Carpenters' work

Around the back of the house, things are looking better. The terrace is down and the shed is up.
The terrace steps will get sides to them and something will go aound the edges of the terrace to stop mice building a mice city underneath it.
The shed has got two doors - the locks are going to come this week - and a nice beaver-tail (Biberschwanz) roof. Sometime soon the wood's going to get treated and stained and what-not.The shed also has a light and a socket in it, and a path leading up to it so we don't have to get too muddy walking from the house to the shed. And it's already full of shed stuff.
Tomorrow we are going to buy some grass seed to repair the garden.

In the photo you can also see that the fence to next door has been removed. Our carpenters have been clearing out the yard for our neighbour and she has promised to put up a proper fence soon.

Carpenters at work

On Friday the Zimmermänner were still working hard. Here they are doing something or other with the beams at the front of the house. The balcony is lying in the garden once again...

Pink toliet

I had to fight for it but we now have a beautiful pink toilet.
"Pink!" all the men said. "It will look good", said I (stamping my feet like Rumplestiltskin). And it is. And they all agree too :-)

Place to eat

The new dining table has arrived. One day we'll buy some lovely new chairs too. In the meantime we'll have to make do with these not very strong but very useful 12 euro foldable things from Ikea. At least, until we bring the metal ones from the flat next week.

New home for the bookshelves

And here the bookshelves are in their new position.

Boxes

Back at the flat, we've started packing the books and bits.
Some see it as boxes of books; others see it as a cat adventure playground.
The book shelves have already gone (note the empty white wall behind the sofa where the wall to wall bookshelves once were). They had to go to the house with the carpenter who cut them to fit - taking a bit off the top as the ceiling is lower, and a bit off the bottom as the skirting board would have been in the way.

Fall (fell, fallen)

Autumn has struck and almost all of the remaining leaves have blown, fluttered, and fallen off the trees giving the garden a slightly bare appearance. We do have two lovely piles of leaves though for the hedgehogs to rustle about in.

Former door

The funny pink office door went (via eBay) a while back. Then the door space was walled up and plastered. Now it has been painted pink to roughly match the other side of the front of the house - or at least so it doesn't stick out too much.

The scaffolding has gone from the front of the house and the balconies have been reattached. The outside wooden beams are getting wood cladding sometime this week too.

Today I swept, hoovered and mopped the first floor and cleaned all the windows on that floor too.
Just as I was starting on the monster windows downstairs Christa next door took pity on me, waved, and asked me over for a very welcome cup of coffee.

We're getting there.
Lovely weather for November.

Woodwormius eviction

We evicted the beastie but had to replace the wood he had made into his home and consequently turned into mushy splinters. Luckily the carpenters know how to do this without tearing down the whole house. It's a bit like an amputation - you cut away until you hit healthy tissue/wood and then replace the rotten bit with something new using bits of metal to hold it together.

Hidden Sunday work

In Germany it is highly frowned upon if you even consider working on a Sunday. The only way you can get away with working on your house is to spend the whole afternoon in the cellar with Ikea packages and instructions with pictures but no words.
At first the shelves were very wobbly, but then we found an extra little plastic packet containing anti-wobble devices (AWDs). So we dismantled the wobbly bits, inserted the AWDs and now they no longer wobble. Shame there aren't AWDs available for other aspects of our daily lives.

Sheds and hats

The carpenters have made themselves an open-air workshop in our back garden.



Yesterday they built the frame of our shed - which almost looks too noble to be a shed.


Essential head gear for your fashionable carpenter about town this autumn: Grey woolly hats a-go-go.

Windows

Making the most of the mild autumnal weather, lots was going on at the house on Saturday.
Sinan is sanding his final windows - starting at the top of the house, he's been working his way down slowly but surely to the double doors onto the garden.


His uncle is working behind him, varnishing, treating and filling gaps in the frames.

Shiny stairs

Two men from Stahlbau Nägele came today and put in our new shiny cellar stairs.



I'm quite proud of the stairs as I arranged everything to do with them, from start to finish, all by myself (Werner was at work; Veit was on holiday).



