Playing nice together

19 September 2019

During a week of beach visits, pool lazing and eating out, we found time to have a barbeque at the house.  Rob invited a few friends and he and Dave got to play a few numbers on the new terrace - with special accompaniment on the ukulele!

New lights, new deck

14 - 16 September 2019

Rowan came and worked late on the deck a couple of evenings, aware that we needed it child-safe by the weekend.

 The electrician turned up - about three months after my text message asking him to pop in when he could - to fit the lights in the solarium, a power lead to the solar water heater for back-up hot water, and an outside socket for power at the shed.  Lots of good things to have finally sorted.

Another good thing to have finally done: a nice piece of old shower curtain strung across under the sink to make the kitchen look a bit tidier.

 

 The terrace in a state of incompleteness as we left for the airport to pick up the family ...

 ... and how we found it when we returned (which was after dark, so the photos are from the next morning).  Not finished, but temp fixed for safety.

Close up, it clearly needs a trim to finish off, but looking very nice from down the slope.

Baby seemed very happy with the new floor

 

New tanks, new steps

11 - 13 September 2019

We ordered two big (2,000 litre) tanks for rainwater collection off the north face of the roof, and were very surprised to come back from Lefkada one day to find them installed.  Very neat.

While out, we picked up our child-safety haul from the post office: stair gate, high chair, and car seat.  Phew!  We're going to need a lot of grandchildren to visit to justify this lot.

 The two big tanks in position - we've no idea how easy or difficult this was to achieve, as we were out when they arrived.  Lucky that this was where we wanted them, actually!

 Work on the top terrace continues.

 We clear away the overgrown, exhausted tomato plants, and put in some winter cabbages.  The clearance means that the self-seeded rocket can thrive, so salads will be enhanced now.

 The top terrace, and skeleton step are constructed.  

We decide to build the kitchen door steps out of brick, to be clad in stone to match the house.  When I was building the masonry wall around the house, we expected to continue on round the proposed utility room foundation.  Then we found out the utility room hadn't been included in the permit, and that the area was so nice in the morning sun in winter that we preferred a terrace.  However, the wall was left in a way to make it easy to continue with stone, and it has looked ugly ever since.  This is the chance to make it all neat and finished.

 The framework in place

 Plaka arranged for the top of the steps - but it was too late to fit it, and then we ran out of time, so it will have to wait now.

The steps will do as they are for now, as it's a big job to tie it all in to the house aesthetic, and guests are arriving soon.  We don't want it to be only partly done when there's a toddler and their paraphernalia around.

Deconstructing the old, constructing the new

6 - 9 September 2019

We are expecting our first toddler visit in a week, and are doing our best to pre-empt problems and remove hazards (of which there are many!).  Lots of rubbish has to be taken out, and the old terrace top needed dismantling and barrowing to the bonfire site.

 Dave does the careful unscrewing bit, then I broke up the remainder, which was too battered to release the screws.  

 This is one of our hazardous areas.  A big heap of wood for the new terrace, the evicted workbench, looking for a new home, and some old tables that are heaven for Carpenter bees, and have to be made into bug housing.

 Work continues on the structure of the raised terrace section.  The  crossways struts were unfortunately cut too short, without reference to the plan, so an extra strengthening section had to be built to hold the cantilever supports.  It made it very much stronger in the end, but rather more work.

Dave treats the cut ends for extra protection, even though the wood is supposed to be fully weather- and bug-proofed.

Beach Clean

2 Sept 2019

A friend of ours organised an end-of-August beach clean-up, so we went along with our gloves and bags and scoured Desimi beach for cigarette ends.  About twenty people showed up, which was impressive.

Rainwater capture No.1

4 Sept 2019

Dave's next task was to connect the guttering at the front of the house to the three storage tanks.  Because water that comes off the roof is going to be dirty and potentially full of leaves and other impedimenta, we have built in a dirt trap.  As the water runs off the roof, it falls into a wide 100mm pipe that has a screw-fitting base.  This fills up with the first flush of water, until it reaches a t-junction near the top, and further flow is then diverted to the tanks via 60mm pipe.  The first flush can be drained by means of the screw-fitting after the rain has stopped.  All we need now is some rain to check it works.

Dave then connected the 60mm pipes to the tanks, with overflow fittings, draining out to our grey water trench.  Hopefully we've thought of everything.

And this is Dave's latest Ginger Beer brew, bubbling away.

Scrub clearance

3 - 4 September 2019

While we are focused on water tanks, with our three x 500 litres to go under the terrace, I thought it would make sense to start thinking about the next planned water storage facility: two x 2000 litres against the north fence near the compost.

This area is rather overgrown, so while Dave set about plumbing the three terrace tanks together, I took secateurs and a tree saw to the 'Winter Garden' area.  (So-called, because it is the only area close to the house that keeps the sun all day in the winter).

After a few hours of work in the heat, Zed arrived early, and was happy to take over and do the job in a fraction of the time, and to a very high standard.  I was amazed - I'd sort of planned to take the next week over chipping away at this!

 Before starting - overgrown trees, and a huge log pile under sailcloth, and underfoot, random garden waste and stored junk lost in the long grass.  

 Dave joining the three tanks together and putting a tap on

 Later that day, when Zed has taken over and levelled the ground with pickaxe, gravel and sand.  Just the log pile for me to move the next morning - complete with a nest of just-born baby rats!

Neatly finished with a little breeze-block retaining wall by the gate.

Terrace Waterworks

31 Aug/1 Sept 2019

Before the terrace is sealed back up, we need to make sure there is adequate access to the water pipes that come through the house.  We already have a cold feed to the garden stand-pipe, but at present we have to trail hoses all over the place to get water to the chickens and to wash the solar panels.  So we put a T junction into the pipe and ran a new spur out towards the chickens.  There is also a hot feed, in case we install a field kitchen, so that was rescued, too.

 On the left, the new stand-pipe near the chickens, compost and access to the solar panels.  We should have done this years ago!

Plumbing all done, now it just needs to be back-filled with gravel and the boards replaced.