Despite of the snow and the cold weather there is still progress in our building process.
The tile work is finished, the doors and windows are jointed and the ceilings are up.
Outside it is not totally finished. We still miss 2 layers on the roof and some of the zinc uncovering.
It has to wait for better weather. They cannot do it, when it’s frost, and just now it’s nearly impossible for a truck to drive up to us due to the slippery road. It gives problems, and we too had to take another way than we use to, and our son destroyed the bumper
, when his car skidded into a stone. So he had to walk part of the way up to our house.
But we wish to finish our painting before we get the kitchen and the bathroom etc., so we continue working every weekend. It has really helped us what we have done before the ceiling were up. Unfortunately some of the walls are still not dry enough to paint, even though we have had a big electric heater blowing all the time together with the geothermal heat. So now we try with a dehumidifier to see if it can help.
We think that the builders have done a nice work, but I had to confess that I’m a little disappointed, because I can see that we have made some mistakes. We have really used a lot of time investigating everything to make the house as perfect as possible. Seeing the result I’m satisfied with most of it, but especially two things annoys me. I say “me”, because we have some discussions at home,hubby think, I’m too hysterical.
The biggest problem is the bars in the windows. The design in the houses our master builder normally build, is that the windows and doors have bars across, so of course he proposed that to our house too. It looked very nice, when we saw it on the drawing, but what we haven’t been thinking of was that if I’m sitting inside on a chair, I can see the trees and the grass etc, but NOT the sea
. The bars cover this view! In our little old house we had unhindered view, so it annoys me so much that we don’t have it in the new expensive house. I so much enjoy to relax - perhaps reading a book - looking at the sea. Especially the 2 big windows in the room are tricky, because you can open a part of the window, so this makes the bars there wider. I want 2 new windows there without any bars, but it cost a lot of money, and hubby say no “it’s ridiculous- you can see the sea if you stand up, or you can go outside”. At the same time the law says that in every room you need to have windows you can use as fire exit. So we still have discussions about what to do!
The next thing, which annoys me, is that the colour white isn’t a clear concept. I haven’t been thinking of that. We have ordered white windows (inside) and white doors. The walls are painted white too. But when we got the doors, which are from another firm than the windows, it shows up that the doors are more cream- coloured/yellow than white. I thought that they have made a mistake and want new doors, but when I looked further in the brochure, I could see that in the pictures of the doors, they looked white, but on a special page all the colours were shown and the white colour was correctly shown as cream coloured. I hadn’t seen that, so it was me, who had made a mistake. I phoned the firm but they could not change the doors because they were already installed.
It really disturbs my look to see these yellow doors in the middle of white walls and white windows. I so much regret that we haven’t ordered grey doors, and I don’t think hubby is ready to offer the price to have them painted. Are some of you likewise me- the colours have to be perfect matching
?
Now it must be time to show some pics:
Here the windows where the bars are a problem.
<a href="
http://picasaweb.google.dk/lh/photo/k4D ... site"><img src="
http://lh3.ggpht.com/_4aSBK_jB-gs/S3FiU ... 6.JPG"></a>
Both of the covered terraces are nearly finished
<a href="
http://picasaweb.google.dk/lh/photo/W2d ... site"><img src="
http://lh4.ggpht.com/_4aSBK_jB-gs/S3CHF ... 7.JPG"></a>
<a href="
http://picasaweb.google.dk/lh/photo/DEH ... site"><img src="
http://lh6.ggpht.com/_4aSBK_jB-gs/S3CHG ... 8.JPG"></a>
We have ceilings up to the roof, which gives some interesting angles. Here you can see the colour of the door against the wall, and a part of the skylight in the corridor
<a href="
http://picasaweb.google.dk/lh/photo/byJ ... site"><img src="
http://lh4.ggpht.com/_4aSBK_jB-gs/S3CHE ... 6.JPG"></a>
The 2 guestrooms have an extra loft room, where 2 persons, perhaps children can sleep. I think it looks nice and there is a nice view from the place.
<a href="
http://picasaweb.google.dk/lh/photo/SEG ... site"><img src="
http://lh6.ggpht.com/_4aSBK_jB-gs/S3CHB ... 1.JPG"></a>
The ladder up to the loft room
<a href="
http://picasaweb.google.dk/lh/photo/YTf ... site"><img src="
http://lh3.ggpht.com/_4aSBK_jB-gs/S3CHC ... 2.JPG"></a>
As I told we have ceilings to the roof nearly in all rooms, there are tiles on the floor, and the walls are stone. Such a combination means that the acoustics will be very bad. When you have noisy children, it can be difficult for other to hear anything and have a conversation, and if you move a chair the loud seems very high. So we had to think of that.
In sport centres, stables etc. it’s common to use a special ceiling- a mix of excelsior and cement – which takes a lot of the noise. Now a Danish firm has started to produce this material to private houses too, and we have chosen to use it in our house. I’m pretty sure that it will not be your taste, but we think it’s fine for a house like ours, and I assure you that it reduce the noise very much.
<a href="
http://picasaweb.google.dk/lh/photo/Lyg ... site"><img src="
http://lh6.ggpht.com/_4aSBK_jB-gs/S3CHE ... 4.JPG"></a>
The builders are nearly finished inside, so we have made a temporary kitchen inside the house.
It was very cold to make food in a leaky tool shed without any heat, so it’s really an improvement to be able to cook in the house even though it’s still very basic.
<a href="
http://picasaweb.google.dk/lh/photo/7Y6 ... site"><img src="
http://lh4.ggpht.com/_4aSBK_jB-gs/S3CHA ... 9.JPG"></a>
Most of the walls in the family room are painted now. Hubby paints in one of the corridors.
<a href="
http://picasaweb.google.dk/lh/photo/RRK ... site"><img src="
http://lh5.ggpht.com/_4aSBK_jB-gs/S3CHG ... 1.JPG"></a>
And at last: a picture from the harbour outside the fish dealer
<a href="
http://picasaweb.google.dk/lh/photo/7H0 ... site"><img src="
http://lh4.ggpht.com/_4aSBK_jB-gs/S3CHH ... 9.JPG"></a>
Linne
