The Big Van

So, this weekend the plan was to hire a van and load it up with the kitchen worktops that do not fit in the car and take them down to the chalet. Hiring a van for a couple of pieces of wood seemed a bit extravagant so we decided to fill the rest of the van with a load of other stuff. We bought a couple of mattresses and beds and dug out stuff thats been sitting in the cellar since we moved to our latest apartment. All this was loaded in the van including 6 doors purchased from Bahaus. A good friend of mine, Steve, had agreed to come down with me to help with some lifting and also I think out of curiosity about this building I keep ranting on about and no one has ever seen.

Well we left about 5 ish on Friday and arrived about 9 something just as it was getting dark so after a brief tour of the building we had dinner and went to bed.

Saturday was shopping day but first we had to unload the van. Doors, beds, mattresses and other furniture was all unloaded and parked about the chalet in various rooms. We drove down to Thonon in order to get the fitting for the second bathroom, namely a sink a toilet and a shower. After some faffing about in the shop and after two shop assistants were surprisingly helpful we left with a toilet and a shower.

Then it was off to Gedimat to get a huge amount of tiles. i wanted to get all the bathroom tiles, the bathroom floor tiles and the hall and stairway tiles also. this was about a 1000 Euros in tiles with all the adhesive and grout I would need. All this was loaded into the van and we drove home.


All this was unloaded and, God those tiles are heavy!


After a cup of tea to recover we set about making the rest of the units for the kitchen and sizing up where and how the worktops would go. Eventually, after much thought and with some trepidation I made the first cut in order to fit the back worktop that contains the hot plates. It seemed to fit and in our enthusiasm we proceeded to try and cut the hole for the hot plate. Measure carefully, weigh up the alternatives and then commit yourself. After cutting two sides out the jig saw finally broke and left us half way through the third side. Critical bits snapping off left the saw unusable. The worktops are hard stuff! I finished the third side with a hand saw but that still left the fourth side. I then attempted a "Plunge" cut with the rip saw. Normally with the rip saw you start from an edge and slowly work your way across the timber to the other side, with a plunge cut it is possible to start in the middle of a piece of wood with the cut. We only needed enough to get the hand saw in then we could finish with that. You don't do many plunge cuts as they tend to be a bit messy and a bit rough and difficult to get exactly where you need and its not recommended to do this to cut out holes in worktops! Any way it all actually went very well the cut was close enough and we finished off with the saw.

Sunday and I wanted to get the three worktops cut to the right size. Again, after some ponderous thought and careful measuring the cuts were made. Steve had meanwhile oiled up the first worktop and with that in place the kitchen actually started to look like a kitchen.




One last job and I changed the swiss plugs on the microwave and fridge to French plugs.

We left about 1:30 and got back to Zürich about 5:30.

I think the weekend was a success, we got a lot of stuff delivered to the chalet and even though the jig saw gave up we did cut one hole out. Only the hole for the sink remains. we have the fittings for the second bathroom (except the sink, I cant seem to find a decent sink in France! must have them somewhere!) Loads to get on with next time.

Next time I need to prepare for the family coming down in August. So the dinning room will need to be cleared of all the rubbish from the kitchen, the chop saw room will have to become a bedroom and it would be really great if I could get the stud wall up and the shower working for when they are there.