Easter coming up!

The electricity provider in the area has hopefully been up at the cabin yesterday, as promised, and connected the main inlet to the fuse cabinet (yes, directly translated from norwegian sikringskap, what do I know:) so hopefully the spagetthi looking mess of extension cables running all over is history now. Just returned from IKEA to buy some lamps (but didn't really find any) and thousand other small things that will hopefully contribute to this easter becoming one of the better ever!

Cabin is of course not 100% completed, but no biggies left, mostly painting (staining) and floorboards and other trimmings, some smaller installations in kitchen and such. But this easter will mainly be vacation now, and although I will prob do some smaller jobs here and there, I will consentrate very hard not to look at the things that needs to be done...I have to admit, I need a vacation now!!

Success!!

All limbs intact, and stairs are up!! Actually took a lot less time than estimated and by lunch saturday it was completed. Had to put it up in sections mounted to the wall as it wasn't room to assemble it on th floor and then lift up. Once again I can highly recommend Nor-Trapp, their service and quality is impecable. The sales guy told me many times that I was more than welcome to call him during the weekend if I had any questions....but it really wasn't needed. It turned out even better looking than anticipated.

Productive weekend all-in-all. Also got a lot of trimmings (lister) painted with 2 coats of paint and mounted in the hallway and bathroom, did all of the remaining tiles in the 2 hallways, mounted some kitchen drawers, pre-cut the remaining panel for the shed and small areas not done upstairs (boy it was nice to get it out of the living rooom!!!) And also cleaned the place up a bit as Easter is closing in on us. Going back up next weekend to put togehter some IKEA beds for the kids upstairs.

Oh, and the plumber was done (miracle, just push a button and the toilet flush!!, and there is water running out of the faucets in both bathrooms and the kitchen!!! Very nice!), but the electrician was unfortunatly not done yet so the water is rather cold. (I actually started thinking on saturday night; wonder how much water I would need to boil to get a hot bath?? Glad I didn't try it out....)

Anyway, yet another good weekend!!

Stairs....

Got the stairwell done last weekend, including the tiles that will be underneath the stairs in place. So now I am mentally preparing for putting the stairs together this weekend...probably not a whole lot more difficult than building Lego....except that Lego you can easily build alone...not so sure if the same goes for the stairs! Having vivid images in my head involving ropes, support stands, a lot of muscle work (throw in an aching back) and a few words from the kind of glossary you are rarely thaught in school.... If this blog is not updated early next week, can someone please call the Red Cross as I'll probably be lying underneath a stack of parts for the stairs entangled in rope...

Oh, well, have faith! I can do it! Positive thinking could work (if I was more easily swayed :)

AND, high hopes for the electrican AND plumber being done now, so I can celebrate and triumph with the first ever hot bath up there!

Ok back to google now " how to put stairs together"

Hot shower anyone?

Well, not really ready for a hot shower, but the plumber is working on it as I write, he won't be done until beginning of next week though, but at least this will be our last weekend up there without the luxury of running cold and water in both the bathrooms and the kitchen. Big milestone!!

Oh well, just a short update today, my son is waiting for access to the computer to do his homework.... times are changing. Anyway, both bathrooms got finished last weekend with the last tiles, grout and silicone. The sinks in the 2 bathrooms were assembled and things are starting to look good!!

Going up tomorrow again to start the work of finishing the stairwell and prepare for assemling the stairs the next weekend again. Need to get the tiles on the floor in the hallway in place too... so, all in all, still quite a bit of work left, and yes I am starting to feel it, but at Easter we will at least have a fully functional cabin and then I plan to eat, sleep, go skiing and sledding with the kids and just maybe do some minor work like painting or other small finishing touches....

It all tiles up....

Bit of a rat race now, we definetly want to spend easter at cabin, preferably with all the luxuries that hot running water, working stove, oven, lights etc provide. As the schedule turns out I'll only have 2 more free weekends to go to cabin before easter so it is getting close...

However I did manage to get 80% of the tiles in both bathrooms done this weekend so the upcoming weekend I'll head back up and finish it and get all the grouting done and all corners etc siliconed. Both the electrician and the plumber have been told to start next week, so I better succeed...oh, and I also need to at least start the panelling the two remaining walls up at the attic so the electrian can mount all sockets. Should be ok...phew.

