Kitchens

Some things need a lot of planning in advance, and the kitchen is certainly one of them. We need to know where things will go to plan the electrical and water/waste installations. Having spent considerable time browsing brochures and kitchen websites, we generally leaned in a "landhaus" or country style, but knew we'd never end up with something as good as the glossy photos, or the various showrooms we'd visited.

Enter Schäfer + Fitz, a fairly local company recommended by a friend.

After an initial meeting with Herr Weber, one of their salesmen who handily lives in our village, we discussed a couple of options for layouts, which I threw myself into using an online planner. On the floor plans, the kitchen looks large, but with low ceilings, one wall full of doors and a window, a great big post in the middle of the room and the early decision to put the dining room table in one half of it, space becomes a bit of a premium.

Early ideas were a U shape, which made great use of the working area, but threw a barrier across the middle of the room.

An L shape, with an island, and a couple of tall cabinets to house the fridge, a larder and an oven at a height (I really liked the idea of having the latter two items).

The thing is, on these online planners, everything looks far more spacious than in reality. After marking out the floor plan with spray-paint in the actual kitchen, it became apparent that too many high cabinets could feel oppressive, and the layout of the worktops didn't make for practical workspaces, apart from the island.

And so, after much deliberation, and many late evenings playing with combinations of all of the above, we decided on as simple and as open as possible, with loads of workspace. This meant sacrificing some of the things I really wanted, but I think it's more practical.

Our final meeting with Herr Weber was this afternoon, picking out individual pieces of equipment (I had to scale back on my oven and dishwasher choices, which were way over our budget, but we've chosen an excellent fridge and hob), and we've basically ordered this to be installed in Spring next year, getting a good deal just about within our budget, but with, we think, great quality stuff.

Of course, what is not modelled above are things like the posts and beams, not to mention the extractor hood, so here's an early preview from Schäfer + Fitz.

Of course, now I look back at our early ideas, I'd again love a higher level oven, but I know, when I go over and look at the reality, the cleaner lines of what we've signed up for make sense. The choice of colours, tiles, perhaps additional open shelving etc will, we hope, give it even more character. We have some time to go yet!

Adding more layers

More pictures, less text.

The back of the house got its first coat of plaster last week, making it less Lego-like.

Meanwhile, inside, I experimented with Putzschiene and Eckschiene (I think they're called beading and corner beading in English) as a means to get an even surface on the gable wall of the living room. This wall bellies outwards a bit, so it needed to be evened up before receiving internal insulation boards.

First, fixed up the beading at each end of the room, then when it had hardened, strung a line between them as a guide for the rest. Corner beading along the inside of the window opes, and continue the vertical line with the regular beading. The resulting straight edge meant a plaster depth of about 7mm at the top and bottom of the wall, and 2-3cm in the middle.

Beading set.

To fill that larger gap, lumps of mortar were thrown at the wall and allowed to harden before plastering and finishing using a 2m-long aluminium featheredge. Job done.

A dash of mortar

Fresh plaster done

On the front of the house, Enver, of the Bakan Clan (more of them anon), fitted sheet metal to cover the step in the wall. Basically, we wanted this done as when it rained, water would fall onto a horizontal surface and could seep in under the main beam running along the front of the house. Now it's sealed. It's a bit shiny, but perfectly fitted (I gut the chase into the beam, which was not pleasant work), and when it weathers to a dull grey it'll match the facade just fine.

Back in the kitchen, the plans are coming along, and today we more or less completed the desired layout, so all that is left to do is to choose equipment, fronts and handles, and get a good price! To help get to grips with the spacing, I sprayed out the placement of the units. This actually helped a lot in figuring out how people would move about the kitchen, and identified some bottlenecks. The post in the middle is a nice feature, but takes a little planning around.

So, moving along, but still too slow on the inside for my liking, but that's down to my own energy levels, which are currently low. Still, the living room is coming along nicely. Just a little more plastering to do before the base wiring and plumbing can go in!

Putting stuff back in

A lot has happened since my last update, so rather than boring readers with intricate details, here are the highlights.

Edinger and co have finished the outer insulation on the north and east sides of the house (the other two sides will be insulted internally due to orders from the building protection people). Makes it look like a giant Lego house.

We've also finalised the colour selection, but you'll have to wait and see. what that turns out to be like.

I rebuilt a manhole rim that got crushed by the big excavator when they were connecting the house to the main sewage system.

Old rim drilled out and frame built.

Job done. A perfect fit.

Inside, I finally tackled the limestone wall in the living room, armed with a tuck pointing trowel and three long evenings.

A tuck pointing trowel, which became my best friend.

 But first, this is how the wall looked in April 2011, after removing the dry walling that had hidden it.

"The Wall", April 2011.

And this is how it looks now, after sandblasting and repointing (note the ceiling was also removed to expose the beams).

 

Used a lot more mortar than I thought it would. The only issue, is that the mortar and stone have a very similar colour, so it doesn't have quite the punch we wanted. Maybe a cleanup (more sandblasting!) will define the edges better. For the window sills, I plan on reusing some of the old oak floorboards from the level above, which are wide and thick, hopefully adding a bit of character.

On the inside of the south (front) facade, I'd prepped the walls for plastering by nailing on ribbed expanded metal sheets, a must, considering the mixed nature of the walls. The idea was to plaster the walls with lime plaster to make them even (they are a crazy mix of oak beams, wattle and daub, bricks, patches of new plaster and the odd roof tile) and sealed, before insulating with wood fibre insulation boards.

The bedroom, with ribbed metal sheeting done.

Of course, plasterers are expensive, and this plaster will never be seen, to I decided to have a go. Despite everyone I know who had restored a house, including skilled tradesmen, telling me they'd do anything but plastering, I have to admit, I really enjoy it!

Plastering the bedroom

One wall in living room finished tonight.

I won't win any prizes for the finish, but at least they are almost perfectly even, ready for sticking insulation on.


So really, we've finally begun to put stuff back into the house, and it feels good!

As a bonus, our "Turkish Cherries" are ripe, and already three buckets have been filled, and jam has been made.

Choices, choices.

The Kispert guys finished this week, leaving us with a nicely compacted screed "patio", ready for paving sometime in the next five years, probably.

A new way up to the back of the field. Looking east.

Looking south

Looking west. Pigsty looking a lot taller now!

Meanwhile, out front, Dieter Edinger painted the facade with a range of colours we selected, so we could get a better idea of what they look like in reality. We've three or four brown shades, ranging from red-brown to dark chocolate, and four off-white shades for the plasterwork.

Before the samples

After the samples.

It's harder than I thought to pick colours, as the feel of them changes with the light, but here's some closeups.

Red-brown, with a creamy-yellow filling.

Dark brown mixed with a cherry red, giving a chestnutty tone.

Dark, chocolately Fachwerkbraun

Almost like charred wood, a private mix from Dieter Edinger.

We're leaning towards the Fachwerkbraun (passers-by have also picked this as their favourite), but we have to be careful of the colour of the plasterwork, as too bright, and it's a bit sore on the eyes.

The windows will get new wooden frames to surround them, replacing the ones that were taken off some months ago. Friend and Architect, Uwe, suggested that we do a complete colour concept and provided some suggestions. I'd already been thinking of some aspects I'd liked from seeing other houses and far too much Internet browsing, and quite liked the idea of green surrounds, dark wood, and off-white infills. We selected some colours for the next test, which also has to be cleared with the building protection agency, and have several conceptual drawing provided by the architects. But even so, the very same day, Mr Edinger whipped up some boards with greens, and popped them up on the facade so we can see how they match. Theory being put into practice in the same day.

There's another green, but it's really GREEN.

Actually, the main problem is we have too many choices. We have to pick colours for the wood, for the sandstone (who knew there were many sandstone colours!), for the plasterwork panels, for the plasterwork on the cellar level (we're going for a slightly darker shade than the top half of the building), for the window surrounds and doors and for the fascia boards. Very easy to get something far too busy-looking.

