Gone Fishing

Monday 13 October 2014

Another Sunday at Nisos, but the weather was so much nicer that Dave decided to take the boat out for a fishing trip on Monday.  This gave me the chance to sneak off upstairs and slap a coat of plaster onto the wall sections in my studio.

 Getting started ...

 ... some hours later.

 Even the little corner section of bales outside the studio at the top of the stairs got done.

Meanwhile, the fishermen had done the job and Dave brought this one back for us.  I met him in George's and we decided to be lazy and ask George to cook it for us!

Stem wall revisited

Fri/Sat 10/11 October 2014

Base coat plastering proceeded apace, while I tackled the stem wall, getting this last end up to height.

 Inside, most of the wall sections were first-coated.  This photo shows the bale scaffolding - much nicer than ladders - and various bags of loose straw and straw chopped by strimmer in a metal bin.  Chopped straw is mixed into the plaster to make a filler.

Below shows the several stages of dealing with the lowest level of wall, where the stone stem wall extends above the ultimate floor level.  The stone will not be as insulating as the straw, and will potentially cause a cold feeling at floor level.  After some thought, we decided to insulate using the polyester wool.  On the left is an untreated section of wall, showing the stem wall, green wood ladder frame and lower courses of bales.  On the right is a section where the bales have been first-coated, and the stone has been covered with insulation and lathed ready for plaster.

Starting the inner walls

Weds/Thurs 8/9 Oct 2014

Now the outside bale walls are finally finished, the interior can be focused on.  We are keen to get the music room fully plastered, and a stove installed, before the winter arrives.  So we have two parallel objectives - build and plaster the walls to the music room, and get the East face ready for baling.

We still had Nisos turnaround work on Sunday, and we'd been called in to move boats due to bad weather on Friday.  Then Sunday came with all sorts of storm warnings, and we were called out at 1.30 am for two hours in the rain and dark, moving boats off the quay.  Two hours sleep, then we were back at work, for what turned out to be a 12 hour stretch each.  The good thing was that we earned enough to keep Paris on the payroll for quite a while. 

After sleeping all day Monday, and sitting out the rain on Tuesday, we were all back in action on Wednesday through Thursday, getting that plaster splattered.

 First coat - lime plaster applied by hand (in rubber gloves) and massaged into the bale surface.  This is the crucial insect, vermin and fire-repellent coating.  

 

 Paris getting stuck in - learning a new technique

 Rowan came by and fixed this orange-painted block onto the concrete foundation for the supporting pillar to the right of the kitchen door.

 Wednesday night - apparently a 'blood' moon - very close to the earth and looking much bigger than in this photo.

Thursday, work progressing.  All three of us variously massaging the walls - as I remarked to Paris, by the time we're done, every inch of this house will have been lovingly stroked!

Back in Action

Saturday 4 October 2014

We were just knocking off for the day on Friday when we heard a vehicle on the track.  Expecting a major wood delivery we went out to help, and found instead it was our friendly Albanian hardware shop owner, Robert Tatos, with an even more battered mortar mixer than the last one.

He and his wife, Flora, were persuaded to stay for a beer (him, not her) and a look round our wacky building site.  He said the mixer didn't work, but perhaps Dave could get it started.  Then the wood delivery arrived and Robert and Flora left.

Next day, Dave got stuck into the new machine.  Lots of carburettor cleaning, but just after lunch it roared into life - and kept going.  A bit chugga-chugga, but functioning! 

 This picture fails to do justice to the magic moment - clouds of white smoke and lots of noise!

 Dave put a mix on for me, and then, for his second triumph of the day - finished the final coat of limewash on the bale walls.  Hurrah!  All finished, and most of the window frames glossed as well.

 The mortar mix was for me to get started on the first stage of preparing the East wall: installing these flat stones into the stem wall so that supporting pillars can be placed. 

Then moving on to the edge of the stem wall, which needs a small extension to carry the wall round the corner by the kitchen door.

Wildlife

3 October 2014

It's all very romantic living close to nature, but sometimes nature comes a little bit too close.

 BIIG spider in the sink 

 Frogs in the living room.  I unearthed these two while sorting out the wood offcut pile in preparation for delivery of the latest supplies ready for prep'ing the bale wall and lathing the music room.

