House Frame Decoration ~ A Project

I've been decorating!

The nursery was done a while ago but I never posted about it. Or anything for that matter in eons. I'm just so busy now that I'm finally motivated... To sum it up: the last months of my pregnancy were exhausting and I was totally uninspired. Especially the last 6 weeks. Thank goodness my mom was here for 10 weeks! It was amazing and I will never forget it! I'm forever grateful! Such a wonderful treat!!!

Anyway, if I get a chance I'll post some blogs from that time. 

So the latest thing I did was mount a little house frame. This was an intense project that took about 8 weeks - if you include the times I wasn't doing a thing about it due to mommy duties. Each step might have taken a day about a week apart from the next step.

Starting with the fact that nothing can easily be hung on the walls without a screw & anchor due to the local construction methods (concrete and brick walls, including the interior non-load bearing walls). And for that you need to get a hammer drill (a hammer and nail don't work, the gypsum layer is too thin - not enough bite for a nail to support a frame) and of course a regular drill doesn't work because it doesn't have enough torque so luckily, we have a hammer drill. However, since we only got that recently, we didn't have the bits for it yet...

Step 1: get a cute house frame spontaneously

Step 2: feel glad we already (finally) have a hammer drill

Step 3: go shopping for hammer drill bits (small miracle to have a chance to go to a hardware store AND get something done)

Step 4: measure and mark wall

Step 5: learn how to get a bit into the hammer drill 

Step 6: feel glad that I accidentally got the right drill bits since I had no idea they had to be a specific kind (other than for concrete and Bosch)

Step 7: find a moment that "L" is asleep far from her room and nearly ready to wake up (because the hammer drill will surely wake her, yet, I don't want to wake her too soon). A fine balance.

Step 8: unpack the miniatures from one of the last 5 moving boxes (mummmm... Wait, I actually did that about a week before so it would have to go as a preparation item along with "get a hammer drill"). 

Step 9: do it! (And hope I know how to use a hammer drill because it's my first time ever!) Eek!

Step 10: quickly clean all the dust with baby wipes

Step 11: bring a startled but very brave little girl up to her room to cheer her up, change her diaper and show her the progress.

Step 12: put in the decorations

Step 13: step back to appreciate a slowwww project. And it's adorable... But wait!!!

IT'S CROOKED!!  Very crooked. How can it be? I replay in my mind: I measured one hole, made sure the other one was level and presto! But somehow I messed it up and didn't notice until it was too late. I think this is what happens when I'm not doing the task all at once. Broken concentration is a bit... non-cohesive. Sigh. I'm such a perfectionist but this time, well, SCREW IT! (Pun intended)...

Pssst! The bead-work decoration around the lamp shade is my Mom’s beautiful creation!

Lately, I'm making all kinds of concessions with time being at such a premium. It really is the "Cost/ Quality/ Time" triangle!!  For example, last week I did a Princess & the Pea box frame and blogged about it: 

I hung the box frame too high. Fortunately, it's "easy" to move compared with the house frame.

I'm inclined to leave it all until "L" has her "big bed" and we know where everything will look better. AKA fix everything in 3 years...

House Progress - February 5

Well, with bigger things out of the way we are now we are becoming increasingly annoyed that we still have no lights.  Well that's not entirely true. We are annoyed yes, but we actually have about half of them. The house has lots of built-in pot lights and we had the movers install our nicer fixtures from the apartment, however, we are still dining in the dark, by candle light or the beacon light from the patio for our dining ambiance.  We are s.l.o.w.l.y doing our field research. Did I mention slowly? :) Good thing spring is nearing and every evening we have a teensy bit more light. (Hehe).

We still have a ton of unpacked of boxes all squeezed in our dirty, overly hot and humid house.  We are figuring out the balance of heating zones.  And of course, we have some hang-over mover glitches (damages are not covered beyond 3 days... "buyer beware"!).  And we just discovered some some plumber problems with the laundry room modifications (we were charged about 3x too much) and me with no leg to stand on to fight it.  I was stupid and assumed it was rolled into the carpentry price (I got a verbal - nothing written. What a rookie)*. And still no utilities like tv, phone, internet. 

Without mentioning the daunting cash flow stuff, not having internet banking is really hampering my style. Need I mention the bills we had to pay?? So I end up paying them at the bank via an automated teller. 1 of 2.  Talk about ancient!!! It was oh so slow and painful with people waiting in line behind me huffing and puffing their frustration in my direction as I slowly chiseled through through my massive pile...  Truth be told I stopped two bills short of being finished (the later dated ones) hoping to spare the poor people in the line-up and my agony too of course.  Actually, I think now: "weird how many people were waiting in line for an antiquated way of paying bills..." 

*Sigh... Nothing an University education and a 10+ year career in the business could drill into my brain apparently... "Put it in writing!" My excuse(s): I was tired of the back-and-forth and felt like an ass writing yet another email to back-up verbal agreements that the carpenter so patiently entertained. That and "mommy brain". I'm such an idiot.  

Footnote: Mid-March, I negotiated a 15% reduction on my 300% overcharged bill. Win-win I suppose. 

House progress - January 31

It's been busy....

