Quick update

 It's been awhile since I posted anything. That's not because nothing was done, but rather because nothing was finished. At the start of February I thought I'd get the bathroom floor done downstairs. The aim was to have a solid floor put in, so I can then move the washing machine from the bathroom upstairs to the bathroom downstairs. I can also install a dryer there - I already planned the electrics to take care of that.

I thought I'd pull out the tiles on the floor (it was only half tiled anyway) and then level everything with self-levelling compound. As usual, nothing went as planned. The floor under the tiles was anything but level and it was pocked and cracked in multiple places. I went for the nuclear option and ripped it out. Like in the workshop, the concrete floor was actually just a thin layer on top of bricks, so it was easy to get rid of.

I dug down into the clay and installed a layer of 8cm Geotherm insulation. You can see in the picture to the left that there is a bit of concrete left over in the corner. I didn't want to kango that out because there are water pipes in it and because it is also the foundation of the walls. The concrete is so hard and so deep that I'd almost definitely shake the walls up too much (gas concrete walls) and end up having to rebuild them too. Instead, I'll put the wash machine over there.

Other than the bathroom, I also had to get moving on the heating. I had to figure out where to pour the concrete foundation for the chimney outside. The plumber had already marked a circle on the wall inside, where the chimney would go out through the wall. With the laser it was easy to transfer the vertical height of the centre of the circle to the outside. By measuring back from the window and then out from the window on the outside, it was easy to get the horizontal position on the wall and thus the exact centre of the circle. With the laser, it was then easy to see where the chimney would end up on the wall.

In the picture on the right it looks like the laser is a bit near the top window. In reality it still is a good 40cm from it. The chimney will have to be 10cm out from the wall. This is because it has to be at least 5cm from combustible material. Where the wall meets the roof overhang there is a beam right at the wall, that runs about 5cm outside the wall. I have to go 5cm out from that, so 10cm out from the wall. This means that the chimney might be just visible to the right of the big window, but only if you look from the very left of the room at the most acute angle possible. I can live with that.