Then focus the 2nd weekend before easter will be tiles in hallway and putting up the stairs so the kids can actually access their bedrroms upstairs...not having 4 kids in our bed!! :)

Will be nice to get power throughout the cabin now, it is a hassle dragging extension cords all over the place, and look forward to have a somewhat more cosy lighting than two 500 watts working lamps illuminating the place like Old Trafford! Not to mention the luxury it will be to eat something else than microwave dinners!!

We are getting there!

Oh and I almost forgot, the chimney guy (who seems to work a couple of hours every week, but still making some weekly progress), had brought in the fireplace we ordered, and it looked really good! Now it only needs to be connected, and of course the chimney should be built higher and through the roof, and not stop halfway through the attic....but 3-4 more weeks and he will probably get there:)

Project is still going!

Luckily the activity on this blog is not representative for the activity at the cabin the last few weeks. Have actually been up there the last 3 weekends and gotten more done - however a busy everday schedule and a fair share of sickness hasn't allowed much activity here on the blog. The same sickness has also slowed down the progress somewhat at the cabin, at least the first weekend when I was really dragging. Anyway status is:

- Main bathroom got all it's Litex boards up including membrane the first weekend.
- The second bathroom (or really just toilet and sink) got straigthened out with "avrettingsmasse"
- Mounted sink in kitchen so dishes can be done (still have to bring water in canisters though)
- Mounted some doors
- Put tiles on 1 1/2 walls in main bathroom
- Finished panel on last two walls in toilet room and membrane on floor
- Put tiles down around chimney where the fireplace will be (which hopefully is installed by the chimney guy  this week)
- ...and not to forget, rearranged some materials yet again.... (next time (won't be a next time) I build a cabin I'll have someone build a barn on the land just next to where the cabin will be placed, with heating, a shower, kitchen, room to store all materials and tools, and finally a tunnel leading into the cabin.....)

I also got the stairs from Nor-Trapp delivered, and they look fantastic. Haven't installed them yet as I need to finish the tiles in the hallway first, but they look great. Once again I can highly recommend them, service is great.

Main focus now is finishing the bathrooms so the plumber can come and get everything installed and connected. This weekend I hope to finish 90% of the tiles so I can grout them the next weekend. Hopefully then both plumber and electrician will get everything done so the whole bunch of us can spend Easter up there...

Stairs to heaven

It is dangerous to say too much positive about a vendor before the actual delivery, but after just ordered stairs from Nor-Trapp I have to say I am very pleased with the service so far. We had agreed that I would make the final measurements and take some photos when I was up there last week and e-mail over when I got home. I did on tuesday, and 2 hours later everything had been drawn in 3D, delivery date agreed and order confirmation sent. It actutally got a little cheaper than their first initial offer too. And the prizes are very reasonable I think, considering we are getting it delivered all painted in white with brown stained steps.

The original stairs that are delivered with the cabin (or actually Familiehytta never delivered ours, maybe I mentioned to them at one point that I would find another solution?) is a straight and very steep thing, not very friendly for small kids playing and forgetting all about the laws of gravity. We moved the entrance door all the way to the left in the hallway, moved the "knevegg" at the opening for the stairs further out and got room for stairs that have a 90 degree bend, resulting in 4-5 more steps than the original one. The stairs will still be fairly steep, but at least there will be a sharp bend to slow down anyone falling down:) It will be better looking too, and we didn't have to move any walls to improve the solution.

Another week?

Every weekend I have been up at cabin I have been thinking in the car on my way home; if I only had two more days, I would have gotten "this and that" done.... After just spent a week at cabin I am thinking; if I just had one more week... Guess the cabin would have been more or less done if that was the case. So the status after one week of more or less hard work is:

- Put 640 kg of grout/avrettingsmasse on the heating cables is the two hallways
- Laid the floor in the living room
- Floor in the second bedroom downstairs
- Gotten all the panel in living room up (except where the chimney is going up)
- Recieved and mounted the kitchen cabinets, countertop, most of the doors and some of the drawers/interior
- Put panel all over the sauna
- Installed door to the guest bedroom and the small bathroom
- Stained the floor in guest bedroom
- Completed most of the trimmings in guest bedroom
- Picked up sofa and dinner table with chairs and assembled them

Had some company this time two, the first weekend with friend Karl who helped out with the grout and half of the living room floor. And during the later part of the week my dad came for a couple of days and got the place tidied up and organised a bit again, as well as helping out with kitchen.

