood paneling on my self built hallway to get access to the underside of the fuse box so the electrician could drill all the holes he would need to get the new power line into the house, and the new tubes out to the extension area.
Due to not wanting to destroy my old work I had to do it slowly and nicely - and thanks to luck and the way I made that room with holes for plans that never came to life it was not the hardest work to do.

Saturday & Sunday I spent some time tearing down much more violent a wall inside the old cabin in order to maybe find a path for the power line to enter the house to the fuse box that way - but to no good. :-(
And the time spent to worry how to get the line under the floor in a part of the old cabin was also kind of wasted as the electrician seemed to make that pass by quite fast - his biggest problem was the hole from under the fuse box into the old cabin.
He got stuck with his drill down in the hole for quite some time - but in the end he had nice holes for his tubes.

All this made the two people from the electric company that was to take down the old air line wire and exchange it to a in the ground wire not being able to fully do their job this morning so they came back this afternoon to hook up the new line in the power pole.
Meanwhile the electrician had worked all they connecting and drilling and laying tubes under the floor of the4 old cabin. He be back tomorrow for more work as he didn't get it all done today.

Some other that hopefully be back tomorrow is the plumbers. They did came today, but didn't like the groundwork  Øyvind had left for them as they wanted more gravel on the inside to dig a trench in for their tubes so they could be sure the slopes would be like they should be. Building it up with blocks and such they would not do.
So, Øyvind had to come by, but when he came a couple of hours later the plumbers where long gone as they had no time to wait for him. He didn't fully agree with them, but had his digger with him and went to work level out a hill inside our walls, and went out for more gravel to use.
He be back tomorrow too - and hopefully a little later tomorrow the plumbers will be back - after the electrician has laid his stuff and Øyvind have filled in with gravel over that so the plumbers can have their way. :-)

Till then, some pictures from today: