Finished the ceiling of the hobby room Sunday, 22-Aug-21 17:23:25 CEST

Gypsum in the ceiling on the ground floor Sunday, 05-Sep-21 20:47:43 CEST

Sunday, 29-Aug-21 21:24:07 CEST

Finished the first floor

Finished mounting gypsum plates on the first floor.

Monday 23 August

Today we had a regular working from home day. While we did this at our old home, there were two people busy in the new house. Gijs, the heating specialist, mounting two pipes from the utility room on the first floor to the utility cupboard on the first floor. We also had Gerard, the electrician, set up the fire alarm electricity line on the first floor. We did not go to the new house until after work.

The pipes arrived at the correct place. This is good because now we can put up gypsum plates in the hall on the first floor.

It is not possible to mount the ceiling here before these pipes were mounted. Step by step, things are finished. These pipes connect the heating system of the utility room with the distributors in the utility cupboard on the first floor.

The sun went down; it was a beautiful evening. We put on our lamp and continued working on setting up one gypsum plate in the ceiling. Now we had one more hole for the fire alarm to take into account. It was great to have the plate in place.

If we can just put up one plate after another, then we will finish this on time. This evening I did something with my neck while working on the plate. I had it before that while working with the hands over my head, I got neck ache, but it did not cross my mind that it would happen this evening.

We also had another task this evening, to bring our daughter home. She is still rehabilitating from her knee operation, but she is doing fine, and uni is starting, so she needs to be back. While driving, I had no neck problems at all. I was still clueless.

There was a full moon tonight. At the beginning of the evening, it was almost orange, later it became more yellow. It was beautiful. We delivered our daughter to her home, and we said goodbye for this time. Then went back to our old home. It was late when we came home. We went to bed right away.

Tuesday 24 August

This morning I woke up with a neck ache of monstrous proportions. I had to roll out of bed. Eating breakfast went fine. I could do office work as well, that was no big problem actually. In the morning, I could not raise my arms over my shoulder due to pain. Later in the day, I regained that functionality. I had a scarf on to keep my neck warm. After our regular office work, I was not able to work on any gypsum plates. It will be frustrating if I cannot do hard work on Wednesday afternoon.

Wednesday 25 August

It was a tough night, but I got sufficient sleep. I had to have an extra pillow. It was feeling like every move hurt. In the morning, I felt like I was a little better than yesterday morning, but this is not fun.

Nevertheless, working from our old home doing regular office work that still goes fine. Today I worked half day in the morning. After lunch, we went to the new house. My wife drove the car, and that was good because you have to look around, and my neck is a little stiff for that right now.

What should we do that you can combine with severe neck ache? We decided on trying to mount the styrofoam at the bottom of the walls on the ground floor. We brought with us our vacuum cleaner for that. I was able to find a way to connect the vacuum cleaner to our table saw. With regular wood sawdust, we are not too worried. If something is really dusty, we can always saw things outside. With styrofoam, it is different; the dust is extremely light. It is also easily electrically charged and becomes sticky. We do not want to spread styrofoam dust in the garden, obviously.

It went well installing the styrofoam, even with my neck. The styrofoam fills up the space below the wall. It was our heating specialist that requested us to do this.

The styrofoam was installed on the south wall, the west wall, and the north wall. The missing part is the hall and the workshop, and all internal walls. It will be great when we can cross over this item on our TO-DO list.

This afternoon our wood stove specialist came by, and he was actually looking for our electrician. We had a chat about things. He is now living in this area. After he left, it took a while, and our electrician came by. He delivered a roll with a cable to our house intended for our heating unit that we will have in the garden.

After he left, we went to neighbors and gave them a couple of homegrown courgettes, and in return, we got two homegrown fennels. Our neighbor was delighted by the exchange of vegetables. I think there will be more exchanges in the future.

Thursday 26 August

This morning I was feeling better from my neck ache. Other days when I lift my arms, I could get pain that struck me suddenly. I did not have that today. I am still wearing my scarf, and I will continue to do so.

Today we got the message that our daughter finished her Bachelor, that is good news! She starts on her Master. The leg will take some time to heal, but it is getting better.

We both had space left in our work schedules, so we could take tomorrow Friday afternoon off. We will be in the new house at 2 in the afternoon, that will be great.

After work, we decided to test my condition to see if I could do some hard work. We decided on mounting gypsum plates in the ceiling in the hall. Originally the plan was to put up a big sheet along the side, but now with my condition, we changed our minds and decided on smaller chunks that are lighter to handle. That was a good decision because we managed to finish all but two small plates at the top of the ceiling. We will finish those tomorrow.

 

Friday 27 August

It is Friday! We worked until 2 PM and then we went to the new house via the hardware store. One of the cheaper hardware stores in the city is only open on weekdays. We bought more styrofoam and metal rings for mounting at the bottom of the walls. We also bought a metal band with holes in it that we can use to make a lowered ceiling in the washing room on the first floor.

The next task was really not a huge task, but it was essential to build the house. We put in the two remaining gypsum plates on the ceiling in the hall on the first floor. With that, we have put up gypsum on all ceilings of the first floor. The very last plate was a rest plate from the bathroom.

The next task was to redo a plate in the hall. Our electrician had removed a plate to put in the cable for the fire alarm, and it did not come back in one piece, so we replaced it. When doing that, I aligned the beams around the window to line up better.

