We're building a house! Okay...we aren't building a house...but we are paying
someone to build one!
Click on a date below to see the work that took place that week.
Klikněte na datum níže a podivejte se na prácí která jíž končí.
12 Sep 2023
The first thing we do before we write a new blog post is review the last one and see where we ended. After reviewing the last one (sorry it’s been so long!), we realised exactly how much has happened in this time.
Carpets, Doors and Floors
We learned later from our neighbors that the guys who were installing our carpets, doors and floors were at the house until 1am Thursday night finishing the wood floors.
11 Aug 2023
In the past two weeks, we have been so busy and so have our workers! While outdoor work was on hold due to an insane amount of rain, indoor work continued and Lauren made a road trip to narrow down the selection of driveway bricks and also to see options for swimming pool decks.
Driveway Bricks
Concrete and asphalt driveways aren’t done here, but rather bricks are used with plain concrete and asphalt generally being reserved for road surfaces.
30 Jul 2023
This past week has really been a busy one at the house and it feels like things are finally starting to come together. The biggest activities at the house involved the heating system, bathrooms, garage and more exterior work.
We had another meeting with the final lighting studio and are waiting for their recommendations on lighting for inside and outside. Once we receive that, we will make our final decisions and get lights ordered.
19 Jul 2023
It has been 3 weeks since I posted and while it seemed like not much happened, as I looked through these photos, I actually realise that it did. We also had some extra activity last week as the puppy got spayed and required a lot more attention than usual. (More on that below.)
We got the lighting and electricity finished in the basement which means that we now have a working garage door opener and lights throughout the house, even though all but the basement are temporary.
29 Jun 2023
Well, we slowwwwwwly make progress. This week, all of the work that is happening is outside in the backyard and in the basement. The basement work is holding up in the installation of the heater which is needed to do some final drying out of the concrete floors. We were there this morning to meet with the garage door company and when we got there at 8:00, the electrician was already hard at work.
15 Jun 2023
It has been more than two months since these posts were updated and for good reason – we have been traveling to the US: 6 weeks for Lauren and 2 weeks for Stano. While traveling the infrastructure needed to update the blog is not accessible and so…no updates.
After taking these photos, I realised that there are missing photos so next week I’m going to do a full sweep of the house and make sure that not a single corner is missed.
9 Apr 2023
The highlight this week was definitely in the interior of the house - we finally have painted walls! We have some colour successes and some abject failures but we will live with (and laugh about them) going forward. We made progress in other areas too but the paint is really the first hint that someday this will really be a house to live in.
Exterior Stairs
We’ll start with the exterior stairs this week.
1 Apr 2023
Building continues…the actual exterior of the house was a bit on hold this week due to cold, rainy (and, on some days, snowy) weather but work progressed on the exterior stairs, a wee bit of dirt moving, technical work in the basement and tiling as well as some meetings with contractors about some issues with the kitchen hood.
Exterior Stairs
Despite freezing temperatures, the guys were working hard this week on the front stairs.
25 Mar 2023
This week was pretty productive at the property. We were there twice during the week. On Monday, we met with the Technical Director at Atrium to get an update on time estimates. Based on his calculations, they should be done by 21 April. This doesn’t include the kitchen, which is considered separate. (Houses and apartments in Czechia are generally delivered without a kitchen which is then installed later and customised by the new owners.
20 Mar 2023
No doubt you think that I’ve forgotten about the blog but nothing could be farther from the truth! I ended up taking a last-minute trip to US for a month and in that time, obviously wasn’t taking photos and updating. I’m making up for it today and will hopefully provide a decent overview of everything that happened in the past month.
Exterior
The exterior looks pretty much the same but the photos below show that our neighbors’ homes have also been making progress.
30 Jan 2023
Over the weekend, we met with the guy who is going to be doing more of the plumbing and HVAC installation to discuss the complexities of who exactly owns which parts of installation. Due to the fact that our house has a basement which wasn’t built by Atrium and that we have to get finished ourselves and the fact that the technical room where all of the heating, plumbing and other technical things come into the house, there was a question of what we needed to arrange on our side and what Atrium would cover.
25 Jan 2023
I have no doubt that everyone thought that I forgot about the blog, but I assure you that nothing is farther from the truth. The past 6 weeks or so have been a little bit crazy on all fronts. Once the concrete was poured on 9 December, we had to wait about a month for it to dry before next steps. During that time, we had Christmas, of course, but we both got a cold, then recovered, only for Lauren to get a second cold which then lasted for the next four weeks.