The IKEA kitchen arrived the they as they promised and I was a bit worried if they would make it up there as rumours have it that they had some trouble with delivering in same area just before christmas. Luckily they made it all the way up but the driver insisted on trying to back up the driveway which was a bit optimistic on the hilly road, and he ended up just sliding more and more down the road on his attempts before he finally gave up and decided just to carry it the 20 meters up the road and leave everything in the driveway. Convinced them to at least carry the dishwasher and the fridge inside the cabin before they left, still leaving me with the rest of the kitchen, bathroom interior, 4 beds, 8 chest of drawers to carry inside on my own.... My back is still complaining! But really I am just glad the got it as far as they did, and I am very pleased with the (almost) end result after putting it all together.

The only thing I didn't get done as planned was the tiles in the hallways as all the elements for the chimney got delivered and put on the floor on tuesday, while the whole assembly got delayed to this week, really didn't feel like lifting and moving that much more so the tiles will be done on next trip up instead.

Beside the tiles, main focus will now be on th bathrooms as that is really the only thing missing to give the cabin all the qualities we need for all of us to spend time there. And I hope electrician will come and install electricity in all the rooms that are done now, including the kitchen as that will make life a lot easier:)

SALE!

Normally I am not too excited about the January sale, as I am generally not too excited about sales or shopping in general...but now, a sale is a great thing. The cabin needs furniture for obvious reasons! So this weekend a dinner table, 8 chairs, sofa and 2 mattresses were secured and, with the exception of the sofa which will arrive later, all transported home to the garage awaiting further shipment. Not really a whole lot more we need now as we have some leftover furniture after joining our households in 2009. But I have started to look for a stuffed grouse to have on the living room wall, so if anyone has one to sell let me know. Guess it should be one that I have shot myself, but with the last years outcome after the hunting season I am not taking the chance of waiting…

Old and lazy

I must be getting old and lazy. Had intended to go up to cabin to work there saturday and sunday as Julia was in Athens, and the kids with their other respective parents. But waking up to heavy snowfall saturday morning, with a christmas decorated tree in the living room and tons of leftovers in the fridge I chickened out and ended up satying home not doing much more than reading magazines and renting a movie. Very nice indeed but not much progress is being made that way. Drove up on sunday to empty the car of more cement (avrettingsmasse) and got at least all the materials in the living room area re-stacked (again!!) so most of the floor surface is free to put down the floor boards next time going up.

Taking a week off work from January 8th and will have some company the first weekend. Thats very good because I need to get all the cement I have carried up there on the floors that now has gotten the heating cables installed by the electrician. Hopefully we will get that done and a soldid portion of the floor in the living room done AND a day in the slopes on our snowboards on sunday at Gaustablikk. Kitchen is due to arrive sometime the week I am up there so need to get the floor in the living room done so it can be put on top of that. The following week I will hopefully make some good progress in the living room and the bedrooms that now have first priority to make it has "livable" as possible. I will probably buy and bring the slate tiles for the hallways up to and might spend a day putting those down.

Until later, Happy New Year to everyone!

Two short trips for man, big steps for cabin builders....

Had a short trip up last weekend with my oldest offspring and spent most of the time then cutting the panel that will eventually be used in the living room. By cutting it all I could fit it into one of the bedrooms and free up floor space in the living room area.

Also had a trip up this weekend and the electrician was done with all the concealed installation so during saturday afternoon I managed to panel the second bedroom and both hallways. Fun and gratifying work as progress is fast and the results are so evident! Also primed the floors in the hallways and one of the bathrooms, so the electrician will put down the heating cables there this week. Have a total of 600 kgs of "avrettingsmasse" (cement) up there now to pour on top of it next time going up. Need to find nice slate tiles on sale soon too to finish off the floor in the hallways.

