Instructions Inside

The whole family went with me down to Morzine this weekend. My wife spent her first night in the chalet on Friday and although it was a little cold it was OK (I think)

With only the weekend there was loads to do, Friday evening we emptied the one semi finished bedroom and hoovered the floor then put the beds we bought up in the van into it with the mattresses.I checked the fridge out and wired its plug into the mains. After putting the kids to bed my wife and I sat in the kitchen putting drawers together until midnight and oiling worktops ready for Saturday.

Friday night was distinctly cold and as this was my wifes first weekend I was anxious to make it as comfortable as I could, so first thing Saturday morning I set to work wiring up the bedroom heating.

A quick trip down to Voirons, mainly to pay my bill (for the Mezzanine) and I set to work clearing out all the cardboard plastic and polystyrene and general crap that had accumulated to about head height in the dining room. Basically if it was cardboard my three year old and I chucked it out the window, if it was plastic or polystyrene it went onto bin bags.

Its still a mess but there is now a whole load less rubbish!

I then began to assembly the shower. loads of bits and no instructions! bags of screws and strips of plastic, feet things and roller things and all sorts of strange fittings and clips. How does all this go together? The shower came in four big boxes and we slowly unpacked each box trying to find any sort of guidance on how it all went together. I mean the basics are not that difficult, we have a shower base, big white quarter circle thing made of fiberglass - Check


Drain and U bend assembly screwed into base.
Leveling feet go into base base gets leveled up.

Two big glassy panels go each side of the smaller silvery panel, but which screws/bolts hold them together and what are these big strips of silicon rubber for?


How do all these nozzles and pipes go together, OK so the nozzles screw in to the holes in the big panels but how do they all get water? What do we do with all these pipes and clips?

Well we discovered some bits of paper with the glass doors right at the bottom under everything else along with a whole load more screws and bits. A huge helps the instructions were! Obviously in French but they were for a different make of shower. It was close but not quite the same. I could only assume that the principles were going to be the same and to water proof everything!

Saturday evening we had a barbecue - I need to get a proper grill for the barbecue, our makeshift assortment of supports drops more food into the fire than we get to eat!

Saturday evening saw my wife and I in the kitchen again, we cut the hole in the worktop for the sink and started on the drawer handles and cupboards.

Saturday night was lovely and warm, the radiator working a treat, I was worried as the other 2 radiators I had tried warmed up once and then never got hot again!

Sunday and I was only allowed a cup of coffee once I got the hob working! So I set to work wiring up the hob in the kitchen. Simple job, undo a few screws wire it up tighten it all back again made really annoying by the French design which uses star headed screws! Nothing normal like a cross headed screw, but a star so I have to dig about to find a star bit that fits and then cos the only thing I have that will move them is the electric screwdriver I end up shearing off one the screws and generally having to bodge up the whole job!
Not too happy I decide not to completely stick down the hob into the worktop as it sounds like it will probably have to come up again! Anyway I got my coffee!

The electric distribution panel is getting to be a real mess. I know what I want to do with it, to give me more room for all the "hundreds" of cables coming in I want to do what we did in the kitchen and stud panel the wall to give me room to drop all the cables down behind the panel and bring them through but its quite a big job and basically I will not have any power while I do it.
Mind you the longer I leave it the worse it will be to resolve! Well lets say, it has risen in priority and leave it at that!

The sink went into the now oiled worktop and although not very impressed with the fixings that came with the sink, I do not think its going anywhere.


A door on the bathroom was todays challenge. The frames and doors we brought up in the van are ever so slightly different to the three I had bought before but you would not notice unless it was pointed out, one or two of the edges are rounded in the new doors rather than square on the old and the finish is a bit better generally.
Anyway these new doors actually came with instructions - in English! (and French and Italian and polish and ....) so I can now finally see exactly how you are supposed to install these doors and apparently I have been doing it completely wrong! Any way i prefer my way of putting them up it seems stronger and all the wedges and foam installation they suggested sounds tricky!


So the door went in and I found my self with a few hours before we left, so my three year old and I started on the studding walls for the next bedroom and bathroom. We cut the sole plates, drilled and screwed them into the floor. Hari, my three year old looks cute in his ear defenders and bob the builder helmet! He helped measure up the timber and pull the trigger on the drills.

Time to go I was pleased with what I had done and even more pleased my wife and children had enjoyed the weekend.
We plan on doing the same thing next weekend and then I get 2 weeks to do as much as possible.

I have my orders from my wife, shower and kitchen sink, get them working! I intend to use the plastic plumbing we bought to hopefully speed up the plumbing but need to think more about the fittings.

I need to make a list!