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.

25 January 2007
Finally some action! LOL And yes, the roof is ON!! That is, the Leca Building Planks are up, but we still need to get the seams filled with concrete & some armor. The plan was to have it done today, but thanks to the winter that came, and the storage of the Leca Building Planks outside they where all filled with snow & ice, making any concrete work hard.
Add in the fact it was freezing cold today, around 12 degree Celsius below Zero...

Anyway, the day started with the two carpenters from last Friday finally showing up! They was here already around 0750 - one said a normal Hi to Tore, the other more experienced carpenter said a very moody hi... Bad moody...
I got dressed, went outside to tell them what I felt about their work on the messed up wall - but if I found them to not care much on Friday, that was nothing against the feel I got today.

The experienced one didn't like the words I had to say, he didn't gave me at all a feel he was sorry for the messed up wall, he actually seem to mean it wouldn't be a problem at all, as I after all was to add to the floor thickness with concrete... That made me even more angry at him/them!
If this was how I was/it to be, then he would no longer come here he said - fine by me, I don't want to see them either, as it is clearly that even if he has done this for many years, he don't seem to feel responsibility for what is done under his work/supervising!
For me, this is not a person I want to do work up here!

I can understand it is not fun to get to a site and the first thing you get is "a bad mouth" from the people you work for - but I still feel & think he should have handled it differently, and been much more concerned about the work done then he shown me.
Øyvind is not exactly happy and to be trusted either always, but he sure know how to say/do to make me feel much more comfortable and at rest, while this carpenter just left me with a very sad state of mind, angry state of mind, and a very poor feel inside and of him!

Within half an hour or so, they left - not many minutes after Øyvind & Egil came around 0815 - and I don't think I will see that carpenter again up here... Øyvind was chatting a little with them, it sounded to me (I was inside the house) that he told Øyvind that Reidar had to send other people up here - but I might be wrong there.
Even after spending time cutting down the east end, the wall was to high - up to about a 1cm according to Øyvind, but Øyvind also had high hope that would not cause a problem as the Leca Building Planks would push it down.
I wasn't so sure, but at least the wall seem to be level now - that it wasn't before. It was so cold my camera refused to work, beside the battery demanded charging so I got no pictures of it.
Later today I went and looked, and it seems like Øyvind was right, it seem to fit down quite well.

Anyway, due to this no other carpenter work was done, we haven't spoke with the builder, we don't know what will happen, and I more or less expect my self to built that missing wall and the roof over the basement - but I'm not quite sure if it will be like that in the end. Just don't want to see that carpenter again, him & me did not match at all!
My dad asked me if I though it was something to do with the fact I'm a girl, and it wouldn't been so bad if Tore had been talking with him instead... The worse part is that I have no feel telling me that my dad is wrong...

Anyway, Øyvind was here, limping but in good spirit, so after a while I got the carpenter thing out of my system for a while. LOL

Yes, it helped a lot that the roof was coming too. LOL

I was up on the roof of the cabin by 1035, just as the truck was backing into the area outside of the garage, he had left his trailer down at a neighbor as he wouldn't get that in here - but the trailer only had the even spaced Leca Building Planks, for the north half of the garage - while his truck had the rest.
Øyvind & Egil got busy removing snow, ice and add to the top of the walls - both the Leca & the wood - a black rubber band thingy - and by about 1100 the first Leca Building Plank was on the spot where it should rest the rest of it's life... LOL
Was some work to line it up, but by 1105 the second Leca Building Plank was on the roof. This continued in a fascinating fast speed till the last Leca Building Plank from the truck was laid down by 1155!

It was a little scary the first long Leca Building Plank to rest down on the wood walls in south, where the technical room will later come on the "outside", because suddenly the whole structure/walls was jumping and shaking. I was not filming right then, so I have no way to show that to you, except my words. Egil & Øyvind hammered down a couple more cross braces, and it seemed to help, and of course, by the next Leca Building Plank it was more stable to, due to the weight of the first long one.

