New house build - Luxembourg

New house build - Luxembourg

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5potTurbo

Original Poster:

12,556 posts

169 months

Friday 7th December 2012
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I wasn't wrong either on my guesstimates for extras on the sanitary ware front, about the same as I spent on extra electrical/networking stuff. Still, it's not worth skimping if, like me, you'd look at things and think, "I wish I'd done that another way...", but I'll probably still end up doing just that!

Had a chat with E36GUY earlier about the lighting plan, which he's working on for some rooms for us.

And now, I hope the snow that's fallen in the last couple of days hasn't delayed progress too much.
The windows need to go in, then the plumbers will do the basic water/drainage pipework before the sparky joins the party for the conduits to be laid under the screed, then the plumbers go back in.

Fingers crossed!


5potTurbo

Original Poster:

12,556 posts

169 months

Monday 17th December 2012
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Things have slowed in the last couple of weeks due to the weather....



Not much to be doing when the snow's on the ground; site shuts down.

Popped by yesterday and all the window units and motorised window shutter boxes are in the house ready to be installed



The tube you see on the floor ^^^ is for the air/heat exchanger, to pump warm air around the house. That'll be buried under 30+cm of screed.

Oh. There's supposed to be a wall there, for a window, not patio doors as was originally foreseen on the plans. I thought they'd have blocked up halfway by now, especially since the first fix plumbing starts today - they've no wal to fix the water and drainage pipes to for the sink & dishwasher. Hmmmmm



Triple glazed valux windows have been fitted for the office and laundry room



The neighbour's house with some windows installed. Triple glazed, dark grey exterior, white interior.




Edited by 5potTurbo on Monday 17th December 09:45

5potTurbo

Original Poster:

12,556 posts

169 months

Friday 21st December 2012
quotequote all
Well, the windows are in (except for the kitchen), and so's the garage door. The fitters were just finishing off the 2nd floor dormer this morning. QUALITY name for the window company too. *starts head banging*




I'm pleased I caught them before they bugger off for 2 weeks though...



The wall that was "forgotten" in the kitchen has now been constructed!



...but those aren't sliding patio doors, like I ordered, like are in the plans, and like I was charged an enormous supplement to have....


A quick word with one of the window fitters (in a mixture of German & English as he didn't speak French, typical!) and he called his office to find the contruction company didn't order and sliding doors for my house. Hmmm.... they'll need to sort that out or give me a big chunk of change back then.

Ho, hum! Nothing more to do now for 2 weeks as the site will close tonight and re-open on 7th Jan. I don't care as we'll be skiing in Whistler! woohoowink

Merry Christmas one and all!

5potTurbo

Original Poster:

12,556 posts

169 months

Thursday 10th January 2013
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Site visit this morning to meet the plumbers.

Work's cracking on at quite a pace. smile

5potTurbo

Original Poster:

12,556 posts

169 months

Thursday 10th January 2013
quotequote all
Du1point8 said:
<cough>pics please</cough>
laugh

I only took a couple.... seeing water pipes laid on cement pre-screeding's not too exciting, is it?
The interior walls on the 2nd floor for my daughters' bedrooms and shower room have been built though, and they hadn't before the Christmas break, and the site only re-opened on Monday this week!

I'll get some better pics this weekend, Du1point8. smile


2nd floor, poor photo view from Costcentre#1's room to the landing and shower room door, on the left,



2nd floor, poor photo view of Costcentre#1's room interior walls. Stack pipe visible on right side will be boxed in. That's from our en suite directly below.





Edited by 5potTurbo on Thursday 10th January 14:45

5potTurbo

Original Poster:

12,556 posts

169 months

Sunday 27th January 2013
quotequote all
Front door's arrived and been fitted. 1st fix plumbing and sparky conduit chasing continues, as does 2nd floor insulation in the attic bedrooms.

Includes reflection of yours truly and dort v1.0 smile



There's a LOT of this to be done!


Insulation's something like 50cm ...



Dort v1.0 smile




Khazi stuff!
Bathroom




2nd floor shower room




1st fix plumbing, will all be covered in screed, underfloor heating AND tiles...








Edited by 5potTurbo on Monday 28th January 08:05

5potTurbo

Original Poster:

12,556 posts

169 months

Monday 4th February 2013
quotequote all
Sparky's been busy, and surprisingly so given the temps haven't been much above freezing all week and the kitchen window's not been fitted yet.
Still, conduits fixed to the cement underfloor and insulation slabs laid over the top. There are also feeds there for the induction hob on the island and power points on the side of the island.



