Friday night and it was snowing gently as I left Zürich. The snow got heavier and heavier and the traffic got slower and slower (I am not complaining, I am one of those people who slow down when they can not see anything on a motorway!) At one stage hundreds of us travellers were stuck behind 2 snow ploughs churning down the motorway. Once into Evian the snow stopped and I drove up through Thonon and up the valley towards Morzine, only to be deviated at the roundabout at the bottom of the valley. Off I went towards Chatel, which is in the valley next to Morzine and the only connection I knew about is the Col du Corbier. This pass is not recommended in the snow. This I knew and I was a little apprehensive about crossing this pass tonight after all the snow we had had. Coming up the pass, three snow ploughs passed me coming down. OK so the road should not be too bad and it was not a problem until I started to go down the other side. I had expected that going up would be a problem and never thought that actually going down is much more tricky, especially when the snow ploughs seemed to have forgotten the route down into Morzine and only ploughing the route up!
Well the road down was about 100 mm of snow and ice. This made driving/sliding down the pass very interesting!
Well I arrived and unpacked and after digging out the electricity box from a meter of new snow, I went to see if the water was still running or if it was frozen up. The water was still liquid and judging from the huge puddle on the floor it was still dripping out of the drain tap! OK no big disaster just a bit of a puddle.
So with the heaters on and the water turned back on I went to bed.
Next morning after a quick shop for food and the trip to confirm that Viorons is closed now on Saturdays (that will make things interesting) I returned and began work on the hot water. The big red tool from Switzerland was the closest I could get to a Stilson but it proved effective and I had the the leaking joint open when I eventually figured out the best placement for the jaws. Lots of PVC tape and re tighten the joint, fix all the other pipes and joints making sure they are all the right way round and that the have washers etc. and then fill the tank and pray the joints dont leak any more. The joints held! Wow. Right, power. Cable and gaine and boxes wire it all into the distribution box, flick the switch and yes the small light comes on on the bottom of the water heater. Right I now have to wait a few hours for the thing to heat up then we shall see!
In the mean time I need to plumb up the hot water feed to the tap upstairs so get all the plumbing stuff and solder joints for a while until I can finally turn the taps and wow! water comes out the tap! Not Hot water yet but I suppose I need to give it a while.
OK next job is to measure up the kitchen so I can design and order it from Ikea. I measure the kitchen and measure the mezzanine as well just in case I need to design something later. I measured the doors to the downstairs bedrooms to ensure I know how they are going to work too.
Still no hot water.
I wire up the bedroom heater, fixing the gaine into the chiselled out grooves I made last time. Wire up the switch and the extension that will power the heater in the next room. I haven't connected the power in the distribution box yet.
Still no hot water.
I tear out the insulation in one of my studding walls and add another feed from the light switch to what will be the overhead lights for the bedroom.
Is that water "not cold" or is it my imagination?
I have bought a camping gas stove, 2 rings and a grill. This I fire up (literally) and have a hot meal.
I HAVE HOT WATER, great I can do the washing up!
CIVILISATION has arrived! I read somewhere or heard somewhere that Ice is civilization, well who ever said that had never been to Morzine in the winter. There is plenty of ice. Well I think hot water is a positive mark of civilization and now my Chalet has it. HOORAY!
Sunday I spent basically cleaning up. Upstairs the salon was a mess wire, tools, insulation, wood, dust, crap everywhere. So I cleaned all this up and sorted it out even hoovering! Did a quick tidy up elsewhere and started the "turn the house off" list. Drain the water tank, all that lovely hot water has got to go, set al the drains open turn off the main water feed and this time close the little drain cap which made a big mess before. After that just pack up and turn off all the power and away I go.
Got back around 3:30 after a boring trip only noting that there was a large amount of trees and snow all up the road that had previously been blocked. Presumably some avalanche or maybe a tree collapsed across the road.
IKEA have to look at my design and will quote me for it and then can have it delivered in about 2 to 3 weeks. It will be delivered to Zürich and I will have to transport it down to Morzine but that should be Ok.