All mixed up

Saturday 27 April 2013

We had asked everywhere about a cement mixer, but the second hand one we looked at had water in the engine, but we were amazed when Robert Tatos, at a local hardware shop, just suggested he lend one to us.  It needed a bit of attention, but apparently only a pull cord, so we agreed enthusiastically, and he put it in the back of his pick-up and brought it up to Goat Bottom.  Dave was away skippering for the next two days, so I was hoping it could be operational for the morning.  But it just wouldn't start.  In the end, it got dark and we had to accept that I would be mixing by hand again.

Boat launching

Friday 26 April 2013

We had a boaty week.  First off, a trip to Meganissey planned for some time came off this week, so we took a holiday and went sailing.  Then the remaining two boats in the yard were launched, but the water was so low, they got stuck.  Here's Dave trying to get a boat off the submerged sled, with two boatyard lads pushing at the front and a friend in a rib pulling from the end.

Mixing Misery

Mid April 2013

So we're geared up for doing the wall, Dave making mixes, and me laying stone; but it's torturously slow.  We really do need a mortar mixer.  We've been having a look round.  New ones are at least 350 euros.  We'd like an electric one, but we have to be sure it will work with our photovoltaic system, and it's not easy to find out the spec at the agricultural shops.  So we keep looking and asking, and mixing by hand.

 

Showing off

21 April 2013

Friends of ours, Naomi and Pete, were back in town and came up to see our progress.  Pete scampered up the wood frame and said there was a fantastic view from the mezzanine.  Naomi loved the internal wall.  Always fun to have appreciative visitors!

Nest building

20 April 2013

And then we had run out of sand and lime, and by the time we'd bought some more bags and done various errands as well, another day was gone.  But Dave had steamed ahead with the interior wall experiment, in the evenings, and I'd pretty well finished my welsh dresser, so we had slightly more of a house than before!

The kitchen:

The first interior wall, in various stages of plastering:

The Wall - Day One

Thursday 18 April 2013

Just when I was fretting that yet another day was going to be lost to wall-building, Amanda called to say she was run off her feet at work and could we postpone Art Party this week.  So Day One of building the wall had finally arrived.

We had some lime and sand left over from the roofing, and Dave had researched the correct ratios, so he started mixing mortar, while I positioned the first stones.  It took a day of trial and error, learning the knack, and lots of heavy lifting, and we had the first few stones in position.  It doesn't look much - and the white lime mortar and white limestone on pale concrete doesn't make a good photo! - but we were very proud. 

The slowest part of the process is mixing the mortar in a bucket.  20 mins to mix, 10 mins to rest afterwards, 5 mins to use, only enough for three large stones.  We need to get ourselves a mortar mixer.

Intermission

Mid April 2013

I can't remember why we didn't start with the stone straight away.  There was a hiatus, while we just looked at it.  And then there was bad news, Sid the lovely labrador that we'd looked after for Dave's brother over Christmas, had died suddenly.  Pete was distraught, so we took the boat to Meganissey to spend some time with him, as Ed, his wife, was in England.

Then there were jobs to do on Dave's boats.  Although he had outsourced the work this year, there were still bits and pieces to do.  One of the boats was launching early, as it was in the way of another one in the yard.  The laundry needed collecting, and sails.  I needed the dentist, we had to go to Lefkas for the bank to pay boatyard fees.  Our days were eroded by non-site related tasks.

We also needed to drill some holes in the concrete footing to put in lengths of scrap rebar, to hold the stones in place against possible lateral movement in an earthquake.  Dave got out the super-drill we'd had brought back from the UK months ago, and set out to drill the holes.  The drill looked great, but it had a different fitting to the usual, and the extra-long masonry bits I'd bought would not work.  Another delay, while we sourced some new bits.

Meanwhile, friends had come from the UK, Pete's Ed was back with their daughter, Rachel, and three lifeboat lads, Mike, Barry and Gordon had come out to work on their villa.  We lent them tools - but why is it that as soon as a tool is lent, it is invariably needed?  The pickaxe, the drill, the trowel - we spent a week wondering where we'd left them!

We had a few afternoons, though, and while we didn't feel up to starting the wall building at three in the afternoon, there were other things to get on with.  Dave was still in the throes of plaster experimentation, using our own long grass for fibres, since we didn't have any straw.  and I wanted to make a welsh dresser out of scrap wood for tool and book storage.

In the middle we had the Nisos Christmas Party, slightly later than expected.  Which was a fun night out at Mamma Mia's.  This is two of the directors with the maintenance staff, proving why they are in yachting rather than music!

Rock On

Thursday 11 April 2013

The building site has been our own for about three weeks now, and we want to get working on something substantial.  However, when we talked to Constantine, he said he was busy on a project and could we wait until after Easter?  We were horrified!  Greek Easter is on May 5th this year - we can't afford to lose all that time - especially as April is probably the best outdoor working month of the year.

So Constantine was persuaded to organise a delivery of stone for us.  I met up with Takis in the morning, at Art Party and handed over some money, then at lunchtime a guy arrived in a pickup, to scout the area, and we agreed where the delivery should be, then Dave went off to band practice, and left me to marshal the rock truck when it arrived.

When we planted the orchard, we were thinking into the distant future, when we would want a nice view of blossoming trees from the house, but we didn't think about getting heavy deliveries close to the site.  The truck driver was an artist.  He had to squeeze between saplings, some of which had to be bent away to get the truck through.  I thought he would crush all the orchids, but amazingly, they were missed.  

The rock pile, not so far from the site, although down a short slope.  Rather larger blocks than we'd hoped.