Electrical feeds in the kitchen



Living room feeds, behind TV area. Cable TV, Sat TV (double coax) 4 power points, 2 x Cat7 sockets.



Understairs cupboard - most of this will be hidden, i.e. corner water/drainage/conduit feeds will be blocked in, conduits on the floor will be screeded and tiled over



Insulation's a BIG part of this house, being A rated. The ceiling's going to be lower and lower when it's boarded and skimmed



HOPING part of this roofing beam will remain exposed when the ceiling's done. It's a lovely piece of wood.




Edited by 5potTurbo on Monday 4th February 09:08


Edited by 5potTurbo on Monday 4th February 09:13

5potTurbo

Original Poster:

12,556 posts

169 months

Monday 18th February 2013
quotequote all
Well, I'll keep on updating anyway... wink

1st fix plumbing's continuing where possible, here in what will be the laundry/heating room above the rear of the garage:



1st fix electrical's almost done upto the top of the house too. The sockets cut-out goes right through the wall into the other bedroom as their placement's mirrored on both sides. Switches/controls cut-out on the wall's rather large too: 3 light switches, underfloor heating thermostat and (external) electric roller shutter switch


5potTurbo

Original Poster:

12,556 posts

169 months

Monday 18th February 2013
quotequote all
smile

The plans by the developers were foreseen that way, illmonkey. Where we are now the laundry's in the basement next to the (oil fired) heating system and 3,000l. oil tank, but in the new house there's no basement to put anything. Having a large apex on the roof above the garage has given us a laundry/heating/storage room to the rear and a man-cave/office at the front. As most of the laundry anyway comes from our daughters who'll be on the 2nd floor, they can at least dump their washing on the 1st floor on their way to/from food! wink

Sorry the updates aren't that exciting. The builders are doing 4 houses at the same time and 2 apartment blocks in the same zone, so it's not progressing as quickly as we'd like. We still want to be in before the August site shutdown. *crosses fingers*

5potTurbo

Original Poster:

12,556 posts

169 months

Wednesday 20th February 2013
quotequote all
Comments!?! Yay! woohoo

wink

Minemapper: yes, all blockwork and cement solid slab floors here, on all levels. Quite rare to find wood framed/structured houses here. I'd not seen a 1st floor laundry room in a house here until last year when my friends bought another place. Their laundry room's next to a 1st floor bathroom in a 4 storey house.

Muncher: Trust me, it's not that tidy at all! The guys don't leave any tools laying around as the house still isn't secure, plus the sparky and plumbers are from different companies. The garage is a bomb site, still filled with stacks of insulation slabs to go on the outside of the house (about 15cm thick in total judging by how far the window cills protrude from the blockwork), plus tons and tons of conduit feeds to where the main fuse box and server cabinet will be. Where the plumbers knocked through walls for 1st fix pipework, they left their rubble behind too, but I think sparkies are generally the messiest from what I've seen.

5potTurbo

Original Poster:

12,556 posts

169 months

Monday 11th March 2013
quotequote all
Not a huge update this week. Floors have been had another layer of concrete on all levels. Under the cement on the ground floor are all the conduits for power & Cat7, which has 8" of insulation on top, then a layer of concrete. Underfloor heating installation will start hopefully this week.

View of kitchen from dining area, out towards garage door:



The cables from the floor are for the island, induction hob + power points, cable holding these from the ceiling is for the hood, which is recirculation rather than extraction. See separate vent (circular) on the far wall next to the garage door. That's part of the air circulation system in the house. Where the tubes and pipes are will be boxed in with those light cement blocks.


First floor above garage = heating and laundry room. Again, another layer of concrete's been added here. This won't have underfloor heating as the machines in there will already generate quite some warmth.



ETA: Where the 2 conduits are coming out of the floor on the front left, and looped around the water pipes on the wall, that's where the dividing wall will be to separate laundry from office space - directly across.

Edited by 5potTurbo on Monday 18th March 07:51

5potTurbo

Original Poster:

12,556 posts

169 months

Monday 18th March 2013
quotequote all
Insulation, insulation, insulation.... tonnes of the bloody stuff's being stuck on the internal walls that lead to colder external walls, i.e. kitchen to garage, laundry room/office (no underfloor heating there). It's a foam block that's 5-6" thick and it will be plastered over.

