Fire Tiles and Dress Rehearsal

19 September 2017

The plinth was ready for tiling on Tuesday, so Dave tackled that (stressful) job, while I did boring domestic tasks, and then the dancing girls came round for a final dress rehearsal of our routine for Regatta on Thursday.  We are doing 'Son of a Preacher Man' as dancing nuns!

 Rowan turned up with the bannister parts to fit, and all the remaining window casements, ready to be painted and then fitted.

 Us girls, looking saintly - ish!

 Dress rehearsal (above -  fully tiled plinth in the background) and in full regalia, on the night (below)

A lot of Barrowing

15 - 16 September 2017

So we created a form for the plinth, about a metre square.  The top will be covered with fire bricks, about 75 x 85 cm, so we wanted the plinth to be just a little larger.  The excess will disappear under terracotta at a later stage, so that's okay. 

We looked at the area to pour, and thought, 'maybe ... four barrows?'.  We ran out of cement before we were half full, so we had to wait till the next day before we could get more and get finished.

Clearing for Action

14 September 2017

We have been in communication with a nice man across Greece in Lamia, who was put in touch with us by the Danish company that we want to buy a stove from.  Mr Panos, as I have been calling him (he emails me as 'Mrs Sara') has been very helpful, and we have finally agreed on a stove to be fitted in the kitchen.

We would like the stove installed before it gets cold, so mid-November at the latest.  But we have no floor there yet and will need to build a concrete plinth to hold the stove.  It could be limecrete, but the stove will weigh about 300kg when fitted, so we need a plinth that is thoroughly set, and limecrete could take several months.

First stage, clear the area:

Pouring more Limecrete

12 September 2017

We arranged with Dmitri to come and give us a hand with the mixer, so we could pour the remaining two thirds of the room in one go.  Dmitri made mixes, Dave shovelled the mix into the floor, and I levelled it.  It worked really well.  We covered 5 square metres 10 cm thick in three hours (including tea breaks).

 The day didn't start off too auspiciously, but the rain stopped after this rainbow showed up

 We remembered to put the steel in before the mix this time

 Starting to fill the central third

 Dmitri at work on the mixes

 Dave barrowing it in

All levelled, even the tricky bit under the front door.  Ready for the batteries in about a month, although we may try to grout the stones before then.

Going off early

Monday 11 Sept 2017

We poured the first third of the limecrete base slab at the back of the boot-room because that is where the batteries are intended for.  But limecrete can take weeks to go off, and we still need to put stone flooring on top.  I was wondering how we'd do it, but Dave suggested we just slap a few stones down now - only where they'll be needed first, as the lime mortar would go off at the same time as the slab.  The first section had had five days to start to harden up, and would take the stones, he reckoned.  So that's what we did.  It was a bit of a stretch, but I could lean on the levelling stick, and managed without leaving any hand or foot prints!

Sweet sweet potatoes

7 Sept 2017

We poured the first part of the floor in the morning, which left the afternoon (after siesta!) for gardening.  Dave planted the last of the sweet potato sproutlings, which means we now have about 18 plants, and if they turn into potatoes, will be our best (only?) crop this year.

 We also have a couple of self-seeded trailing melon/squash/courgette-type plants, which responded to the thunderstorm last Friday by throwing out some interesting fruits.

Limecrete floor

Thursday 7th Sept 2017

The boot-room floor was now fully dug out and raked level, so we could start on pouring the limecrete.  Our mix is 4 buckets sand, 4 gravel, 1 lime, half a cup of cement and water.  The cement isn't necessary, but as we need this floor to set within a month, we thought it prudent to add a little.

 The damped floor, with a wooden levelling beam installed

 The plank ramp from the back terrace moved to bridge the slope onto the front steps

 Dave brings the first barrow-load

 after which we remember to put a wire framework in to reinforce the slab, which Dave cuts to fit with the grinder and we push down into the first mix

 Some time later, after two more barrow-loads, I survey the situation

 and then carry on levelling.

And wouldn't you know it?  Not quite enough to finish off.  Not a problem with lime - we'll top it up when we pour the next section.

A working strimmer, at last

6 September 2017

Another one of our new electric purchases is the battery powered strimmer.  One morning I leapt out of bed at 7am and went to try it out before the sun was too high - and it ran out of cord.  So next time we were in Lefkas we obtained more, but another opportunity hadn't come along until this evening.

 This gives an idea of how the whole of our one-acre plot looked - very overgrown with long, dry grasses, interspersed with vicious thistles

 After half-an-hour, when both I and the battery were thoroughly discharged, we'd done a fair amount of the land.  Lots yet to do, but nice to see the trees and shrubs again (especially the ones that have survived so far).

Finally back to work

5 September 2017

We were making lists to decide what to start with, (now that the year is finally our own to get on with some actual house building) and we realised that the now-ordered new off-grid system, including big batteries, has nowhere to go when it arrives.  We need a floor - quickly!  

The battery location is to be in the entry/boot room behind the front door.  It is a relatively small space, about 2.5 by 3 metres.  We measured down, and realised that around 4 cm of earth needed to be dug out to give a deep enough (10cm) slab of limecrete.

 First job, to peel up the black waterproofing membrane that has been stomped into the floor, and staple it to the wooden base beam.  The membrane is there to isolate the wood from the concrete, as concrete wicks up moisture, which we don't want in the wood.

Then we started pickaxing, and then stopped again, because it was very difficult, and put the walls at risk.  Dave remembered the big drill had a hammer-chisel attachment, so we switched to that.  The earth in this room is clay with gravel, and has been tamped down by four years of foot traffic - it was very solid.   

Dave worked his way around the floor with the drill, and I shovelled up the loose stuff as he made it.

Staying Guests

25 - 28 August 2017

Jonathan and Bella came ashore after their two week sailing holiday, and were brave enough to stay with us for three nights (rather than flee to a hotel with aircon and, say, floors.

Lots of fun, lots of visits to the beach, and to start off, a selfie at the football after work on Sunday:

 and another one when we walked up to the waterfalls on Tuesday evening.

 Then, on Friday, our friend Lucy opened her second exhibition in Lefkas town.  Dave took his guitar.