The Start of 2008

There has been a slight delay in the publication of this latest page. The editor has been otherwise engaged!

This could be it. The Big Year. We are hopeful that this year will see us leaving the safety of a house that was built by someone who knew how to build to one that is being built by someone who doesn't! OK! Enough of the glass half empty stuff and onto glass half full: what progress can we report over the last couple of months? Lots! And what remains to be done before we can move over? Lots! 

The last picture in Autumn 2007 shows the mini-ramp removed. That area now sports a retaining wall that will, eventually, be a barbeque area complete with sink, etc. Behind it, I constructed steps to lead up to the second floor being that I still haven't got around to making the staircase inside. We also now have a chimney - painted as well - as the picture below shows. I was really pleased to get this completed since it meant I could finish off the adjoining roof.

Things came to a little bit of a standstill over New Year not because of hangovers but because I succeeded in crushing my thumb between a couple of bits of scaffolding whilst I was about 7 meters up. Apart from being a very ouchy time, its remarkable just how much one needs one's thumb to 'do' things. Hopefully it will be better sometime in February. Whilst being slightly incapacitated, I've made progress with a lot of jobs that I've put off for ages. It all has to be done as some stage so its good to get them out the way.  

Mid-January and the windows arrive. Yipee! The local carpenter, Chicho, has done a great job. The units are very heavy and well made. We are treating them with an ecological anti-bug stuff and woodstain to give a golden colour. Its quite exciting to be able to put the windows in. I keep thinking that maybe I ought to do something else first. Its strange having areas that can be closed off. (I'll get over it.) We will probably leave the doors for a while until more of the internal construction has been completed since we don't want to bash our new, expensive doors with wheelbarrows, et al.

I'm trying to complete the outside rendering during February. I have to admit to a few nerves being that I didn't want to catch my thumb again whilst manoeuvring the scaffolding. I'm also going to have a go at the staircase and then, in terms of the basic construction, that will leave all the plumbing, drainage and heating systems and the electricity circuits before putting down the remaining screed for the downstairs floor and fitting doors. And that, believe it or not, will be a basic house, our house. Wow! Who'd thought it?

Here's another first for the New Year - potatoes. Anne's very first homegrown spuds (anywhere). Sweet, firm and small. Beats the scrapings off a Jersey Royal. We also have our own advocados which is a bit of a novelty plus, of course, as many mandarines and oranges that you could wish to eat. And another first - Anne's home-cured bacon. It is fantastic! To be followed, of course, by toast and home made Oxford style marmelade from our own bitter orange trees. Gosh!

March 1st update. We now have a staircase! No more having to go around the outside of the house. Who would have thought that having internal stairs would be such a novelty. The rendering continues.

We have had an unusual winter. Until now, no rain and strong, cool easterly winds during just about the whole of February. We really could do with more rain. Having said that, working under clear blue skies with the temperature around 20C is most enjoyable.

My, how time flies when you're enjoying yourself! May already and I haven't looked at this page for two months. So what have we been up to all this time? Daydreaming? Nah, 'course not. The rendering outside has been completed and 75% painted; the electrics are all in with fancy light switches and sockets; the screed downstairs has been laid covering up all the conduit work; the outside drainage and water supply pipework has been dug-in (the site looked like something from Flanders in WWI when all the trenches were first made) and the manholes made; and, wait for it, we now have doors! Yup. Doors that can be opened and closed and locked as well.  

After such an exciting time, we've decided to take a well deserved break. We're off with Larry the Landrover to wander around southern France, Italy, Croatia and Slovenia. We hope Larry makes it. Its been a tough time for him for the last two years, wheezing up and down the track carrying tons and tons of building materials.

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