pre final plaster

Here are a couple of shots before the final smooth coat of plaster goes on.

Olivia's room is above and the view out of Sianna's room is below.

This is from Sianna's balcony looking up the street towards Louis' house.

It has been a while! Again! Between diaper changes and bouts of illness, we have managed to get some pictures of the house together. Problem is, with the High Holidays the grant work etc... Alex is really busy to actually write anything down ... and I have a limited knowledge of the goings on at the site. All I know is it looks like it is moving along. We should be getting a plumber in next week, along with the final plaster coat on the interior walls.

We are currently debating whether or not to paint the house, or use coloured plaster, which is an old technique that gives more richness, depth and warmth to the building. We are leaning in that direction, but the down side is the up keep. It tends to crack and needs clear coat every two years, while simple painting can last 5 years.

Look... more frappe cups. Below, you see Sianna standing in the closet that fits under the stairwell in the guest bedroom. This is one of the spaces that the workers had to go in and rip out the new wall they had built...why...because there is no communication between anyone working at times, and the guys do what ever they think is right, only to be told---ummm, that is wrong. So, it is not the language barrier, it is plain stupidity half of the time.

The final layer of plaster will be put on this week. So the next group of photos will show smooth walls that are ready to be prepped for painting. In these shots you can still see the mesh and the blue lines are the electrical lines that were run the other week. He finished the house in a few days, and we also had the guys who will install the underfloor heating/cooling system come in and prep the spots for some sort of a fan system that works with the system.

Below is a shot of Sianna's room. She has a little loft spot for storage, I guess...

This is one of the nitches in the dining room. We were able to save the stones around it, to leave them exposed. I am hoping they cut that mesh off...but you never know.

We have a roof!

Yes, we have a roof. Not sure if it will stay natural or be white washed white. Alex is still deciding. But, we got the wood we wanted, very rustic looking, and the tiles we wanted, not the yellow that was suggested.

The tiles very in tones of terracotta and are a bit lighter then the typical ones around the area. Below you can see two of the roofers. They were really fast and hopefully really good too...I guess we shall see, once the rainy season gets here!

The brick work is almost done and you can now see the shape of things to come. Plastering will be next, I think. Oh, and this is an old picture, as there is wall in that giant opening you see to the left and behind the dumpster.

Upstairs looking down to the bottom floor, where the loft and kitchen area are.

Sianna and Alex inspect the metal mesh work that will help keep the walls intact. Layers of plaster go over this...yes, covering most of the stones. But, it is safer in regards to earthquakes, and will keep the dust and small stones from falling on your food as you eat in the dining room, which is pictured below.

Where have we been???

Since our last post, we have not been anywhere...and much has happened to the house. But, as is the way of Murphy, we had several unexpected problems with our communication methods to the outside word (also known as, anywhere off the island). Firstly, our laptop decided to die on us at the end of April, just before my (this is Jenn) parents came over for a 3 week visit. So, all of May we spent with no computer at the house. This was fine, since we were taking pictures the entire time and were very busy with Olivia and Sianna and my parents and Aunts that flew down from Germany. We decided, when things slowed down a bit, to go ahead and purchase a new computer and made the leap to Apple. No sooner had we set up the new iMac (that means plugged it in) then our phone and internet lines were cut. Really, cut. The construction of the house next to where we rent (which started the week Sianna was born and is not anywhere near being finished) rendered our phone line useless, and on a Friday0 OF COURSE! We were told by the kind people at OTE that a technician would be out first thing Monday morning. We were happy to see them the following Thurseday. So, we had no means to post or to set up photos. Then, I got the bright idea to take all the photos off the camera and set them up on the new iMac. We installed Picasa, so I thought I could atleast organize them for when I would be able to post them. WRONG. For reasons unknown to us, even though the proper camera software was installed, all our photos from May and June were rendered useless, save but a few not so good shots! Yes, that means 2 months of Olivia too. I was not pleased. If anyone knows how to fix messed up digital pics that were viewable on PCs but not on Macs...please let me know. Now, we reformatted the memory card in the camera and hopefully that problem is solved for future pictures.

As far as the house goes...well, lots of walls have been built and torn down, doorways have been made and rebricked, wouldbe closets have been closed off and reopened....don't get the idea that we are changing our minds all the time...we aren't. But, the lovely architecht and the construction foreman have not been communicating with one another, or us or the workers (that last one is the most dangerous!) There were points when they did things they were totally told not to do, just because the architect was nto considering our wants. Yes, it has been a trying couple of months. Now, we are up to the roof...yes, a roof is up there and waiting on tile. We had the hurtles of getting the wood and tile we wanted as opposed to the ones the architect wanted. That caused a small delay, but finally it will be the way we want it. We will be posting picures soon, with more details of the "issues"...I will leave that to Alex. Gotta run, Olivia is over this! See Ya;)

More from before Easter.

Front of the house, scaffolding and mold to create a ledge that will go around the edge of the house.

Area where the stairs will go in. But, what is wrong with that SO VERY SAFE LOOKING ladder.

Upper floor looking down on what will be the loft area over the kitchen. Olivia's room is across from this shot. The roof slants here, and her window can be seen to the right. Below is a shot of the small balcony off our room, and over towards the storage room.

Easter Break

Hi everyone. As titled... you guessed it, we had a "break" during Easter and these photos come from what was done prior to that break...which started on Tuesday before and ended Tuesday after. Now that is what I call a long weekend! This is Jenn writing, Alex has done most of the recent postings, but has a big project at work this week. I will do my best...as I have no clue what is going on. Above is a lovely shot of a fossil we saw in the rock that makes the corner of the front room of the house. The new wall is going in that spot, but we will try to see if the guys can save this and chip it out for us.

They cleaned up the area, and you can get a better idea of what things might look like. Above, we are looking from the family room area towards the kitchen area, the loft will be above the kitchen. Below you see the family room area, and the space that is waiting to be walled in. Yes, that is Sianna, surveying the work. Should I be concerned?

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!