My dad finished building the wood pellet silo. It can contain roughly 4.8 tonnes of pellets which, according to the plumber, should be enough to provide space heating and domestic hot water for a whole year.
The boiler was installed just before Christmas and hooked up to the in-floor radiant heat right away. The pellets are fed into the boiler automatically and my dad was saying that the whole system is very quiet and efficient. A hybrid hot water tank (water can be heated by the boiler as well as with solar energy and electricity) has been hooked up but is not operational yet since none of the bathrooms and kitchen are finished yet.
The first tiles were layed just before we left at the end of our 3-month stay. The tile setter started in the downstairs bedroom and layed the tiles along the longest wall in a ‘subway’ pattern. Since all the walls in that room were square, it made sense to go with a simple pattern.
For the rest of the downstairs, since all the rooms are connected and open onto one another with very few square corners, we decided to set the tiles in a diagonal pattern.
The tiles we chose are 60 x 60cm porcelaine tiles.
Early June, we set off to France for a three-month stay to work on the house. We were staying at my parents who are 5 minutes on foot down the hill from the house. One of us was looking after the little one and the other was working on the house with my dad.
Less than 3 weeks into our stay, I slipped off the steep temporary stairs that lead from ground to upper floor and broke my back… Two compressed fractures on T5 and T7 and a minor fracture of the hip. I was very fortunate the spinal cord was not touched. I spent a few days at the hospital not being able to move and waiting for a custom upper body brace to be made for me. I was able to go back home fairly quickly but would not be able to work at all for the rest of our stay…
Attached are a few pictures summarizing the work that took place in 2013.
Although Ludovic and Edward have been busy with their son’s arrival, Ludovic’s dad had been hard at work on the house. We also hired someone to help with the masonry on the interior stone wall and all the inner walls (these are the red brick walls).
Right now the walls are composed of stone, then a layer of recycled wine bottle cork, then a layer of brick filled with sand and earth for mass. This provides an even temperature inside the house whether it is cold or hot outside.
The main task for the next two weeks is to complete all the inner walls for the upstairs. All the walls for the downstairs have been completed over the last 12 months. For the upper floors, this involves measuring the floor plans for the bedrooms and bathrooms, raising the walls and covering them with drywall. We have decided to go for the best sound insolation possible: (1) we glued felt pads to the wood track on the floor, (2) we are building the walls below the floor joists (joists have not been added yet) – to prevent lateral sounds transmission (3) we staggered the studs and made sure that one side of the wall is not touching the other side, and (4) one of the walls will have a double layer of drywall. We need to get most of the walls finished so that the plasterer can start on June 24.
Some panoramic shots courtesy of the iPhone (click image to see a larger picture):
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Downstairs – living room and dining room |
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View from the dining room into the kitchen and living room |
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View of the upstairs – bedrooms and bathrooms walls are still to be built |
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Another view of the upstairs |
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Some progress on the upstairs walls by the end of the first week |
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Exterior view – North side |
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Exterior view – South side |
Although Ludovic and Edward have been busy with the arrival of their son. Ludovic’s dad, Michel has been hard at work on the house. We also hired Patrice to help Ludovic’s dad with the masonry and all the inner walls (you can see these as the brick walls).
Right now from the outside, we have stone, then a layer of re-cycled cork, then a layer of brick filled with sand and earth for mass. This provides an even temperature inside the house whether it is cold or hot outside.
The main task for the next two weeks is to complete all the inner walls for the upstairs. All the walls for the downstairs have been completed over the last 12 months. This involves measuring the floor plans for the bedrooms and bathrooms, raising the walls and covering them with drywall. We have decided to go for the best sound insolation possible: (1) we glued felt pads to the wood track on the floor, (2) we are building the walls below the floor joists (joists have not been added yet) – to prevent lateral sounds (3) we staggered the studs and made sure that the walls are not touching, and (4) one of the walls will have a double layer of drywall. We need to get most of the walls finished so that the plasterer can start in a week.
Two weeks before I was to start a 3-month leave to help my dad with the work, another delay hit us. This time it was slightly different, nothing technical or financial but merely life throwing us a new and exciting adventure. After a 5-year wait and a 2-week notice, our family welcomed a little one through adoption.
My dad continued for a couple of weeks the work that was underway and then we decided to put everything on hold until the end of Spring 2013. The ground floor of the house is practically finished with ‘only’ the plastering of the walls and tiling of the floors left. When we resume the work, we will move to the 1st floor and continue with the installation of the bricks and cork insulation on the outside walls.
If everything goes as planned, we should travel to France as a family for the summer months and hopefully give the last push to complete the work.
Once the tubing for the in-floor radiant heating system is installed, the last stage is to pour a ‘liquid’ or self-levelling concrete mix to embed the piping.
