Exterior

The exterior is in the process of being finished. And now we're not sure what the hell we want to do with it. We've passed the point of no return to do it in stonewash. Problem is, if we do it in cement like we originally planned, we do run the risk of having leakage problems in the future. We could paint it now with oil paint giving it an extra layer of protection from rain. We can even paint it with a cement color so it looks like our original idea.
這裡是房子入口處上面的露臺，已經粉光完成了，顏色比我想像的還白耶
但沒想到條仔不會蓋掉......
所以......以後整間屋子會像是有了白線框框在上面= =
希望水泥乾了之後會變的不明顯.....

The final cement color will be about the color of this strip of completed cement if we leave it with just a cement finish.

 Next problem is Ivy has decided that she doesn't like these plastic strips that are left over after the cement work is finished. Painting the house will fix that of course. I don't really have a problem with them as it is quite a neat finish and also once the cement is dried it is not far off that color anyway.

Some decisions to be made I think.

Happy Labor Day

I asked the workers why they didn't get today off. One replied what would we do if we had the day off? I said you could go on a trip somewhere to which he replied it's too hot to being tripping around. Not too hot to lay concrete though....might be some flawed logic in there somewhere. Happy labor day anyway to you guys, love ya work!
Leighton問工人:你們怎麼沒休假呢?工人回:休假不知道要做啥。
L:可以出門去走走啊。工人:到哪都熱啊

恩~旗時他很佩服台灣人的工作效率呢
勞動節快樂^^

Advice from Mr Lee.

Ivy's dad came to the house today. He has worked in construction all his life so therefore knows tons more than we will ever know. Here he is giving advice on cement. Ivy looks fascinated. Bernard used to always call him Mini Lee but I could never really work out why. Anyway, good advice received today.
老爸來給我們些意見~受用喔!!

Smooth

All week the workers have been making the walls smooth. Once the wooden boards were removed, they are a bit of a mess, so the next step (after window frames go in) is to smooth over all the walls. Not sure how long it will take but they seem to be making great progress. This is looking out the north window of the living room.
上禮拜日所有窗框裝完後(除了一樓摺疊門)，這禮拜就進入打底+細胚的工程了
一樓客廳已經做好了，之後是批土。整個很光華平整哩

And this shot is looking into the office from the staircase. We chose not to have a wall here to make it seem more open and bigger.
這是從一樓樓梯往工作室裡拍，刻意拿掉整面牆，讓空間更寬廣

Our bedroom...right this minute.

These are all the materials that are being used to smooth over the walls. It's made a bit of a mess but I'm sure it is all quite necessary.
這桶是做外牆打底用的，最近一直在下雨，工程應該會慢下吧

Lunch

Even the bien dang lunch boxes require an estimate. I'm pretty sure I'll be paying for these along the way somewhere.
貼在牆上的便當請款單，某人看到上面三個字"估價單"說..........連便當也要估價喔  = =

First House Party

You'd think if people were gonna have a party in a house, they could have at least invited the home owners.
如果有人想要在別人的房子開趴~至少也要邀請主人吧

I well appreciate the Taiwanese construction workers approach to work. It's really hot and you've spent all morning pouring concrete, so why wouldn't you crack a couple of cold ones on your lunch break? Of course being an English teacher and a graphic designer, it's not entirely appropriate to show up in the afternoon with liquor on your breath.
台灣的天氣悶熱，工人辛辛苦苦與水泥為伍一整個早上，中午來瓶啤酒不為過吧!
但就算老師或是平面設計師中午喝酒帶著酒氣上班，也不是件好事

But then again, if you are gonna drink until you pass out on the scaffolding, you might want to re-think the midday kegger.
不過...如果你喝到茫了，躺這睡覺就更不好了...

PS. How did I not notice the woman passed out in the wheelbarrow? WTF? I didn't even notice her when I took the picture. Awesome.

