Clear out the yard...

After striking a deal with our back corner neighbor, Alex arranged for our septic tank to be dug. You see, he wants to make a new entrance to his house through his back yard. That spot touches our back yard corner...where the "out house" was, and borders a small road that I doubt we will ever use. So, he will get a small corner to make a pass through. If you look at the photo below, that is the corner to the left of the yard where the cinder block wall gets higher. Our original wall was stone, and someone else had built the cement one. But, the stones have all fallen over as the yard was cleared out to make way for the machines. Now they are scattered throughout the yard, and I need to get them collected, in the hopes of recreating that wall.

And here are the machines, starting to dig what will be the septic tank. It is a lot of machinery in a rather small space, and this was apparently annoying to the other workers, who were going in and out of the barn and the house to do tiling and dry wall. Some how they can't seem to grasp the importance of a place to put your poop. If you are concerned that the S%@* hole is in the front of the house, well, so am I. I think my sister has 2, and they are on either side of her house. Then I remembered that scene from Meet the Parents...where the toilette runs all night and the septic over flows in the area where the wedding will be. Well, Alex has assured me that this will be covered with cement, and not be an issue. We shall see.

One lovely issue was the fact that it began to rain, for several days during the digging of the septic tank. Since the machines were going in and out of the space, along with workers and trucks, a bit of dirt ended up on the street in front of our house. Then, when it rained, the dirt ran down into the drive way of the guy who lives across from us. Yeah, I know.. it is unbelievable that a construction site might produce dirt. Or that it might rain in November in Crete. It was not so much dirt, and the dude has a menagerie of animals across from us, but he had to complain. Do you think construction workers are going to sweep the street before they go? NO. So now, Alex goes over in the evenings to sweep up....gotta love that. I think I need a photo, as I doubt we will ever see that happen after the construction is over!

Stonework

Slowly but surely, things are coming together. These photos are a couple of weeks old at this point, but you can see the progress on the nitches that are in the dining room. The stoneworker has smoothed out the plaster around them, and gone into the interiors to plaster a bit.

The plaster is not dry in these photos and you can see the dark gray in the the back. We had to plaster the interiors, as the rock was really mostly mud, and would end up just being a hassle to clean...rendering the nitches useless. This way, we can see the better stones and be able to place some artwork inside.

Above is the small alcove in the downstairs bathroom. There is a well underneath it, and we plan to make it into a small storage space for cleaning essentials, with a nice wooden door. Below is a shot of the arch in that same bathroom. The new plaster still needs to be smoothed out, and then it will be coated with the coloured plaster technique that we used on the outside of the house. Sianna has chosen the colour, so you will have to wait to see...but I am sure you can guess!

Not again...

You don't even have to ask...doors, again. So, we were notified by the store where we purchased the doors that the replacement panels for the front door and the guest bedroom doors were all in the ware house here in Crete and that they would schedule the installation. Schedule is a very loose word here, as they then called and spoke with Alex one day around 12pm and said that the technician could come to the house right now, or they did not know when he would be able to do it. Luckily, we had his father available, since both Alex and I WORK during the day. Well, the guest bedroom door panel was correct and installed, but the front door was wrong, again.

This time the door design was correct, with the glass windows and iron work. But, the glass was clear, not frosted like the one we originally had ordered. So, Takis told the guy not to install it and to have the shop owners contact us on what happened. We heard nothing for a day. I am sorry, but good customer service entails that you call your customer as soon as you hear about a problem. So, I decide to initiate the inquiry, like I always do. I emailed the wife, and very politely asked what had happened and for her to update us ASAP. I also added that last minute arrangements for installations do not work with Alex nor my own schedules. She responded the next day confirming what I already knew, that the glass was not correct. Nothing about who dropped the ball on this one or what the company had said. She did apologize for the last minute notification on installation and agreed with me that we were lucky to have Takis available. Ummmm....what the hell kind of response is that?

