Bale-raising the West Wall: Day Two

29 September 2015

My Mum, Dad and two brothers are all coming to visit tomorrow, so my contribution to the bale-raising was minimal today, as I struggled to put some parts of the house back in order.  Bale-raising invariably coats the whole house in dust and loose straw, and those rooms directly affected, like the bathroom and bedroom, suffer the worst.  So I was cleaning and washing rugs most of the day.

 Luckily, the rest of the team were on form

 ... running mostly on tea at regular intervals.

 Dave was splitting bales as fast as Rowan and Tusc could jam them into the wall

 Mostly baled by 3pm, time to make soffit boards to protect the top edges from rain.  The boards are pushed hard into the bales under the end rafters, with membrane and plastering mesh to help with weather protection and adhesion under the plaster.  Dave managed to put one piece of membrane on back to front, hopefully it won't make any difference!

 Stuffing the last spaces over the big window in the living room - Tusc treating it as a climbing frame.

 Jade came by for a singing lesson with Rosa in the music room, then offered to help me with the cleaning - she did a wonderful job on the bathroom.  Paris also arrived, after a hard day's villa cleaning, but was also willing to help clear and brush up some of the internal loose straw.

I was in the little space at the end of our bedroom over the entry, fixing batons to hold the straw so it could be shoved in hard from the outside.  I started creating the final one of my stuffed mesh corners, but Tuscany soon took over and did the top.

 All the bales are in.  Hooray!!!  That's it for the bales now.  Still loads to do with plastering and whitewashing and cobbing, and for Rowan - lots of window and door frames.  But still a major milestone.

The bale-raising dream-team: Jade, Paris, Tuscany, Dave, Rowan (and me, behind the camera) sitting up the slope, admiring the fluffy house and having a beer (some of us).

Bale-raising the West Wall: Day One

Monday 28 Sept 2015

After working on Sunday we decided not to take a rest day, but burst into action to make the most of two days of forecast sunshine, Rowan's availability and the extra help of Paris's brother Tuscany, staying with them for a few weeks. 

 By 10 am most of the lower storey was in.  Tuscany had learnt the ropes very quickly and he and Rowan were chucking those bales around like they were baloons.  Dave and I were quickly relegated to bale splitting - which is slightly easier on the back.

 Onwards and upwards.  Rowan demonstrating the persuader.

 A fiddly little bit in the middle of the wall, where the internet and power from the batteries comes into the house.  I came up with this offcut of plywood fixed to the upright to hold the pipe in place.  After we plaster, we can screw a cover down to the ply.  Next to it on the right is a section of wall too small for a piece of bale, so I thought of lathing it so loose straw could be rammed in tight from above.

 Progressing nicely, but the sun full on the west, so we left the rest of this face and moved round to the north.

Rowan fixing ladder frames to hold the corner neat, while Tusc ties in bales below.

Baling begins

Thurs, Fri, Sat 24 - 26 Sept 2015

Window boxes all in place, and the ladder frames made and fitted, on the west wall and round the corner on the little bit of north wall.  But then it started to rain.  For two days we couldn't proceed, and Rowan disappeared off to his workshop.  Dave and I managed to do some little bits, especially around the front door, which has so many angles and curves and different heights that it really benefited from having considered attention, rather than our usual mad dash during bale raising.

 The corner of test-bed baling we managed to do on Thursday before it rained, now cowering under sailcloth in the rain.

 The north wall - circumnavigation!  This is where the latest section meets up with the music room walls that we did first - nearly two years ago.  Okay, we've left a five metre gap on the south face which will be made of cob, but otherwise, this will be all the bale walls in, once it is complete.

 The left-hand side of the front door, using the same softening technique as before ...

 ... in close-up, the ladder frame upright is stuffed with straw, and then an extra bit of padding is trapped tight under blue mesh to soften those corners.  The mesh is stapled to an upright lath, which is then screwed to the door post - this allows the mesh to be pulled very tight without distorting (my invention!)

 Paris, still hard at work, nearly finished with the whitewash.  Only the lower section up to the ringbeam is being done, otherwise we'd need to get the scaffolding in, and there is nowhere else in the house for the furniture, as all areas are affected by the baling.

 Meanwhile, I had asked an Albanian friend of ours if his Dad would strim the land clear of long grass, and he came up to do it.  I've been reading a lot about permaculture and forest gardens, and am very keen to start terracing and planting the land.  Clearing it is a small but significant start.

 Nearly up to the roof in the porch area

 This is my dry garden (xericulture in Greek) in the terrace alongside the wall we're baling.  I put down a mulch of straw and wood chip and watched our aloe vera plants gasp with delight.

The night of the 27th, when I should've been sleeping well before our bale-raising planned for the next day - instead I woke up at 4.30 am and stepped outside the see the moon eclipse.  I spent 30 minutes on the front step getting bitten by everything, then went back to bed, where Dave had a perfect view out through a corner of window, over the edge of the tarpaulin.

Exposing the west face

23 Sept 2015

Day two of Rowan's time: we dropped the tarpaulins and sailcloth that have covered the west wall for the last two years.  It's a long time since we've seen this part of the house!

