German House Rebuild

shumakerscott · 01-29-2012, 01:18 PM

As you can see in the last pic the back wall needs a lot more corks!! Come on now, help me out. I've gotten some cool beer caps but no corks. Thanks to those who have helped. dorf dude...

Andrew Nowak · 01-29-2012, 04:43 PM

Mouses, birds....What else will you find in your house? I am sure you really need this ax we can see on the wall. Or much more time spend at home:-)

momb · 01-30-2012, 01:17 AM

Momb here. House is really looking great!!! Are you able to live there yet? Getting caught up by reading about the house, your job and vacuum cleaners. Your job sounds really cool. Thanks for the heads up about the vacuum cleaner. We now have 6 cats so my rainbow is really getting a work out. Drop us a call or email when you can. We will keep checking on your house project. The house is really looking good!!!!

shumakerscott · 01-30-2012, 02:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Andrew Nowak

Mouses, birds....What else will you find in your house? I am sure you really need this ax we can see on the wall. Or much more time spend at home:-)

Andrew, I knew there was a reason I liked you. A sense of humor

. The axe will be used on bigger animals! A real cold front is setting in from the east., low of 0F, high of 14F. I've got my wood stove in full gear right now. I know that you are getting the cold front in Crakow. Thanks for following. dorf dude...

concretemasonry · 01-30-2012, 03:18 PM

Dorf Dde -

Thanx for the explanation on what you do daily and when you are deployed. The deployment can be a welcome change of pace, interesting, but can be tiring. - Makes you want to get home just as I felt after 41 countries (many too many times) of education and new friends. I never tired of Eastern Germany, Eastern Europe (Poland, Czech Republic and Hungary) and Belarus and Ukraine. Great experiences and people.

The upstairs looks great. I have a box of corks coming that I will forward to you to install for the finishing touches.

The other Schu - Dick

jasin · 01-31-2012, 08:41 PM

Sie haben eine Menge Arbeit

Andrew Nowak · 02-02-2012, 02:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by shumakerscott

Andrew, I knew there was a reason I liked you. A sense of humor

. The axe will be used on bigger animals! A real cold front is setting in from the east., low of 0F, high of 14F. I've got my wood stove in full gear right now. I know that you are getting the cold front in Crakow. Thanks for following. dorf dude...

Yes, the cold front is a fact, it is very horrible especially because it was not expected such suddenly. We have had incredibly warm autumn and winter before. Last night in Cracow was -25C as my wife said. I am actually in a little warmer place which you probably know - Wędrzyn. I will spend here next 3 weeks. I have installed the small temporary wood stove in my house and my dear neighbour is stoking every night to protect water installation. But before I left I noticed that temperature inside still is 6-7C despite the frost outside. It means that 15cm of styrofoam works wery well. Shu, only two month to spring

shumakerscott · 02-07-2012, 01:47 PM

I've been offline the last 5 days. Good to be back. I mounted with help, Thanks Campbell, an electric stone plate heater in the bathroom. One heavy sucker. It is not needed at this time but come spring when the main in floor heat is offline then I can warm it up when needed. Not a cheap purchase but I think it really fits in well. Current draw is 1200 watts. Takes about 30 minutes for it to get hot. I think I will put it on a timer for the mornings when the time comes in the Spring. Here's a pic. dorf dude...

shumakerscott · 02-07-2012, 02:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Andrew Nowak

Yes, the cold front is a fact, it is very horrible especially because it was not expected such suddenly. We have had incredibly warm autumn and winter before. Last night in Cracow was -25C as my wife said. I am actually in a little warmer place which you probably know - Wędrzyn. I will spend here next 3 weeks. I have installed the small temporary wood stove in my house and my dear neighbour is stoking every night to protect water installation. But before I left I noticed that temperature inside still is 6-7C despite the frost outside. It means that 15cm of styrofoam works wery well. Shu, only two month to spring

We hit -23C the last 2 days. My pellet stove working with the wood stove burning up the cr@p wood is keeping my house right around 21C. It was funny the other night I had +21.5 inside and outside was -21.5. That's a huge difference! dorf dude...

CoconutPete · 02-07-2012, 02:14 PM

Nice update. Stay warm! Just spoke with my parents in Denmark, they are firing up the wood stove at full blast these days too.

So weird .... Just walked my dog - around 50 degrees here, actually a nice afternoon when the sun hits you.

concretemasonry · 02-07-2012, 02:16 PM

-23C ( or about -9F - it is an approximate conversion due to no calculator handy) is certainly cold and we have not seen that is over a year even in Minnesota.

Nothing is worse when you have a cold bathroom, but the thermal mass in your home should maintain reasonable stability for a few days.

The stone plate is a great feature that maintains the clean look, although not cheap. The timer should be great as long as it agrees with your schedule, if is not erratic and you switch it off when you are deployed.

From your description it is just on a timer, but is there a thermostatic limit control also?

The other Schu - Dick (family from Luxembourg, 200 yards from Germany).

shumakerscott · 02-07-2012, 02:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by concretemasonry

-23C ( or about -9F) is certainly cold and we have not seen that is over a year even in Minnesota.

Nothing is worse when you have a cold bathroom, but the thermal mass in your home should maintain reasonable stability for a few days.

The stone plate is a great feature that maintains the clean look, although not cheap. The timer should be great as long as it agrees with your schedule, if is not erratic and you switch it off when you are deployed.

From your description it is just on a timer, but is there a thermostatic limit control also?

The other Schu - Dick (family from Luxembourg, 200 yards from Germany).

Dick, I have not decided the exact control mech for the heater yet. Right now it is just plug it in as needed. I will probably not put it on a thermostat. I'm leaning toward a programmable timer. One that will let me do 7 days. I will not deploy so much in the future so that is not an issue anymore. Job change!! Mia will be much happier about that.

Thanks for following, dorf dude...

concretemasonry · 02-07-2012, 03:45 PM

How about a warm stone on the floor for Mia or does she appreciate the cooler comforts?

Dick - The other Schu (partially from Germany (Heidelberg)).

frenchelectrican · 02-07-2012, 09:48 PM

I know you mention cold weather and In France we did hit pretty good with cold one as well., I think it is pretty bad one this year and the POCO is pretty much right on the limit on the electrique system.

Good thing I have oil stove that will help a bit to keep it warm.

Merci,
Marc

cocobolo · 02-07-2012, 10:15 PM

That stone plate heater looks pretty darn good. Trust the Europeans to have something like that, I doubt they are in north America yet.

The CBC radio has been all over your cold temperatures over there. Apparently just about ALL of Europe is in a deep freeze. The Ukraine was reporting -38ºC last night.

I am extremely impressed that your wood stove can get a difference of some 43ºC between inside and out. Both wood stoves running here can barely manage a 25ºC difference. We were down to around -8ºC a couple of weeks back, and I couldn't quite manage to get the temp up to 20º inside.

I will admit that a large part of the problem there is too many windows...as well as the wind blowing which drags the temps down a lot.