But, I was so glad when the truck left us at 1200, as I was so freezing cold of standing on the roof of the cabin, there where no sun, just cold and lot's of smoke from the chimney I was standing by, trying to not fall down from the way to slippery roof!
Had planned to sit and enjoy the views, in the sun - but the sun was only showing it self a brief period after the roof man left for good...

It hurt, that was how cold I was, but I was able to get some heat while inside waiting for the roof man to come back after loading his truck from the trailer, and by 1243 I was back on the roof of the cabin, freezing me feet & hands of me shooting some film, taking snapshots with my digital camera (shown below.. LOL) and more shots with our analogue camera mounted on a tripod.
By the time the last Leca Building Plank was on it's resting place at 1255 I was so freezing cold I hardly dared moving down from he roof.

The next hour almost was spent heating my self up a ,little, taking more shots from inside and on top of garage, and watch Egil & Øyvind put cover on the garage roof so it would be protected against the weather, and one could put in a heater in the garage to make it warm and melt the snow/ice so one can fill the seams with concrete!
Hopefully next week.

Tomorrow I might put in the window, Egil spoke about loaning us a heater then, so we need to cover doors/windows.

Till next time, here is a bunch of pictures from today! :-)

22 January 2007
New week, new chances... Already around 0800 this morning did Tore call and speak to the builder about the mess the carpenters left on Friday - didn't seem to mean much, but Tore was told when he said that he expected the wall to be fixed by Tuesday, that unless he got a call today, it would be done tomorrow. So, let us hope that is true.

Of other news, we learned both via the steel man, and Egil why the steel was not fitting in height the measurement we had been given - seem like if you want a height of 22cm you order a width of 22,5cm...
Anyway, Egil came by around 1100, brought with him both the needed lumber for the carpenters and steel plates from the steel man...

It was sunny and kinda cold today in degrees - varied between warmest 4,8 below, to about 8 below Celsius - but being outside was not that cold until I get wet on my feet due to the snow melting. This meant I was kinda out and in many times this day, to heat up and dry up - but I was able to learn that the middle beam was built up in the west with a 1cm steel plate to fit the top of the Leca, while 1cm plate in east was to much...
Ended up by using some steel tubes used as "armor"/reinforcement in the U-blocks when filled with concrete as that was lower, and seemed to fit perfect.
The south beam had also it shares of problem, but a 1cm steel plate in the west, and some very thin "armor" in the east seem to put that too almost perfect. The north beam was fitted into the U-blocks - being to long it now rest on a makeshift columns of Leca blocks and 50cm into the north wall on the garage, and settled into a big batch of concrete.
Same with the middle beam, it has been filled in around it with concrete mixed with many many small Leca balls...

And, that was today's work, took Egil most of the day, he left us around 1555 - and while he agreed we could now order the roof, it was to late today, so that is first thing tomorrow. Hopefully we can have it by Wednesday, but Thursday seem more likely now... :-(
Egil also told us Øyvind was back at work, digging, and limping...

Pictures:

19 January 2007
End of week, and what a bad way to end it... First, yesterday none happen of the good things, we expected the steel to come, but not till later that day, so from the morning of Tore drove to the shop.
And, didn't get back up the hill to the cabin... I went down to help with the chains, stuff happen, I fell twice on the ice, Tore fell at least three times, we had a ambulance up here, Tore went away with that, came back a hour or so later with a cab, shaken & stirred, not damaged - thankfully!

But, all this made us cancel the steel man yesterday, so he came today instead. So did two people that was suppose to set up the wood walls, they came already at 0805 while the steel man came around 1045.

