Monday 3 September 2012
We're now waiting for the wood frame and roof. There is a very limited budget for this - all the money we have left might just do the whole job. We asked Constantine if he could find out how much the wood and the skilled labour to put it together would cost, but he said that asking for an estimate implied a lack of trust, so he couldn't do it. 'What can we do?', as the Greeks say, with a shrug. We're just hoping. We have to have a roof covering on, otherwise the wood frame will be spoiled.
We don't know how long before they might make a start, but in the meantime, we now have a site that needs quite a lot of preparation, so we can be doing. It's quite exciting to actually start interacting with our potential living space, after waiting for so long.
Dave took on clearing and brushing the top of the plinth, ready for the wood;
and I thought I'd see how much I could remember of the dry stone walling I did as a conservation volunteer 30 years ago. Dry stone terracing in the Greek tradition is much easier than building a free-standing wall, so it went up very fast. The only delay was in finding stone - we go out 'scrumping' for a van-load at a time. Luckily there are plenty of places where earth has been dumped, presumably removed from other sites, so I reckon we're doing a favour to whoever has been paid to store the waste, as we're gradually making more room for them.
In a slightly frivolous vein, I decided to build an alcove into the wall, somewhere for a nightlight - for a dimly imagined future when there would be a house for guests to arrive at and be guided through the dusk by little lights set in the wall. (These imaginings keep me going ...! Dave thinks I'm weird.)
We're now waiting for the wood frame and roof. There is a very limited budget for this - all the money we have left might just do the whole job. We asked Constantine if he could find out how much the wood and the skilled labour to put it together would cost, but he said that asking for an estimate implied a lack of trust, so he couldn't do it. 'What can we do?', as the Greeks say, with a shrug. We're just hoping. We have to have a roof covering on, otherwise the wood frame will be spoiled.
We don't know how long before they might make a start, but in the meantime, we now have a site that needs quite a lot of preparation, so we can be doing. It's quite exciting to actually start interacting with our potential living space, after waiting for so long.
Dave took on clearing and brushing the top of the plinth, ready for the wood;
and I thought I'd see how much I could remember of the dry stone walling I did as a conservation volunteer 30 years ago. Dry stone terracing in the Greek tradition is much easier than building a free-standing wall, so it went up very fast. The only delay was in finding stone - we go out 'scrumping' for a van-load at a time. Luckily there are plenty of places where earth has been dumped, presumably removed from other sites, so I reckon we're doing a favour to whoever has been paid to store the waste, as we're gradually making more room for them.
In a slightly frivolous vein, I decided to build an alcove into the wall, somewhere for a nightlight - for a dimly imagined future when there would be a house for guests to arrive at and be guided through the dusk by little lights set in the wall. (These imaginings keep me going ...! Dave thinks I'm weird.)
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