Garage looking into kitchen and across to dining room:



Foam's as thick as the blockwork it's being stuck to:



In the office/laundry room (not yet separated as 2 rooms:



...and yes, that is snow on the foam there... the roof directly above it is slightly open to the elements as the outside of the house will be clad in this foam and them covered with the exterior finish:

#

I have to admit, it's not as much progress as I would have liked to have seen this week, but it's not only my house being built.


5potTurbo

Original Poster:

12,556 posts

169 months

Monday 18th March 2013
quotequote all
Yeah, I have rather gone mad with plumbing and wiring - and I'll probably still think, "Damn, I should have put another double socket in there!" when we're in. Fingers crossed we'll be in before the August buidling shutdown in Luxembourg.
I'm not doing any of the work though, unlke you with your buildings - which are far more impressive. smile

5potTurbo

Original Poster:

12,556 posts

169 months

Tuesday 19th March 2013
quotequote all
The toilet?
It's called a "sanbloc". They're boxed in and tiled over so you only have a push button flush visible on the wall and a "suspended" pan is bolted to the sanbloc itself.


scratchchin Charging for using the crapper you say?.....


ETA: When finished, the cistern's boxed in and tiled over, rather like this:

http://www.funda.nl/koop/roermond/huis-48755605-de...

Edited by 5potTurbo on Wednesday 20th March 08:46

5potTurbo

Original Poster:

12,556 posts

169 months

Wednesday 20th March 2013
quotequote all
Cheers, Guy smile

5potTurbo

Original Poster:

12,556 posts

169 months

Friday 22nd March 2013
quotequote all
20 days lost due to excessively cold weather in Jan & Feb, according to the letter I received from the construction company yesterday. Now I know why things aren't progressing as well as they could/should be, although I'm sure they carried on working when the site was supposed to be closed.

5potTurbo

Original Poster:

12,556 posts

169 months

Tuesday 2nd April 2013
quotequote all
Thanks for your help last week, Guy. Good to see you again. thumbup


Popped into the site yesterday on our way back home after a long drive from Romsey, Hants., to see what progress there'd been. Lux had quite a lot of snow and very cold temps last week, so I was pleased to see there's been some progress - sticking on the insulation slabs.



Sunshine yesterday on the rear of the house. We've not see the sun or blue skies for some time!









We have appointments to choose the handrails for the staircase (probably won't have any as they're not legally required, and the staircase is 'walled in' anyway) - today, and for the interior doors & door furniture - later this week.

We also need to meet the decorators to choose the interior paint scheme - and all that's to be done and signed off before 3rd May. It looks like the construction company want to get this finished before the Summer shutdown too, which will be great for us! smile

Our house has been on the market for 10 days now. 3 couples have viewed it, 1 of them twice, the other 2 will view again this week. Fingers crossed we can have the "compromis" signed quickly so a price is locked in, then we know what we're dealing with on the remaining mortgage to cover the rest of the construction costs - which has been a worry to say the least.


5potTurbo

Original Poster:

12,556 posts

169 months

Wednesday 3rd April 2013
quotequote all
Thanks! smile

Met with the manufacturers of the stairway banisters yesterday. Decided against having them, although they were very nice, stainless steel handrails.
www.carteblanche.lu
Construction company will give me a credit note for their cost against the other extras already foreseen, so at least it's not something I'd get charged more for as we've changed sooo much so far.

Appointment with the interior door manufacturers this morning. These are made very differently to the UK, i.e. the door frames click together and fit the door openings, and the door construction's different too.
www.hawe-tueren.com
This is the first supplier we'll be able to speak English to since we started the project as the contact there speaks German or English, not French. That'll be a pleasant change for us. smile

5potTurbo

Original Poster:

12,556 posts

169 months

Thursday 4th April 2013
quotequote all
Warmer weather's finally on it's way next week, so fingers crossed the outside can be rendered and plastering can start inside too.


5potTurbo

Original Poster:

12,556 posts

169 months

Saturday 6th April 2013
quotequote all
In related news, we had an offer made on our existing house yesterday which we've accepted and a "compromis" has been signed. woohoo
The purchasers have 3 weeks to finalise their mortgage after which they have a 10% penalty to pay if they back out. Effectively, the house is sold - after 2 weeks on the market - and we got a very good price for it too. We're very happy and relieved, to say the least. smile

Popped by the site today to find a massive delivery of foam insulation stacked around the house. It can't all be for ours ...: there's loads of the stuff!



My daughter wanted to do some "weight lifting" hehe



We're going out for a celebratory dinner tonight!

Edited by 5potTurbo on Saturday 6th April 16:10