Door frames

This is the front door.
大門門框

This is the door frame to one of the downstairs bathrooms.
1樓浴室門

This is looking outside to the third floor balcony. It is quite high as in typhoons the leaves fill the trains and the balconies can start to fill up.
所有落地窗的底部都補上紅磚了~
..........
我們的摺疊門要怎麼辦呢!?? 要價10萬耶

More Windows

Almost all of the window frames are in now. Just the really big ones to go.
窗框以上坎補作業了~不過有些大窗來沒裝~
房子一步步成形了^^

Communication Breakdown No. 352

As I said in the last post, our window frames have started to be installed. Unfortunately, they are not the window frames we ordered. We wanted a matte black finish. We chose not to go for the matte black sand finish as they were the most expensive. Guess which ones we got? Screw it, we ain't paying the difference, I assure you of that.
今天看到房子終於裝窗框後很開心，上前仔細看一看摸一摸，恩~.....怎麼是砂面窗框，我們不是訂黑色霧面嗎?馬上打給建商問一問，當然，像往常一樣不聽我講話，馬上說:你們自己跟鋁框老闆訂的，怎麼會錯!!@#$%^& 。我說:我明明跟你說黑色霧面啊，而且我還一直重複說霧面喔!!!何況我沒跟鋁框老闆訂貨，我是跟你訂的。建商:我打給鋁框老闆問問。我心想隨便你!!
後來鋁框老闆打來，鋁框老闆說:建商說顏色錯誤(= =果然是沒在聽人說話)，我說:顏色沒有錯，是材質錯!那時就是因為砂面價格會比霧面貴一些，所以我們訂霧面，師傅拿給我們看的材質也是有三種，亮面、霧面跟砂面，為何會搞錯，差價怎麼辦!!
溝通了一陣子後，叫鋁框老闆自己去跟建商說明，差價!!我們可不付!!!

Installing Windows

Our window frames started going in today. The place is starting to look less like a bomb shelter and more like a house. Not finished yet but should be by tomorrow or early next week.
終於裝窗框啦!!!不知道明天會不會開始填縫喔?

New neighbors

We think we are getting some new neighbors just across the street. Someone has begun digging a new well for ground water. We're quite pleased about as it will help make the area into more of a neighborhood.
又有一間新農舍要蓋了，我們這區的住戶越來越多了，希望希望可以把社區品質也帶起來
很好奇會蓋得怎樣呢??

The facilities.

This just arrived today. Where have the workers been going prior to this?
開工後兩個多月這個才來~啊之前勒.......

Preparing for Windows

The windows have been ordered and should be ready by the 15th or the 16th of this month. In the meantime the builders have begun finishing the walls.
開始標水平了^^
下禮拜就要裝窗框啦!!!
請我爸到現場監工 ㄎㄎ

Kitchens

Ivy and I started shopping for kitchens today. My god. I hope I never have to buy another kitchen. What the fuck is it with people that say; "Whatever you want to do, we can help you." And then when you say you wanna put the refrigerator in this spot, they say no way, you can't do that. Clearly you can not help me. We went to two different kitchen places. The first lady was awesome. Very helpful though she wasn't able to even give us a ballpark figure for how much a kitchen would cost. Though that is a small problem at this point. Unfortunately she chose to call her store this:

 The second outfit was run by a woman that I think might have been on speed. She had some really nice designs for kitchens and was able to give us a ballpark figure. And she could do anything we wanted to do, except of course what we wanted to do.She was in such a hurry I asked her if we had interrupted her supper. She said no, that in fact she normally speaks faster than this. Doubt will be going back to her store.

Today was a painful afternoon.

以上是我老公的心得，不代表我的立場

最近開始在看一些系統廚具
還挺期待的，畢竟煮飯的是我嘛
我想要的系統廚具有幾個要件
1.上櫃可以不要，如果一定要有，那也不能太高
   最好是我伸手就可拿到東西，且沒有上櫃，空間感更好
2.水槽要大
3.三口瓦斯爐或電陶爐、烤箱，最好有洗碗機
4.動線流暢
5.置物櫃機能性要好
以上

今天第二間的小姐估了價
.......................
媽呦~要二十幾萬啦!!!

Wall of Rock!

These arrived yesterday. Amazon wouldn't ship to Taiwan so had to ask my boss to ship them to his mum's place and have her send them. Got four. Can't wait to put em up.

預告
我們家有可能，可能喔!!!
會有一面搖滾牆!!!!!!
其實也只有四支吉他
還稱不上是搖滾牆吧
找一面最小面的牆給他過過乾癮就好
哈哈

忘了說明這張照片是啥東西
ㄟ~~~就是
吉他掛勾啦

Concertina door. Found.