The carpenter and his helper was nice enough, but I was left with a bad feel and no inner peace, Øyvind been much better at leaving me with a inner peace... :-) And, lo and behold, the feel proved it self, to my big sadness!
Thanks to the fact Tore and I wanted to cover the walls to protect from weather, and trying to put up some plans on the top I discovered that the wood wall closest to the Leca garage wall (only 2cm apart!) is not level at all with the Leca wall, and that the wood wall it self is not level, even have a slight bump was pointed at by Egil that also showed up today, the most pleasant thing with the day. 
Øyvind is on sick leave due to the ice and a fall, but Egil came in order to try fix what the steel man didn't want to do.

But, first back to the carpenters... I'm real pissed at them for not being able to make a wood wall flush with a wall that sit right next to it - to me that makes me distrust every thing they done today, I no longer trust any heights they have put up!!
Tore tried to phone the builder as soon as we discovered it, but then the clock was about 1515 and none was at the office... First thing Monday...

I more or less got my way with the order the walls was put up, except they did it differently then I had expected, and not as accurate as I would have done it had I known how they did it. Was expecting a measuring, then a frame making up the outer part of the wall, then fill in the rest, instead they hammered down a bottom plank, more or less at the place their ruler said it should be - a few millimeters didn't seem to bother... :-(
Then, the wall height was measured by using a long plank from the Leca walls and over to the bottom plank, then with a lever and a raised plank they marked and cut the planks..

This continued all over. The guy hammering did one mistake over at the wall that separate the bath from the bedroom - pointed it out and they fixed it after some time... Didn't get the feel they cared really... If it was left in place it would mess up the small bedroom and it's usage.
It proved it self that there where not enough materials, so some walls are not really done in the frame work, and one wall was never even started on due to not enough planks.
It almost happen a new disaster at the opening between bathroom and bedroom, as they seem to want to start the sliding door from the wrong end - but I noticed that before they even got to hammer anything down, so that was settled just fine. :-)
I rearranged one wall - the one not built - so it got to be about 2,5 cm more east then my drawing state it to be - was a fast decision right there and then. :-) Got it more in line with the basement Leca wall - and a tiny bit more space in the bathroom. :-)
But, I so hate them for messing up the one wall where they really should not have had problems, a wall that is a bearing wall, and also a wall where two Leca Building Planks meet, so it need to be just like the Leca wall on top, and that they totally messed up!!

Enough about the carpenters, I just get so mad at them, and don't trust them - over to the steel man. :-)

He didn't feel for working in the snow cutting support columns as he saw no real need for them at this point anyway - and to fix them inside the garage we would have to clean out a lot of stuff...
So, we agreed he could do that later, make the columns - and it made sense too.

As things went today, it turned out to be a very good move - as when Egil came to fix the beam down with concrete around it, he discovered that both the 22cm long & the 20cm beam in south was only those measurements in width!
The height on those was 21,4cm and 19cm... Which messed up real good, as Øyvind & Egil had made resting places for the beams based on the given size of 22 & 20cm...
Result, no roof on Monday, this needs to be fixed...

Damn, damn, damn!!!!

Hope Øyvind will get well again soon, I need him to do some work for me - I don't trust others!!

Pictures from today:

17 January 2007
Middle of week, and no end is near... Today winter came back for a visit, it snowed this afternoon.... Not much, but it builds up and will make the ground white again... :-(
Øyvind & Egil came around 0805 and for the most of the day they been hiding away under a canvas/tarp cover trying to "polish" another wall inside the garage.

The heater was running all evening yesterday, but had stopped a little passed midnight, same seem to have happen tonight, except it is not midnight yet.. :-) It do help a lot with drying out the walls, so the "polishing stuff" goes better - but they decided today that the spot heating will not be good, so now they take a break till the roof is on.
Tomorrow we get the steel beams, the man with them phoned this morning to tell us that he couldn't come today. To bad the carpenter(s) could not be here too...

Øyvind, and Egil, also helped Tore with making the road a little easier to drive, Øyvind used his digger to put out gravel & sand, and Egil helped him while Tore was away with the car to get milk/food.
And, it helped, as Tore was able to get back up again here even with the very icy road, thanks to the gravel/sand put out by Egil & Øyvind - thank you so much guys!!