Now we have to work out how to put together the metal cellar shelves from Ikea. They're half up at the moment, but wobbling all over the place.

Woodworm update

A couple of people have asked what happened when the Worm-buster came on Friday afternoon.
Well, he took a look at the beastie (which Werner had creepily kept in a bottle for the pest man to see and identify) and said, yes, definitely "Hausbock"(Hylotrupes bajulus - in real Latin, and Old-house borer in English). The good news is that the work the carpenters did cutting and chiselling away the wood was adequate and we don't have to fumigate or otherwise spread poison about. The bad news is we have to check and possibly replace the beams at the front of the house too. And, in order to check them, we have to hack into the plaster on the front of the house.
The saga continues.
The other good news was that the pest-control man didn't charge us a call-out fee. Instead he asked that we spread the word that he's a jolly nice chap and the person to call should you need any pests controlling. So, thank you Mr Thomas Gunst, Staatl. anerkannter Desinfektor und Schädlingsbekämpfer, here's a link to your website.

Finished kitchen #2

Best to have a look at it now as it is unlikely to ever be this clean and tidy again.
Now we have to work out where everything is going to go. We have more storage space in the new kitchen than we do now at the flat - which is a big relief - but there doesn't seem to be a place to hang a tea towel out of sight.



Note the new window too - cleverly made so that the bit that opens does so without hitting the tap.
The fridge and freezer are off to the right of this second photo.

Beasties

And the bad news is that because the wrongly fitted metal cladding over the outside beams (see previous posts) has been letting the water in for so long, nasty beasties of the species Woodwormius uglios hugeos mungus have made themselves at home in the damp mushy woody remains. Said damp mushy remains have been hacked out so that the beasties can be dealt with in an inhumanely way.



If you're squeamish look away... now!

Bathroom floor

The beautiful blue glass tiles have been laid in the bathroom.
The sinks and other useful bathroom things are coming next week.

Hole in wall

So that the kitchen men can install the extractor hood over the new cooker, Mr Baun (who is quickly becoming our Man Friday) had to knock a hole in the wall.
He (unlike certain other people) didn't fall off his ladder. Maybe someone was watching over him...?

"Custom kitchen delivery...."

... we got to move these refridgerators, (etc etc)"

Two men who do not get their "money for nothing and their chicks for free"

Kitchen number two

The second kitchen - which will be our main kitchen, on the first floor - started to arrive today.
The two men installing it have said they will be there for another two days.
Here you can see the basic outline of it and the carousel corner whirly cupboard tray thingies.

Balcony and beams

The balcony on the garden side has been removed as the rotten wood running up between the window frames has to be replaced (see yesterday's posts).



Luckily it's a push in, kick out type of structure.
It's currently in a collapsed state under the tree - which lost most of its leaves in last night's windy storm.

New floor number 2

The laminate flooring is going down in the first floor today. That's the biggest area of flooring in the whole house and it has to be down today so the kitchen can arrive tomorrow morning.
The picture's not blurred - the room is full of dust.

Warm feet

Not wanting to have frozen toes after stepping out of the shower (the bathroom is over the cellar, or the cellar is under the bathroom depending on your point of view) we decided to install underfloor heating in the bathroom. The electrician came today and in conjunction with the tiler installed a heating mat. I do hope it works as the tiler has now plastered (or something) over it so he can lay the floor tiles.

Now you see it .....



Now you don't.

Cables

On a brighter note, the Kabel BW men put in this nice arrangement of cables yesterday. They don't actually do anything at the moment but we remain hopeful that they will one day soon carry TV, internet and telephone into the house.

Uh oh! - more rotten beams

The former owner made quite a good job of hiding them, but as soon as you take away the ugly metal cladding on the outside of the house you realise why it was there - to cover up the rotten beams.
More work for Mr Baun and his ever increasing team of helpers.

Just before we had to leave there were 5 of them taking down the balcony. We decided not to stay and watch.

Shed-in-waiting

In the garden there is a shed-in-waiting. The wood's all there but suddenly due to newly discovered rotten beams the carpenters are all busy elsewhere. So the wood for the shed will wait...