The plumber will do his preparations too before christmas so I can put up plates on the walls in the bathrooms soon.

AND today I put in a large IKEA order for delivery second week of January with kitchen and all the appliances, 4 beds, 8 mattresses, 4 chest of drawers and some interior for one of the bathrooms. Needless to say it was a lot of money running out of the account, but still feel we got good value for money...

Plan now is to put the floor in in the living room so it is ready for the kitchen when it arrives. Will be very nice to get a fridge in to keep the beer cold as minus 15 is a bit too much for both my beer and the milk.

Fulltidsprosjekt...

Jeg tenkte kjekt når vi satte i gang med hytta at fordelen med hytte fremfor bygging av hus er ihvertfall at man tross alt har fri mellom hver gang man er der....noe naivt kanskje...? I går var det ut å kjøpe første lass med avrettingsmasse, omtrent det bilen kunne klare å bære, totalt 300 kg som omtrent er bare 1/3 av det totale behovet. Tar det over flere turer inne i bilen så jeg slipper å kjøre med henger på særdeles glatte veier.

I tillegg ble det innkjøp av mere 23X48mm lekter. Vi har valgt stående villmarkspanel i stua og hvis jeg forstod bruksansvisningern til Familiehytta rett så har de levert materialer til å kubbe ut mellom reisverket for å lage spikerfeste, dette syntes jeg ble noe tungvint samtidig som det er en god løsning med å lekte ut veggen istedenfor. Da bruker elektriker lektene som feste for tomrør og det blir færre gjennomføringer i diffusjonssperren (denne ligger på innsiden av lektene). Uansett, poenget var at jeg brukte opp alle lektene som egentlig skulle brukes til å lekte gulvet for furugolvet.

I tillegg måtte jeg gå til innkjøp av mer 48x73 mm for innvendige vegger. Mulig jeg har brukt litt for mye til stendere, uansett var det ikke nok til alle delevegger.
1000 furugulvskruer ble også kjøpt inn sammen med diverse maling og pensler.

I kveld må jeg sammenfatte endelig bestilling til IKEA så jeg forhåpentligvis kan få det levert den uken jeg planlegger å ta fri i Januar... Til helgen blir det en kort tur opp sammen med ungene for å prime gulvet i gangen og på badet så elektriker kan legge varmekabler.... Har jeg glemt noe da? Hm...

Now we are talking!

Except for the lame attempt, being-over-tired-after-saturday-night-party-still-trying-to-go-to-cabin-sunday, 2 weeks ago it has been 4 weeks since the last visit, luckily there won't be that long before the next trip up.

Luckily because now things are really starting to move. After this 3 day effort all the inner walls (frames) are completed, one bedroom is almost complete (The better half came on a surprise visit on saturday, so we even got the walls stained), and the other bedroom got the floor finished. Electrician is finishing off the hidden installation next week, so when I go back up 14 days from now I will be able to put panel up on all the walls! That is a very fun, fairly fast and rewarding task. Then we really see the layout of the cabin. It will be very nice to get the bedrooms done too, so we can put in a proper bed and sleep in an almost saw dust free atmosphere...

I was a bit anxious as to how it would be to put the floor on the concrete but it proved to be fast to fasten the "lekter" to the floor with expanding nails you just hammer into pre-drilled holes. I see that some recommend having cc 100 cm between the nails but to be safe from squeking floors I used cc 60 cm... better safe than sorry I guess...

Learned  a lesson this time too:
Always have candles and/or a flashlight within reach. A power failure first night turnes out to be a rather dark experience, and eventually I just tucked in as there was nothing to do in the darkness. Luckily power came back on during the night.

We are really excited about the progress now, and I will take a week off in January to work on the cabin, and with that and the upcoming weekends the winter break might be in reach after all... At least 70% :-)

Super optimist...

Annual grouse dinner with hunting friends and spouses on saturday night....and still being optimistic about going to cabin on sunday to put in some work is nothing more but naive... Home 4 a.m. in the morning lead to not getting up there before 2 p.m. and returning only a few hours later. Not much more than a few details here and there, some remaining insulation, a nap and a few nice pictures driving up there is the result...