Not so much more happen, the "polishing" of a wall takes a lot of time, and I fear the price we end up with... Øyvind did remove a piece of wood from the form he put up yesterday over at the bathroom part of the house, and flatten the top of a little on the concrete he filled the forms with yesterday.
They also did some yard cleaning, in preparation for the steel man I suppose, so it was not only polish work... ;-)

Some pictures from today:

16 January 2007
Another day is over, another let down - this time of the big type from my point of view. But first, we woke up to a dark house, power was out... Phoned Øyvind to let them know, and when they came around 0830/0900 they had their own power with them in form of a generator.

Which was used to give power to the tool Øyvind used to finally cut the U-blocks down around the basement to house walls, and to power the mixer that Egil used to mix concrete to use on the wall from yesterday that they wanted to "clean" up a little, and to continue on to the east wall with their "polishing concrete" work.
During the day, we got the power back, Egil & Øyvind got the "forms" & U-blocks filled with concrete over at the basement, they got the east wall heated up and "polished" with their "polishing concrete". :-)
And, Tore and I got a big and bad surprise from the builder! :-(

But, first, Tore also spoke with the steel beam guy, all seem to set to come tomorrow - yeah!! :-) Now, all we need is the roof, Friday is a good day, right? ;-)

Yep, it would had it not been for the builder and his lack of control over when he have people available - last week he said we should have the carpenter(s) over either the same day or the day before the steel man.
Well, today, we learn that he plans to send a carpenter on Friday.... Might make it on Thursday.... 

Meaning, no roof for us on Friday... DAMN!!!!!!

10 weeks notice, no help, 6 weeks notice, no help.... 4 weeks notice, no help... 1 week notice, a promise, but broken... I see how building a house is a damn frustrating adventure, with no control over the people you need to do a job for you...
Hate that, hate the feel of us being down prioritized...

So, all down the drain, so much for delivery week 3 of the roof, as we have told him, and known now since December... Damn you!!

The weather was nice, sunny but cold - and with a wind, so making the needed measurements for figuring out the location of the steel beam was not to easy, but got it done more or less as it got dark - give or take a couple of millimeters...
Looks like one wall has not only been angled out, it also been angled in a north/south directions - but it will not mess thing sup, that is good. :-)

 So, are you ready, here is the pictures from today:

15 January 2007
End of the first day in another week, we are now in week 3 of the year, and had things gone the way they should have before Christmas, we could now have a roof over the garage... But, as it did not, we have no roof - except for a tiny part of it under a cover as Egil & Øyvind had to put in a heater this afternoon in order to try to dry out the water from the walls as it messed up their efforts of "polishing" the wall with a concrete mixture.
The water poured out, mixing in with the concrete, and making it so wet it fell down from the wall...

So, they had to come by this evening too, first they came around 0830 today, then left around 1540, then they came back at about 1820 and left again 2040 to be back I guess tomorrow morning again... Busy life. :-)
Not the most productive day I feel, Øyvind was to cut down the U-blocks over at the basement, and fill them and a form with concrete - what he got done was making a fast and dirty form, fill some concrete, talk a lot, work with Egil trying to make the "polishing concrete" stick on the wall, and in a way from my point of view trying to postpone the cutting as long as possible.
Several hints/asking didn't amount to much - but he need to get it done as it is needed before the carpenters can do their job - which has to be this week!
So, tomorrow it need to be done!!

Øyvind brought also with him this morning some nice fine sand for the "polishing concrete" mixture, and what I, Tore and Øyvind felt is to little wood materials to make all the walls that needs to be made.
We need to speak to the builder again about that one.

