end of year

For the end of the year one of the last thing to do was to cover the window holes in the walls and to clean a little the yard. Because I was more than tired of all this run after builders and materials I couldn't clean too much, just to organize a little all the stuffs. I mean to put the wood in one place, the iron in its place and so. I had lots of materials spreaded in the entire yard, but the building site was close by now.
Before I begun to raise the building I had much more things in my plan to do in 2006, but it wasn't so at the end. Anyway I was satisfied that I had a roof finally.
What was different than I thought at the beginning ? Well, let's make a list:
- the garbage; I haven't calculated the price for getting rid of it. Also how much sweat and work I will put in this.
-materials depositing; the yard wasn't big enough for sand, wood, iron and garbage. For a while I had to let some of them on the street and I was almost penalized by authorities for that. Not mention the desperate run to get it in the yard.
-the builders; I had to change the teams very fast. That was very frustrating. I couldn't trust any of them. I wasn't sure if they are well intentioned or not.

other things I will say it when I remember.

the roof

The roof part is one of my favorites. The neighbour that helped me with the concrete belt was charging me too much for the roof and I looked for other team. Luckily, a woman from the neighbourhood directed me to an old man, but very qualified who built her roof.
In the late summer I talked with him, but was already involved in a job, so I looked for other team. In the begining of october I asked him again and this time was "open" to my roof.
He was 71 years old and he was making team with his son. They've charged me just with half of my neighbour's offer. I didn't expect to make big job, because the old man looked quite incapable to carry heavy stuff. Surprisingly, they were moving faster than expected, and after 3 days they've already finished half of the roof.
I remember that in a friday at the sunset they were on the roof and I was collecting wood pieces from the yard and the wood smell was so strong and beatiful... As the sun was getting closer to the horizon, its beams were falling on the roof... I think it was the first moment when I liked this stuff, of building a house.
Anyway, in about 10 days they've finished the roof. I could finally sleep well. The thing with the roof was very important because the rain was affecting the ground floor. Moreover, if I couldn't do the roof till winter, the snow that would fall on the concrete floor that was over the ground floor, could frozen and crash.

cold

2 weeks ago, me and my wife we've just moved in the house. We've finished only a part of the ground floor, but is enough for a decent living. We can't continue working now because is too cold and the holidays are knocking at the door. I haven't posted lately because I've been sick - I got a strange ear ache that appears when is cold - and just 2 days ago we have the internet connection installed. It was a little bit freaky when we moved. No tv or internet, just old movies from dvds. Anyway now I'm back online although I'm not helthy yet.

the belt - the after - effects

While I was working at the belt, the gloves have broken and the pail that I was carrying have injured my fingers. This damn combination of metal that injured my fingers, the water that softened my hand skin and the cement that was poisening me was enough to make my hands useless for a few days. After I finished that day I poored some alcohol on the wounds, but the bottle was almost empty and i inserted a finger inside. That was a bad idea. I got my finger stucked inside and was really burning.
At the dinner I had somthing with chicken to eat, but I couldn't even keep the chicken in my fingers. Thanks to my wife, which feeded me, I survived to that starvation. Was frustrating to have my hands injured. I couln't open the doors, to eat or to put on my shoes. Obviously I couldn't work for a few days.

the belt

The toughest moment of 2006 was probably the building of the concrete belt between walls and the roof. I had no working team, no time and the money were running out. I've accepted my neighbour's offer - which was quite bad for me. This operation took 4 days. We agreed that the team leader will have the workers and I'll help around. In the first 3 days we've made the encasement and in the forth day we've cast on the concrete. Well, that forth day was special.
At 6:30 AM I was their, ready for fight. I'm very tenacious and I have more than 7 years of hard endurance background athletics. If in the first 3 days I was standing a little bit on the "right" of the road, that day I was in the front line. The team leader didn't bring workers except a 16 years old boy and an old man of about 60 years old. He said that he thought that I would bring a man or two.
Ok...
First thing to do was to climb on the first floor with the 120L concrete mixer.Next was to get the sand over the ground floor.Lots of pails,shovels and barrels. That was hard. We've filled the barrels with water and organized the team. The kid had to go to school at about 12 AM so the old man was mixing the concrete, I was carrying the pail with concrete and the team leader was filling the encasament with the concrete from pails that I've carried. I was very very hard.
All day was cloudy and from time to time was even raining and the clothes got fatter and heavier. A few times I've dropped concrete on my clothes and was even worse.
At a moment the encasement of a pillar had collapsed and the concrete had spread on the yard. I throwed a shovel to get the spreded concrete and unfortunelly it broked.
This operation took about 9 hours and we didn't get a brake at all, except me. At a moment I made coffee for each of us.
With all this for me was a succes.

