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.
You can see here the pile of concrete blocks in front of the garage that will
be used for the retaining walls for the stairs at the front and side of the house.
A better view of the front and you can see that they’ve already laid the first
course of blocks for the front stairs.
Same here, the retaining wall for the side wall has been started.
A closer shot of the guys working with the rebar that will help hold
the walls in place.
A view from above. You can see where the entrance to the stairs will be from
the driveway up to the front of the house. After everything is done, we will
have a spot next to the front door for plants or bushes. (If the location
doesn’t make sense, don’t worry, you’ll understand eventually!)
The trench that you see in front of the garage is for water and sewer lines.
You can see that we’ve gotten a bit of rain and so have some mud. The
guys have been slowly adding dirt to the side of the house as the insulation
has gone up.
Another view of the fill on the side of the house and the actual base of the
main floor.
More insulation, isolation and waterproofing.
A view from above of the retaining wall for the side stairs.
Looking toward the location where the indoor stairs will be to get from
garage/basement to the main floor of the house. You can see that they have
added another layer of insulation/tar paper on the floor. Once all of the
support posts are removed, this will be extended through the rest of the
garage/basement. On top of it, another 10cm (4in) of concrete will be poured
and that final layer will be perfectly smooth and level.
A view up of where those same stairs will go.
This is a photo of our neighbor’s house for the purposes of comparison. These
red bricks are what “normal” European homes are made with. They use these
bricks for both the interior and exterior walls, as you can see here. These
walls and the very solid interior doors that are used (no hollow-core doors
here!) mean that European homes are incredibly quiet. Also, because the frame
isn’t wooden, the homes don’t creak as people move around.