This weekend thing didn't go so well, weather was okay Saturday - but we got stressed, we bought 4 windows for the garage as Øyvind said Friday he wanted to put them in before the "polishing concrete" was put on the walls, and today that had changed, again...
We also had a bad time together Tore and I, but by the end of the light that day we had done some small work outside. I put down some U-blocks along the stairway to the basement, and tried my best to "polishing" the north wall over at the extension walls to the shed.
Sunday, it was bad weather, bad mood - no work....

Till tomorrow, here is the latest pictures:

12 January 2007
End of week, but not end of winter, yet...  Today it also was cold, very cold, it never got warmer then around minus 4 degree Celsius during the day, but at nightfall the snow that started to come in the late afternoon today also stopped, and it heated up till the around 2 degree Celsius we have outside now!!
The snow is here still, but temperature much better. :-)

Still, even with snow on the ground, Øyvind got some work done today too. He came around 0815, and removed the cover "sheets" that has been laying over the Leca balls since middle of October last year in the parts where Tore and I had put up some concrete foundation walls last year.
This as he was to add to those walls more concrete, taking it up to floor level so it will support the wood walls we need to have put up next week to support the roof / floor of our 2 floor to come later...
He also had plans for, and was able just as it started to snow again, to put down several U-blocks along the basement wall where it meets the bedroom and the bathroom areas - a thing I asked for last year, but never got around to do, due to various reasons. Øyvind was not able to fully finish it, so I have plans on doing the rest this weekend, as they need to be cut down in the height to fit the floor, and Øyvind said he would like to do that on Monday.

We also learned that the earliest we will get the steel beam is Wednesday next week, and the latest will be Thursday next week... Meaning, if all works out, we might have the floor/roof up by this time next week. But, the man with the steel beams promised to let us know early next week what day, so we get schedule the delivery of the Leca Building Planks.
And, the builder hinted he would sent a couple carpenters to set up the wood walls the same day, or the day before the steel man. Øyvind also filled us in with saying that the builder had asked him to transport/get us the materials needed when the builder and Øyvind chatted early today.
Øyvind also phoned up the builder while here as he didn't think the builder realized that they need to make room for a sliding door in one wall, making that a thinner wall in a area - and most likely therefore needing a good support beam.
Didn't seem like the builder gave it much though, even Øyvind admitted that - but he phoned home and checked with his wife, as he knew he had some very good product, brand new, that he felt must be used. Gave us an offer on that with 50% new price, we just need to find a price - good to have, in case we need it when the carpenters are here.

How it will end, I guess I know next week, till then, a couple of pictures from today:

11 January 2007
Today it was cold, very cold, it never got warmer then around minus 3,5 degree Celsius - and in the afternoon we got the winter back, it started to snow a lot! :-(
And, to add insult to it all, we had wind too - enough to mess up my plan today of making some more measurements around the top of the Leca U-blocks. I think I got a pretty good ones at the east wall during the day, but I can not guarantee it.
However, if it is correct, the wall is just 3 & 4mm more east on the top then what my drawing say it should be, of course, it could also be due to some misplacement of the reference thread I had to put up again today.

It was only Øyvind that came today, he came around 0800 and during his stay with us till he left around 1450 he managed to finish of the mason work on the garage by putting up the last 10th row on the southern walls in the corner area where you have the entry to the house and the basement.
He had problems with the blocks freezing on location, but seemed to be happy with the result in the end. Also filled in the top U-blocks in that area.

He also used his digger to remove the sand pile in front of the garage, in order to dig a hole to be filled in with two forms to make two supports for two columns that is to be used to hold up the northern and the middle steel beam.
The south steel beam will for now only be supported by the walls and a adjustable support column. Same for the two columns that is suppose to be in north outside the garage wall to support the extended Leca Building Planks where they protrude north in order to support a stairway. I kind of disagree there, but seem to be outvoted.

And, that was all that happen, the snow came and messed things up, and of other sad news, the steel beams is not coming till next week, maybe Tuesday, but no guarantees... And, the builder had 10 weeks to order it, and waited so long before he did...
We talked to the Leca people also, and they said we could have got the roof already on Monday next week... They need a 2 day notice, and by that we still have hopes for that it will be all here by the end of next week...
All depends on when we get the steel beams, I so hope Tuesday!!

