Here we have a beautiful and serene picture of the aptly named snow capped White Mountains. How are they relevant to our building site you ask? Well, I have found that I have to often bring up this image in my mind while gently humming "don't worry, be happy", because...

Remember where our missing wall was? Well it turns out that the stones holding up all the pretty bricks we saw in the previous pictures could crumble since the mortar holding them together was not very strong, and it was just the sheer thickness of the wall that held everything up. So now we need to build a cement column to hold up the upper structure. Hmmm... "Don't worry, be happy now.."

(For those of you not in Crete, I just want to let you know that while I was writing this we were having a mild earthquake)

This is a look from the "guest suite" to where the stairs will be. I need to explain that we are using the term "suite" very loosely, here. It will be a small room with a miniscule bathroom, a window that may close, and a door. Still beats a tent, right.

Although I thought it may make for an interesting statement, alas the ladder will have to go eventually.

OK, were did the wall GO!!???

Everything was moving along with the house until we came by one day and found that a wall was missing!!! AHHHHHHHHHHH!!

Alright, so the wall wasn't missing...

We had decided to knock down the wall facing the street in what will be the living room, so that we add some space and also to square off the room. Because up to this point there was no right angle to be found in the house. But it still came as a bit of a shock when we drove up and saw the gaping whole in the "living room".

On the other hand it does let a lot of light in...

This space will be part of the kitchen with a vaulted ceiling that is about 4.5m (15 feet), at it's low point.

The column, with the power meter hanging off of it at a jaunty angle, will be where the new wall will go to. It should add about 1.5m to the length of the living room.

While we were otherwise occupied...

OK so we fast forward a bit...

As you can see, while we were busy with the new baby, the builders were busy at the site.

At about the time of "the" delivery, the builders got a delivery too.

Of bricks.

Lots of them!

These bricks then started to come together to form the exterior walls (almost as if by magic). This must have happened at night, because while we were there there was no one to be found!

There were walls going up everywhere. There were even walls built next to existing walls. It was like an orgasm of bricklaying (oops, the site just went to a pg-13 rating).

If things kept up at this rate we would be moving in by the summer (can you smell the irony????).

New Addition!

...not to the house, but to the family!
Now we have to get this house done!