Hello friends!

We are one week back from a fabulous trip to the United States. It was a much needed break from the renovation goings-on hubbub that has consumed most of our 2014. It’s hard to believe this renovation project is still very much underway.

When we left for our trip, one half of the roof had been replaced with the new metal panels, with the backside yet to go. While we were gone, Pete and Lauri tackled the roof; installing the remaining panels, ladders, and snow guards. I think for the most part the roof panel installation is complete. The stained wood soffit and fascia still have to be nailed up, but work on that is on hold for the time being.

The current project receiving attention is the creation and installation of plumbing works for the new upstairs toilet in a small area of the old attic space.  Original architect plan was to include a bathroom ‘en suite’ with the new master bedroom (as part of new construction.) I oped out of that idea, desiring instead the creation of extra closet space in the bedroom. This modification forced placing the toilet into an existing, yet nearly adjoining portion of the 2nd floor; right outside the new bedroom. It’s close and requires a small amount of space from an otherwise awkward windowless interior area, sandwiched between the two ends of the house.  The plan for the remaining unused space is to create an office work area for Pekka. 

On Monday a portion of the debris pile was loaded up and hauled away, but there’s still another load or more to go of old siding and assorted bits.

During our absence, the weather continued to be crazy. There was snowfall which promptly melted, then some rain and lately we’ve been getting some pretty high winds. Some wind damage has been reported in other regions in Finland causing power outages.  A November weather summary can be found here. Currently, we are experiencing cloudy overcast days, mixed with rain and mild temperatures – much warmer than is customary for this time of year.  Unfortunately, my bulb stock thinks it’s springtime and are already sending little green spikes through the soil. Those poor plants are in for such a big surprise when winter finally arrives. 😦

Inside the house, things continue to look more ‘construction zone’ than ‘living space.’ The living room shown here is filled with miscellaneous furniture, drywall, and a pair of toilets awaiting installation. The kitchen also doubles as storage area for this and that.

Sadly, there aren’t too many ‘projects’ around here that are actually done. With almost everything that was started, there’s still ‘something’ that needs to be done in order to finish it completely.

We did manage to find some tile the night before we left for vacation! We bought some travertine that fits our needs and will look fabulous. We’re not tiling entire bathroom walls except the actual shower space. Instead, bathrooms  have tiling only behind the sink and toilet and then, only running half-way up on the wall. Floors in the new construction side will be tiled with travertine also, with the exception of bedrooms which will be floored with wood to tie in to the rest of the flooring in the original parts of the house.

Pete mixed up a concrete soup to set our in-floor heating element for that upstairs bathroom I mentioned earlier.

Photo (left) shows how the Ebeco element has been laid out, and in just a few minutes, he’s already got the soup mixed and poured and then began leveled the surface below. He’s using Fescon QS30 – a quick-set concrete floor-leveling mixture.

 

 

 

It will sure be a great treat not having to make the trek outside to use the outdoor toilet – especially since colder weather is bound to arrive one of these days!

As for that bathroom space, it butts up to those sloping angles of the roof-line, making those sloped areas practically unusable since they’re so low. I thought it might be a good idea to take advantage of some of that useless space and have some built-in cabinetry installed. I have a visual idea of how I’d like it to look once it’s done, but for the time being Pete had to go with my rather vague description and created the following.

Now that Pete built this little bump out, I realize I could also use the small portion (out of view) just to the right of it for shelves. I think once the soup is set, he might be able to create a shelving area quite easily. I visualize the larger bump out eventually faced with 2 cabinet doors on the upper -preferably with fretwork or other open-type design and a couple drawers below to store larger items and cleaning supplies.  The shelving unit could then be mostly for display and extra towels, etc.  Overall, the heated portion of the floor is 1,65 x 1,75 meters squared (approx. 31sq.ft.)

At that size, the bathroom is big enough for the toilet and sink and possibly the make-up table/shelf I thought would be great to have opposite the sink… a mirror and small storage for ‘girl-stuff.’ We’ll have to see how it goes, as I can’t easily find the exact materials I originally visualized. The floor here is getting the cream-colored travertine on the floors and a darker fancy noce travertine on the walls. It is going to look superb and very posh. That’s why it’s really important to me that I get the shelving and bump-out cabinet just right.

Not sure what Pete is going to jump into next, there are so many options and choices! More insulation still needs to be added in places, there’s walls for the downstairs shower and bathroom that need to be built, a door opening to cut between the old side and the new construction, and the list goes on… He’s working up until 20th December so I hope he can knock out some of these items on the ‘to-do’ list.

We’d like to thank you for your continued interest in our renovation project and look forward to what we can accomplish during the last days of 2014 and what lies ahead in 2015! ❤