Pictures:

10 January 2007
Today the weather was nice, but it was cold with around zero degree (Celsius) so it was not as pleasant as wished for. But, no wind made the day better in many ways. :-)
What did not made the day better, was the fact that Egil & Øyvind used the dawn to take down the tree we needed to take down, and I got no pictures of it!! :-( Damn!! That messed up my day, I got some video of it, but the analog camera would not function, and it was to damn dark for my small digital camera! :-(
What a bad way to start the day, added in the fact we had not bought more cement yesterday as planned for, so Tore needed to have a quick drive down to the sawmill between here and Eidsvoll to get some more concrete.

Beside from chopping (sawing) down a tree, Øyvind & Egil built up a row on the 15cm wall, and above the doorway to the basement and the house from the garage part. It is now easy, real easy to see how it will be looking.
Øyvind also, partly on my request - built more or less the rest of the north tower wall where it extends west from the garage part - with the window opening and all angles - almost cursed the architect/drawer/designer (me.. LOL) down the drain as it was so much work, so tiny area, so not so good design that he almost had no wish for doing it.
And yes, I do confess, it is bad design from me, and had I knew what I know now, I would have done it differently. Lesson learned, just hope what is done will work out fine in the end, after all.

My self, I got busy figuring out where the top south wall of the garage is located according to my two reference threads - as I need to know to be able to tell for instance Øyvind where the steel beams should be located, and where the roof shall be put down. This due to very limited room for placement a few places.
I learned that the error from my drawing varied from 0 to 1,2cm in south direction - and it would in the end seem to have helped in a overall look with the minimum support for the Leca Building Planks. Now, to find out where the east garage wall is, and then the front part of the garage to help locate the support beams.
Lot of work tomorrow also, and as they promised us snow then, I worry how it will end up...

Øyvind need to know the steel beams location, and while we got even more sad news today with the message that the steel beams will be delivered some time late next week - same week as roof is delivered... - there is quite some work to be done in front of that delivery.
But, I need a non windy day, and lot of time to figure out where the various walls are located, as I need to use a weight at the end of a string, hung from a plank at a known distance from outside of the top of the top block to be able to measure where that edge is located on my drawing in reference to my two know lines that I use as a reference.

May sound complicated, but is really quite simple, the worse part is to do the measurements as the weight & thread is not stable as soon as I put it up, takes a while to settle down the motions.
So, with no snow, and no wind tomorrow, I should be able to figure out where the various walls are located - I hope.

Till then, lot of pictures, some real bad, from today's happenings:

09 January 2007
Today the weather was not as awful as yesterday, but still a full "fall weather", with rain and wind coming stronger during the day. The rain stopped sometimes this afternoon, we even got some glimpses of sun. :-)
The wind did however not stop, and this evening/night we hear a strong wind outside - which of course makes it kind of cozy inside with the wood stove showing it's nice glow/flames in the corner, and me strangely enough feeling rather good even if I also feel sad. :-)

Today Egil & Øyvind came rather early, around 0810, and started the day by using their Laser level to check the levelness of the 9th row along the walls having the 9th row made - and according to them when they came in around 0900 to eat their breakfast, it was so perfect that it had to be luck, as no walls should end up so level when it starts out with so many walls (we have around 8 in the garage...) - so that sounded very good!
I'm not so sure if it is still so perfect after Øyvind put up the 10th and last row on east, north and west walls today, Egil did the 30cm wide south wall. They used a level to check, but it is so easy to get a small curve on top that I am not so sure it is so great as Øyvind claims. Hopefully it is as great as needed for the roof/floor "planks" that will come sometime next week.