I waited a week, neither email nor phone call had come our way. So, yesterday I was able to get out of work a bit early and decided that I would pay her a visit face to face. No sooner had I entered the shop , when she tried to disarm me with a " Jennifer, so wonderful to see you, I just now have gotten an email response from Doral." It was just past 1pm and she said the email was at 12:34. She claimed that she had emailed them everyday, and that this response contained an apology as the director had been out of the office for several days. Whatever. She then tried to distract me with "small talk" about work and the summer, and was probably surprised that I did not follow her conversation. "Back to the doors, C-, what does Doral say ?" Noting my irritation, she did own up to the fact that she is the one who had ordered the panel incorrectly, although she blamed it on the order forms from the company. Kind of reminds me of how she wanted to share the blame on the original misorder to begin with.

So Doral said that there is a film that can be applied to the windows so they look frosted. Thank you, but no thanks. That just sounds cheap for a rather expensive door. They also said that the glass could be replaced, but only in the factory up in Thesoloniki, and with some difficulty. I dared to ask, " Would it be easier for them to make a new one that is correct?" C responded that she did not know and that it would be up to Doral to determine that. I left the store explaining to her that all we are interested is that the door is corrected. Does not matter when, but it needs to be done and it needs to be done nicely. I don't want a door that looks terrible and has problems do to it being taken apart and put back together again. We shall see, but let us hope that the third time is a charm.

Squatter and old tiles...

Above is a shot of a rather illusive kitten who is living in the old barn. Also, that wood is from the builders when they poured cement months ago. They need to get it out of there, but she seems to find it a nice hiding spot. I think I have seen her mother dash away a few times, and it looks like the neighbors are feeding them...see the white styrofoam container in the left corner of the photo. We hope they stick around, it would be nice to have some mousers in the barn.

Remember the old tiles from the "new" part of the house? Well, here they are on Sianna's balcony. As long as they are not too thick, then that will be their final resting spot. If we have enough, we will incorporate them into the avli as well.

Some progress...

Well, we are working with another strike. This is causing a delay on the delivery of the corrected panels for the exterior doors, and thusly the fixing of the gaps that are in those doors. The strike---the truck drivers again. Is this really the reason why the doors are being delayed again, or is the company just using that as an excuse??? I tend to think the latter. As far as I can tell, the only truck drivers who are striking are the larger private ones that deliver to grocery stores. How this affects us, I do not know.

Regardless, the painters went in and started prepping the walls, and actually did an almost finished coat on what will be the dining room. The finish is fairly smooth, and only done in white to give a good idea of what the finished room will look like. Christos still needs to go in and finish the "nitches" we have with exposed rocks...we hope this week.

The painter also finished the ceiling. Given the smaller windows, the house tends to be on the dark side. To combat this and make it less dreary inside, Alex and I decided to go ahead and white wash the wood beams. Everyone told us that the wood would darken over time, and we had been toying with the idea of a lighter feel. You can still see the wood tone through the wash, and it has a nice weathered look to it. So, we are pretty happy with the finished look.

Windows, revisited.

Well, we have gotten no where with the doors. Basically, the company will close from August 6th until the 20th...and our replacement panel will be done at the end of September. They plan on fixing the gaps in the doors...but we still are unclear how this will be done. I am tired of harping on the negative topic of the doors, so I will focus on what has been good...the windows. After looking at the Blog, I realized we really had not shown them off at all. Above is a shot of the windows upstairs in our bedroom and bathroom, and below are a few shots of the downstairs. All the windows have the same idea, with the stationary rectangular frame on top.

The shutters are great, and there are screens that we can pull down. They seem to open really smoothly. No complaints, only good things to say about the service and installation of the windows. The person we used came and had taken photos of each window spot, and we sat with him and reviewed each one on the computer before he ordered them. Efficient and no problems! We like that.

Let the sun shine...

Remember when I said that 1 out of 3 doors was correct. Well, I was wrong. All the doors have issues. As you can see, the sun shines through at the corners above the hinges. This is actually on all three doors! So, is it a problem with the manufacturing, or with the installation? Do I care? No, I just want it fixed. But, this is nothing in the end.

