A Bit of Heavy Lifting

I wanted to buy an wood burning stove for the chalet but I knew it was going to be heavy so I arranged with Rob to come down on Friday (yesterday) and get him to help with the heavy lifting.

The trip down on Friday morning was terrible. It was raining hard and the windscreen wipers on the car started playing up just as I got out of Zurich. Sure enough a bit further down the motorway the wipers jammed and I could not see anything. I pulled over on to the hard shoulder and freed them, had a look to see if it was fixable but it would require a spanner to remove the blade. Well there is a services a bit further down the road surely I can fix it there, after all it is a service station, that's what they do. Yes? Well the blades jammed up again before I made the services, I freed it up and carried on. Got to the services to find or rather not find a single piece of mechanical help available. You could buy clothes and garden furniture but a simple spanner No. Right desperate times apply some pressure and oops the wiper just came off in my hands. Oh well that will cost me! Still thank goodness its the passenger side not the drivers or I really would be in trouble!
It rained all the way up to Morzine. Arrived about 14.00 and after a cup of tea Rob and I went back down the mountain to Thonon to get the wood burning stove and a hot water heater. Drama in the DIY store, my credit card was refused and we had to make other arrangements much embarrassment but sorted. Any way the stove and boiler only just fit in the car we had to strip the packing off the water heater to get it to fit.

Still it drove back OK. We left it until Saturday morning to unload As handling heavy stuff in the dark and snow sounded a bit dodgy even for us!

It snowed over night even more and when we came to unload the car we decided the Stove was just too heavy to lift so what about a sledge?

Dropped the crate onto a pieces of blue insulation and dragged and pushed our sledge about 20 meters until it was at the foot of the entrance stairs to the chalet.





We heaved the crate containing the stove up the stairs on runners made from a ladder. Up ended it through the door and in to the chalet. The crate decided it had had enough and disintegrated allowing us to discover that the stove actually came to pieces and we removed about 100kg of iron from inside of it! Moving it into its final position was a lot easier now it was a bit lighter.

It looks like a Dalek!

Cant light it up yet as the chimney needs 150 mm tubing and I only have 125mm so I t will have to wait until next time.




The other heavy piece of kit was the hot water heater and associated plumbing stuff

I was worried the heater would not fit on the wall but it seems OK. There is a load of plumbing that needs attaching to the bottom of it.










All this fun for next time. Well thanks to Rob cos I couldn't have done it on my own.

Heat and doors

Friday rolled round and at about 3:30 I left work and went straight to the DIY shop on the outskirts of Zürich. I had already scoped out the place and knew what I wanted, I knew where it was and I knew how much it was going to be. It still took an hour to get three doors and three door frames off the shelves and into my car. They only just fit, but once again the car was great and has taken all the stuff I cram into it. So I drive home to eat a quick dinner then off towards Morzine at about 6 in the evening. Before I left I found a letter from the bank, just a statement but it showed that the loan was up and running and that money was available. Very reassuring just before I go and spend it! Taking the slightly longer way round in order to avoid the mess we got into last time. Arrive at the chalet just before 10. Wow, Robs chalet has been done over! He has given control of the bookings etc to a management agency called Slow Chalets They have been in and changed all the furniture! That might not sound too bad but some on the decoration is a bit disturbing. The large wall in the front room has been covered in about twenty or so skulls complete with antlers. Apparently Rob had to ask them to remove the moose head and the boars head from the walls! Very strange.
Any way I unloaded the car and got straight to it, plaster boarding, I had to stop at midnight as I had to get up the next morning to go shopping.
Saturday morning, drive down to Thonon, to one of the big DIY shops there and loaded up with heaters and electrics and loads of other stuff, about 900 Euro's worth!
Back to the chalet and unload then on with the job. Install the big heater at the bottom of the stairs.















After a few false starts with the electricity and blowing the trip switch a few times I finally wired the fancy switch the right way round and the heater came to life!

OK then on to the door. Lots of plaster boarding. It takes ages to get that all done and It was Saturday evening by the time the door finally went up.

Looks quite smart from the photo, doesn't quite close properly but it can be adjusted. Right just time to put the heater in the hot room and then bed time.











Sunday morning and into the bedroom the door here was going to be a pain as I had constructed the walls without knowing exactly how or what kind of doors I would be using so as expected the doors I had bought were not going to be simple. I was going to have to make some adjustments.

All in all it went up fairly easily once I had worked out which bits to chop off. The plaster boarding took forever but then the door went in pretty quick after so many trial fittings to make sure it was the right size.

I had to adjust the sides quite a bit to get it to fit but all in all it looks OK.













I should be back at the end of the month with the intention of putting in the hot water boiler and the wood burning stove!