That way, the corner was more even. When the plate was mounted, my wife discovered I had removed isolation that I forgot to put back, so we had to remove the plate again, put back the isolation, and on with the plate again. When done with that place, it is the third time it has a plate screwed onto that part of the wall.

Next up, we moved our tools down to the ground floor. We removed all the things we had lying in the hall, such as downpipes, window sills, etc., and then we put up beams to support the plates at the seams. The wall got extra isolation. This is the workshop behind this wall, and I suppose I will make some noise in the workshop, so we put in as much isolation as we got. When we went to our old home, we had finished isolation and beams, so the wall is ready for gypsum plates.

Saturday 27 August

Today we were reached by the news that a good friend of my wife got terminal cancer, and she got just weeks to live. It was horrible news. We were shaken by this and had slow to start of the day.

After a considerable time, the first plates came up in the hall on the ground floor. It was just one tiny detail. The outlet came at the wrong height. So, off it went again. When we put up plates on the wall, we put them on two spacers providing room for a lever. That way, we can slowly raise the plate to the correct place and then screw it onto the wall.

On the next plate, we nailed it. Actually, we used screws, so we screwed it, on. With that, the day had started. We did more plates.

The hall has the front door at the north end, and on the south end, there is a window from floor to ceiling.

The workshop is on the east side of the hall, and the washing room and the utility room are on the west side. The character of the house is changing when there is gypsum on the walls. There is a lot more echo, for sure. The lighter gypsum walls are bouncing off light much better, and I like that.

After putting up gypsum in the hall, we started to prepare for the last wall in the house. That is the east wall in the workshop. All the tools are lying on a table along that wall, so we had to move that. We cleared the work area to start working on the wall, and then we had time to put up one plate.

It was windy today. We did not do anything outdoor today.

The ventilation specialist was supposed to come to us today, but he had been in an accident so he could not make it. I hope he will recover soon because it would be a hassle to find someone else to take over his tasks. We will talk to him on Wednesday again to see how things are going.

Sunday 29 August

The plan for today was to finish the east wall in the workshop. The second plate was no problem. Behind the third plate, there are a lot of electricity cables.

We got one cable to the outdoor outlet; it is the leftmost cable. The following cable goes to the doorbell at the door on the outside of the house. Then there is the cable to the light above the door. It was, unfortunately, a little too short, so how should we deal with that? I put a box in the ceiling to let the outdoor cable go via that box to the doorknob box. The too-short cable is hanging from the ceiling in the photo. The rightmost cable feeds the electricity to the outdoor lamp and one lamp in the workshop. I called our electrician to check that he was okay with this solution, and it was fine.

The third plate also had the door, obviously. We found that it is much easier to put up the plate and then cut out the part in front of the door or window, so also here. I am using the bag of an old camera for the screws. We got two of these bags, so my wife can have one bag as well.

With the third plate sorted, it was only one plate left, and at 3PM, we had finished mounting the last gypsum plate. All walls now got gypsum, except one wall in the washing room on the first floor. That wall can be done when our ventilation specialist finished the ventilation.

There was a couple of leftover strips of styrofoam cut to the correct size, so I mounted them as well. Now, when the wall's bottom was so conveniently accessible without the table in front of it, it was easy to put the styrofoam in place.

After we finished the wall, we were not that efficient, actually. The question was what we should do next and in what order. We collected a lot of garbage we need to bring to the recycling station. When that is done, there is more floor space created in the workshop, which is good. I think we need to get more empty floor space to operate the gypsum plate lift.

We went outside and harvested our Alkmene apples. They were not that many and more petite than last year, but there were some apples anyway. Last year, 22 August, the apples got eaten by wasps, so this year's harvest improved significantly compared to last summer.

The Belle de Boskoop apples are still hanging on the tree. They will stay there for a couple of weeks. I do hope they are not eaten by wasps.

Here is an updated version of our ToDo list:

Section one

Hobby room on the first floor:

• Beams in the ceiling.
• Isolation of the ceiling.
• Gypsum plates on the ceiling.

Staircase hall and utility cupboard on the first floor:

• Gypsum on the east wall.
• (Re)isolate the ceiling.
• Gypsum on the ceiling.
• 18 millimeters thick multiplex for mounting floor heating distributors.

First-floor final preparations before floor heating:

• Empty all rooms.
• Apply 20-millimeter thick fibreboards.
• Remove temporary stairs and scaffold.
• Edge towards the staircase.

Groundfloor all rooms:

Section two

• Styrofoam along the bottom edge of the walls.

Ground floor hall:

• Beams in the east wall.
• Gypsum on the east wall in the hall.
• Beams in the ceiling.
• Gypsum plates in the ceiling.

Workshop ground floor:

• Gypsum on the east wall.
• Beams in the ceiling in the workshop.
• Gypsum in the ceiling.

Bathroom on the ground floor

• Finalize the ventilation (ventilation specialist).
• Gypsum on the south wall.
• Beams in the ceiling.
• Gypsum in the ceiling.

Livingroom

More isolation material in the ceiling.

This updated to-do list concludes this week. It is a week of injury, accidents, and bad news. My neck ache came and went away, so I am fine. It is worse for others. Our life here is fragile, so we need to be careful with each other. This week we also had good progress.