Kitchen number one

Zoe's kitchen arrived on her 20th birthday.
Everyone was happy that they managed to park the truck in front of the house - except for the fire brigade who came and asked us to keep a clear exit/entrance (meaning, move your vehicles).

Kitchen arriving...



Kitchen bits ...



Birthday kitchen..
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Almost finished. It looks good, but it's not connected. That should happen tomorrow - we hope.

Shed floor

If you're wondering where the patio stones have gone to - look around the house corner where they are now the floor of our shed.



Me in the shed with the friendly (not free-) masons.

Painting by numbers

The two Heinrich Schmid painters were there again today

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Although most of the living area will remain white (at least for the time being) we chose a yellow colour (Gobi) for a couple of walls. The colour makes the house begin to look like a house and not just a building site.

Not a crime scene

Although it looks like it, this is not part of a crime scene. It's the beginnings of a shed. Quite a large shed by the looks of it. Good, cos we have a lot of stuff that needs to be kept in the shed (bikes, lawnmower, tyres, etc etc - shed stuff basically).

First flooring

Mr Baun has been working all Saturday to get Zoe's flooring down. It's 90% done - the rest will be finished (and cleaned) on Monday. On Wednesday the kitchen is coming ....

'Getting the painters in'

We had been considering painting the house ourselves and wondering whether we would manage it time-wise. The decision was made for us with Werner's broken (etc) wrist.
We have given the contract to the Heinrich Schmid company. Now we have two men in white overalls roaming around, painting, touching up the plaster work and repairing and patching the wallpaper - using a really longwallpapering table and roller thingy.

Window frames

The wooden window frames all need sanding and treating.

We have a lot of windows.

Sinan has the unenviable, but important, job of sanding them. His uncle is going to come and treat, repair, fill, stain or varnish and generally do whatever it is that needs doing once the sanding is finished.

beams

Meanwhile the Zimmerman / carpenter and his Zimmerboy / helper have been working in Zoe's flat. She now has lovely new beams filling the ugly gap in the ceiling where the walls had been removed. This picture is taken looking into her living room.

And our patio is filling up with builder-y odds and ends.

casualty

We have the first casualty. Werner fell off the ladder while putting up the curtain rails. Or the ladder threw Werner off - depending on whose side of the story you listen to.

Whichever, he has broken his wrist and has a plaster cast for at least 6 weeks. On Friday the doctor will decide whether he has to have an operation to place a metal pin in it too as the joint has moved out of position as well.

Blue bin / Blaue Tonne

A while back we applied for a blue recycling bin. It's free and big. We are allowed to fill it with paper and card which can be recycled and then wheel it out to the street where it gets collected on the 11th of each month. Today we picked it up from the depot. Now it stands in the garden waiting for the shed to be built. The rose and the red twiggy bush are prettier.

Rainy Saturday

Even in the autumn rain the garden has plenty of treasures to offer.

The strongly perfumed yellow rose is still producing blooms,

the red twiggy bush has lost most of its leaves now leaving just the brightly coloured twigs,

and the strange bright pink things on the magnolia are bursting open and throwing out shiny red bean-like seeds which madly clash with the pink pods.

End of the week update

This week has run slightly differently to the past few weeks. Werner and I have both been written off sick (a lot of good that does me being self-employed), his mother was taken to hospital with a suspected stroke (she's back at the home now but ...), and winter arrived.
Rain and temperatures down to freezing point are not very condusive to working on a building site where there's no heating until next Thursday.
However, Sinan has been slowly sanding our window frames between the bouts of rain, The plasterer has almost finished the top floor and first floor, and the electrician is that far now that he is putting the covers on the light switches and sockets. We managed to sell the pink office door on eBay - it's amazing what people want to buy.
I tried to do some sweeping and cleaning to get rid of the top layer of dust, but if anybody knows how to get rid of plaster splats all over the tiles and stairs I'd be happy for some advice.
And we've been paying bills. The builders and tradesmen have started to send their bills in for the work they've already done. And we're paying them.

Even floors and water pipes

The carpenters have been working hard to replace rotten beams and even out the floor (as much as is possible in a house of this age). When this is complete the floor(s) in the L-shaped living / dining room will be at the same level as the kitchen and hallway so that the laminted flooring can be laid.

And downstairs a shower is growing.

Meanwhile, back at the flat...

I've been to the DIY store (again) and bought a few packing boxes as it's time to start putting things in boxes.

Zoe and Ella are kind of helping.

Curtains

And we do what we can in the evenings after work, such as putting up the first proper length curtains on the first 'proper' curtain rails. These are made from 3 curtains as the original length was not long enough. Möbel Rieger had them sewn to the right length for us. It's done really well so that you cannot see the seams at all.

Maybe we should have ironed them before hanging them up though...

Getting a move on

... and so, in the spirit of 'getting a move on' lots of men are working at the house. And they all park their vehicles in front of the house.

Good news

No pictures for this posting, but certainly good news.
On Tuesday of this week we had an appointment with the notary together with Frau B. At the appointment we all signed the contract saying that Frau B. agrees to buy our flat and that we agree to sell it to her by 31 January 2010 at the very latest.
In reality she wants to move in by 'Nicolaus' which is Dec 6th, so we and the workers had better get a move on!

Curly twigs and twitchy noses

Another nice day today although the time that you can spend outside in the garden without starting to feel too cold is getting shorter.

We have two of these corkscrew hazelnut trees. One of them had started to go wild again (i.e. started to grow straight branches instead of curly ones) but Florian helped me to re-tame it.

Now that the leaves are starting to thin you can see the decorative curlybranches and twigs very well. The tree has even produced a handful of nuts. This afternoon we watched a little brown mouse with big round ears hopping about under the tree collecting the nuts. He ought to make the most of it now- come December Ella (our cat) will have moved in with us which will probably mean time for the mice to move out.

Woodsmen

Today new things are starting to happen. The woodsmen have arrived: a 'Zimmermann' = a carpenter, and a 'Schreiner' = a carpenter and joiner. The joiner was measuring up for door frames etc, and the carpenter was doing major structural stuff like putting in beams and floors.


While he does so, he thoughtfully put in some supports so that the house doesn't fall down around our ears.

Also, note the new radiator on the left of the photo.

Autumn colours

Autumn has arrived in the garden. The bush that looked rather boring in the summer has suddenly come into its own. Looks like I might have to start raking up leaves soon...

No hole

The drain and seeping water story is hopefully now at an end. THe hole has been nicely filled in and we have a driveway again. Without weeds :-)