Man in Black

Tuesday 9 April 2013

We went to move the boat on Wednesday, as she had wintered on the Neilson pontoon, but they were about to start launching their boats, and we had to move.  We took her over to the little pontoon we use when we can in the summer, but the anchor windlass stopped working and Dave found electrics that had corroded and become dangerous, so we spent much longer with the boat than expected, and had to come back the next day. 

Sitting in the sun at the Elite cafe after the job was done, we saw this blacked-out minibus with diplomatic plates draw up, and a tall guy in a dark suit and sunglasses step out.  He opened the door for a small group of what looked like Chinese tourists, who stepped into a waiting boat and were ferried out towards the islands.  That night the BBC ran a news story that the Russians had bought Onassis' island of Skorpios.  All very worrying, as it could mean major changes to this area.

Lathing it on

Sunday, Monday 7 - 8 April

Dave's first test panel for earth plaster seemed to be working well, so we threw ourselves into making more laths and nailing them to batons inside each aperture in the wood frame.  This small wall will be at the back of the battery cupboard in due course, so we felt it was a good practice area.  There's a lot of work in putting a wall in like this, but it has the advantage of using only left overs and naturally occurring materials, and so can be done at no cost whatever (a major consideration at the moment). 

Dave's first panel with scratch plaster coat, and next to it, a lathed panel, covered with fibreglass mesh to help the plaster stick.

 The chickens inspecting the work from the other side, as one of the big diagonals gets lathed

 Olive-wood corners - lovely things, but difficult to fit batons to, especially as the oily wood resists drilling.  My job was fixing the batons, and it took a while to develop a technique for the rounded corners.  Doing it like this, though, means that the corners will be visible within the wall when the plastering is finished, it won't cover them.

 The chickens are weird!  Despite Dave nailing batons right here, they came to sit close by.  We think they like being in a flock, and we're the flock.  Even if we are noisy.

 This is one of our two large piles of offcuts.  It is a joy to get this stuff used, as it takes up so much floor space.

 Me and my drill, getting into an awkward spot to fix batons

The lathed-up wall, all batons fixed and meshed, ready for plastering.  One side only, as the other side faces the bathroom, and will need a waterproof wall covering, which we're still trying to decide about.

Building Site Furniture

Saturday 6 April 2013

While Dave was experimenting with earth plaster, I decided we needed some essential items of furniture which could be knocked together out of our piles of left-over wood.  First off, I started making a robust work bench.  Dave was ripping laths out of roof planks, and I wanted him to have a solid work surface while using the circular saw.  Once he'd registered what I was doing, he came to help - luckily - as the bench rapidly got too heavy for me to manage on my own.

Three bits of rafter for the top, various bits of batten, and mezzanine joists for legs.

We had ordered the orange cordless drill by post, and it is good as a hobby drill, but the battery goes flat every 32 screws, and needs a couple of hours to recharge, which was driving me crazy.  Then some friends who are emigrating to New Zealand sold me the big green drill for a fraction of it's value - at just the right moment.

 Dave enrolled in the effort.

 Testing the bench for strength!

All finished, with a handy shelf along the bottom.

Lath and Plaster

Wednesday 3 April 2013

We're a bit frustrated now, we want to get cracking on something.  We've asked Constantine to research straw bales, and he seems to think he can get build-quality bales here in Greece, so that looks promising.  We've also asked for prices for floorboards to do out the mezzanine, so we can move in as soon as the weather is a little warmer at night.  Then there's the bathroom to staircase floor, if that gets done we can install a loo, build the internal corridor walls and put in stairs - so we need some stone flags.  Anyway, all these possible projects are in limbo, and we don't quite know what to do with ourselves. 

So today, Dave decided to try lath and plaster.  We have a lot of left-over wood from the roofing boards, as well as various offcuts from everything else, and all the temporary bracing struts.  This amount of wood is taking up floor space and being a nuisance when we're painting the wood frame.  So any productive use of the wood is excellent, as it helps to clear the space.

So we agreed that Dave would have a go at the first internal wall inside the front door - this is destined to be the back of the battery store cupboard, so he's free to make a mess if he wants.  He cut the roofing boards along their length to make laths approx 3cm wide, and nailed them with 1 cm gaps to batons inside the first trial aperture in the wall.  We picked a rectangle for the first go:

Over the laths is layered a piece of plasterer's netting.  Once upon a time this would've been hessian or burlap, but nowadays it is fibreglass.

 The reverse side faces the bathroom, and will need a waterproof covering, so it can't be earth plaster.  So we used a bit of polyester insulation left over from building the shed, as the entryway won't be heated but hopefully the bathroom will, and held it in place with a few boards.  Eventually we will decide what to face the wall with on that side.

Here's Dave, surrounded by his earth plastering equipment.  The earth is a seam of good clay that appeared about 2 feet down on the land while Dave was digging out the drainage ditch.  We set the good stuff aside on the blue tarp, and Dave has had it soaking in the flat bucket for a day or two.

 So now he has this interesting clay slip

 which can be ladled onto a wire mesh screen to be sieved into a fine paste, which is mixed with some 1" lengths of dry grass, cut from our field, and bags of sand left over from the roof mortar,

 and then slapped onto the trial frame, using hands, and a small trowel for the corner-y bits

Dave says it's a bit rough on the hands - it is full of sharp builder's sand, after all - but otherwise quite pleasant to work.  This is a first 'scratch' coat.  There'll be two more, increasingly fine coats after this.

Orchid overload

Monday 1 April 2013

Our second anniversary of living on the land, and there are orchids everywhere.  Despite the upheaval of the building process, these amazing little flowers are cropping up all over the place.  Today we have three varieties:  the bee, the wavy leaved monkey and the tongue orchid.  There's also a yellow bee orchid, but I've only seen one so far, and then I couldn't find it again.