Concrete corner

Saturday to Monday 27, 28, 29 July 2013

Another gig for the boys on Saturday, at a Charity do up the hill in Paleokatuna.  Much fun was had by all.  I don't know how Dave is holding out at the moment: he practices twice a week, performs at least once and digs trenches all day in the heat.  Note to self - make him take a holiday. 

This is the bottom step of the stairs, made out of three oak boards and a piece of roundwood at the front.  This will disappear into the floor, but the curving edge will be visible.

The above step out of position on the bench

 Horrors!  Concrete in the corner.  Simon wants the job done, no time to wait for limecrete, so we agreed to a small concrete slab to lay the few paving stones needed to fix the toilet down.

 The shower tray, needed to finalise the plumbing, even tho' we won't be needing this one for a while as we can still easily use the one in the shed, no rush to tile.

 The flight of stairs from the ground floor, complete with noses and lowest step in oak.  Even the cat seems impressed.

 The paving slabs in place, just enough room to bolt down the toilet, the rest will be done in limecrete.

Passion for Plumbing

Thurs 25 and Fri 26 July 2013

Simon arrived very bright and early and got straight into fixings and pipings.  We helped where we could and hindered as little as possible, and the house filled up with strong primary reds and blues, a bit of a shock to the eyes after wood and earth and rock.

 Dave took on the drilling through concrete, here creating a pipe run into the utility space

 The first fixings - shower taps

 Dave 'un-digging' his gravel trench, to lay the poo pipe.  

Not so hard in clean gravel as it was the first time

 Simon at work in the bathroom ...

 ... creating a symphony of plastic in our eco-house -but what options are there?

 At last, excitement, fittings for the loo in place, water in, poo pipe out.

 The really hard trench to dig that half-killed Dave.  The run from the gravel trench over to the soakaway.  I got the easy job and went shopping for more bits in Lefkas

Laying the poo pipe.  The umbrella is pretty useless and looking slightly drunk.

Hard times

Tuesday 23 and Weds 24 July 2013

Rowan needed hardwood noses for the front of the soft pine steps, and we had been directed to a little woodyard in the back of beyond where the locals took their felled trees, so the three of us set off to find some indigenous hardwood.  This was Tuesday, as Dave was skippering on Monday.

The woodyard was awesome.  There were chickens everywhere - definitely de rigueur for building sites and workshops round here, but he also had a pregnant goat in a pen at the back, and the biggest oldest, British-made engine for turning his bandsaw.

This is the wood we came away with.  Some pieces of scrub oak, which grows everywhere on our land and hereabouts, to cut up for the tread noses; and several pieces of broadleaf oak to replace our threshholds - which have all got threaded bar with nuts and washers standing several centimetres clear of the proposed floor level.  We also got two long wide pieces of cypress for the areas where the ringbeam is in open floor.  Lots more work for Rowan. 

On the same trip to Lefkas, we met up with Simon Plumber and collected all the plumbing equipment we need to put hot and cold feeds through the house.  That happens on Thursday and Friday - what fun!  We also bought the toilet - taa raa!

The following day, in a break from digging out pipe trenches, Dave spotted a little stoat-type creature nosing out of the rockpile.  We watched it dart about, trying to get into the chicken run, flicking back into the rocks, reappearing; gave me long enough to reach for the camera and set it on repeating shots, which allowed me to capture these two pics of the little fella trapped inside the chicken run - once he'd found a way in - and before he worked out how to get out again.

Here's our pipe run, all along the back of the central section of the house.  Dave was impressed with the efficiency of the layout - 'it's almost as if it was planned' he said.  I just fumed!

Rowan continued hard at work throughout...

 

 ... and the band went on in the Tree Bar again - hard work for Dave after a day's pickaxing.

Pottering on

Third week: 15 - 21 July 2013

Now the heat really has hotted up, and we move a little slower - Dave and I do, anyway.  Rowan seems indefatigable.  I finished laying the paving stones in the kidney bean, and ended up without stones small enough to fill this shape.  To me it looks like a dolphin, Dave said it's more like an Ichthyosaur, as dolphins don't have tails like that.  Whatever, it's begging for a mosaic, which is a nice static indoor kind of job, so that's me sorted for a while.

Rowan mentioned to Jade that I was on the lookout for broken tiles, and she turned up with a large bagful.  Apparently Neohori village has a dumping ground for tile display boards, so there's plenty more if I want them.  This is what I came up with.  Just got to decide whether to install it in the doorstep now.

One night this week, we were making a night-time pilgrimage to the loo / compost bin, and put on a torch at the top of the stairs.  This must have awakened a sleeping hornet, which chased us back into bed, quivering under the mosquito net.  It continued to harass us through the net until we squirted it with insect killer.  Next morning I found out what she was being so protective of:

... little baby pottery nests.  I don't think we'll keep them, not if there are potential inch long hornets inside.

