Week 51: 12 - 18 June

Jun. 15, 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. A few of the photos are a little bit older so may not match up perfectly with others that you see.

The building is VERY slow going unfortunately and even in the interim between the last post and this one you’ll see that there haven’t been nearly as many changes as you might expect.

Currently the biggest hold up is that the flooring can’t be installed until the concrete underneath is dried up (it’s currently at a 3% humidity level and needs to be down to 1%). This can’t be done until the heater is installed. Unfortunately, we are still waiting for this to be done. Once the heater is installed and running, it will take about 10 days of drying time for the concrete to be ready. At that point, flooring can be installed, then door frames and the kitchen.

Another thing that we are also waiting for are some mistakes throughout the house that need to be fixed. So we’re still hopeful but we are just ready for this project to be done and over with and to the point that we can finally move in.

Front of the House

As you can see, we’ve had some definite progress in the exterior. The scaffolding is gone, the garage doors are in and the foundation of the front stairs and terrace is complete. All that is left is the finish work of railing and tiles for the steps and actual terrace.

In addition, the piles of trash that had been lingering out front are also gone.

The bracket here is where the heat pump will sit once it’s installed. This is what needs to be installed in order to run the heater that will dry out the interior concrete.

The garage doors are installed. We were a little bit worried because we wanted the house doors and windows to match the garage doors and they are done by two different companies. We were very pleased to see, however, that they look great together.

Here’s a view of the car garage door and the person garage door off to the side. In addition, we will be adding an identical door to the cellar off to the left of the main garage door. When we ordered the two existing garage doors, we didn’t have plans for the cellar and so didn’t order it at the same time.

A closer up view of the two garage doors and the stairs that will lead up to the backyard.

The stairs up to the front door are also done.

Cellar

The cellar entryway is done and will ultimately have a door that matches the two garage doors.

The cellar is REALLY tall which will be fantastic for storage. Depending on the temperatures and humidity that it maintains, we could use it for things like wine storage, food storage or garden supply storage. For the first year we will monitor it and then determine what it is best suited for. Even if we just use it for garden tool and supply storage it will keep those things out of the garage which is great.

You can also see that they’ve started the stucco work so when all is said and done, we will have nice finished walls rather than exposed concrete blocks.

Garage

Another thing we are very happy about is how much light comes into the garage from the garage door windows. Garage door windows are pretty atypical here but we really wanted to be able to have natural light without being forced to open the garage doors.

Technical Room

The technical room connections have been updated and you can see here some of the appliances like the heat pump and water tank.

Backyard

Out in the backyard, you can see that the first retaining wall is done and drying out.

There will be stairs here that lead up to the next level.

Front Terrace

Well back up front and you can see some definite changes. The front of the house faces roughly west and so gets nice afternoon sun. We haven’t yet decided what to do here but will probably put in some planters and maybe a cafe table or something. The holes you see will be for railings of some sort which is also undecided. They could be glass, wood or wire…to be determined later.

This is a pretty cool standard feature in houses these days. A video camera doorbell. Fortunately, unlike other doorbell systems, this one is strictly in-house. It’s hard-wired and only connected to screens inside. No need to worry about anyone getting access to our logs and we will be able to see who is ringing the doorbell before we answer it!

Entryway

The electrician has been busy inside and nowhere can you see it more than in the electrical boxes in the entryway.

Downstairs

Here’s a view of the downstairs video screen for our doorbell. We also have another one upstairs so that we can always see who is at the door before we open it.

The kitchen is ready to be installed with all of the outlets and switches in place.

The fireplace had its inaugural burn and is ready to go. It will soon be painted so that it’s the same colour as the walls. The cut out on the left will be for firewood and kindling.

Downstairs Bathroom

The downstairs bathroom is looking great. It’s pretty much ready to go. See here the toilet and shower. To the right of the toilet is a bidet alternative. Instead of having a separate bidet, you just use the sprayer.

The sink, medicine cabinet and storage cabinet look great. Linen closets aren’t really a thing here, but rather people install cabinets like this in each bathroom.

An inside view of the storage cabinet. We’ll store everything we need here for guests.

Another view of the shower.

Stano’s Office

On the wall where Stano’s desk will go is a long strip of power and ethernet connectors.

The office is nice and bright with all of the window coverings gone.

Stairwell

So far, the new stairwell is Lauren’s favourite part of the house. It’s so pretty and made of natural beech.

The curves make it stand out from the normal straight rails that we are used to.

Upstairs Landing

This is a terrible photo as it gives absolutely zero context for location. It’s the big upstairs wall on the landing and shows one of the problems: somehow the builders installed the interior doorbell screen and switch in the middle of the wall instead of to the left near the door frame. This will need to be fixed before we move in.

WC

The upstairs WC is mostly done as well. Similar to downstairs, this one also has a bidet sprayer (resting across the sink in this photo). The major problem in here at the moment is that the builders forgot to run electricity to the medicine cabinet for the lights. They need to figure out how to do this which is a challenge because the tiles are already on the wall.

Upstairs Bathroom

The upstairs shower is done and has both a rainwater and handheld shower head.

The upstairs bathroom cabinet is also installed. In the foreground you can see the sink which hasn’t yet been installed due to needing some extra drain connectors.

Sewing Room

The sewing room is looking good - its radiator is installed along with all of the switches and outlets. The dual switch to the right of the window is for the external screens.

Guest Bedroom

Similar to the sewing room, the guest bedroom also has a radiator and all of its switches, outlets and controller for the exterior shutters.

In Other News…

And finally for some more entertaining news, Lauren returned back to CZ with a rather unwelcome and unorthodox souvenir! After 6 weeks of travel, she woke up on her LAST morning to an extremely painful knee which sadly resulted in a trip to Urgent Care and then to the ER for an ultrasound. All was “fine” and they wrapped up her knee and gave her a walloping dose of painkiller to get her through the flights.

We left the ER at 12:30, with a flight time of 6:00pm and 2.5 hours of drive time to the airport. It was a mad scramble but we made it - 5 suitcases, 3 carry-ons, including one happy puppy and a box of well-wrapped pottery, and one very groggy wife on crutches!

Lufthansa was fantastic about our last minute change and ordered up wheelchairs and assistance at all airports. The puppy also was a superstar - just another day of travel in her mind with nothing to worry about.

We returned back to Brno on Tuesday afternoon with just a stop at the house to check on progress and get these photos before heading to the apartment and crashing. We are both incredibly happy to be back and are looking forward to more progress on the house in the coming days!