Whizz, bang... paint!

 Now that the main structure has gone up, we're onto all the other stuff! Hence, electrician, plumber and painters (well, stainers, to be more precise - notice the familiar face!) are all getting stuck in.

Lisa kicked off the exterior painting work and showed everyone how it should be done by promptly shinning up to the highest point on the chalet, brush in hand. I think even the Lithuanians are impressed!

Lisa, lending her varnishing arm to the cause!

No fear of heights! And yes, she IS clipped in, Dad..!

There's now masses to do inside the chalet and Paul, the electrician, has several hundred metres of cable to run before the walls start being closed up with paneling. No pressure (!) but the carpentry boys are all chomping at the bit... :)

Lights, plugs, switches, cable, etc...

 More tomorrow... Nite nite.

Topping it off!

Yesterday, we finished the rafters and, in keeping with tradition when it comes to building a wood house, had a small, topping off ceremony, complete with small representation of an evergreen tree being placed on top of the highest beam in the new chalet.

Five days, That's how long it has taken for the construction team to put this house together. Which is simply astonishing. We are obviously delighted at the progress being made but it has posed it's own set of challenges... that of trying to bring all the other contractors forward to accommodate the ten days or so that we are now ahead in the timeline! Nevertheless, I guess this is a good problem to have, relatively speaking... :)

Lowering the biggest, main ridge beam into place

Dariu gives it welly..!

So that's it in terms of the BIG wood, including the rafters. Everything is in place and, from now on, the guys will be turning their attention to the roof; the insulation and the interior panelling. We are SO impressed with the efficiency and speed with which the guys are building this chalet - they could certainly teach the French a thing or two..!

All done..!

Wilmantus, Thomas, Egi and Darius - our main construction team. Absent is Raimondas, the Team Foreman and Project Manager

The spider-web of rafters on the top floor!

The Master Bedroom

This is probably an ideal time to offer a few, specific, thank-you's: To Al and Bee Street, who allowed us to copy them shamelesslessly (!) in giving us the contact for Dreamhouse and who have subsequently been such a great help for advice and suggestions; to the Dreamhouse Team themselves - notably Mindaugus and Aurimas, who have stayed with us in the three years it has taken to get this far. And who have been BRILLIANT in every dealing we have had with them. And to our respective Dads, who have been 100% supportive in every way in helping us realise our... er, dream house. :) We certainly couldn't have done it without you.

Lisa, Jason and Colin (J's Dad, also known as 'Shutter Man'! Explanation: painted every single shutter in the existing chalet while he was here. And boy, did they need it!!!)

Photo's from today

The beefiest floor beams I've ever seen..!

Another Day, Another Truck...

I don't know whether we have a little angel sitting on the shoulder of this project but even the weather seems to be helping us out..! It rained Sunday but come Monday and it was all systems go again. The second truck arrived with more wood; Rockwool insulation; boards for between the lower and upper floors and various other bits 'n peices.

 With the benefit of experience (!), the whole process went a lot smoother this time round and we had all of the packages off-loaded and in place by lunchtime. It is definitely a relief to know that, except for one more truck which will arrive at the end of the month with the doors, windows and our staircase, we have everything on site now to get cracking with the build.

And what is astonishing is how quickly the chalet is going up. By the end of yesterday, all of the floor beams for the upper floor were in place. I know I've said it already but this wood is HUGE - it's gorgeous and so beautiful to look at.

Note to self: Find another angle to photograph from... I'm running out of height!

Crane manoevuring floor beam into place

Floor beams all done! In one afternoon. :)

The chalet finally arrives..!

Okay, so without wanting to be accused of falling at the first hurdle... I know that it's ages since my first post but I'm trying to put it down to the fact that I've been super-busy! And not just so lazy that I'd rather sit on the counch watching TV at the end of a long day rather than update my blog. I'm going for the "It's all about quality" tactic. :)

LOADS has happened since you were last here. The tiling in the basement is now finished (verrry nice but not much to look at... they're tiles, afterall); the Lithuanian team are here (they arrived last Wednesday night, only 24 hours earlier than expected!) and the first floor has already been completed, logs-wise.

The biggest challenge of the project so far has been the arrival of the first truck (of which there will eventually be three) and in trying to get the stuff off the darned thing and up to the chalet!

Oh, wait, I'm getting ahead of myself. We had to get the crane in place first! Not easy when you have to manoevure the thing down the side of our existing chalet, with only 4 metres to work with - it's long! And heavy! But thanks to Thierry Puissant's excellent skills, we got it sorted.

Yes, they're tiles!

Using a tractor to push the crane into place

Longgggg....

The truck itself was about 16m long, which meant that there was NO way it was getting up our narrow mountain roads to the chalet location. Hence, we had to offload the 15 or so pallettes individually onto a smaller truck fitted with a crane. Then, making sure we didn't take out Les Houches' entire telephone network cable system in the process, it was up the hill to... well, we still haven't decided on a name for the new chalet yet so submit your suggestions here, please!

Chalet Roberts... so far!

This pallette was about 11m in length.

4 hours and 100 Euros later (paid to the shop owner who was none-too-chuffed about having a truck dent his lawn unexpectedly!) we finally (!) got everything off-loaded. At which point the team of builders (Raymond, Thomas, Darius, Egi and Vil..helm..ni..us (I think! - only two of them speak any broken English)) attacked the packages and within a matter of hours had the first logs out and were laying them down on the concrete slab. All the while, I was getting a crash course in how to operate a crane - hoping desperately that i wouldn't end up swinging a log beam through a window or knocking off a chimney of our existing chalet in the process.

All those hours of playing computer games finally coming in handy!

Sooo... swing left when mean right, um, no wait.... darn!

Meccano; giant-sized Lego... these similarities spring to mind. The log profile of the chalet we're building is 18cms x 24cmx so they're beefy. And heavy too - it took six of us to carry the longest one down into place.

Then, as is tradition, prior to the first log being fixed in place, Lisa and I (as the owners) had to lay a coin under the one of the corners of the new chalet to ensure good luck would stay with us in our new home..!

There...

...you...

..go!

Ceremonies over with, it was onto the serious business of lifting; lowering; measuring; banging; hammering; the very occasional bit of sawing and overall supremely efficient placement of the first layers of logs.

A goes into B as C joins up to D...

The base framework all in place

8 hours later...

 By the end of the first day, the team had put in all of the logs up to the top of the first floor, which was simply amazing and due, in no small part, to the speed at which they worked (I'd like to say that the crane operator was also responsible but that would be too cheeky!).

Photo-stitching software not so hot but you get the idea..!

And that's where we at right now. Sunday today so it's a (well-earned!) rest day and then it all carries on again tomorrow, when the second truck will arrive. It's is sooo exciting to see this chalet going up and it looks really impressive too. Can't wait for the day when it'll be finished!