22 Dec 2022
Well, we don’t have too many updates this week, mainly due to the fact that we’re waiting for the concrete to dry. We had a nice surprise though when we went to the property this week which was a lovely, snowy village. It snows fairly often in and around Brno but usually melts within a day. This time it was still around 5 days later so we got some really nice photos and the puppy got to play in the snow some more - her favourite activity!
21 Dec 2022
(Photos from 9 December, post written 22 December)
I have to admit that since the house is currently in a “waiting” state while the concrete dries, I had a grand plan to do a really nice post about the Brno Christmas Market to make up for it. So I went to the Christmas Market, took some photos and did some shopping with a plan of returning to get better pictures after it snowed and wowing everyone with how pretty and awesome the markets are here.
9 Dec 2022
For me, one of the most interesting things about this entire building process has been the challenging of misconceptions around the building process. Until now I had never really spent a lot of time thinking about how modern European houses were built. I knew they were mostly made of brick walls, but in my head that was the only difference. I have come to realise that I was so wrong! Even in our house, I knew it was panel wood frame but I still made so many assumptions that have been wrong.
4 Dec 2022
This week has really been great and progress has been made! We spent Thursday morning at the property meeting with the electrician who will be doing all of the electrical work in the basement. As previously mentioned, everything in the main part of the house is being handled by one company, but we have been responsible for getting the basement structures taken care of.
We had to work with a garage door company and get that configured a few weeks ago and we’ll have to do the same for electrical, plumbing and wall and floor finishing for the basement.
30 Nov 2022
I realised that after all of the information about the house, I haven’t actually talked about the neighborhood, the village or even Brno so I thought I would start by sharing a little bit of information about our neighborhood.
Our situation is quite unique for Czech Republic in that neighborhoods don’t often exist as we think of them in US. In most villages, growth happens in a very predictable way. The villages grow one house at a time and each new house is often on the very edge of the village, right next to the last house.
26 Nov 2022
After being sick for a solid 3 weeks, we are on the mend! While still extremely tired, in general, we are feeling much better. There’s hope for the future!
We really enjoyed the trip over today and were able to have a nice walk through the house and also around the outside. Puppy got to have a good run around the yard and burn off some energy that she has been saving up while we were sick.
19 Nov 2022
Well, we had another productive week but there aren’t too many exciting photos to show for it. The electricians have finished the main two floors, but we are still waiting to get the electricity finished in the basement area.
We also should be seeing drywall on the ceilings soon.
We are going on 2 or so weeks of being sick and visiting the house today was really the first time we’ve gotten outside since we took photos last week.
13 Nov 2022
Well, this week was a bit of a bust, not due to a lack of building progress, but rather due to the fact that Stano started the week with a cold and by the end of the week, Lauren had it too.
The exterior has remained pretty much the same as the focus this week was running electrical wiring throughout. Although you can’t see it in these photos, electrical wires are being run to the exterior as well for things like outdoor electrical outlets and lights.
6 Nov 2022
The highlight of this week is that the plumbing and central vac piping is done.
Next week they start running all of the electric.
All of the water lines are insulated and go down to the basement, as well as a waste pipe. Here’s a view of the same location above. The plumbers are done and they have left everything incredibly tidy and organised. From this view, on the far left, the dark hole is the future stairwell to upstairs.
5 Nov 2022
So recently, we received a notification in the mail from our heating company about the energy crisis (for the Brno apartment, not the house) and I thought it was really interesting and that I’d share it here.
I also realised that HOW we heat in Brno is different from any system that I’d ever experienced before and so wanted to share information about it. I’m still simply amazed by how this works even though it is by no means unique to Brno.
30 Oct 2022
Not much has changed in the basement/garage this week but you can see that every time we come, more pipes are running down into the basement technical room.
I took this picture specifically to show exactly how much structure there will be between the concrete and the actual flooring that we walk on. This is the bottom of normal, albeit very large sliding glass door. From the bottom of the frame to the concrete floor below is roughly one foot.
25 Oct 2022
Well, it was a nice sunny Tuesday morning, but foggy! There weren’t any obvious changes to the exterior but inside, things were definitely making progress. I don’t think I’ve taken any photos of the house from the top of the property since the exterior looked so complete, so I thought I would. The fog/clouds are crazy today. To give you an idea, below this photo is the usual view that you would see from the orchard looking toward Tisnov.
21 Oct 2022
The exterior hasn’t changed much since Wednesday but the most exciting part of today is that we were finally able to go upstairs! In addition to that, the plumbing and water guys have arrived onsite and have started working on installing all of the pipes that will be used throughout the house. The downstairs bathroom has the beginning of some pipes. This is for the sink. Upstairs for the first time!
