Woodwork Week 2

24 to 28 June 2013

Rowan doesn't actually stop work.  He arrives every morning around 8.30 or 9.00, usually after taxiing some demanding sibling halfway round the island, works at least 8 hours and is invariably cheerful.  With Dave away skippering this week, I've been working on the wall, trying not too look too lazy next to Rowan.

Another exciting development was the text from Constantine the Architect finally giving us some hope for the straw bales.  A bit worrying as well, the price is around 3,000 euros.  Time for that bank loan.  Expense is apparently because they will have to take already baled straw, spread it out and rebale it densely.  The price includes delivery to us of 350 bales - possibly three trucks-worth, so it isn't too unreasonable.  Could be within 3 to 6 weeks!  Time to leap into action getting the wall ready ...

Progress went something like this:

 Posing with the bannister curve

 By Weds, first course all along the south front

 Had to use the enormous crowbar to clear the last of the shuttering board, trapped in this corner

 Most of the bannister rails in position

 Planning out a front step, something awkward will do nicely!

 Saturday morning - Rowan's gone to Lefkas to find a router bit for cutting the curve into the bannister rail, then it's all done.  Feels very safe up here now.

 My little steps all done, with experimental bit of mosaic in the top corner.  Need to think what to use as a grout.

 Progress up to first blocks around the front door, very exciting!  I'm almost out of stone - only super-large and tiny ones left.  Hoping for another delivery next week.  We'll use the tiny stones as hardcore to fill this space for paving.

Lovely curvy upstairs.  

Below: mosaic detail in the step:

 Trying out for a paved shelf to hide the concrete plinth under the pillar

Gone Skippering

23 June 2013

After our day at Nisos on Sunday, Dave took off for a week of skippering with his all-girl crew.  I met up with them on day 3, in Sivota, and as it was a girly night out, Dave was in a skirt.  I was very impressed, it only took them three days and he was strolling along the quay in a sarong!  What can they be putting in his tea?!

Solstice Party

Friday 21 June 2013

It's nice to have an excuse for a party - and we had several.  Mainly, the boys in the band wanted some easy public exposure - and although this had happened impromptu the week before, we had already arranged and invited for this one, so it was going ahead.  The other reasons were the solstice - always nice to celebrate celestial events when you live under the stars; and the very nearly full moon, apparently at it's closest to Earth for some time - this is important when you intend to party in a building site without much lighting.

So we did a little bit of edging and levelled the ground by the drystone wall, so the barbeques could be nearby but not actually that close to our wooden (flammable) structure.

 I finally collected the old tables Jessica had offered us from Mamma Mia - unfortunately they had spent the winter with their legs in a flooded basement, and had grown some exciting fungus, which had to be sliced off.

 Then people started to arrive, and we had to contrive enough seating.  The workbench was turned into the bar

Then the band started up and went on until it was too dark for photos, and we all had a really good time, even getting in a bit of dancing on the gravel floor

And so the house hosted its first party, and it all went very well, thanks largely to the robust spirit of our friends, who didn't mind the primitive toilet facilities, uneven floors, lack of walls and all the other inconveniences.  

Sinuous Woodwork

Monday 17 to Friday 21 June 2013

Rowan the carpenter had agreed to do the fancy woodwork for us, and said he was just finished on another project, so he was able to start on Monday.  I'm so glad we asked him to do it, we would've made a terrible bodge of it.  This is how it developed through the week:

Boat Trips

14 to 18 June 2013

We took Dave's cousin Keith and Linda out on the boat for an overnight stay in a bay the next day.  Our first chance for a trip out in the boat since launching.  We tacked down the Meganissey channel, with Keith on the helm, having a great time, put into Sivota for little fishes for lunch, then sailed round the other side of Meganissey to our favourite bay, codenamed 'Choc-rock' due to the geology which looks like melted chocolate.  Pete and Ed came alongside in their boat, with large helpings of spaghetti bolognaise for the intrepid sailors.  We had an amazing sighting of an Eagle owl while we were there - Europe's largest owl.  It was sitting in a thicket being mobbed by crows - Dave saw it fly in, being the observant type, the rest of us only saw it in the bushes, all tufty ears and nearly 3 ft tall.

I had just got a new prescription dive mask, so although the water was chilly for extended snorkelling, I gave it a go, and spotted a cuttlefish, like a large squid, with black and white tiger patterns down its back.

In the morning, we were bothered by a big powerboat anchoring nearby, and then this little fishing boat appeared to sell fish to the powerboat, and we were surprised to see our friend Grey - another ex-pat - on board, helping out as the fisherman's mother was sick.

However, moments later, the coastguard turned up and told Grey he was not allowed to help his friend, as he was not a professional fisherman and would be fined on the next occasion, which rather spoiled the moment.

We were back for work at Nisos on Sunday, and then had two days of joint skipper training on one of the boats Dave winterises, a couple new to the partnership that owns her.  One of their first questions was whether we saw dolphins very often, so we explained that they are quite rare now, as the area is so overfished and you hardly ever see them, etc, etc.  Then this happened:

(Apparently these are 'short-beaked common dolphins' - I bet that's not what they call themselves!  NB, that's my foot in the lower right hand corner, the white splodge is the bow of the boat.)

First Night

Weds 12 to Thursday 13 June 2013

Our first night under our new roof.  We flopped the mattress on the floor, stapled up some textiles, and after all the excitement with the Winnebago, slipped into the mosquito net as the sun went down.

We woke exceptionally bright and early - impossible not to, when the sunrise floods the space soon after 6 am.

I had Jade, age 11 with me for the day on Thursday, as Pete and Lin, her parents, had to be elsewhere.  So Jade and I scrubbed the futon base bits I was given by Amanda (NZ emigrator) and screwed them together, then wrestled the mattress on top.  Then we stapled some more textiles around the wood frame walls to cosy up the space a bit more. 

Not only was Thursday my Mum's birthday, but also band practice night.  The lads turned up and got started, then Neohori Lin and Pete returned with the borrowed car, and stayed for a drink while waiting for Jade to get back from dance class and their son Rowan came to see the band practice and discuss woodwork; then brother Pete and Ed, with Dave's cousin Keith and Linda also arrived, as  K & L are here for a fortnight and wanted to see the house, and Keith loves live music.  It all became very convivial, Neohori Pete and I having a boogie where the bathroom is going to be, and brother Pete taking a turn on the mic.
 

 Linda, Keith, Jade, Linda, Pete, Pete and Ed (Not too difficult to remember each others' names!)

Somewhere during the middle of all this, I saw Michael and Andy over by the Winnebago, jump starting the starter motor and driving her away.  So apart from a bit of debris yet to be collected by Michael and Alison, our field is our own again.