The roof tiles arrived!

I (dad) didn't notice them at first but then Lisette saw loads of them in our front garden. The rash container is now gone and the bricks are almost all used. Today we also saw that they made lots of progress with the roof beams. Who knows, maybe next week we'll have a complete roof again. Let's hope so, we're getting enough of the mess and dust everywhere.

A hole in the roof, or a roof in the hole..

A picture of the carnaval parade in De Lier

The builders are putting up more and more wooden beams and at the same time more roofing is disapearing..

Rude seal

I found a funny movie of a rude seal in the zoo. They should teach them some manners, I thought they could teach them seals tricks well, this is a trick alright.

Fiddler on the roof

Yeh, fiddling on the roof, to put the wifi antenna on a different spot. Tomorrow (monday) the builders will start to open up the roof to connect the new building with the old and therefor I had to remove the antenna on which our neighbour Monique receives her internet connection. I had to replace it and drilled it onto the chimney. Precariously balancing on an ladder... luckily the builders had made a platform around the house up to the roof so I could only fall 1,5 meters or so. Yesterday we went to see granddad in De Lier for the kitchen and now we finally ordered the kitchen! Another milestone reached. What is left now are tiles for the bathroom and kitchen. We already saw a couple of examples and we have a pretty good idea what we should choose. White (no glos) tiles rectangular shaped for the wall covering and dark grey square tiles on the floor. The shower will have a mixture of white tiles and dark grey rectangular tiles. It will be grand!!

This morning (sunday) dad went with Nils and Wende to the swimming pool, Mom is still having this cold so she stayed at home. Nils and Wende were almost undressed until dad found out he forgot his swimming trousers... Back home again to pick them up and then we finally could go swimming. We had a lot fun and they kept dad busy looking after them because one went this way and the other went... the other way ofcourse.

On top of the world...Second floor that is..

Today the electricity company came to renew a piece of the electric cabel because we wanted 3 phases instead of 1 to power all the new appliances in out new to be kitchen. The old cable did not want to give up so easily, the cable was stuck and they had to pul it out with a rope and a small excavator. Even after the cable was gone, problems still surprised us as the new cable did not fit the hole... Dad went to get a huge drill (rented for 5 euro) of a meter long and drilled out the hole in the basement. After that it was a piece of cake, connect the wires, put back all the clay in the pit and connect a 380 3 phase female socket for the builders. So now they won't have to start up the huge generator anymore to operate the crain. The floor beams of the attick are now in place and it will be soon that they will start to open the roof... Let's hope the weather cooprates..

More progress

The beams of the first floor are now positioned and part of the outer wall on the neigbours side is taking shape. We discovered a lining in the other outside wall. Dad at first was afraid someone was being artistic but Lisette knew about this, it was in the drawing from the beginning and dad just did not notice it. Also some video's from the zoo.

Neighbours and the Zoo

Last Friday a lot of work was done and almost all inner walls on the first floor are now in place. Saturday Lisette's mom and dad came over to discuss the new kitchen as Lisette's dad is a kitchen sales person. You think a kitchen is not a big deal but then there are the smaller details... Luckily we're in good hands and it will be a fabulous kitchen. With a dish washer!

Our neighbour Monique sent us some pictures of our house, a sort of "neighbours view". Thanks Monique! Also Cor and Sandra sent us pictures of their tour through our (unfinished) house.

Thanks for pictures where I am in the middel of it...

Sunday we wanted to go swimming but Nils was still having earpain so instead we went to the zoo in Rotterdam. It was cold but dry and not too crowded. We saw ice bears, birds, turtles, cocodiles (wende didn't like that bit) and young girafs. Lions, fish in all sorts and colours. Too uch to mention and Both Nils and Wende were exhausted and fell asleep in the car on the way home again in the afternoon.

Even more progress

Today the weather was not too bad and the builders made good progress. The bathroom walls are placedand the bedroom walls are also standing. We now can see how big a bedroom and bathroom we get! The "old" is still in service and it looks like it can still stay there for a while. (incl. toilet)

Windows, first floor, a wall again in our bathroom

Yesterday we discovered that our bathroom lacked a significant part of the wall. It's all part of the process. Today we have a wall again and the windows in the extra bedroom and bathroom are now also in place. I (dad) measured the height just to be sure since the window in the bathroom should be high enough fort the bath to fit underneath. We still have about 5 cm, about 2 inches so that should not be any problem. We are now sitting on the sofa watching other peoples misery on television in programs about people who are rebuilding their house.. Just to see that it could all be much worse.. Ah well, here a video clip of today's progress and a couple of pictures.

A new week, no ice, progress!!

Last weekend we went to Hulst to see grandma and grandpa. Maaike, Jaap and the kids were there too and we had a great dinner together. The kids played and had a lot of fun. Sunday morning they went with Marja, a friend of the family to walk the dogs. Wende was still not feeling well and today Lisette took her to the doctor. She turned out to have a ear infection, which, as you might can imagine, can be quite painfull. Poor Wende. Let's hope the medicine helps. Regarding the house... well, the builders are continuing their work and more bricks are layed at the first floor. The window in the bathroom is now replaced with a wooden board that doesn't fit.. Tomorrow more outer wall's are to be done. Let's hope the weather stayes favourable.

Another day closer to the end result

Again, something happened today, The builders took out a piece of the wall of Nils's room and placed the last iron beam in place. To make up for the lost wall, they placed wooden boards in his room. Little by little our quality of living in our house is decreasing but still the builders are doing their best to make our life as good as possible.

Pffff snow, feezing cold... It just seem to be a nasty winter

Because of the low temperatures, the builders could not do any brick work and that means again a time delay. The last few days the builders appeared in the afternoon to do a littlebit of work.. Today, they've hoisted the last iron beam up on the wooden frame of the first floor (to be) and maybe tomorrow they will probably put it in place. That means that they will cut out a piece of the wall of nils's bedroom and that Nils will have to sleep in Wende's room. We seem to have bad luck because it is the worst january in 15 years.. bugger