Decorating

Ok, it is a bit premature to use decorating as a heading as most walls are just showing the insulation. There is one advantage about building a cabin; you don't have access to do work whenever you can and will avoid exhaustion. The downside of building a cabin is that you don't have access to work whenever you can... So the days in between needs to be filled with some other activity. Like thinking about the decorating... Thinking some nice pics from the surrounding nature will be nice on the walls, I have started picking out appropriate pictures...like the one below. This picture was taken in April, skiing on the last remaining snow above the tree level. A perfect day with a clear blue sky. Unfortunatly a perfect day with a clear blue sky makes somewhat dull pictures, so a little bit of Photoshoping might be needed....

A new sky was needed...and that was found on a picture taken at a vinyard in New Zealand last winter...so now the pictures will remind me of two, very different, but great trips the last year:) To test the quality provided I have ordered the picture on canvas in size 90X60 cm and if succesfull more pictures will be prepared for decorating the walls inside the cabin sometime in 2010.

Blackcock, throne and aching muscles…

I took Friday off and had another 3 day session at the cabin, this time fully stocked with beer. But this time I actually forgot to drink the stuff with the exception of 2 the first night. What an amateur! Don’t know if it was the abstinence or not but felt I got quite a lot done this weekend (too). After just 4 weekends the attic is completed, the entire ceiling downstairs is panelled and most of the framework for the inner walls are completed. If I just had one more day I could have called the electrician and asked him to finish off the hidden installation…
After spending all Friday and half of Saturday putting up the remaining panel in the ceiling I hereby make an oath; I solemnly swear never to put up ceilings alone in any kind of construction ever again! At least not with a masseur on watch and ready at my convenience!! Muscles I didn’t realize I have in possession is now screaming for peace. Worst thing is that I have earlier booked an appointment with a personal trainer at Elixia tonight, just to make things even worse. What was I thinking??

About 1100 meters of panel have now found its place where it belongs, appx. 4500 nails have been shot into the wall (the nail gun is starting to lose its entertainment value…), still the pile of remaining materials seems quite big…and I spent the second half of Saturday reorganising all the remaining materials to make room for the inner walls. Since I needed to turn the pile 90 degrees where it was situated I had to move the lot twice as it was kind of hard to do in one operation. That and getting the last pile outside safely inside did not help on my muscles either…

A more positive contribution to wellbeing is the newly installed throne! The cabin is as of now classified as high standard with electricity, heating, water and a toilet!! From the picture you can see the ingenious flushing device (red bucket, and water hose right next to it). A lot more sturdy construction than what you will find in any normal home. And you can’t really find the same view either from toilets in any other houses or cabins. Spectacular! A downside is that the view from the road to the throne is also spectacular so the daily visit demands some careful scouting and planning or a kind of exhibitionist mentality. For this reason I guess I better build some walls around it. Also note the strategically placed beer…

It was unusually quiet up there this weekend and the majority of the other cabins seemed desolated. Maybe the wildlife felt it too, Sunday morning I woke up at sunrise and noticed I had company of a blackcock (orrhane) that was lurking around the cabin. He was more of a poser than an anxious bird so when I silently opened the window and started shooting (pictures this time) he found the perfect podium and posed willingly. Unfortunately fog/snow and scarce daylight didn’t provide the optimal conditions for photographing. To show my gratitude for letting me photograph him I waited a while before I let my Gordon Setter out, at least to give him a good head start…

Unfortunately there will a full 4 weeks before I can go back up, but then I hope my better half can tag along so she can see the progress being made. Really think Norway should implement the 6th week of paid vacation now!!

Lessons learned....

1: It is a lot easier to stop a bleeding tumb with toilet paper, than to stop a leaking nail gun hose.
2: Never, and I repeat never, underestimate the need for beer. Always stock up!
3: Size matters! Putting up ceiling panel having that last centimeter of height makes all the difference when working alone.
4: The professional can be wrong, and the bathroom window was supposed to be further to the left. And the professional will also admit the error with a smile and fix it right away (keeping the customer smiling too...)
5: An insulation knife double nicely as a bread knife.