I didn't take many photos this week, but Dave started lowering the floor level in the bathroom, as we've researched limecrete slabs and they need about 10cm depth, so he's pick-and-shovelling dirt.  I finished the wall around the front door, both sides up to level, and filled the main doorstep full of broken roof tiles as hardcore.

The afternoon temperatures are in the very high 30s in the afternoon, so we'll take any excuse to do some 'research'!  But seriously, we are being messed around by the potential bale supply people, and started to properly consider a technique called 'straw-clay' as an alternative to baled walls.  We originally dismissed this option because of the cost.  It requires a wooden framework into which you stuff straw that has been tossed in clay slip.  We already have half the framework in our wooden wall structure, so we'd need to build a second framework about a foot / 30cm out.  But since we found out the cost of build-quality straw bales, the extra wood required for straw-clay doesn't seem so daunting.  The big issue for us is that until this decision is made, we can't continue with the stem wall.  Straw bales need a 50cm wide wall, and straw-clay only 30cm.  Lots of research needed - in the shade, sitting in comfy chairs, drinking tea ...

Ups and Downs

July second week: 8 - 14th

A week of considerable progress.  Surprisingly, the enervating heat hasn't kicked in yet, so we got quite a bit done.  I finished the outline of the kidney bean step, then Dave mixed up some limecrete and we poured a slab for the paving to be laid on.  In between, Dave started digging out for the plumbing - we are very very keen to get the loo installed, as it would free up enough electricity to run another fridge - and we need lots of chilled water these days as the stuff in the pipes is too hot to drink by 11am; and Rowan made excellent progress building the stairs.

On Wednesday 10th the boys played their first gig - at the Tree Bar in Nidri - to general acclaim.  During the euphoric post-adrenaline phase of the evening the band name was born: Mark came up with 'Steamboat' and I added 'Rooster'.  So here they are: Steamboat Rooster in their first public appearance.

 The thing about the Tree Bar is that you can't get a good photo for all the foliage!

On Thursday we were off on a mission.  Our friends Lin and Pete from up the mountain, Rowan and Jade's parents, had never been to Kalamos.  Lin had said sadly some weeks back that she had spent 30 years living up the mountain with a great view of Kalamos but had never actually been there, so we invited them on the boat and took off.  We swam in a bay on the NW side, then scooted round to stay overnight in our favourite spot on Kastos, then nipped back into Kalamos town the next day for coffee and ice-creams and a look around.

Jade didn't stop swimming for two days

Dave and Pete engaged in a very low key fishing competition which nobody won

 

While exploring on Kalamos, we found this example of extreme parking.  

I reckon they should get out more!

Rowan's Canoe

Saturday 6 July 2013


Last year Rowan made a Canadian style white water canoe out of strips of sapele wood and fibreglass.  We offered to help Rowan get the canoe from the top of the mountain where he lives, down to sea level, so Saturday morning we took the van up to Neohori, and helped Rowan and his siblings Charlie, Jasmine and Jade set sail from Vlicho.

They took off for Meganissey, had a nice lunch and a swim, anchoring the canoe by tying a rope to an underwater rock, then set back in the afternoon, without remembering to untie the rock.  Rowan and Jasmine, the crack rowing team, travelled a few hundred metres before realising it shouldn't be so much effort!  The wind got up during the return journey and several passing yachts, seeing Jade, age 12, in an open boat battling a lumpy sea either offered help, or reported in to their charter companies in Nidri.  As a result, a rib was sent out to the rescue, but the driver, who knew them all very well, just said 'Oh, it's you lot!' and turned round for home.  They took 4 hours to get back, unbeaten, but exhausted.  Jade, usually very sparkly on a Sunday, helping with the laundry, was a limp rag all day and of little use.

Glamping it up

I'd forgotten there was a modern buzz word for glamorous camping: 'glamping'.  It seems that is what we are doing, with our posh roof, and proper mattress and bed support.  This is how July progressed:

Week 1 - 7 July 2013

 Quick update on the chickens - both still alive and well, and adapting comfortably to life on a building site.  They're going to be a bit shocked when we eventually have walls and they are banned from their favourite cool resting places.

 Here's my front doorstep shape drawn out in stone, ready for a front row of bricks to hold in the mortar slab.  It is generally known as the kidney bean.

 Hurrah!  New delivery of stone to continue the walls.

 Aerial view of band practice in the music room.  The boys are meeting twice a week and getting pretty good at their small but exquisite set.

 Upstairs, Rowan has finished the bannisters around the stair well - not that we have any stairs yet - but at least we can't fall down the hole when groping around for the ladder with legs crossed in the middle of the night!

 This is the end curve of the balcony - designed to extend the floor space to include the best aperture for an intended window - the view is in the pic below.

Rowan starts work on the stairs - v. exciting.