blog.skopelosholidays.com

so after the slight hiatus caused by me dropping my car off the road (which rather bent my laptop) at last i am back on line on the blog again. just been in skopelos for a week getting the outside preparations under way the electrician has been waiting for the channel to be dug so he can put the power on. so i got vangelis and little apostolos to dig out the outdoor kitchen area and the seating area and use the resulting soil to push back around the house .So at last the house sits nuch better into the land and the 3 truckloads of rubbish we have taken away makes it a lot nicer place too! its extraordinary how much rubbish they can make and how messy they are.The drive/parking is now huge and it will take some time to work out where and how we will fix it upthis is to be the outdoor kitchen its about 3×3 meters and 3 meters high so there was about 27 cubic meters of soil and rock to dig out and unfortunately most of it was rock which of course caused a delay…. I didn’t think we could put mains electric on until we had had the building signed off and produced all the receipts for the tax authority but i have found that we can have mains but at a higher tariff than normal even though we haven’t had sign off! you live and learn….took down a very splendid esse woodburner which is reasonably small but puts out 8btu and weighs 120kilos so that should keep the living room warm! and i managed to get some winter rugs from athens. A very heavy weight flokati and two small eastern rugs and a beautiful black and white rug which may not survive the dog so may have to end up on the wall! back next week in a van to start the gardens and finish off inside .waiting for delivery of special lime paint for the outside will be interesting!and i have found some treatment for the cement bathrooms which should leave them looking exactly as they are but waterproof and stainproof. it comes from texas and is expensive so hope it works…

time to go home .2 months since i left home to drive down i have to go back for a job.the house is now lockable only the last fit of the electrics to do,finish the balcony .then painting finishing etc etc… 1 year 1 month and 2 weeks since we started.!

so the doors arrive day after day and the house at last changes shape and colour as the frames fill in the blanks.The other two carpenters havent been yet the balcony now should be today later and i caught the other( kitchen) carpenter i caught down in loutraki earlier and he promised avrio(tomorrow) again but i will believe it when it happens. The pool men arrived and i took them to the house where they instantly strted making a feta salad so i have left them to get on with it install the filters and the machinery -pump and sand filter- and then dimitri the engineer will come after the august holidays to run the test and start it working. The very nice switches and plugs are now ordered and payed for so will pick them up at the wekend then we can finish the electrics the shower works beautifully and the water is very hpt so everything is in place….almost(again)

well dawn is certainly beautiful here if  a little early to wake up! the climataria or pergola is built in front of the living room. i have it as bare wood until i decide on the finish i will take home some pieces of the wood to england and try various stains etc to see what is best before deciding. but it is very nicely made and simple as requested.The balcony should be going on tomorrow and the kitchen worktop too which i saw today and is lovely light oak.And eventually about 12 o clock the windows and doors arrived-at least some of them! I was hoping for a complete room full but of course they have done a random selection so no room is complete apart from the kitchen which is open plan so makes no difference. still its happening,Yaniis and spiros today changed the beautiful mortar in the living room its such as shame they really did a lovely job but the colour was wrong as it dried it had a blue grey tinge which wasn’t right still its better already. everything is now nearly there ordering the plugs and sockets today and now yannis has finished i can get vangelis back to dig the channel for the electric cable to come to the house the plumbing is all there and by the middle/end of next week i can have a holiday in england!

the swimming pool terrace is now complete and the boys start plastering the pool this afternoon.the terrace looks great and  when the infinity pool is operational it should be spectacular. inside all the plumbing is working and connected still waiting for  a reply from plugs and sockets they may be on holiday! balcony should be up after the weekend and hopefully hopefully will actually get some doors and windows on monday. georgos  sklavos (his name means slave irony being a greek word) the carpenter has been in athens for some minor operation on his wife so i cant even shout at him! so little to do now its very frustrating want to be finished. Just the worksurface in the kitchen and the 2nd fix electrics,the balcony and then connect up the pool and then i can get back to england see if its still there!The swallows have hatched and are flying round eating all the bugs so thats good they seem to have had 6 swallowets dont know whether to paint round the nest and pretend its art! Got the furniture in today most of which needs restoring the bench is extraordinary it 9′1″ about 2.87 metric give me something to do ! so i will be camping out in the house in the hope of receiving windows and doors soon cant wait! wont be on the internet until after the weekend now though and the phone only works sporadically until i get the booster on so will be hermit like for a bit…

too hot to plaster the pool so the boys are laying the stone around the pool terrace after the weekend its cooler so hopefully.. meanwhile we are fitting the bathrooms out and its going well apart from some pipes we need metal ones for under the sinks and there is a 3 meter piece missing betwwen the house and the sceptic tank(vothros) so all connected up nearly!and the water is steaming hot fromthe solar panel. this week should see us finished but.?…

kitchen tap is in! waiting for oven then we can get the oak top started

things moving quickly now yannis finished inside today and starts the swimming pool and terrace tomorrow so they were filling in the holes left by the concrete guys(sloppy) ready for the rough plaster which will then be topped by cementacornia.Looking forward to seeing the infinity pool at work! if it does of course…meanwhile the other team (mavronides by name are starting to build the stone wall which leads off the pool  vangelis and his mate are realy lovely boys but they brought a labourer with them today who was a bit of a case so i had to tell them that if he didnt behave not to bring him tomorrow.and i have banned them all from drinking coffee inside got coffee splashes on my untreated floor arrrgh.floor treatment arrives tomorrow i hope and will paint it straight on. Meanwhile plumbers have come and i have made the big decision to have solar powered water heating. Originally the bathroom roof was supposed to be a tiled extension of the bedroom roof but it somehow got lost in the final plan stage so we have  a flat roof facing south above the bathrooms so i cant think of an excuse not to have one! And of course environmentaly(and financialy) it would be crazy not to so although not keen on seeing plumbing outside its there! You can only see it from the road and you have no view of it at all from the terraces around the house. …So the two brothers christos and nicos turned up today in high winds to instance unfortunately the boys were plastering the staircase so they couldnt go up and rather than come back tomorrow they decided to take it up two sets of home made ladders…great idea but of course we got here by turning the ladders to face the wall and using the reverse side as a slide.. ingenuity beats technology-often! 

so the bathrooms are done just waiting for the plaster to dry and the walls are up in the kitchen for the worksurface. tomorrow they should be finished inside…maybe

at last the floor is down in the living room!