Week 21: 14 - 20 November

Nov. 19, 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.

Fortunately, we only have colds but they have definitely hit us hard and early in the season. We are both hoping we can stay healthy for the rest of the season!

Entryway

The wires have all been secured in walls and ceilings.

Downstairs Bathroom

One of the things that was finished this week was installing the plastic “foil” on the ceilings of the bathrooms. The yellow plastic is an extremely heavy plastic and the green tape is also impermeable to water. The ceiling in the bathrooms is well-insulated against water.

Kitchen/Dining Area

You can see that all of the wires have been tucked away into walls and ceilings and all that is left is the wire drops from the ceiling where the lights will be.

Dining Area/Living Room

A view from the kitchen facing the dining area into the living room where you can see all the wiring is done for the ceiling lights.

You can also see the stacks of white foam in this photo that I also mentioned last week, wondering what it was. Well, I have since found out that this foam will be the next layer that goes onto the floor (both upstairs and this level) as another layer of insulation between levels.

Stairway

On Thursday, the people responsible for building the stairs were there and did all the necessary measuring so that they can start building it offsite.

We’re somewhat short of upstairs photos because, as you can see, our builders have built a few platforms so that they can more easily access the stairway walls and the ceiling of the second floor and since I haven’t been feeling well, I didn’t really want to climb the rickety pile of foam boards in order to get upstairs and risk falling into the basement…

A Peek Upstairs

…so naturally, I did what any sane person would do which is to only climb halfway up and wave my camera around and hope to get some photos of the second floor. Which I offer you below!

This is peeking through the boards of the higher platform, facing our bedroom.

Basically the same angle as above, but above the platform. You can see our bedroom doorway and the closet doorway past that on the left.

And here are the doorways for my sewing room, our guest bedroom and above is the attic entrance.

Outside

I figured that since I was lacking in upstairs photos, I’d share some more of the area outside that I haven’t really shown much of.

So first, apologies for the pile of junk in our front yard. My goal for the past few weeks has been to come out one day and pull out all of the burnable wood from this pile and stack it so that we can later use it for burning but this cold has just prevented that. Hopefully, this coming week will find me recovered and ready to do that!

Either way, what you can see is that this week our neighbor has built a small retaining wall (another fence will go on top of this) and so the beginning of the divider between properties now exists. I was a little concerned that the space between the wall and our house would be too small because this is going to end up as a gated “driveway” that will allow us to drive into the backyard if necessary. If we wanted to get plants or trees or well, anything into the backyard, this is how it would get there. However, my worries were unnecessary and I was really happy to see that there will be plenty of space. Enough so that I will be able to have planting beds along the fence line to hide it to some extent.

A slightly different view, but I thought it was interesting to share another view of a conventionally built house. The brickwork has been done for awhile but on top of that is a thick layer of insulating foam that will go around the entire house.

Here’s a view from the top of that new retaining wall, facing toward the street. The fence will eventually be extended without the concrete block up to the back of the property.

First Snow!

Well, it’s worth mentioning that we got our first snow yesterday and while it’s already mostly gone, it’s pretty to see. So here are our dirt piles covered in a dusting of snow!

Czech Pools

And last but not least, I thought it would be interesting to share a view of our neighbors pool which they have been slowly installing and preparing over the past few weeks.

Because Czech Republic is a landlocked country and pretty warm in the summers and there is a dearth of lakes, swimming pools are very popular here. Public outdoor swimming pools are everywhere - many villages even have one and Brno has somewhere between 5 and 10 outdoor swimming pools - in addition to about that same number of indoor ones. Czechs like to swim. So, it’s really common for people to have swimming pools in their backyards but they can be tiny! This pool is actually pretty big - I think it’s 4m x 7m (12ft x 21ft) but we have a friend who has a pool that is 2m x 3m (4ft x 6ft). In a country that often doesn’t have A/C, a pool can just be used as a way to cool off.

The metal structure off to the right of it is the pool cover. It slides on the metal rails to open and close, has a door on the cover so you can keep the cover closed and still swim, for example, on a cooler day.

You can also see behind that another new home - that home was started the week after ours. Progress is being made all around!