We altered our existing IKEA wardrobes into storage in our new laundry room.  The ceiling was too low to reuse our sliding doors (shame) so I got some new hinge doors instead and also had the carpenters cut a few centimeters off the bottom of the wardrobe compartments.  Even after trimming the bottoms off we still have a short skirt at the base (yay - for structure and aesthetics!) and the new doors doors fit just fine. We also cut one of the compartments in half vertically to maximize our reuse. In addition to the modifications to the wardrobes we added a counter top over the washer and drier to make a folding surface, added uppers above and updated the slop sink. We of course reused all the interior components (shelves, drawers, hangers and dressers).  I am very happy now. Being organized sure keeps the clutter and random mess in check! 

The laundry room is now finished now so that I can clean it up and start unpacking into it. Yay!!! 

Tomorrow we have an exterior door installed to enclose our outdoor storage space and as well, our new bed will be delivered. Oh and the internet and phone will be looked at as well since it's still not working. No TV either... Anyway... Oh yeah and tomorrow we get our new car! Yay! No more earrrrrly mornings with 3-trips-into-the-city-and-return days!!! 

It's been ...busy.

Only one side of the laundry room. With a glimpse of the new sink.

The Jig is Up!

If you dare to check the integrity of your local (Swiss) painter, ask him to paint in colour.  Yes, "off-white" counts.

I've quite accidentally discovered how the profit margin is so significant in the painting industry. Price extra high and skimp.  I've seen it before in other ways but this is a National level of sophistication! The standard 2 coats are easily replaced by a single one when the wall paint code is a National standard one. Hummmmmm....

I can't decide if the next to lowest bidder would have been more honest (pricing for a proper 2 coats of paint) or if he would have been more dishonest than my low bidder. I'll never know. But at almost half the price* of my other two bidders, experience says I probably paid for my problems.  

But we forge on. Here's hoping they actually paint the second coat they have now promised me. Nothing like holding the entire payment hostage to keep contractors motivated before Christmas. Fingers crossed!

*Canadian pricing would have brought the quote in about 2,500.00 but Swiss prices are yes, double (for the low bid and in CHF). 

We're Painting!

Last week we got our new house keys and this week we're painting! I'm having fun despite how this story might sound...

When I arrived at the house yesterday, in plain view from the door was a orangey-terra cotta splotch on the wall. I looked, I saw.  Without discipline, out of my mouth moaned a low pitched "Noooooo..." 

My painter said yeah, it looks a bit different than what we chose, but the code matches."

I was there to approve the colours (we are not Swiss so the standard whites won't do).  I got some flack from one of the painters: "Where are you from? Are you painting a hacienda? You are not from Switzerland are you? Ohhhhhhh... Canada! That explains it!" ("Really? It does?" I thought.) But seriously, how wild is off-white, beige accents, a brown accent in our family room and a blue accent in my sons' room I ask?  As wild as 50 different shades of white I suppose. Although I also like the clean white look, I'm going for something warmer in my home and these were unnecessary observations on the painters' part. My only reply was a double edged, passive agressive "I guess there is no accounting for personal taste is there?" 

But now the "hacienda" comment made sense.  

These painters are brave! They still had the gawl to ask if I want to use it!  Apparently I was labeled as a foreigner with whacked-out taste, so maybe I'd just go with it??

Turns out the numbers were switched when ordering and it's all sorted out now. 

Back to my ludacris off-white. 

Craning to watch the crane

I'm watching the guys erect yet another crane at the Erlenmatt development site. These guys are like the New York City skyscraper iron workers. They climb all over the place like gravity isn't something that affects them with a misstep or that there would ever even be a misstep.  I can't explain this as eloquently as Ayn Rand does in the Fountainhead - but you get the idea. ... They're CRAZY!

They use a mobile crane for a day (or two days if it's windy and slowing work down as in this case). They setup the concrete base then begin erecting the metal structure of the crane piece by piece. 2 guys on the crane assemble it while one guy operates the crane. There must be a few more guys on the ground but I can't see them.  They have 2 little platforms that get moved up level-by-level so the assemblers have a surface to stand on while tightening the connecting pieces together. From what I see the platforms must simply hook over the edge of the structure because it's detached, reattached and being walked on so quickly - maybe 2 minutes including the slowest part: positioning the chain to hoist the thing.

Anyway, it's fascinating and I could watch all day! Oooh! Now it's time for the control centre!! 

Gotta run to see it!!

Some History

They are demolishing the old exhibition aka rave or homeless haven which was originally the German railway station at the Swiss-German border. For some time now (1906?) the border and the site of the railway station were moved.  Now the German railway station know as Badischer Bahnhof is located in Switzerland about 1/2 a kilometer from the original place.  When it moved, the main building of the old train station was transformed into the Swiss International School (SIS) the back of which you see in the photo below and the rest became part of the Exhibition (which now, has also moved about a kilometer away).  In fact, our home is on old train land!  Ironic considering my home in Toronto was on old CN land! :)

I've heard they will replace the old train station with a seniors home.... I know there is a considerable aging demographic but the land area seems too big for that much specific housing. I digress...

So now that the old train station walls are exposed (the now, exterior most wall of the SIS), I saw this - humm hard to see in the photo but it's above the pink graffiti: "Schweizerzoll".  Swiss Customs! 

It must have been there forever (ca.110 years?!)!!

"Schweizerzoll"

Construction or Wedding?

Site offices and wedding tents will never be the same for me again!

I really don't know what they are thinking on this construction site. First there was the giagantic wooden stair, 2 flights high that led to absolutely no where and now this... a site office??

I wonder if they serve cocktails with nibbles...

A wedding tent? Really?