Garden fun

Oh yes, it was sooo … much fun.

Obviously I wanted to have flowers and new trees, bushes planted as fast as possible. Chosing plants instead of pipes was a nice change.

I considered it a try period – not getting too attached. Thanks God! Not only I had some extra warm and dry months here, I also had  builders who didn`t care about the grass+ so things were constantly getting broken.

The grass itself had to be replanted  5 times, so for a few years I was looking at the next door garden so green… with a bit of envy…

At least I got to know a few stores, few plants and ended up knowing what will work here well and where I should get it from.

That was also the moment I decided to use the hole in the ground – after one bush with huge roots was out – to have a water feature done. As you already had a hole seemed perfect.

Here you do not need a permit for it but the town has to be informed. As there are lots of cables and pipes going under the ground here it was logical to see if it would be safe to do it.

Strangely it took a long time for it to be properly done and some changes were needed. The photo shows the starting point.

 

 

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Team 2

 

Thanks God two guys who worked here in the past and knew the place were free then. Cause according to the guy overseeing it… the ones before were good only for destroying the walls, not creating new ones…

 

They did most of the work downstairs. Before all was ready it took a horribly long time (too good conditions here and did not want to go away seems to be the reason).

 

So for close to 4 months, 6 days a week from 7am to 7pm it continued…

 

As works were in the autumn, winter in a cold house it was logical for me to give them the morning coffee (+something sweet to go with it) and then a warm lunch.  It gave me some peace as baking calms me (used to then).

 

It also meant that I would be up and running round from 4 am… Somebody had to clean it all, get the shopping, bake… Wouldn`t be a problem if I ever went to bed before 1am then…

 

The good thing it was probably the warmest autumn/ winter for decades and all the work could be done.

 

It was so wonderful to see the walls showing up. Of course that meant deciding where all the things would be.

 

It was a horrid thing to first stand in a place that was to be the bathroom and dediding where the lights would be installed so the electrician would know… All I could see was an empty space and could not see how it would look later.

 

It was a bit easier with the plubing side. I could imagine the toilet and sink, somehow thought it would not go with a bath. I thought there was not enough space. The bath would be too small and my dad would not like it. Besides there would not be much space to move…

 

I was calmed my the plumber and… I was really wrong, he was right. He does see thing like an interior designer so I trusted his opinion later with further works.

 

Thanks God had that problem just with this floor. Somehow later upstairs seemed easier for me and I saw it all. It could be because I consided upstairs my nest, always did.

 

Ever since I was a few years old I would say I will live here and this is going to be my bedroom. The reaction was…. but of course it wll…

 

 

 

 

Calm before the storm

Additional fun bits then were wonderful.

One of the guys did smell with alcohol a few times and did hide a bottle of beer (empty unfortunately) in my bathroom cabinet.

As he worked well and there were no additional problems with him I did ignore it. It wasn`t a problem for me. Especially not when so much was being done.

The fact a woman is a boss makes the guys try to use it.  To have better working conditions, to get more money. It was a pleasure to have someone to keep an eye on things.

Additional change started just before we moved in. The town decided to lower the outside pavements (to the original) so the walls got a bit of a shock.

As they used the time to change some pipes the shock was huge for us too as the hole next to the house was huge (and guess what it started raining heavily then… nothing protected).

Getting into the house was fun. There was a tiny bit of wood (thin) you could  walk on. Start to feel happy I had to do it just twice (as was not living in there yet).

Once the kitchen/bath/hall part was done. The floor in the rest of the rooms was done.

Calm before the storm really. As once it all dried…

 

Floors!!!

The wonderful thing then happened. I got floors!!!

Of course the “getting” wasn`t as simple and fast as it sounds.  No, this renovation did not last a week – though it gives me quite some fun watching that on tv. I just never know if I should treat it as a comedy or Sci – Fi…

First you had to do something with the huge holes – filling it all up with concrete seemed the most logical. Especially as my father was desperate for a stable floor. (It was not his age and health that was causing problms with walking… it was the floor).

That created a small problem… the wholes were huge and deep and filling it all up (except of the cost) would just make it all soo heavy! There was the danger the basement and grounds there would not take it well…

So the result – it was partly filled up with styrofoam. Then you had to put some bricks there just to have the shape of the rooms (kitchen, bathroom, hall way). When that was done the concrete  (self levelling one) was poored. and I must say it was a pleasure watching it set.

The minus of it all was the fact you could not walk on it till it was dry… Well, you could but the chances of you staying there and feeling like a mob member (almost former) was huge.

That had a wonderful bonus for me.a few days of NO WORKS!

 

 

Demolition without the mess!

Then came the time to change all the gas and water pipes… how lovely…

At least here I was  thrilled to have new and safer ones.

It took a lot of work ( and I do consider all work with gas dangerous) and more miles of new things. Thanks God at least the heaters and boilers looked familiar enough.

Still as I never had to deal with that it was a new thing to learn and I did spend some time at the start checking it all every few hours just to see if all was fine.

My father never even bothered to learn and to be honest I am glad as I would be far more nervous if I knew he touched anything that can…. explode.

With his memory and skills… The idea itself was too horrid for me. Not to mention the fact he did say a few times he would do something to the place once I would be away. He does hate it… I am madly in love with it, always was. Guess what… I stay at home most of the time.  Just in case…

There are two perfect things thanks to it now. 1 New heaters become warm soooo fast! 2 The floor in the kitchen and bathroom, (only the ones dowstairs) are heated. This is sooo perfect for getting out of the bath…

I still remember how cold it was there before and you really did not want to use the bathroom…

It is also (I hope) good for the building, that gets some heat , bricks seem to enjoy the change.

Demolition man

Then once the walls and ceilings were there the demolition man came… In my case that means the electrician…

It was a bit painful to see the new things being so brutally deatroyed but….One does need light and energy so electricity was needed.

Everything had to be changed… New cables, new wires, new sockets…. Shopping for it all was fun… Trolleys  full of things I had no idea what they were (still don`t and have no desire to know)…

At the same time bought all the lights for the floor ( strangely lamps were easier to buy and didn`t take me more than half an hour). Then the poor things had to wait for the rooms being ready so they could be installed.

That was also the time I was praying a lot (for them not to get destroyed) as I  didn`t want to deal with such costs again.

The good side to it all was the new ones were pretty (my opinion) and it  wouldn`t need to be changed for a few years…

It was also the time I found out how weak the construction was…- in my opinion not an expert but… straw was eveywhere…???

Few days of drilling were a bit exhausting so the shopping trip was a pleasure simply because I was out od the house!

 

Under

For some reason men working here were surprised I liked the destruction? Of course I did. You can`t have a better proof that something is going on.

The number of tones of bricks and so on that were taken away from here was shocking. I still can`t believe it all was here… Good I took lots of photos to be able to refresh my memory….

To keep things moving nicely I decided to deal with all the rest of the rooms dowstairs at the same time. So this way one team could deal with the kitchen and another with the rooms.

To my surprise just under the wooden floor there was … nothing.  An empty space of round 30cm then the ground… And some bricks … Well it did work…

Walking in the rooms became a bit problematic to say the least… Door to the rooms that were partly destroyed during a break in a few months earlier had to be replaced. It was the cheaper option to get new ones than have the old ones repaired (and by…? yet another person to look for).