Having been away this week, it was about time I did some manual labour, so a quick job was done this evening truncating part of the barn roof overhang that was literally touching the house. It needed to be cut off to make room for insulation, and the Edinger team may be plaster the wall in question tomorrow morning, so best to get it out of the way. Basically, just cut a triangle off the corner of the roof and add a bracing lath.

 Just need to prepare some wedged laths and it's good for cut tiles to go back on, and then get some new gutters sorted out.

Nose to the grindstone

Or rather, nose to grinding the stone. For three evenings last week, I used an angle grinder to "carefully" shave a few centimetres off the top of the vaulted cellar which lies under the kitchen. Basically, the dome of the top, poking up into the kitchen, meant that we didn't have enough space to lay a proper screed and underfloor heating. We've managed to win several cm in places, and it's fairly even now, with enough room for insulation too. But extremely dirty and painstaking work. These photos are after considerable cleanup.

Cuts in each stone visible.

Nice and even. Well, mostly.

The ceiling got a bit of prep work too, with the old clay plaster being removed and edges ready to receive reinforcement mesh, if needed.

Some months ago

Today

The bedroom ceiling got similar treatment, not to mention the other dirty, painstaking work of removing layers of paint from the main beam (just like I did in the living room) using an angle grinder with a braided wire brush attachment

We did some tests with sand and trass cement mixes to choose new mortar for the pointing of the limestone wall in the living room, so ready to go with that soon.

And meanwhile, the back was being further transformed with the final pipework and drainage complete, and the start of the ground source heatpump being laid, the 65mm PE pipes that will lead to the collector area. I'll return to this area in a later post, as it's looking great now.

Pipes laid to the heat pump collector area

And finally, today we got connected to the sewage system. The former connection ran from the back of the house, but as the waste pipes are inside, the connection was brought out to the front. The local council were not too pleased, as the builders hadn't spoken to them about it (as they should have, according to the contract), and permission is needed before connecting into a mainline sewer. As luck would have it, totally by chance they uncovered an old, disused street drain that was already connected, so by removing the the old concrete shaft, revealing a 200mm PVC pipe in good condition, they simply reused this as a connection, and the officials were happier. Rather embarrassing, as we're next door to the town hall!

Back-filling.

The Magnificent Seven

Seven. That's right, Seven. That's how many workers were beavering away on the building site today. It's a record. Dieter Edinger and his three co-workers were plastering like demons. Big areas are definitely easier for them, as they completed a full gable and the front of the house today. I think these walls are more or less ready for painting, which is another story. We have to pick colours for the timberwork (probably a very dark brown) and something to complement that for the plasterwork (probably an off-white like Altweiss), so there's some testing to be done.

On with the pictures, which describe what was done today better than I can.

Yesterday.

This afternoon.

This evening.

From the front.

The sandstone frames are looking distinctly grubby now, compared to all that shiny new plaster. They need a little work, and then they'll be painted a sandstone colour. I'd considered sandblasting them and leaving them natural, but they are in various states of disrepair, with patchy colours, and in some cases badly worn, so a bit of paint might help protect them.

On the west gable are several iron anchors, binding the wall to the large oak beams spanning the width of the house. As an architectural, as well as structural feature, I'll clean them up and paint them for contrast.

Meanwhile, out back, the Kispert people (that means the three guys that work for Kispert, the general builder) were staging what looked like trench warfare, digging ditches for pipes. They also installed the drainage along the back wall, part of the perimeter insulation, and a lot of work connecting a pipe for the drainage into the sewers.

The "dodgy" corner

The trenches pictured below lead to the pigsty. We're not doing anything there for quite some time, but perhaps in a few years we'll need water and electricity over there. We'll lay empty pipes to connect to the sewers (the trench on the left) and one leading from the house to take fresh water and electricity cables (the trench running bottom right to top left).

Trenches!

Some day we might have the Dirty Dozen!