19 Oct 2022
Well, a lot more progress has been made! You can see from here that the roof is almost completely done with the 3 front skylights. The right most is for my sewing room. The left two are above the stairs and landing upstairs. You can also see that the gaps in the exterior insulation have started to be filled and, for example, all the open spaces between the first and second floors have been filled.
15 Oct 2022
Well, nothing as spectacular as the first two days but there has still been a lot of progress. It rained all day Friday and Saturday so they closed up on Thursday by tarping the entire roof, as you can see below. I didn’t get any decent photos of it but underneath the tarp, they were still working and installing insulation that will go underneath the tiles. Also, as you may have noticed in the photos from Thursday, there were a lot of gaps in the walls where they were bolted together and without insulation and gypsum board.
13 Oct 2022
We decided to come back for another full day of building. Stano created another time-lapse video, which you can see below. Again, the video quality may be poor so adjust the YouTube settings as necessary.
We moved the camera to be on top of the dirt piles so that we have a better view into the second floor where most of the work will be done today.
Highlights of the Day with YouTube Time Stamps:
12 Oct 2022
The day finally arrived that our house build started! If you’re not interested in the details, you can skip right to the time-lapse video that Stano made below. Note: if the video seems to be playing at a really low quality, you can adjust the resolution for a better view. For me, the video is defaulting to 360p which is really low quality.
Highlights of the Day with YouTube Time Stamps:
8 Oct 2022
We’re only 5 days away from our house build start date! I think this is the third or fourth Saturday in a row that our guys have been on-site working and it has been so much fun watching the progress.
For those of you who have been keeping up each week, thank you! We are so excited and looking forward to having everyone visit once the house is done!
You can see that while there are still some supports in the garage, the majority of them are gone and the frame that was used to hold the concrete when the ceiling was originally poured is gone.
6 Oct 2022
Less than a week to go until the house itself starts going up! Everything is on track and ready to go. Our basement builders continue to do fantastic work and it will be a sad day when they are finished and we have to say goodbye to them!
The retaining walls for our exterior stairs continue to go up and I’m hoping that the actual stairs start to go in soon.
1 Oct 2022
Lots more progress this week! We have only 11 days to go until the main house starts so our builders are chugging away and aiming to get their part done both indoors and out.
You can see that they’re working again on Saturday and the retaining walls for the outdoor stairs are continuing to grow taller. This is a better view of the stairs that will go up to the main entrance.
28 Sep 2022
Today is a Czech holiday, the holiday for Czech statehood when Czechoslovakia became an independant country in 1918. Because of that, we decided to go over to the property to see progress. Since our builders really need to be done in 2 weeks, they opted to work today. They are all Ukrainian so Czech statehood is arguably less important to them!
It is always nice when we visit the property mid-week as we get to see our builders and watch them in progress.
27 Sep 2022
Sorry for those of you looking for photos but I don’t have any for this week yet. I do, however, have great news! You may remember that our start date for building the main part of the house is scheduled to start in 15(!!!!!) days.
In order for that to happen, our builder from Atrium had to came to the property to measure the basement and check that it met builder specs for the house.
24 Sep 2022
This week we have made a lot of progress, which is great because the house building starts in only 2.5 weeks!
The first photo looks fairly the same as before, but a lot of changes are going on around the perimeter.
The big pile of dirt in front of the house is gone and it has started to be leveled out in preparation for the stairs to be built up to the main level.
20 Sep 2022
I know a lot of people are interested in the construction process being used for our house, so I thought I would share some more information about it. We are working with a company who builds semi-customised homes based on their standard floor plans. When we started working with them a few years ago, we told them what we wanted, they looked at our property and started coming up with options.
18 Sep 2022
Folks, things just keep getting better. The european building process is absolutely fascinating for someone used to the traditional American “stick” frame style homes.
So while last week the framing was going up for the ceiling foundation, this week (yesterday, actually!) the ceiling was poured as you can see. I still have no idea how this can possibly work, but apparently it does. So the supports will remain in place for the next few weeks while the concrete dries.
10 Sep 2022
More progress! Well, I have no idea the details but in short, the yellow things you see in the photos are the base of the support for the basement ceiling. Unlike in US where, from my experience the floor is framed with wood and plywood, the floor here will be made from concrete. This is totally normal in Europe and part of why the houses here are so quiet…much less reliance on sound-proofing from wood frames and drywall and rather solid brick floors and walls.
3 Sep 2022
Can you believe it’s already September? Where did summer go? The kids are all back in school in Czech Republic and along with that, the weather has significantly cooled off and reminded us that summer is NOT, in fact, indefinite.
