Friday 28 Dec 2012
The final push to finish the rafters - all were notched and in position, all carefully measured and angled. The workers arrived at 0800 to make up for lost time and worked against a glowering sky that threatened to rain us off yet again.
We had to go to the post office, as the road tax system has moved into the 21st century, which means we had to print off our own tax papers from the internet, then go to the post office to pay. A good idea, and apparently saving the government 80m euros compared to the old system of individually printed tax stickers, but we should've gone earlier, as everyone had left it to the last minute. I queued for 40 minutes, while Dave walked Sid along the beach, then we met in Elite for a coffee.
The view from Elite. This was the point I gave Dave the van papers and said, 'phew, both vehicles done!' and he said, 'what do you mean, both? What about the motorbike?'. So we went back to base, printed out another set of papers and went to queue for another 40 minutes. It was quite pleasant, everyone we knew was in there, so we saw lots of people we might not otherwise have done.
Back on site, we continued clearing the felled trees, stripping the cypress and hauling clear. Meanwhile, Yiannis was taking down the scaffolding they'd had in the mezzanine for bolting in the rafters. 'Telos?' I asked (an approximation for 'finished?') He affirmed. Wow, we thought. Done. I asked whether we could take down the temporary batons bracing the structure, but he said, no, he still had more bracing to do. So - not finished exactly, but the rafters on, before the end of the year. A good result.
After they'd gone - the finished roof skeleton. Very exciting. This is where the money has run out, though. But at least we got as far as we could've hoped with the funds available. My Mum has offered to lend us the few thousand we need to get a waterproof covering over the wood, either tiles or at least a membrane, depending on cost estimates which Constantine has promised to get for us.
The final push to finish the rafters - all were notched and in position, all carefully measured and angled. The workers arrived at 0800 to make up for lost time and worked against a glowering sky that threatened to rain us off yet again.
We had to go to the post office, as the road tax system has moved into the 21st century, which means we had to print off our own tax papers from the internet, then go to the post office to pay. A good idea, and apparently saving the government 80m euros compared to the old system of individually printed tax stickers, but we should've gone earlier, as everyone had left it to the last minute. I queued for 40 minutes, while Dave walked Sid along the beach, then we met in Elite for a coffee.
The view from Elite. This was the point I gave Dave the van papers and said, 'phew, both vehicles done!' and he said, 'what do you mean, both? What about the motorbike?'. So we went back to base, printed out another set of papers and went to queue for another 40 minutes. It was quite pleasant, everyone we knew was in there, so we saw lots of people we might not otherwise have done.
Back on site, we continued clearing the felled trees, stripping the cypress and hauling clear. Meanwhile, Yiannis was taking down the scaffolding they'd had in the mezzanine for bolting in the rafters. 'Telos?' I asked (an approximation for 'finished?') He affirmed. Wow, we thought. Done. I asked whether we could take down the temporary batons bracing the structure, but he said, no, he still had more bracing to do. So - not finished exactly, but the rafters on, before the end of the year. A good result.
After they'd gone - the finished roof skeleton. Very exciting. This is where the money has run out, though. But at least we got as far as we could've hoped with the funds available. My Mum has offered to lend us the few thousand we need to get a waterproof covering over the wood, either tiles or at least a membrane, depending on cost estimates which Constantine has promised to get for us.
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