some progress

It is not completely straight, but it will do and once the plaster is on it, no one will see it is a bit crooked. I quite enjoyed the mixing of the cement by hand and then working on a few layers every day, cutting a few of the stones and drilling a few metal bits into the wall to anchor it. It was fun seeing it grow bit  by bit.

Now that this is done, I am looking for the next challenge.. In the meantime I am spending some time down in the garden, cutting grass and planting some of the veggies that have already stuck up their heads in the 'kindergarten'. Quite slow those little ones. I walk down about three times a day to check if it has grown, but progress is not the same as with the bricklaying.

The weather is a little moody, normally it should be already much warmer than the 20 degrees we keep having, and it should not be quite as cloudy, but maybe climate change is also changing the summers here?

Tonight I am expecting the guy who is going to plaster three rooms this August, and maybe maybe even doing the floors once we have laid the heating and insulation.

and.. we are in business again

In the weekend the water for the watering of the plants was turned on for the year, melt- and rainwater. It was then the gardeners in the village put in another gear, the whole weekend everyone seemed to be in their gardens and planting planting planting. Even us, and pics are to follow. But we are also back to the serious business of renovating the house, and had ordered cement, sand and stones, all of which arrived in the late morning. Today we got a sudden cold spell with rain all day, so a perfect day to spend inside and for starting this years project of 'another brick in the wall' - or will it be yet one leaning tower of Pisa? we shall see.

This one is going to be in our future kitchen. First I had to sound-insulate the wastewater pipe that is coming down from the guest rooms, and then i had an electrician question, which the wonderful Niklas could not answer directly, because he was on a plane back home to Sweden. So I left it for the day and set in a cat door in the future main entrance instead. That was a little tricky, because there was already a hole for cats, the previous owner had a version where he could put in a plank inside when he wanted to keep the cats in or out. And so we decided to use that hole, which just had to be made a little bigger to fit the new cat flap. It has a sensor in it, which recognizes our cats microchips and only opens the latch for them, not for strange cats. Now we only need to teach the cats to use it, today they were not so super interested to be outside in the rain, but after rain comes sunshine and since they are smart cats, I am sure they will get it fast.

The smart cat door

insulated water pipe

the 'before' picture of the brick laying project

todays delivery of 60 bricks

Vin och vatten

Jaha då var det äntligen dags... som ni har väntat.. fast vi har väntat mer.. det är jag säker på! En vecka går så snabbt. Vi kom hit förra Lördagen med väskor och katter och i morgon är det redan dags för mig att lämna. Martina och dom små hjälparna får klara sig själva ett tag.. Det är alltid spännande att komma hit.. först kollar man att huset står kvar.. det gjorde det.. man sätter på vattnet och bär in grejerna.. nej jag menar att FÖRTS släppar man ut katterna som har varit instängda i en liten väska i 11 timmar så dom får springa av sig och sen ger man dom mat och sen gör man det andra.. Sen går man ner i det lilla trädgårdslandet som ligger vid huset och ser på förödelsen.. och sen... senare går man dom 100 metrarna ner till landet landet... Vi har ju jobbat hårt där några somrar.. slitit med taggiga törnen som fått växa vilt men nu kunde vi konstatera att vi har vunnit... visst finns det en del ogräs att rensa (typ 1000 kvadratmeter högt gräs) men taggbuskarna syns inte till.. Vi rensade en liten bit och satte tomater, potatis, bönor och vitlök...

Vädret har varit sådär.. lite sol.. mycket vatten...där av överskriften...