A lot of progress was made this week and the walls of the basement are pretty much done. The exterior walls have gotten a coat of tar paint that helps with waterproofing and over that is another sheet of waterproofing material.
29 Aug 2022
After waiting for many months, we have finally added a new furry baby to our family. After Caelan died, we spent about a week thinking that we could never have another dog again because he was just too great and then realised that we really couldn’t NOT have another dog!
We started researching dog breeders in Europe and were surprised to find how difficult it was to find intentional mixed-breeds like schnoodles.
28 Aug 2022
Unfortunately, there were some delays this week! Daily rain meant that construction slowed down and as you can see from the photos below, we had a fair amount of mud to contend with. Fortunately we had other things to focus on this week and so were able to distract ourselves from the slow progress!
19 Aug 2022
The guys have been working hard this week and the basement walls are finally going up! It’s great to be able to stand inside and finally start to get a feel for how big things are going to be.
You can see in the first photo that the floor is nicely leveled out. The garage door opening is pretty good. While a bit small for two large cars, it should fit an SUV and a classic MINI quite nicely!
14 Aug 2022
The majority of the work this week was done Monday - Wednesday, in preparation for the arrival of the cement trucks on Wednesday afternoon.
The piles of rocks that were in the driveway last week are now compacted into the spaces between the concrete blocks where before there was just dirt. Construction paper is placed over it, then rebar for extra strength.
The foundation is ready for concrete and so we just wait for the cement trucks to arrive.
7 Aug 2022
The first sewage pipes have been laid and also the first round of bricks. Next week, this whole area will be filled with the rocks that are currently sitting in the driveway and then concrete to form the actual basement/garage slab will be poured over them.
3 Aug 2022
We spent the week in Slovakia visiting Stano’s parents and decided to take a day trip to the Low Tatras - a mountain range in central Slovakia. In the map below, the purple dot is where Stano’s parents live and the blue dot is where we went hiking.
Below is our hiking route. We started and ended in the village of Liptovská Teplička.
The altitude profile didn’t seem too bad…but it was a slow and steady climb that never ended!
31 Jul 2022
On Wednesday, the trenches were being dug for the foundation… …and on Thursday, they started pouring concrete!
What you can see here is the start of the basement/garage. In the first photo below, where you see the wooden stake with the red top, that will be the car entrance.
To the left of that, you can see two stakes, each with a green top. Between those stakes will be a u-shaped staircase leading to the main floor.
25 Jul 2022
I am digressing slightly from the normal theme (the house) to share some recent photos. I got an e-bike after returning from US in June and since then have ridden 465km. Today I rode for about 60km and just wanted to share a few things I came across on my ride today.
Czech republic is covered with a massive network of hiking and biking trails. There is nothing that even remotely compares to it in the US.
23 Jul 2022
Well, last week was a bit slow due to a heatwave (temps in the 90’s which isn’t too bad but no one here as A/C!) and Saša, our contractor was sick. By the end of the week though, he had recovered and was making up for lost time by working on Saturday.
The digging is pretty much done and next week building should start!
Monday the surveyor returns to mark the corners of the house and hopefully on Wednesday they will start pouring concrete for the basement.
13 Jul 2022
So not much is happening this week as our builder is on a previously planned (and well-deserved!) vacation with his family. More developments happen on Monday, but I still have some nice photos for the week.
In more interesting news, we discoverd today why earlier in the year, there was a huge rabbit spending a lot of time near our compost pile. This week, our garden lady finally removed the square meter water container that we had used before we had the well and we found the old remnants of a nest!
4 Jul 2022
Guess what? Yep…more digging…
27 Jun 2022
Czech wildflowers are pretty
These are just some of the wildflowers we see on our property!
Thistle Viper’s Bugloss; Blueweed Queen Anne’s Lace Dianthus
27 Jun 2022
This week the basic prepwork started. Removing topsoil and starting to dig to the required depth for the basement.
Day 1: The bagr is going to remove some topsoil from the eventual path that will lead from the street to the back of the property. You can also see our neighbor’s house and get a better view of the well cover.
Same view but farther back. You can see both of our neighbors’ homes.
26 Jun 2022
This was the state of the property before the digging began.
View from the left: To give you some context, our property is roughly 20 meters wide by 100 meters long. When looking at the photo below, our property ends just to the left of the gravel driveway (you can see the grey electric boxes on the property line. The trees on the left belong to our neighbor. The bagr (excavator) is on our property and on the right, those very large piles of dirt you see belong to our other neighbor.