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.

Whilst we were away

We’ve just got back from an almost 4 week holiday, visiting friends and travelling in Singapore & Australia. It was good to get such a nice long rest though I do admit going away worrying about what was going to happen whilst I was away.

The builders have made great progress in our absence. We had a look last night – one advantage of the changing clocks is that it’s light in the evening. The kitchen has been built and fitted, though as you’ll see from the photo below the doors covering the hidden air extractor have been removed to enable its fitting. All the storage has been fitted, though without doors at the moment.

 

The floor is now hidden under thick paper protection and the kitchen / storage is under sheets of plastic, however the storage has really changed the feel of the house. Many of the walls were designed to hold the storage units and where there were once alcoves there are now flush lines.

The custom-built storage did add a pretty decent chunk onto the build costs of the house, but these will offset furniture costs and enable us to conceal the vast majority of items in the house. Many of the electrical plugs etc are built inside these units and a decent number of the units have cooling channels built in, in the same way as you’d build in cooling for a refrigerator. Items such as computer printers, stereos etc will all be hidden away out of view, alongside more usual items such as clothes.

The staircase has been fitted, and swiftly covered by paper. We can see the oak from the underside. Walls have had the painting started – it looks like an undercoat is on – and the lighting has started to be fitted. Both are likely to be the subject of further posts.

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. 

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. 

Plastering continues

There seemed less progress this week.  Not that we couldn’t see changes, just that after the bigger changes the preceding weeks the changes were felt somewhat less monumental. 

Most of the changes had been continued work to the plastering.  The plastering started at the top and has been continued downwards.  Again, on Saturday there were plasterers in the house.  

 Our son was particularly impressed by their movement around the room.  Standing on towers resting on wheels they used them like enormous stilts to move around the floor.  Effortless, and obviously well practised it was amusing to watch.