Stand still

The attic work has hit a stand still since Rickard (and I) is back at work. We took time off on Monday night to have a fika in town then another break yesterday for dinner and a movie.

Both girls are at their grandparents’ so we have a whole week to ourselves.

Tonight I need to go to the shops and start on Isabel’s back-to-school tunic that I promised her I’d have finished. I would like to get a dress made for Sofia but she declared that she was going to wear her white Pinwheel dress and tunic for her first day of school so I may be off the hook.

Maybe just something new for picture day … Although – she does have a new School Photo dress that I haven’t let her wear.

I have taken the week off next week to pick them up early from school and to patch and sand the attic walls with my father.

We also need to put up the drywall in the ceiling but I think Rickard plans to do that with his dad this weekend.

I plan to take a trip down south with the girls on Saturday to visit Kåseberga and Kivik. We currently have a visitor that I want to take with me.

We have a hit a wall – in a good way

Yesterday the dividing wall between the girls’ rooms went up. Rickard and his dad began the morning with going to the hardware store and get insulation for the wall.

After a break for coffee they went up and started on the final construction. They quit working by 2 pm and by then the wall was done.

I won’t be able to get good pictures now. The dividing wall makes it hard to get a good angle.

The nicest part now is that we aren’t particularly dependent on any hired workmen. The plumber will need to come back here to connect the radiators, but if he should be a day or two later than we had hoped it’s not a big deal. Same with the electrician.

This week the girls are off at Camp Grandmapa and we are a bit undecided on how to proceed. We could patch and sand the walls (a huge job), or we could try and put up the ceiling drywall together in the evenings since we are now both back at work.

Or we could just take a break for the week. Go see a movie, fika och go out to dinner. We haven’t decided.

Next week the girls start school and I have a week off. The plan is that my dad and I will do the patching and sanding then. But it would have been nice to have the ceiling done .. we’ll see.

#attic2013 – update

Well, once the drywall sheets were inside on Tuesday, Rickard and FIL started putting them up on the walls.

Both slanted walls were done on Tuesday night and when I arrived home last night (Wednesday) both bedroom nooks were finished

Sofia’s lower wall is put up as well, and her room is pretty much done.

Isabel’s room will take a little longer because we can’t really get any further until the Plumber Guy has been there to connect the pipes for the radiators.

They will run inside the wall all along her wall and around to the gable where the radiators will be mounted underneath each window.

The dividing wall can’t go up until the pipes are in so we’re waiting to hear back from the Plumber Guy. We were hoping he would show today but we don’t know.

There is plenty of other stuff to do though. The hatches can be put in on Sofia’s side and the stair well needs insulation and drywall.

I’m super impressed with how quickly they have come to this point. While I know there is far to go and we are only about half way it almost feels like we’re pretty much done.

Drywall delivery

This morning we had a delivery of drywall sheets. Like I said before our stairs are too narrow to take the sheets up that way so we hired a truck to lift them up to the attic windows.

I know Rickard’s been pretty nervous about it. We both have. But all went well. The rain we thought would come veered north and the sheets came inside dry and ready to be used.

Here’s another view from upstairs. The truck parked on our neighbours’ driveway and the 25 m long arm stretched across their yard and up to our windows.

Lots of things that could go wrong with that scenario but it all went off without a hitch.

Attic project

Like I said in my last post our attic project started up the day after Isabel's birthday. Rickard and his dad teamed up and put up some wind-proofing cloth before moving on to insulation (220 mm of it).



Once all the walls were insulated they put in a hatch to the new fourth floor (or is it the third floor?) and then nailed down the floor to the new attic (or attic-attic as we have started calling it).



A few days later the entire space was encapsulated in plastic film and then the studs to hold the drywall/plasterboard/gypsum were put up.



Yesterday they started putting up the interior walls so we could get a feel for if the outline of the rooms we had done would work. Which it did. The girls are very excited for the space to be habitable. Which will be a few more months though I'm afraid.

Today Rickard and his Father is ordering the drywall for a Tuesday/Wednesday delivery, the electrician is coming to have a look at the diagrams we've made to make sure it's done correctly. And then I think they'll start laying down the cables for the electricity.

I have conveniently (?) gone back to work so I am not there to see it all happen. I get to see it all when I get home at night. I have two more weeks to work before school starts for the girls. Then I have taken a week off - I think I will be patching the walls and sanding them that week. At least I hope I can do that.

With the speed they've set it may already be done by then.

Pictures from the build goes up in this public Flickr-set.
And if you are on Instagram you can search for #attic2013 - most of the pictures should be mine.

Summer vacation

We were away over the weekend last week to celebrate Rickard's sister and her husband's 40th birthdays. His was in June and hers is in September so they invited us and 23 other friends and family for a party at their summer place in the Bohuslän archipelago.



It was a great party and totally worth the ten hours travel to get there and back again.



Since we were on an island we were served shellfish for dinner. These are langoustine, crabs and shrimp, served with home made aïoli and cheese pies. So good.

We were invited to spend the Sunday there too and drive home on Monday but Rickard's brother and his fiancée, L, had work on Monday (we drove up together) and it was Isabel's birthday (and our wedding anniversary) so we drove home again on Sunday afternoon. It took 5 hours with a nice stop half way home for a bit of supper at L's parents' house.

The Monday was Isabel's 9th birthday and we celebrated with the family with a pizza party (no time to make more elaborate preparations) and home made cupcakes.



Lime-vanilla cupcakes with a lime cream cheese frosting and raspberries and blueberries.



Chocolate cupcakes with piped meringue, dipped in chocolate.



Tuesday that week saw the start of our rest-of-the-year project. We are putting in insulation in the attic and making it into two rooms for the girls.



This was the starting point (after we had cleared out most of the junk we had stored up there because we could). I'll probably cover the build over the coming months.

Doing stuff

(Pictures taken today - not necessarily presented in context)

Well we've been home for a week now and while I do miss Crete it's nice to be back.

I've been on my own with the girls this week. Rickard is back at work and will be this coming week too. I have a few ideas for stuff to do, but not a whole lot.



Tomorrow we need to arrange a gift certificate for my SIL and BIL who has invited us to celebrate their 40th birthdays on Saturday at their cabin/compound in the Bohuslän archipelago. We've been there twice before and it is an amazing place. I'm kind of looking forward to it. It will be a big thing I suppose and I don't usually do well at big social occasions. I always feel out of place and uncomfortable.

But I suppose it will be alright. They are putting us up in one of the cabins on the grounds so we don't have to stay at the island hostel. Which is nice.

We'll drive up on Saturday morning with Rickard's brother and his fiancée. They're serving lunch at 1 pm and then the party starts in the afternoon/evening. We have to drive home soon after lunch on Sunday because Monday is Isabel's birthday and we want to be home with her then.
The girls are staying with my parents so we have to be home in time to pick them up not too long after bedtime.

So this week we have to arrange for the BIL/SIL gift, gifts for Isabel, prepare for the party we're having on Monday for Isabel and I will make her cake on Monday morning.
It's supposed to be a nice week, weather-wise so I hope we can manage a visit to the beach as well.



We were in the Western Harbour today which is always fun. It's a brand new neighbourhood that is still growing so there are always new buildings to look at and new coffee places to visit.
The flats there are horribly expensive and the weather is only nice 2-3 months a year, bearable another 1-2 months and the rest of the time it's windy, cold and rainy so I'm not sure the location would be worth it. But I also wouldn't mind finding out. It's a lovely place on days like today.



I mean just look at that view!