They left some rooms for the steel beams, and according to the builder we will get 3 beams, one is to be 12cm I-Beam to be used inside the U-blocks up in north to support the Leca Building Planks where they protrude out from the west wall of the garage to make a small balcony type, one is 22cm I-beam to support the Leca Building Planks in the middle of the garage - between the ports - going all the way from east to west, near 9m long.
The last beam is also a I-beam, this one is 20cm (save us some money instead of using a larger beam then we need) and is to be used on the south west wall to also support the Leca Building Planks protruding out from the garage in west, and to be used later to support more Leca Building Planks that will make up the floor for the 2nd floor bathroom.
The builder had no idea when the steel will arrive, or the price, so we need to phone again tomorrow to try find that out.

Egil also put up two rows on the small 15cm wide wall, taking it up from 6 rows to 8 rows - and tomorrow they will make the 9th and maybe tenth row too, as they both will connect that 15cm wall to the rest of the garage going over two doorways.
Then it is to fill in rest of the top U-blocks, the north & east walls was filled in today, rest tomorrow I guess.

Hopefully weather behaves too, I need to put up some threads again to measure the top blocks so I know where the garage is according to my drawings, and hence can tell where the Leca Building Planks is to be put down.
Lot of work, but as soon as I get a day with no rain and more important, no wind, I can do it.

For now, pictures from today:

08 January 2007
Today the weather was awful, and I mean awful!! The snow from this weekend rained away more or the night till today, but the rain had not ended, as it continued today, and had brought in wind as a reinforcement to!

Egil & Øyvind came late today, was around 09:20 when they show up, and as promised, Egil had a present with him to Tore's brother, Steinar. Which of course made Steinar very happy! :-)
They had their late breakfast meal, then went out in the rain/wind and started to build up a wooden support over the garage door openings, this was to be used to hold up the U-blocks  while the concrete dries and hardens.
The large 2cm height difference from Friday they had measured, seemed to be no problem, as when using a long lever and the wood supports they ended up with a near perfect match in height!
That was really good, but makes me wonder how those two openings really going to end up like. :-)

The rain stopped for a while, Tore drove Steinar to Oslo and was gone most of the day, while Egil put me to work carrying U-blocks to Øyvind while Egil kept busy mixing concrete. The first job he had for me was to fetch him some water, which I of course did as I had done the same yesterday and Saturday for Tore filling up the large barrel they have standing outside of here with a heater inside to heat the water.
When I was through carrying the U-blocks I was more or less free to photograph and just look.. :-)

Which was a miserable job today, I got so cold and wet I had to run inside in the end, it was then around 12:30 and just about 30 minutes later Egil & Øyvind came in to have their own lunches.
Then they packed up and left around 01:35, to wet, windy to do more work they said, see you tomorrow.

So, that was it, hopefully tomorrow will be a better day, in all accounts as today turned out to be the worst day in my life for a long long time!!! Not so much the building part, but stuff that happen late this evening... :-(

Pictures:

07 January 2007
Yesterday the weather was quite nice, but cold, so Tore and I was after a slow day (work wise) able to at least get some work done outside. As last year, Tore mixed concrete, I did the mason work. :-)
It was not much I/we got done, but some it was. No work on the garage, or house, but instead I focused on getting the walls up at the extension to the shed where we want to place the toilet we use today when we built our house.

Was able to get all the rows up and all three walls, just as it got to dark to see real good I was satisfied with the level of the top U-blocks - thanks to a good long lever that Øyvind & Egil have up here.
Today we had hoped to add the outside coat of concrete to cover the block walls, but when we finally got around to do the mixture it ended up a little thin, and with the rain now pouring down we decided to try to use it as it was, and if it wouldn't stick to the walls just dump it into the U-blocks.
It stuck more or less to the wall, but a lot fall down too, and in the end I lacked about 50cm wide by 75cm high area that I need to do another day as no way would I finish this off in the rain.

