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.

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.

Decisions, decisions, decisions

When we signed off the house designs back in November we thought that all the decisions had been made.  By that stage we had decided on the details of the electricals, the kitchen, the sanitary products etc.

 Little did we know that the process would continue at the rate that it has done.  Here are a few things that have been occupying my time of late:

 Paint – we thought we had selected the paint and the veneers to match.  What we hadn’t counted was that the painter didn’t really want to use German Keim, preferring his usual Swiss Kabe Farben.  So a 7am meeting last week at his offices to discuss the technical details of the two paints.

Grout – we have had what seems a long, ongoing saga with the tile grout.  Again, far from the most interesting subject.  Do we have coloured, or grey, if grey which grey.  I then say it need sealing to much tutting from the tiler.  He then investigates and comes back with products… We’re not quite there yet, but it looks like I’m spending a weekend sealing grout.  (The Swiss way of putting you off a job is to add a ‘premium’.  Sometimes this is a ‘risk premium’ othertimes it’s just a ”I don’t want to do that’ premium’)

Kitchen splashbacks – OK so I was being optimistic thinking paint would work.  So we had to go for a new solution.  Problem is that it must be plain white.  And the white must match the other whites (paint and veneers) and must be joint-less.  We’ve found something, again almost certainly at a cost.

Then there have been a series of conversations regarding the details.  How the frame of a door meets the wall, exactly where taps are positioned, where the joints of tiles should be.  These things need site visits and time studying detail diagrams.   They also make a huge difference when there is so little to see.  

view a few weeks ago from kitchen area towards living space. 

Heating

An earlier post gave a view of how the underfloor heating was laid in the floor in the two main floors.  This is is a water-based system powered by a geothermal heat pump.

The pump, an IVT Greenline HT Plus, has been mounted in the cellar.  The pump, which originates from Sweden, takes it’s heat from the base rock – I believe at 17 degrees celsius.  The heat pump then heats water for both the heating and the hot water at about 65 degrees.  An electric pump is needed but consumes about a quarter of what would be needed to heat the water normally.  The electricity is, like most in Switzerland, from hydro-electric sources.

The heat-pump is owned by the local electricity company who also drilled the hole to extract the heat from the rock.  We have a long term contract with them.   We could use this system for cooling in the summer using fan-assisted radiator to extract the heat.  I think we’re going to evaluate this after seeing how hot the house gets in the summer.

If only everybody was like Vitsoe

Since moving to Switzerland we’ve been relying on Vitsoe to provide solid, functional bookshelves to support my book-purchasing habit.  They have always shipped quickly, provided good advice and their 606 Shelving is so well engineered it is a dream to mount and does it’s job no matter what I put on it.

We had identified a new home for the main system in the basement of the house, but the new ceiling was lower than the previous locations hence the verticals were too tall.  So, I contact Vitsoe to ask for some advice.

It’s 2.5 years since we got the last pieces but not only did I get a very thorough reply but I also got log-in access to the website where they had designed a new layout utilising the pieces that we already had and showing what else needed doing.

Needless to say, when we know a few final production details we’ll be adding to the system.  It’s always a joy dealing with Vitsoe.   Fantastic product and truly exemplary service.