Geothermal Energy and the 1st Floor is starting to look liveable!!

Sunday, the 28. November 2010

It has been an exciting 2 weeks on the house front!
Despite weather forecasts to the contrary, the icy front held out, the extra ground got taken away and the geothermal energy collectors were able to be installed.

The view from our Webcam 2 weeks ago.

And then the earthworks started...

A while later...

Next day...

And so on...

Hole for the Geothermal collectors taking shape.

Our swimming pool? No, our heating hole...!

6m x 18m

From the other edge.

The blue on the picture is Geothermal pipes - not much thicker than spaghetti - but like macaroni with a hole in the middle.

Covering up the Geothermal collectors

All gone!

Now this whole Geothermal heating business was very tricky and very weather we had a lot of luck! The pipes have to be soldered together, and for that to work the temperature had to be above 5 degrees. On day 2 of the work the temperature was max 3 degrees - they were using huge heaters to make sure they maintained temperature and did not break. Tricky business. All a little, I'll believe it when I feel it!

3 days later - SNOW!

Today on the property... Still snow, but at least the heating is in.

Inside the house though, there are big things happening!!! Very exciting...

Master Bedroom with plaster on the walls! Finally looking like a house :) 

Other wall in Master Bedroom - like the texture of the walls.

Still Master Bedroom - looking towards entrance, cupboard area and bathroom.

Looking from Bathroom to Bedroom.

Main Bathroom - Toilet 

Kids room

From the Master Bedroom Balcony towards the street - as you can see the huge sand heap is gone and the property has been evened out.

The top of our borehole - pump still to come.


So now we really are on the last legs... 

Don't get me wrong - after we move in there is still going to be heaps to be done, but thats all later.

What is important is what needs to happen before we can move in... 

The following still needs to be done:

This week: Plaster the ground floor, Underfloor heating, Measurements for kitchen

Next week: Designbeton (cement) Floors, Sewage & Water

Week after next: Stair measurements, Electricity in house

Middle January: Stairs installed, Painting walls, installation of Bathrooms

End of January: Move in!

Beginning February: Kitchen gets installed

Projects for the next years are:

Balcony

Terasse

Garden

Carport

Fence

Gate

Entrance area

Paving

Landscaping etc.

I think we will be kept out of mischief for a while yet! Visitors and helpers gladly welcome.

From raw building Structure to .... a house!

Sunday, 14. November 2010

Everything has been completely nuts in the last couple of weeks... Especially our race against the weather - which I am not sure we are winning.

There has been coordination of earthworks, builders and especially (and unexpectedly) our building leader, planning the kitchen, visiting kitchen studios, etc etc etc.

Being pregnant on top of all of this, is not easy... :)

So here are a few pictures of the developments over the past couple of weeks.

Enjoy!

A few weeks back when they starting putting the insulation on the outside walls...

Toilet installation in Main Bathroom

View through Master Bedroom Balcony windows

Looking from Balcony onto house

Almost fully clothed!

Guest Bathroom, toilet and shower installations

From forest side.

Fully clothed from front.

Pic from Webcam - with 1st layer of plaster over the insulation.

Today - 14.11.2010 - Having a braai at the house. The house itself is completely finished from the outside!
Looking so pretty. Now come all the inside bits: Electro, Plaster, Underfloor heating, floors, stairs, kitchen etc.
On the outside we still need to have the earth heating installed, the water, the sewage and landscaping done.

From the right side...

From the left side.

Sitting in a nice chocolate milkshake!

The rest of the pics are just of the wires and pipes in the bathroom, kitchen etc.

So this week we are hoping for landscaping, water, earth heating! Hold thumbs we get it all done before the weather changes.

Windows and more...

The lack of updates recently have been due to, amongst other things, the lack of anything to report.  So now I have time and news, so read away!
Our windows arrived last week (all except one), which is a rather big deal. Obviously we ran from window to window opening and closing them all. Well it is a new and rather expensive toy!

Especially exciting is our terrace door - very nice sliding door - and our kitchen window - also sliding window (thanks to a mess up with a steel girder, the building calculations and solution orientated Eugen - and of course the almost 1000 Euros that paid for it!)

We were a little surprised at how small the bathroom window is, but the view from that window is nothing special and we have a nice big door looking out onto a ... heap of sand ... I mean the forest (gotta think big picture people!).

Our red front door hasn't arrived yet, but that should be here any day now, as well as our balcony door.

All our windows are high security, with 3 panes of glass.

Now that the windows are in they can slowly start with all the work inside the house, such as laying the pipes for heating, water, electricity, floors, finishing off the inside walls, bathrooms - see bathroom plans! - stairs etc.

The piping for water in the bathrooms and our fresh air system has also already begun.

Outside still has its fair share of stuff to do, such as walls - insulation and paint - heating, well, septic tank, filling up the earth around the house, supporting walls, rain water system, transporting the leftover earth away, paving, etc. etc.

More exciting photos of our piping etc. to follow in next post!

Here are the plans for our bathrooms...

Upstairs (Main) Bathroom

Upstairs Bathroom - view from Bath

Upstairs Bathroom - view from door towards shower

Downstairs (Guest) Bathroom 

Coffee and Cake on our Building Site with Kerstin, Jens and Dominik