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It’s been a pretty awful day for weather. Val had an appointment in the village early this morning, and not long after she got home it started raining. By lunchtime the temperature had dropped sufficiently for the rain to turn to snow, which continued all day.
A notice on the website of our local council today confirms that we have a building permit (planning permission) for our renovations this summer. Our home is one of a row of four semi-detached houses, and all of them will have a complete exterior renovation and solar roofing, with heat pumps to replace the existing oil fired central heating systems. The council notice makes it all sound quite trivial:

”Renovation of the building envelopes and installation of an in-roof PV system with heat pumps (outdoor units), Stutz, Wengen”

The reality of course, is quite a bit different. Here is an extract from the plan for our house alone:

• Replace the oil-fired central heating system with an air-source heat pump,
• New roof,
• Solar tiles on the new roof to power the heat pump, with a battery to store any excess electricity, (I hope we get an excess),
• Replacement of the existing carpeted flooring with wooden floors throughout the house,
• Replacement windows with triple glazing,
• Thermal exterior cladding to improve insulation, and new wood facade,
• Replacement kitchen and appliances,
• Replacement bathroom, replace existing bath with walk-in shower, move existing window to accommodate changes,
• Refurbishment of guest bedroom sanitaryware,
• Refurbishment of cloakroom and downstairs WC,
• Redecoration throughout.

Quite a job, therefore, and that’s without what might be happening to the interiors of the other houses. The problem in Wengen, as with all remote locations, is a lack of tradesmen to do the work. We know that major renovations are planned for this summer at several hotels in the village, so competition for people will be intense. We have to move out at the end of the month to allow the work to start. That’s fine, and we have planned for it. We are far more concerned about the planned finish date, which is the end of September. Hopefully everything will be finished on time.