destruction

The Atrio, entrance, is OUR - as opposed to the workmens -  first big project for the year, so I have started to prepare. The entrance door will have to be fitted and the tiles need to be taken up - hopefully without breaking too many as they are handmade and we want to reuse them. The tiles will then have to be sanded and cleaned on the back so we can set them again. But before that, we will insulate the floor and then install the floor heating. Then the special floor mix before it it time to put the tiles back on it. And then it is done!

But of course this room looked already quite nice last year when we had a carpet and a big table and guests in it!! Now it is back to the scrubby look, but.. it will be very nice when it is done..

A funny thing happened when i wanted to order a new pad for the sanding machine.. Reason why i wanted a new one is that the current one apparently got unbalanced and is wearing out the sanding paper rather fast - and the sanding paper is expensive here.. Ordered online and was very pleased with myself. Got a mail a few days later that the part was made obsolete and not longer can be delivered.. :-) Now obsolete is something that you don't need, but I need that part dearly.. :-), alternatively something that is out of date, but I would rather repair that machine than throw away the one I have and buy a new one.. :-(

Fruit of the week: the sour cherries. gotta pick some more and put them in some rum, or maybe a cherry chutney?

life is good

every day i have been working on clearing the 'field' and i am almost done, two or three days to go. cats love me going down with the skythe in the morning, testing to climb trees or just hanging out and watching and controlling everything around. wonder how long it will take to burn all this grass.. cats don't care..

AAArrrrrrgggghhhhh!

I should not have said that now we are over the worst and it is a walk in the park from here. We have another injured worker. He is the one that was supposed to plaster our walls in Juli or early August, and now he has damaged his wrist and can't work so all of his projects get delayed. At least he came to tell us, which is different to the others who just stayed away. But our milestones for this year are definitely endangered.. By end of June we will know more..

heat wave

and suddenly it became real hot again, from the moody weather we've had all May temperatures have now jumped, and climb to 35 degrees at lunchtime. Too hot to be outside, let alone dig in the garden or cut grass with the scythe!

So the cats and I have started to get up earlier, spend an hour and a half in the garden and then potter around a bit before it is time to go into the house until late afternoon. Today we mixed the cement for the window sills in the Atrio, so those are now "burning" slowly in their forms.

Mind you, the hot weather IS good for the tomatoes, just need to make sure they are getting enough water and a little supportive stick. And there is always a bit of a breeze, so we really can't complain.

swindling heights

I am a bit of a coward when it comes to heights, trying to work on it, but when alone in the house it is not so easy, so when I put the scaffolding up the other day in order to measure the window sill which I wanted to build a mold for the cement to pour into, my knees started to wobble so much that the whole construction started to shake and I had to accept defeat. But not for long, today I got so irritated with it that I started an approach on the other window sill in the atrio, and I used the extendable ladder. That worked really well, I was a little nervous, but I got the measurements and got the mold done!

Lets see if it works with the other one also tomorrow, or if the defeat continues..

Apart from those small steps in the house, the garden is growing, and I have harvested the first strawberries and the first zucchini flowers. Planted a lot of tomatoes, hoping for the best tomato sauces ever..

the scaffolding

the other window

the mold, done!

the first zucchini flowers from the garden