 This is the wall that we intended to build with the light straw-clay method, when we didn't think we would be able to get any build-quality bales in Greece.  That method required shuttering, so we built the internal walls to the entry, bathroom and bedroom out of lath and plaster (the green-treated laths are the stripes above).  One section was plastered on the outside, as plasterboard for tiling round the shower went inside - that's the bright white section, lower left.

 Rowan precariously trimmed down one of the jutting ceiling joists, balanced on our trial bales, testing the base frame for fit.

 Then Dave and Rowan constructed a big ladder frame to stabilize the wall between upper and lower floors.  This is partly just an extended lintel for the ground floor window, and is probably much more than is needed, but the bales aren't brilliant quality, and it helps our earthquake stability, doing it this way.

 Dave hanging onto the rope holding up one end of the frame, while Rowan prepares the upright for that end.

Paris, still in action, getting round the music room at full speed

Powering ahead

Tues 27 Sept 2015

Regatta over with, Rob and Tanya gone home, and Dave on a strict de-tox, we lurched into action on Tuesday 27 to make the most of having a couple of weeks of Rowan's time.  The weather looking mostly clement, we were aiming to get all the woodwork for the west wall in place ready for baling.

 Rowan started constructing window boxes 

 Paris joined the strength on a mission to clean up the plaster walls in the music room and get three coats of whitewash all round, so it would be all clean and fresh for when my Mum comes to stay in a week and a half

 I tackled this corner to the left of the front door, padding it out with straw held taut under blue plastering mesh, hiding the wood frame so that it will have a soft curve when plastered.

Then Dave and I took the window boxes outside for a coat of protective water-based varnish, and set them around the yard like a strange art installation.

Regatta 2015

Monday 14 Sept 2015

Rob arrived with Tanya on Sunday with the intent to play with Dave and his latest band, Soundwave, at the Regatta.  So we had three days of 6 hour rehearsals.  The music room lived up to its name.

Out for dinner with Rob and Tanya - Rob not too sure about his ouzo!

 Dave's first time singing at Regatta - backing vocals with Pete on the right.

 And delivering a blistering guitar solo in 'Sex on Fire' with Rob

The morning after - our boat gathered up Jade, Paris and Rowan overnight, with a total of nine sleepers on board including us, Rob and Tan, and Pete and Lin.

Just ahead of the rain

Monday 7 Sept 2015

The chimney process had stalled due to lack of pipes, but George was able to come back on Monday and finish the job.  We were in a state of mild panic, as there was rain forecast and we didn't want to get any water in the ceiling boards after they'd had a long dry summer to recover from last winter's wetting. 

 The end of the summer - tarpaulins covering the unplastered bales and window boxes - no more light in the living room until the plastering is done.

 But ready for winter - the chimney installed and the stove back in place.  The chimney has been designed so the flue pipe inside the chimney blocks has an air gap all around it.  There is a ventilation inlet at the bottom right and an outlet at top left (visible above).  When we get a fan installed, and pipes from the outlet to the bedroom and bathroom, we will be able to circulate the hot air (not flue gases) to heat those other two rooms.  How neat is that?

 Off to Lefkas to pay for the roof to be sealed around the chimney by our original roofer, Yianni.  Walking through the old town, I spotted these couple of traditional doors as potential inspiration for our own front door design.

 That evening, some of the girls who had done the wacky crystals course with me earlier in the year were back in town for another course, so we invited them over for a barbeque.  Never have we had so many people in the music room!

Then early next morning, after Yianni had installed flashing and tiles, Dave put the final coat of waterproofing 'stucco' on the chimney and it is all sealed.  Then it rained.

Mixing it up

Saturday 5 September

Now that the ladder base frames are made, we're back messing with lime mortar, leveling the frames on stones and mortaring them down.  Once the mortar dries, we fill them with gravel and there you are: stable, level, bale-sized bases for building on.

This the the west wall.  It's been wrapped in sailcloth for two years.  The inside has been lath and plastered, as it shelters much of our living space: bedroom above and bathroom below.  It will be wonderful to get windows and insulation in these rooms, but the process will, as always, be messy and disruptive.

Chimney

3-4 Sept 3015

So the bales were neatly stacked and the day's work done by 8.30 am.  But then we heard from George the chimney builder that he could come the next day.  We looked at the music room and realised that we had only one day to clean up and whitewash the panels in the wall that would be affected.  So, another long day - by 7 pm I had scraped excess plaster, scrubbed the lime-stained wood and put three coats of limewash on four panels ready for chimneying. 

 It looks like one of those Tangram puzzles - you can just see from the photo the four panels that have been spruced up

 Dave, meanwhile, was out measuring and making ladder base frames for the bale wall - under the sailcloth covers.

George's work on the chimney - first stage, fireproof backing board.

Sometime later, the first piece of pipe fitted into square chimney blocks and plastered over.

 While Dave continued making base frames, for the west face ...

 ... and the last little bit of the north wall

 and I played with our new super-toy for the garden - a wood chipper.  Finally we can clear away the mounds of twiggy waste littering the land, chip it into mulch and bung it on every growing surface we can construct.  The first few loads went onto this dormant artichoke bed, one of our few perennial crops that seem to do okay without much attention,.