Little finishing touches

After a few lovely days in the South of France with friends, including my first visit to the Abbey at Le Thoronet (I’ll try and get a photo up soon), we’re now back to the final climax of the new house.

Today we have the handover with the architect. This will involve a long process of walking around the house surveying all the issues and documenting them. We know that there are a few minor things that need to be fixed at a later date, usually because parts have not yet arrived. One example is the cover under the basin in the ground floor toilet room – for some reason only 2 rather than 3 of these arrived.

We’re now balancing the books and trying to decide which of the final things we can do now. Vitsoe came up with a really nice final solution for the bookshelf, and the few pieces that we needed are now ordered. We’re revisiting the interior blinds which will need to be made – given their size (250cm wide, 235cm deep) they are quite expensive. Then there are a range of other things such as a few minor indoor lights and the Louis Poulsen ones for the outside (orders going in now!)

Every time one moves house it is the small items that seem to add considerably to the bill. In our case our decision to move to an induction hob meant that many of our pans needed replacing – induction needs a magnetic-based pan. Luckily there is a good Swiss firm called Kuhn Rikon which is based in a nearby valley and were the source of a decent number of large pots, steamers etc. I’m a bit fussy about the pans where even heat distribution is really needed (for sauces, frying etc) and for these we’ve turned to Belgian firm Demeyere (their Atlantis range, not the new John Pawson designed ones which I felt looked too ‘designed’). Other items such as grills, roasting dishes etc are all Le Creuset.

With summer arriving the garden will now become a priority. We’ve found a lovely table (big, simple in a charcoaled oak finish) and a large traditional parasol. Fortunately we’ve had the hard landscaping all done. I’m keen to use part of the garden to grow things for the kitchen (I can only really motivate myself to garden if I can eat it in the end) and a morning visit to the market in Zurich was tempting with its rows of little pots of herbs. Maybe next week.

Outside view

It’s a long time since I posted an exterior photo, so here goes. 

The next big task here is obviously to build a garden.  On the building all is left is the two lights.

We’re in discussion about which big table to get for the terrace.  

Paper cover off

The first set of cleaning has been done, in preparation for adding the flexible seals where they are needed for the floor.

The oak stairs have been revealed for the first time.  We think they go well with the tiles throughout the rest of the house (we matched the wood to the oiled oak we use for picture frames – the rest of the furniture will be in this oak).

Now the trees are in leaf the view from the main bedroom is looking lovely.  The sun comes through the window on the left in the morning and the final rays come in the other window.

The kitchen is ready (the blue key needs to be removed from the tap.  I can’t wait to cook in this.

Finished attic

The attic was the first room to be finished.  It will be an office

A hidden detail here is the cavity at the top of the small window to ‘hide’ a roll blind behind the plaster.

Almost ready

We move on 23rd May so we’re just finalising the details.  Here’s an image of the landing a week or so ago from the main bedroom looking towards the bathroom.

The two storage doors to the right were moved 15mm forward to be in line with the wall – it’s this sort of finishing that is taking the time at the moment.

Paper comes off soon?

Kitchen

Not quite the simplest kitchen possible, but not all that far off…

The image above shows one side of the kitchen, where the hob is central.  The work surface is 5cm thick stainless steel mounted at 95cm, not the usual 90cm (we’re tall, so the extra height is useful). The worktop that can be seen is 70cm deep to provide extra working space.  The splashback is in white Creanit – a Corian-like material – which gives a good impression of being the same as the walls, but is easy to clean.  The wall that the oven is on is in the same line as the wall defining the dining room, so as to create a single line.

Coming together

After almost a year’s planning and building, we’re within 3 weeks of moving in.  The house is almost there, with just the long process of perfecting the remaining rough bits.

All cupboard doors have been fitted (though a few are being moved to get better alignment.  This means the space is now as we planned, and we’re delighted with the result.  Planning every last detail on paper, as is needed in this type of construction is hard but we’re both really glad we spent as long getting it right as we did.

The house is still under a layer of paper and sheeting protecting the floor, and the steel kitchen work surfaces.  I’ve got a job coming up to seal all the grout in the floor – the materials are waiting for me at the tile-supplier.  After a few weeks of heavy rain the clay-soil is waterlogged and the gardener is trying to drain it before starting that job.

The bathroom waits for it’s etched glass screens and the bottom section of the sinks.  Apparently the wrong piece was ordered, so a new one is coming.  Sinks are from Duravit – the Bathroom Foster range.  Taps are Steel by Axor.

The photo above shows the almost-finished bathroom mirror that I showed in its raw state.  The builders have managed to do a good job of getting the mirror flush with the wall, and there are a useful set of shelves behind the door.

Lighting

We were on site yesterday having conversations with the architect, builder and electrician. Now that the house is painted and main cabinets are in we are now sorting out minor details and getting little fixes done. We had found a series of things that needed ‘fixing’ and we were able to walk round the house discussing the changes. Most are minor and should be done soon.

Some of the lighting is installed already. Lighting was something my wife and I both had strong feelings about. We had lived in too many places where the lighting wasn’t great that we decided to get a specialist in to design the scheme. In the end we’ve gone for mostly recessed lighting. There are two main types. In several locations (along the top of the stairs, bathrooms, living room) we have long profiles mounted where the ceiling and wall meet. The light will be reflected from the wall it grazes providing soft, diffused light. The fixtures are cut to the length of the wall and have overlapping fluorescent bulbs ensuring that there are no shadows. They are from the Austrian company Xenon Architectural Lighting (XAL).

In the kitchen, dining room and landing we have recessed directional spots with a square aluminium surround by the Belgian firm Deltalight. In the bedrooms we plan to reuse some existing lights. These are white geometric shades by the Danish firm ‘Le Klint’. Outdoor lights will be from Louis Poulsen – their Toldbod range.

The only real issue that we found was that one of the floor to ceiling doors opened underneath one of the spots. This could cause a fire risk if the door was opened and left under the light. We’re currently investigating solutions to switch this light off when the door is in this position.

Staircase surround

The attic is to be a temporary type room, with a lower level of finish. We might end up using it as an office (my preference) or guest bedroom (my wife’s).

It’s accessed from the first floor by a fixed ladder-type staircase, concealed within what will look like a wardrobe. This ladder needed a surround and during the last few weeks both staircase and surround have been fitted.

Given the steepness we needed to have somewhere to put hands when climbing / descending, however we didn’t want this to protrude into what is a narrow staircase, so we have cut in two handles into the surround. It’s a surprisingly comfortable solution.

Tiling

In our quest to reduce the palette of materials and increase the simplicity of line throughout the house we decided to use a single flooring material.  Given the under-floor heating and the need to have the flooring in the wet areas such as the bathroom we decided to have a hard stone-like flooring. 

Our initial quest was to have a concrete, probably of a similar colour to the floor we eventually used.  However, the number of suppliers in Switzerland was very limited and the cost was high for the desired quality.  After that we explored options with stone (issues with staining) until deciding to use a large porcelain tile, which looked similar to the stone.

The tile is 60cm square with a 3mm gap between them.  Grout (not done on these photos) is going to be a light grey colour, which matches the tiles better than a beige.

 

The downstairs area has been finished – apart from the grout – and the warmer colour of the tiles compared to the concrete is warming the white plaster on the walls.

 

The tiling on the first floor had been started late this week and was to continue probably into the early part of next week.  The newly installed bath is the guide for the tiles on the floor, and the same tiles are being used on some walls in the bathroom.

The only flooring in the main living areas that won’t be tile are the staircase, where tiles could crack if the staircase moved.  The staircase goes in in 3 weeks time.