We love Doral! NOT! Although the doors look like they would be good, if they were the correct styles and installed correctly, they weren't and the customer service is a joke and a half. We ordered the doors back when the tax was 19%, paid for half of the bill and then the remainder once we had a delivery and installation date. By the time they were done the tax was 21%, thank you Papandreou. But, they informed the representatives down here, who never informed us. The fact that we owed them the extra tax was not told to us until we went to get the front door panel reordered. So here we are, trying to get the front door corrected and telling the reps here of the gaps in the corners and the fact that the guest room door is totally not centered, and we are asked for more money and a surcharge for ordering only a panel and not a full door! What is that all about?

Not that we knew that the additional money asked for was for that. It took us nearly a week to find out what the break down costs were. No one here in Hania or in Thesaloniki could answer the question, " Why are you asking for 150,00 euro more then what we were quoted?" Actually, when Alex called the company directly the woman could not even find his order or name in the computer. And this is one of the largest door companies in Greece. My favorite part of all this is that they were asking us to pay the bill up front to avoid the NEW TAX INCREASE to 23%! What really ticks me off, is that the reps here have not even started the process of fixing the problems on the corners of the doors. When we told them, they should have been out there the next day. No, I had to go back out and take photos and then they will email them to Doral. I suppose we have learned a good lesson in this, keep it local and make sure there are no hidden costs. Do you think Ambiente will be getting the kitchen contract? No way! God only knows how high the tax will be by the time they would deliver it!

This is the FRONT of the house!!!

Ok, so here is the front door. We met with the people (who, incidentally, we have been designing the kitchen with) and they basically said they would split the cost of a new panel with glass and iron for this door. No, not pay for, what I see as ,their mess up. Alex, can live with that, so fine with me. But, really, how did they not understand? I walked the guy through the house, clearly stating, " The main entrance is here, from the garden." And the kitchen he is designing is just to the right of the door....

Doesn't this look like the "front" of a house???

The Doors- not the band

So, after waiting and waiting, our doors finally arrived. When we ordered them, back in February, we were told that they would take 30-40 days. Then, after signing the contract and putting 50% down, we were kindly informed that the doors would be finished during the first week of May. So, I ain't no wizz at math, but that seems to be 58 + days... Oh, then they kindly requested us to pay the remainder of the bill within the next 10 days! Having lived in Greece for nearly 7 years now, and learning a ton from the construction of the Jeny and Taki's house, we kindly refused to pay the remainder of the bill until we were informed that the doors in question were ready to ship and given an installation date. In retrospect, we should have withheld payment until the doors arrived, since only ONE of the three doors ordered were correct! Ok, here we go. above you see Alex at the entrance to the guest bedroom, the only correct door.

Now, lets move on. Here we have the side entrance to the house, which faces the street. Originally, I wanted this door just this way, with windows to let in more light. Incidentally, my sister-in-law agreed with me. We had decided, however, to save money and have a solid door that would be the same as the door to the guest bedroom since they are next to each other.

Well, even though we had, on repeated occasions, explained that the real front door is through the garden, the guy who measured everything out ( and his wife, who has never been out to the house site) decided that since this door is the largest, and facing the street, that it must be the front entrance. Wrong. Now, I am not too upset by this, since as you can see below, the windows do let in a great amount of soft light. So, in the end that is great. Problem is that our front door is rather dull, and we really wanted it to have the vintage look of the glass and iron work.But hey, Kelly, are you happy??? We did get what we wanted after all.

Above is a shot of the guest bedroom, with the new shutters.

This shows the area of the kitchen, now that the framework has been installed for the loft...still hard to invision what it will really end up looking like.

That is the loft framework and steps from the upstairs down to it....Don't ask me, they all say it will work out.

Another shot from downstairs looking across and up at those steps...kind of steep if you ask me.

Underfloor heating, old photos of how it was installed before we left for the US. It was finished while we were away, and now has the cement over it.

Storage closet under the stairwell..almost finished.

New Windows....wooo hooo....