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!

2 week "hiatus"

Well, we have nothing to show- in the form of pictures or work on the house. It would appear, that our illustrious architect went out of town without giving the plans on the next stage of building to the actual builder. Apparently we were not the only project to be put on hold. As luck would have it, the weather has been complete crap lately, so perhaps it is for the best. He should be back this week, and walls should be going up on the first floor starting next week.

Hopefully there will be some progress, and photos at the end of the week, but with Baby #2 arriving midweek, you might just have to wait for an update.

more concrete... evidence (Ha! I kill me)

These photos seemed to disappear from the last posting, so here they are again...hopefully.

Sianna and Jenn check out the progress.

I think we need to clarify that these images are not in order (the concrete was poured before we started to water the roof...duh). But we felt we need to add them for William (hey there William). These are some serious trucks afterall.

Pouring the concrete...how the trucks were able to fit through the streets, we will never know. We are sure it ticked off a few neighbors .

Happy "Home" Owner

Somebody told me that if I water it, it will grow!!!????

Alex has forgotten to mention what he is doing in this picture. The fresh concrete needs to dry slowly to prevent cracking, so it has to be watered several times during the day. This task is the responsibility of the owner--NOT--the construction crew. Does anyone else find this really odd???

Things are Taking Shape

As the scaffolding is systematically removed, you can start to get an idea of the size and shape of the rooms. The scaffolding for the floors will stay for at least a couple of weeks in order to set properly.

Now there's actually a floor to stand on!

However Sianna is not as impressed...

Rebar

It may look like we were trying to recreate Saddam's bunker, but this is supposed to stop things from falling on our head in the event of an earthquake (and we're not talking about "if" we have one... but "when").

You will notice in this photo that there are actually several workers working... a plethora if you will. Off course there is the prerequisite guy hanging around smoking and watching the others. And if you think that he's the foreman you are wrong, that would be the guy in the white shirt, who's actually doing some work!

Something is going on.

Can anyone tell what is going on here? Is there even a plan?

Oh, look, you can see the first layer of concrete on the floor in this shot.

Much has been said, and maybe even more written in the last few years, about Mediterranean style. But what really is it??? It goes much deeper than painting your house white with blue shutters. It's more than adding a Venus De Mylo statue in front of your mural of Santorini. It's in the architectural details my friends! And to help you achieve it we have added some photos above and below. You will notice the stone niche built into the walls. Ahhhh, but did you notice the details that distinguish this niche as Greek, as opposed to some other (dare I say, lesser)Mediterranean niche???!! YES! It's the Styrofoam cup with the frappe (extra sweet and with milk). A drink that exemplifies the "Greek Lover". If you've had one, you know what I'm talking about! ;-)