05 January 2007
Another day, more work done (by others LOL) - even a visit by the builder and his brother, Reidar & Hans Furuseth. Hans being the mason, while Reidar the carpenter/builder so to speak - and it took me by a pleasant surprise when suddenly Hans said to be that I had done a great job!!
Little did I know that Tore had shown him what we had done - but as Tore said later, he had also seen the walls where we I had stopped and Egil/Øyvind had took on the job, according to Tore he had said something like this: "It looks like either a very professional has done it, or a very perfectionist" - nice words I must say by Hans! :-)

Reidar & Øyvind discussed some important matters regarding the iron beams that will help support the roof, and the support pylons to support the beams... Being frost in the ground, they agreed on doing some temporary ones - I kinda don't agree, but I was out voted...
Same with the walls inside out future house, I wanted to build up with Leca blocks to the floor level, now they want to add more wood frames and fill with concrete up to floor level, was much stronger I was told.
I do believe that, but leaves me no way to mark out the wood walls so I need to do it another way then I had in mind.

Other then that, weather was cold but nice, we got snow this evening, but today it was none. They manage to put up most of the north side of the wall separating the garage from the rest of the house - the room where we have a second entry, tower room - all the way up to the 8th level, with the Iso-blocks.
I now can see the start of the first window in that room, but rest I will not see for a long time unless I do it my self... This due to the cabin being in the way, and Øyvind not feeling for fitting blocks to my crazy design... :-)

They had big plans for fitting the 9th row over the garage doors with U-blocks today, but as some of the walls supporting those was also made today, they chicken out and postponed that till next week as they had some fear that the lower walls might break down unless first settled.
Instead they put up the 30cm wide walls up to the 9th row - and then it was over, the weekend set in and we where left alone till Monday... :-)

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04 January 2007
A new day, this day with several degree above zero, but with rain, so it was a wet and kinda cold day instead of a cold day only as yesterday. Egil & Øyvind came just before 0800, and by the time the clock had become 1000 and they took a break for breakfast... they had done some more work on the north-east corner of the garage by adding in the 9th row there.
By the time they took lunch around 1300 they had done more or less the whole 9th row in east, as also in north.

By the time they left around 1530 Egil had filled in the U-blocks above the 4 windows, while Øyvind had added up a few more rows of the Iso-block on the wall between the house and the garage.
Then it got to dark for him to do cutting work, so he didn't need the last mix Egil had done, and before I knew it, I was stuck with a job in the dark and rainy afternoon - use up that concrete mix at the wall down by the shed extension...

Which I did, but in the darkness, even with the light, and in the rain, I was very sloppy and didn't feel for putting in the time to do it properly, so I'm a little worry how that might turn out...
We see tomorrow I guess. LOL

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03 January 2007
A new year has begun, and it didn't start of very good either...  We have been away back home in the Netherlands for a week, and while on the road back yesterday morning we got a phone call from Egil Åstad where he told us that they would have to start work on the garage that day - even if we had a agreement via Øyvind that no work would be done before we where back here in Norway.
It pissed me off very much, and made the trip home not as pleasant and good as I had hoped.

And, we paid the price for it too, so did Egil & Øyvind as it mean they no have a little more work to do as they had used some blocks we told on the phone yesterday NOT to USE, and they still did - and hence, now they need to fit some new blocks into the location where this blocks should had been used...
While I lost a reference wall, except for the very first row that I my self made last year... :-) I feel they are to sloppy for my taste, but I just have to live with it, and I hate the feeling I get from knowing "I just have to live with it"...
I shouldn't get/have that feeling from people doing work for us, it just is not right!

Øyvind & Egil put up the 30cm wide and the 15cm wide walls while we where not here, all the way up to 150cm (6 rows), and two more rows on the north wall today afternoon, so now we see the window location on that wall.
To dark to get a picture though, as they left us at 16:15 - but boy had it been longer light at evening, 15 minutes longer since we left 9 days ago - great! Not so great, it started to snow this evening... :-(

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