Just when finishing off the attic I got a nail in my tumb which started bleeding quite bad, so to avoid too much spill on the floor I stressed down the ladder, and in the heat of the moment I dropped the hose for the nail gun on the working lamp. Bad idea!! Now I had two leaks to deal with, the tumb was easy enough, the hose was a different matter. And the gas stations never sell hoses for nail guns on a sunday anymore..... BUT they do sell repair kits for bicycle tyres and tape - plenty of tape! And after using about all of it, and then some, I finally was back in business and the hose happily dealt with 8 bar of air pushing through...

The rest of the story is less exciting (not that the first part is really that exciting either...), but the attic is finished. Half of the ceiling downstairs is done. I have, after pulling a 90 meter long heating cable through the outside water pipe (I now understand why the plumber was so eager to do it together with me....) gotten a water tap inside. The heating cable is inside the water pipe and can be turned on in case the water freezes up, just as a security measure really. Nice to not have to bring canisters with water up every time. I have one oven on, and directed on the tap however to avoid a disaster when the real cold weather sets in..... The plumber has also promised me to put a toilet in one of these days and I made a nice little elevated floor around the toilet outlet that will support it. Of course it will need to be flushed using a bucket of water, but I will feel like a king sitting there and looking out on 86 sqm of building site;)

The electrician also turned up on monday and completed everything that needed to be put in the ceiling area, and it was nice to have some company for a few hours! And the guy who put the cabin up came by to look at a window that seemed to be about 50 centimeters too far to the right and would make it hard to fit the sauna. He admitted a little measuring error and would fix it before I will get back up there (and I really didn't expect anything else either as he has been very nice and professional all the way).

No cabin building next weekend, but weekend after that I will have 3 days and hope to complete all the panels on the ceiling and get most of the inner walls up! Then we are talking cabin!!!

PS: And next time I will remember to bring enough beer!!

The tide of noon is upon the hills.

Amid leagues of purple heather, of pale amethyst ling, stand isled great yellow-lichened granite boulders, fringed with tawny bracken.

In the vast dome of blue there is nought visible save a speck of white, a gannet that drifts above the invisible sea. And through the hot tide of noon goes a breath as of the heart of flame.

Far off, far off, I know dim hills of dream, and there my heart suspends as a white bird longing for home: and there, oh there, is a heart of flame, and the breath of it is as the tide of noon upon these hills of dream.

Fiona Macleod

Winter dream

Finally I was back in business after a couple of weeks off the building process. Didn't end up getting quite as much time as I was planning on but still feel some nice progress was made. Main objective now is really to try to decimate the amount of materials that are blocking the first floor area, and that means getting it up on walls and ceilings. Got all the remaining insulation in, and in high time... It was minus 8 degrees celsius outside the first night and not much above zero inside... But as soon as everything was covered the temperature rose to around 15 degrees (Have to small 2 kw heaters) The electrician wasn't quite done with the ceiling on the main floor yet so started up on the attic. Let me tell you; I pity the fool who doesn't have a nail gun! Why on earth didn't I buy one earlier when I built the houses and garages..... Not only is it fun, but work is at least 3 times faster! Did get about 75% done on the upstairs area and quite a lot of materials out of the way from the main floor. Next weekend will be to finish the upstairs and to cover ceiling downstairs with panel. Hopefully this will reduce the pile of materials sufficiently so I can build up some motivation to move it around and make some desperatly needed room for the inner walls. Seeing the attic take shape as it does is really motivating too....actually starting to look like an area you would want to lounge and sleep in:)

Kitchen

As most other cabin bloggers out there, we too have chosen IKEA for the kitchen. I know that there are other competitive suppliers out there now, but as long as we found what we wanted at IKEA we didn't really bother looking around at the other "low cost" options available. I am pretty sure that we will add quite a lot of other stuff to the IKEA list too before we put in the final order and have it all delivered at the cabin...
Either way, it will still take quite some time before the cabin is ready for the kitchen, but the electrician naturally needed to know how it would be before starting his work.