In a pause in last night’s storm

The view from the bedroom window with colours taken straight from a Constable painting.

Some images now we have moved in.

towards the main sitting area.

Decoration!

The wardrobes in our bedroom

View towards bathroom.

bathroom cabinets

Shower.

Today is the big day, when we finally leave our old flat and move into our new house.

The old place was a big flat by Austrian firm ‘Baumschlager & Eberle’. It was notable for a few things; first it was 27m long which our son loved as it enabled him to race his LikeaBike at great speed. Second, it was pretty open-plan – there was a good 20m long view through the house from the living room. Most of the internal doors were big sliding panels which we kept open most of the time. Third, it was a so called ‘passive house’ though we all hated the distributed air heating system and couldn’t wait to lose its dryer than dry air.

We also leave the centre of a city (Winterthur is Switzerland’s 6th biggest city, though in truth most folk would call it a town) and move to a little village in the country. It’s not the first time we’ve done this but I guess some things will need adjusting for (like the fact there isn’t always a train or bus – we’ll have to plan again).

The removal men arrived at 6:30 this morning and promptly packed their van. They got it all in by 9:30.

Tonight I’ll pick up our son from childcare in central Zurich and go home. I’m expecting boxes everywhere. Tomorrow we fill storage units with the contents of these boxes. Hopefully we’ll get everything apart from a few ‘essential’ items of furniture in the cupboards.

This morning, at the market, I picked up some small Swiss Chard plants and the final herbs for the kitchen garden – now it just needs some beans (we were too late for peas). Tomorrow we need to go again to the garden centre. We have a large section of planting to get done – I thin we’ll get some design help.

We’ve recently been given some photos of the build from our neighbours.  Here is a picture of what the land looked like before the houses were built…

Well, we have the (new) set of keys and the house to ourselves. It feels slightly weird as we’re now moving from a project to a home. Our son doesn’t want to leave when we visit which I guess is a good sign.

The weekend was a full one. The most important job, one that I decided I could do rather than pay for (on the basis that the builders didn’t want to do it so would have charged a premium), was to seal the grout between all the tiles. It’s not a particularly difficult task, it just takes a lot of time. First I scrubbed the floor with a strong acid-based cleaner, then mopped it all off and then sat, with a fine artist paintbrush, and liberally painted all the lines. Some heavier-use areas will get a second coat (the bathroom already has).

We also visited the local garden centre, who employ some really knowledgeable staff. Given the time we were really interested in getting some herbs and things such as tomatoes that could be planted now, and bags and bags of compost. Yesterday afternoon the spade went in for the first time. I can confirm that under the 10cm of clay which is called ‘topsoil’ we have small rocks. After several hours of rather physical work I realised that the garden is bigger than I had thought (the flat terraced land is about 200 square meters then the rest is made up of slope, paths etc.)

My wife spent Saturday or errands. We collected a parasol from a shop in Zurich, then ordered the table for the garden, then a trip to Ikea for some more ‘Gorm’ units for the storage room – all with a rather frustrated 2 year-old in tow. I’m hoping that the storage room is a decent, stable enough temperature for the wine, otherwise I think there will be wine storage units on the list of things to get.

12th Century simplicity…

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.

The sun rises above the church in the morning. (Just seen – church tower on hill)

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.  

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.