What's next

Margaret emailed me today. Basically Janne's looked at his calendar and he is really swamped with work. Many of his other projects are suffering delays of some sort (imagine that!) and his schedule is very tight.

Janne is still willing to do the foundations at some point but he suggested perhaps I contact Janne W. (aka Willie), our home builder, to see if he could do that work as it might be easier for everyone. So I called Willie and he will look at his schedule to see if he could do that work in advance of the home construction, which he's set for on August 5. I also sent him all the drawings.

Our Janne would still get the electricity and water in place, and he'll probably continue to do a hundred other small things that I haven't noticed or fully appreciated yet.

I'll update after I talk with Willie next week.

So what's next?

I talked to Janne last night about our good news. He's going to follow-up on the electricity provision; he's also making an order for water pumps and will add one more for our house to the order.

Janne's also busy with a number of projects, so we need to fit the foundation work into his calendar. It's probably going to be late May or early June, which is pretty much what I thought, and in good time for our planned August 5 delivery date.

I also sent Stefan an email about the permit, too. He's going to mail us the written contract so we can sign and get the house set in the production line.

Woo Hoo!!

Just received an email from Margaret:

"Here is the news you've been waiting for ;)

Janne just spoke with the powers-that-be and your building permission is approved and ready!

It should be in the mail within the next few days. Congratulations!"

Still no cigar

Just talked to Janne- he's out repairing a dock early this morning, it's beautifully sunny out on Aspö (as verified by the webcam!)

Anyways, no news yet. There's no point in hassling the kommun any further. Janne's quite sure the permissions will be approved and in the mailbox any day now.

Patience, grasshopper, patience...

Insulation, Pt. 3

I spoke to a wool insulation provider on Friday; the company is in Dublin but the plant is in north Wales.

The cost they quoted for 60 square meters at 300mm thickness of insulation, delivered to Stockholm, was about 50% more than I had budgeted. Given the kronor's strength these days, I am very budget conscious, so that's a disappointment.

However, I'm not sure I need the full 300mm because this is quite an efficient insulator. They provided a lot of info about thermal conductivity and 'U values' and other technical matters. I will talk to Stefan about this further, hopefully next week. I will also talk to both Jannes, too.

And there are a number of other types of eco-friendly insulation; the X-House people have used flax as an insulator successfully in the past.

Nearly there

Talked to Janne today. He spoke to Per on Monday as promised, who told Janne that our permission was "almost finished". And yesterday, Janne received the official permission for the handling of our 'grey water' (which is the runoff from showers, sinks, etc.) The full building permission usually follows this by a few days, so Janne is quite confident now.

We'll organise our calendars and shoot for the end of May to build the foundations if at all possible. Stay tuned!

Let's hear it for the ECB!

LONDON, April 14 (Reuters) - European Central Bank complaints about exchange rate volatility are getting louder.
After what sources said were heated and tense discussions, the Group of Seven rich nations toughened its stance on exchange rates on Friday.
And while the first change in the G7's language for four years is significant, it will be an ineffective dollar-boosting step without the ECB backing up its exchange rate concerns with compatible monetary policy.

Perhaps the dollar will get just a wee bit stronger in the upcoming months? One can only hope...

Insulation, Pt. 2

The wool insulation people (from my earlier post) responded to my email very quickly, and I also inquired to Stefan about its suitability in an X-house. He replied that it was very suitable, and that there was 300mm space available in the floors and ceiling for insulation.

We've been investigating other eco-friendly insulations as well, and there is a diverse marketplace out there, to be sure. Be prepared for more on this subject! Who knows, maybe there'll be as many insulation posts as there have been on toilets.

I plan to talk to the people in Wales soon about details, and I'll report back.

Mini-update

Just talked to Janne. He says it's cold and snowy on Aspö. Go figure.

Per has only a few 'phone hours' each week; next opportunity is this Monday and Janne will call then. He's still optimistic, and in fact has ordered the electricity. Hopefully my next update will be good news!

Sheeps Wool insulation

We were on holiday in Wales this past week and saw about a million sheep in the fields. To finish our trip, we visited an organic sheep farm in Wiltshire.

It got us thinking of using natural wool insulation in our home. A bit of investigation and looking at a few websites has us intrigued at the possibility of using this type of eco-friendly (and efficient) insulation.

We love Wales, and the thought of having a little bit of that country in our Swedish home is very appealing. We'll look into the practicalities.

An update!

I spoke to Janne last night. He called Per at the Kommun on Monday who had to admit, to his embarrassment, that the 'new build' map had not been done as promised. Janne expressed his unhappiness with that lack of progress, and lo and behold, he got a call the next day from the kommun's surveyor!

The surveyor showed up on Aspö the day after (Wednesday morning) to make all the measurements and he indicated to Janne that he saw no issues at all.

So Janne will call Per back next week, and Janne is optimistic we'll get somewhere then. Assuming all is OK, Janne will order the electricity and the water pump so we can do the foundations, probably later in May. Phew!