the cowboy buider II

So, this "cowboy builder" I've fired just finised the consolidation of the ground floor and the walls of the first floor. Initially we agreed to do the works till roof (including the roof too). It was the middle of september and I couldn't find another team to continue the job. I was in the middle of a crisis because the ground floor was in open sky and the rains were infiltrating through the ceiling. The next step in raising the first floor was to make the floor belt. I've finally accepted an offer of one of my neighbours. I knew him, but he always was too expensive.

the cowboy builder

As in this video, I've made all the mistakes with my second team.Well, almost. First, the team leader said it took less than 6 weeks. Although, I knew that is not posible, I was satisfied with the price. I didn't have a contract and I paid them in advance which made them not to hurry. I wasn't satisfied neither with what they were doing. I finally fired them. I felt very bad because they've cheated me and I woke with less money for the rest of works left and suddenly in search for a builder.

first team - water supply

To start raising the building I needed water, of course. So the firm choosed to do that was authorized to do stuff like this. Was leaded by a former employee of the city's water supplier and in my neighbourhood who would dare not to do this work with them probably would have a lot of trouble with the reception. Anyway, I was satisfied about their job. They finished their work in less than was anticipated and the price was fair. The only bad thing was that the tap was rusty and everytime I use it the water came brown with iron in it. Actually there is one more bad thing - we agreed to get a gas pipe from the street to the yard, but the law changed and they were not authorized to do that anymore.
A funny story about the 2 man team I remember is that at that time I was carrying the old house (the house of my grandparents which I've demolished) in a pail. They said: "In this way you will get that ruin in the street in two months" . After 2 hours I got a second pail in the other hand and I've told them laughing: "Now I will take the ruin in the street in one month". The old house I've carried in the street - where I collected the garbage in about 3 weeks.

finding a builder

today while I was surfing the internet I found a very useful resource for 'do it yourself' jobs at home and I was wondering how well I managed so far. I've added an embed video to see.



So, in short:
in 2006:
-first thing was to get the utilities like water,sewerage and so;
-then I choosed the builder of the house - the walls and roof only;
-then I searched another builders for the roof;
-between all I got the cleaning job :)

in 2007:
-I've finished legal papers;
-finished roof stuffs;
-brought utilities inside home- like heat, water, electric current;
-finishing the ground floor and moving in.


For each of this I will have a story (even more).

new dog in town

Well, what is a house if there is no dog to watch it ? And here it is - the nightmare of the cats : STALKER. Is our new dog. I don't know what kind of strain is, but it looks scary, doesn't it ? That means that I have to make a little house for Stalker too today and we are under time pressure because of the weather.

short history

The ground floor which is built in the 60’s has 1 bathroom, 1 bedroom and a kitchen/living room. The first floor has 1 bathroom and 2 bedrooms. Also there will be an attic. Last summer we finished to put the roof on and nothing else because we were out of money.
This year we finally succeeded to have all the installation (electrical, water and the rest) “planted”.
Until this point our job was to get all the papers needed for construction, get the materials and the workers.
From now on we make the ground floor finishing (one room is almost done).
I’m glad that I took a lot of pictures. Is very satisfying to see what you’ve done. At the beginning I was happy only to see a few bricks together and now I’m having argues with my wife about the paint color. I’ll get back with photos ;P

In this image you can meet my wife -on the left, my sister - in the center and my brother-in-law - on the right. This is a part of my "team"

the beginning...

Today is the first day of the rest of my life. No, no, no - is the beginning of ....huh... this blog about how me and my wife builded our house.



We've started to build our house on the top of the old one in may 2006.


The old house is builded in the sixties, made of bricks (walls are 2 bricks wide).