We finally found the concertina door we wanted to run from the kitchen to the patio. It's taken forever and we've been through a bunch of different workmen. Wood is too expensive, metal is impossible. It turns out that the easiest way is to use aluminium which means we can use the same guy that does the windows. Ivy found this pic of a place in Ilan. Ours won't be quite so big. Probably only 4 panels, but roughly the same style.

照片來源

http://tw.myblog.yahoo.com/cfdhd/

(有興趣了解的朋友們，可以自己去看看喔)

原來台灣有人在做戶外摺疊門。上次拿我們拍的摺疊門照片給鐵工看過後，他回答我說:鐵的無法做，我給他看的那個照片樣本，其實不是用鐵做的，是用鋁，之後再去做啥處理(我忘了)，他叫我自己上網找資料，網路上有一些。於是，我看到這個部落格有在介紹，好像也做了不少案例，這真是讓我信心大增!!!建商也說:如果是鋁料的摺疊門，他就有辦法做，並且近期內會請做鋁料的廠商到現場看!!這真是太棒了。

看來我們可以省不少事了

期待中.....

^^

Wood answer

When we were leaving the house today, a local neighbor was also leaving the property with an armload of old construction wood that had been dumped by the builders. I think she wanted to use it for a bonfire or bbq. We had the following conversation.

Neighbor     Do you mind if I collect up this wood?
Me               You've already collected it up.
Neighbor     Ok. Thanks.

 Ah....yeah....I wasn't really sure how to continue that conversation. So I didn't.

兒童節放了一天假，我們騎腳踏車到新家看看。
正好，對面的鄰居在他們家院子聚會，剛掃完墓
打完招呼後，就到工地逛一逛
看完下樓時，發現鄰居跑到我家撿木頭
看到我們下來
拿著木頭問我們說
鄰居:這可以撿嗎?
L回答:你不是已經撿了嗎!
鄰居:謝謝
....................

補充
後來來了一個阿麻
也在我家撿東西
我問:阿麻你在撿什麼?
阿麻:這是你們買的房子喔
我說:是啊~阿你在撿什麼
阿麻:很貴喔~有沒有這樣，比三
我說:有啊~阿你在撿什麼?
阿麻:這麼貴喔。
講完後就繼續撿他的東西
也不回答我的問題
我只好自己偷看她的袋子
原來在撿廢鐵
...................................................

奇怪呢?大家都很喜歡進來我家撿東西不問的

Rooftop view

We climbed to the top of the third floor today to check out the view. There will eventually be a ladder up there as that is where the water heater and water tank are kept but in the meantime we have to use the scaffolding.
爬上屋頂!恐怖喔)))))

Communication Breakdown No. 74

The original plan for the house had these decorative lines that ran from the third floor to the second floor on the south side and west side. Ivy thought they looked silly so we asked for them not to be on the house. But that was forgotten. So, they went up and have since been removed after I threw my toys.

The resulting lines will disappear when the walls are finished.

Corn

This is the house from way over the back behind some bloke's corn field. Guess where we'll be getting our corn from now on.....
房子主體完成後到現在
我們都還沒看過從後面看我們的房子哩
感覺還蠻大的耶

Smooth

The next step in the construction process is smoothing the cement. At the moment it is pretty rough. They have started smoothing the ceilings but the rest should be done by the end of the week. And then the window frames will be put in. Frames were chosen last week but will take 14-21 days to get here.
天花板開始鋪平了
上禮拜終於挑了窗框跟門的部分
窗框很快很簡單，幾秒鐘就搞定
門.....好難挑啊
門窗公司現有的門或是目錄上的
都很.................俗
挑了一整個晚上= =
好想請木工丁美美的門啊))))))

That's a smooth ceiling. With a hole for a light.

Everything is covered in this green mesh right now. Not sure why.....

Concertina Door

We met with a metal worker today. He came out to the house to look at a big hole in the wall and see if he can put in a concertina door for us. Of course the conversation went like this:
Can't be done.
Why not?
I've never done it before.
But can you do it?
Well......Yeah.

That's the chap on the left. The fella on the right is the builder. He also likes to have conversations like the one above.

鐵工師傅來看我們摺疊門的位置，他看了我印給他的摺疊門圖例後說......
這哇摸跨貴捏(台語)
要研究一下
再報價給你們...
hmmmmm...