 And then this horror - Dave's old motorbike helmet, happily sitting on our landing.  While clearing the space for access to the internal wall with the music room, I found it had a mud pile inside.  Strange - so I poked it.  It broke apart to reveal this cocoon with a maggoty thing just visible inside.  Probably a wasp, but we're not going to keep it to find out!

Beginnings

Tues 30 Sept to Fri 3 October 2014

A lovely day for a wedding - two friends of ours got married by the sea:

Sue & Mike - Congratulations

Then, Wednesday morning, we were finally ready to get started.  Paris turned up bright and early and off we went:

 Paris painting the pantry window

 and taping up the kitchen window

 Dave limewashing

 Mid-afternoon we had a call-out to help Nisos move boats, and we had just had visitors from the wedding party, Mike with his new son-in-law, Paul, so we invited him along for the boat moving and persuaded him to pose for this shot in the support boat!

When we got back, Rowan had arrived to collect Paris, together with a kitten looking for a home.  The kitten took off in excitement - having been living on a boat up till now - and was eventually tracked down at the top of this olive tree.

Mixer Misery

29 September 2014

All our plans were in place.  We had asked Paris to work for a few hours a day to help us get things moving, we would run the mixer non-stop, plastering the interior bale walls in the music room and studio, then move on to prepping the next bale wall - the east face.  These happy plans ground to an unexpected halt on Saturday evening, when Robert Tatos, the owner of the mortar mixer, turned up without warning and said he needed it for a week.

What a blow!  Incredibly bad timing.  So we had an emergency re-think and shelved the plastering plans.  Dave will continue with limewashing the external bale walls - 2 to 3 more coats all round and it should be properly weatherproofed.  Meanwhile, Paris and I will paint the window and door frames in the kitchen, to weatherproof those too.  Then we'll have to start building the framework for the bales on the east.  Maybe it's for the best, prioritising the outside walls, but we were hoping for a cosy music/sitting room finished for winter.

Paris will start on Wednesday, so we have a couple of days to put in more ground work.

First, collect the scaffolding from Amanda who borrowed it. Clever Punto!

 Then put a coat of limewash in the easy to reach section of the kitchen wall

I was doing the laundry (again!) but suddenly had this idea for a raised bed to be ready to plant out in spring.  It is a way of using up some old roofing boards cluttering the music room, and also disposes of the bike box (lining the bottom) and the rotten bale that had to be pulled out of the wall while building - it makes good mulch.  I can throw compost in here for a few months and dig it all in for spring planting.

Gearing Up

25-26 September 2014

Finally all the jollies had come to an end and we were able to start thinking about getting the building work restarted.  Dave was planning to service all the machinery while I did the piles of washing, but first we put my new bike together.

 Fabulous!

 This is the box it came in, not an easy package to cart around an airport!

 Dave getting stuck into the big generator, having already serviced the mixer and the small generator.

 Our confused pear tree is in flower and fruit at the same time

 Friday, I cleared up our work space / back yard, then Dave tackled the undergrowth

Off to Corfu

22 - 24 September 2014

Jonathan returned to the UK on Sunday, but Rob, Tanya and family, who had come out for Regatta, were still around, so we went out for a day's fishing on Monday (but didn't catch anything).  Fuelled by a few beers, we took the sudden decision to join them in Corfu on Tuesday night (mainly because there was a rare Liverpool - Middlesbrough football match on the telly).

We stayed with the lovely Nina at Takis' in Kontokali, watched the match (which was phenomenal, going to an unheard-of 14-13 on penalties) and had a lovely day pottering our way to the ferry and then back home via the Springs of Acheron on the mainland.

Regatta 2014

14 - 21 September 2014

Back in Greece, with Jonathan and an enormous box full of mountain bike, we joined Dave in 'Tropi' (minus the bike) and set off for a week of yacht racing.

 The first evening was very jolly, with traditional costume Greek dancing and the lads from the shanty choir giving an impromptu performance.

I don't seem to have taken any photos while actually sailing - too intense and focused, perhaps.   So the next images I have are from Jonathan's five star hotel to which he retired on day 3 after concussing himself on the boom.  Dave and I with Naomi and Pete who crewed with us for the Regatta joined him for a swim on Friday.  We did rather well in the regatta, coming joint 2nd in our class, but due to an input error that affected our handicap, this wasn't recognised on the night and we missed out on our moment of glory at the prize-giving.  

Much-needed relaxation for our over-taxed skipper!