The Dalek Sleeps

Late Friday and I set off from Zürich, I would not be in Morzine until 11:00pm and apart from some strange metal cage things lying all over the road just outside Montreux, it was a quite trip. It had been raining all the way and just out side of Thonon the rain turned to snow. By the time I got to Morzine it was falling thickly and I was worried about making it up the road to the chalet. But it was OK thank heavens for traction control and ABS brakes. The car was sliding and spinning all over the place but was OK until I tried to turn in to the drive of the chalet, luckily it had been cleared of snow recently but there was still 20 cm of new snow to get over. I needed to at least get the car off the road as the snowploughs are a little unforgiving when it comes to parked cars. Managed to reverse the car up far enough to clear the road. Emptied the car in a couple of trips and set up to sleep the night in a very cold chalet. The thermometer said it was zero in the room at one point that night but I was pretty warm, wearing a t shirt and fleece and woolly hat, in a sleeping bag under a blanket with a duvet on top! It was heavy but warm.

Anyway Saturday morning and the usual trip down to Viourons to get stuff. The big plan this trip was to insulate the hot room wall and get the hot water heater up on the wall and do as much plumbing as possible.

Plumbing is not easy. There are literally hundreds of bits all different sizes, all different shapes and all do different things. They all join in different ways to other different pieces. Its like a huge jigsaw puzzle were you have far to many pieces and don't know which pieces you don't need!

At least I had a plan. I have, for the past year or so, carried around a note book in which I scribble down ideas and plans for the chalet. One of these was a long time ago a plan for the plumbing. It involves valves and T junctions and should basically mean a plentiful supply of hot and cold water to the chalet while being able to turn off and drain the pipes when required.

With this in mind I stared at the bewildering range of connectors and plumbing bits. OK I need valves, a huge vista of valves opens before me Oh dear this might take some time.

Well about an hour and half later I had a basket full of bits and pieces, these plus some wood was all driven home. One major problem was no where in Morzine could I find a 150mm diameter pipe for the fire. So on this occasion the dalek sleeps.

Back at the chalet, I framed out the hot room wall,

This exposed another potential disaster. In the past we have spent money on groceries and got points. Each month or so because of the huge numbers of points we get we are sent about 50 swiss francs in vouchers. I spend these on stuff for the chalet like screws and nails and small tools, stuff like that, Well I had thought my self real clever as I bought a box of long screw suitable for fixing these batons to the wall. I was very careful to get cross head screws cos I have loads of screw drivers and all sorts of bits for the drill that would screw them in. So imagine my surprise when I open the box to discover the screws are in fact star headed. Great I have one drill bit that might fit.









OK it seems to work, something to put on my Christmas list. So fit the frame to the wall, insulate the frame
Blue insulation cut to fit.


















Board out over the insulation to give me something to fix on to.

The try to lift a really heavy hot water tank. Oops this is going to be interesting. The tank is heavy not so heavy I can not lift it but heavy enough to be awkward. The tank is large, too large to reach all the way round so handling it is awkward. Right drill the walls and install 4 massive bolts. Then build a platform (from blue insulation) get the tank up onto the platform sling a wire around the bottom supports and lift the tank using the wire then wobble it towards the wall and with a bit of luck the tank and the bolts should all line up.




There you are! Tighten up the bolts and hope it stays on the wall when its got 200 liters of water in it!

There is then the jigsaw to do with all the other bits and pieces.













34 pieces all have to go together and (not leak) Then I realized I did not have a vital connection that would allow me to actually get water into the tank! Probably just as well as I dont think my joints are tight enough. I need another wrench.

Any way the taps at the bottom allow the water to drain, the taps at the top will have more pipe added and lead up to the bathroom above, hot water on the left and cold on the right.


Did a bit of finishing of the plaster board in the bedroom when it got cold.

Came home a bit early on Sunday evening.