Week 31: Midweek
Jan. 25, 2023I 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. We traveled to Slovakia for Christmas, where Lauren spent most of the time recovering in bed and visiting various Slovak medical centers due to what turned into an ear infection with hearing loss! When we returned from Slovakia, we found out that the house foreman quit the company, the new one that replaced him went on medical leave and there were some problems with lining up the finish contractors.
This past week, however, we’ve been finally moving forward. On Friday of last week, our kitchen designer met us at the house to measure the kitchen so that the final order could be put in and our basement electrician started his work on wiring the basement/garage for electricity, lighting and heat. On Friday of this week we’ll go to the granite shop to look at granite for our kitchen countertop and decide whether we want granite or a silestone like product and choose. On Saturday, we meet with the plumbers and HVAC installers. Next Monday, they should start the work of filling in the gaps between pieces of drywall on the walls and ceilings in preparation for painting.
We are making definite progress! We welcome you back!
Garage
The most exciting thing this week is that we have lights in the basement!
Now, admittedly, these are absolutely hacks so that the electrician could see
to do his job but it’s a first step. The lights are not the ones that will be
there by the end but they are in the location of the final lights. We were
really happy to see that the garage is well lit and will be a great work area.
Here’s another view of the lights. You can see on the ceiling where the electrician had to cut out more tunnels in the concrete for the wiring and he already patched them with a sort of putty to hold the wires in. Eventually they will be filled in completely so that the stucco can go over it.
On the wall, you can see more outlets and more light switches and space for the garage door opener on the right. We will have a radiator on this wall too.
This is the wall to the left when you enter the garage. You can see here that
the electrician had to cut out pieces of the concrete brick where he will run
the electrical wires. This wall will have the machine for the house central
vac (the outlet near the top of the wall) and some switches for various lights.
We’ll also have a radiator on this wall.
This is the back left of the garage and will eventually house a workbench. We will have outlets above countertop height and you can see that the wiring has already been run. Above is wiring for a light which will be some sort of long flourescent tube work lighting.
On the left wall, you can just see the entrance to the storage room.
This photo is taken standing in the area where the workbench will be. The lighting is awesome given that up until now being in the garage has been a bit like being in a cave.
The nearest doorway is the entrace to our cold storage room. To the right of the doorway, the outlet there will be used for a standup freezer that we want to get eventually. We have talked about raising rabbits and sheep for eating and that requires having a big freezer.
The far doorway is the entrance to the technical and laundry room. This is where all of the electrics for running the house will be. Water heating, whole house heating, etc.
And this is a closeup of our “light switch!” It’s currently just an extension cord that runs outside to our electric box that the lights plug into but it’s a great improvement.
This is what you see when you stand in the laundry room doorway. Directly in front will be the washer and dryer. We’d like to eventually have a countertop over the washer and dryer and so we have an outlet installed to be accessible there. To the left of the washer and dryer, there will be a laundry sink.
A slightly different view. The washer and dryer will be on the left. We’re also considering cabinets on the wall in front which is why we have an outlet there as well.
The back corner of the laundry/technical room is where all of the utility connections will come in and go out. This includes the two incoming water sources (well and town), sewer, electric, internet and anything else I’ve forgotten.
A view into the cold storage room. Ultimately we’ll have all of the walls covered with floor to ceiling shelving to store things from our garden and also anything that we don’t want to store upstairs in the house. You can see better in this photo where the upright freezer will go immediately to the right of the doorway. We originally planned to keep it in the cold storage room but realised that the heat it generated would increase the temperature of the room which we didn’t want and so we made a last minute change.
Another view of the cold storage room. We again opted to have outlets at countertop level in case we decide to have a countertop anywhere and want outlets at a more accessible level. Our electrician has been really great at offering practical suggestions that he has seen as he has wired other homes and so it’s been really nice.
And this is this morning (Wednesday)! The photos above were all taken on Tuesday. This is basically a layer of tar that is covering the entire garage floor as an additional isolation layer. I believe it’s meant to prevent water from seeping into the concrete from below. There’s one more thing layer of concrete that needs to go over the tar and then the last step is to pour the final layer of concrete over it and then we’ll be done with the garage floor. Even though Stano is standing to the side of it, the tar is completely dry. They were using a sort of blowtorch to heat it up and dry it.
I had some extra time so I thought I’d add a few more village photos. The village mascot is a crawfish and so a few years ago (long before we arrived) the village added this nice fountain into the center of town which looks really nice in the summer.
There’s also a nicely carved wooden statue but I don’t know the story behind it…but it’s pretty!
And this is a sign for the single pub that we have in town. Stano and I have not yet been there because it’s only open on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays and only after 3pm! We’re curious to see what it looks like once we move in.
Rychtář is the name of a beer that’s brewed about an hour away from Železné.
The literal translation of “Hostinec u kovářů” is “Inn near the blacksmiths” but Kovář is a common Czech last name so in this case it probably means “Inn owned by the Kovář Family.” (Thanks to Ondra for pointing this out to me!)
