Last week started with the arrival of the people who install waterproofing. They worked to cover our garages and foyer.
Tar paint covering the foyer, and the guys are rolling out a water-proofing material over the paint.
Covering the tar paint with waterproofing material on top of Joern's garage.
The waterproofing covered with a special covering in preparation for greening.
Finishing up Joern's garage.
The foyer covered in tar paint.
Installation being installed above the foyer
insulation on the foyer.
There was also a lot of work done on the balcony. First, the plumbers came to install a gutter system on the balcony:
The waterproofing was especially necessary. We could easily have encountered problems in the dining room and kitchen with water. We were already starting to have some leakage in the foyer, underneath where my garage meets the foyer, and Joern's garage was leaking a bit, on the wall that his garage shares with the house. We asked quite a few times, and were assured that this was normal, as the leakage was occuring at the juncture of two strucutures (garage and house,) and that this problem would clear up with the waterproofing. The waterproofing has since been put to the test with quite a bit of rain, and so far, we're okay!
The plaster guys also worked very hard last week and into this week prepping our ceilings and walls for paint. The plaster guys applied a flat grounding for the paint onthe walls in the first and second floors, and a slightly bumpy ground for the cellar walls. They also spackled, sanded, spackled, and sanded the ceilings to ensure a smooth surface. Then, beginning on Monday of this past week, the plaster guys started finalizing the ceilings. First, they applied primer, then glue, in small sections, to the ceiling:
Then, they applied the paper covering, which is a mixture of cellulose and textile fibers, which mixes to make a strong and flame-resistant covering. We chose this cover for our ceilings because they are concrete, and no matter how much you try, it is hard to sand out every imperfection in the concrete. Since we have so many windows, and so much light pouring in, we were a little conerned that it would draw attention to any imperfections in the ceiling. The paper covering came out quite nicely.
On Tuesday, the plaster guys painted the ceilings:
And while the guys were painting, Joern and I sat with the owner of the plaster company, and chose paint colors. We went with an off-white in the cellar, light gray-beige in the main areas of the first floor and second floors, a steel gray in the powder room, a turquoise-infused blue in the kid's bath, a lovely blue for Erbse's room, and a hot-chocolate-like color for the master suite.
On Thursday, the plaster guys worked to cover over all joints with an acrylic paint. But, the coolest surprise was what we found in the house when we arrived on Thursday night.
In the living room, we found:
So then, we ran upstairs to find this in the master bedroom:
And this in the kid's bath:
And the paint that brought happiness tears to my eyes:
Yup, we got our Erbse's little boy blue paint!
We also checked out the house, to take final pre-paint pictures, including the mostly completed tiles.
The primed walls in the master bedroom:
The cutouts in the wall in the master bedroom to access the pipes and wires in the wall:
Here, you can see the texture on the cellar walls:
And here is a view of our little storage room in the cellar:
Here is a view of the completed tile in the master bath:
The master shower:
A closeup of the trim in the master shower:
And, one fixed wall in the powder room:
Well, there you have it. Friday deserves its own post. But, this is a good recap of the past two weeks. This is such a great phase, not only because we are so close to the end, but also because we get to see our decisions and choices come together!
