Category Archives: Building in Greece

oh boy!

Posted on by
2

How much can I take before I lose it totally? I think I’ll soon either be totally white haired or bald at this rate.

Why you may ask?

Well, I’ve had a sick mother all summer. And I’m lucky. I actually have one of those rare nice mothers who aren’t so annoying (or as infuriating) as so many others. And she’s getting better, again, fingers crossed.

But she’s been insisting that she return to Athens, to her own home, NOW, cause she’s sick of being isolated in my place on Paros, being a burden on me, etc etc. So, I began to organise her trip, someone to take her to a seat on the ferry by wheelchair. Someone to pick up her suitcases and put them on the ferry. Someone to meet her on the other end and take her home and carry her bags in and help her settle in…

But then the guy I’d organised for the other side get sick and ended up in hospital.

So here I am, on the ferry with mom, taking her to Athens myself, carrying bags, lending an elbow, trying to keep track of our luggage, carrying Vincent.

I couldn’t let her go alone.

A few days in Athens won’t kill me.

But they just might.

Cause its not just mom… its aunt #1s house too. The old tenants finally vacated 2 weeks after they were meant to. And I have spoken to two plumbers so far about locating and fixing a leak which has been causing trouble on both sides of the wall between my aunt’s house and where mom lives. Mould and all kinds of lovely things.

The previous tenant was an old lady with dementia with her carer, and her son would not let us in there to locate and fix the problem while she was there, cause he didn’t want to cause her confusion… so we now have a small window (getting smaller every day) to get someone in to fix the problem.

Cause of course, all this time (about 3 years now) I’ve been insisting that the issue is in THAT wall, but no one believes me. We’ve had pipes fixed on the outside of our wall. Someone else went into the light well to fix the issue in there… but the problem is not fixed. Cause I’ve been right along. We need to fix it on my AUNT’s side of the wall. And I need to do it ASAP before the next tenants go in.

And of course NO ONE returns my calls, or messages or anything.

Oh, and I have to see what the previous tenants left in the house. I told them to leave only the bookcase and wardrobe which belonged to my aunt and have stayed with the house till now, but now I’m learning that apparently they’ve left 3 beds which I ‘can do what I want with’… Which means they are now my problem…

I am so over this crap.

And all this time I’ve been trying to organise the plumber(s) and organise someone with keys to let him in, all over the phone, chasing things up 2nd and 3rd hand.

You’d think it could be done, but no. It can’t. I have to BE there. Like as if, if I’m there, I’ll be able to grab some random plumber by the collar and drag him to the house to fix the problem.

sigh.

But that’s not all, either.

I finally have some kind of paperwork I’d been waiting months for, for the upstairs apartment which we split into 2 apartments, renovated one and rented it out, leaving one to be renovated… In order to get power and water to the 2nd half I needed this paper. Now, I have to take it to some place in Athens (in person, cause if I try to do it online it might never get done!), and run around various agencies to apply for new connections yada yada yada.

Only then can I begin to renovate the 2nd apartment (with money I will miraculously conjur up)…

Between the paperwork necessary for everything, chasing up people who never call back, jobs that don’t get done, struggling to pay bills, borrowing from Peter to pay Paul, etc, I’m kinda over this whole thing. I just wanna hide in my house and never come out.

Of course, I really really want my studio. My space. Space around me.

This was 2 weeks ago at our building site:

And this is now – the framework for the columns is still up, to be removed soon, but the roof is ready.

Sometimes I wish I’d never started anything. That I was content to live in a small one bedroom apartment with my small dog, and knit while watching TV and not have any desire to remake furniture, play with power tools, work on large canvases or paint on any surface I can think of, or play with any other forms of art.

In fact, living in Tasmania, without any family nearby, was really nice…

z

there was movement at the station

Posted on by
3

Something has finally happened at the building site after a period of nothingness. I took these pics 2 days ago so (hopefully) they’ll have progressed a bit since then. But everything stops again in 2 days ’cause no one builds here in August. Hopefully all the columns will be ready to pour before they stop work, so come September they can get right back to it.

Still, it was good to see a few things had been done.

On the container front, I was finally able to get ahold of the big crane guy and get that sorted.

You can see the steps below – first he had to pick up the container from its precarious drunken position and move it onto his truck.

Once it was loaded, he was able to maneuver the truck into a better position in order to lift the container straight out onto the concrete.

Using some odds bits of timber as measures, he placed it as square in the center as he could.

The idea is that there is a concreted area on both sides of the container which faces north to south (front door north, back south) giving me shade in the morning on one side and in the afternoon on the other. That way, once I put up shade sails, I will have usable space outside the container on both sides in order to work.

All under the watchful eye of Vincent – mom’s faithful assistant.

So, now I have the container in place finally. Once I get power to the land (don’t hold your breath!) I can begin working on it!

One thing I learned from the big crane guy was that my container was a meat transport container. That’s why it’s so heavy and extra tall. It has metal pipes running the length of the ceiling inside which I presumed were for the cold air, but they’re for hanging meat.

Lovely.

I hope it’s not ‘silence of the lambs (or cows)’ in there…

Oh well, the good news is that the insulation should be really good…

So, all is moving right along at a snail’s pace, but at least one thing has been ticked off the mile long to do list.

z

moving right along

Posted on by
2

We have a concrete slab!

These pics were sent to me by the engineer last week. I’d been too busy to go past there to see for myself till yesterday.  But I finally made it and took some of my own pics.

Obviously, he had a drone up the day they poured concrete. Great pics!

The foundation is really high up the end where my studio will be… I sure could have used that extra height to create a loft…

But you can almost see the building now we have an actual ‘floor’.

Here is the concrete slab for the container.

And there is the poor container, still sitting at a drunken angle, waiting to be located in its final position.

The diggy-diggy man actually sifted the pile of stones and separated the dirt… I now have clean(ish) soil for my future garden!

For now, they’ve just pushed rocks up against the slab and in places around the house foundation… I plan to sort it eventually, into rock gardens and garden borders.

I can’t wait to start creating a garden, working on the container and generally making this land home.

Of course, can’t create a garden till I have water and can’t work on the container till I have power (or cordless tools…).

Patience.

Its the local buzzword.

z

building progress

Posted on by
Reply

This is what our site looked like 2 weeks ago. oops. I had meant to post it but got SOOO busy I totally forgot. Why? See my next post!

But back to the building site: All the boarding up had been done to pour the foundations, the metal had been placed for the columns…

Then me and Vincent went to oversee the pouring of the concrete. A lot of guys running around, trucks coming in regular intervals, noisy and busy.

We even had a horse come to visit from the neighbouring property to help make sure it was all done properly.

I got closer to watch the sludge being poured in.

They have prepared for the slab that the container will sit on, that gets poured next week.

Here is the view from the main road above our place. We’re in the valley down low, but from up here you can see us and the sea!

I’ll leave it at that for now, just to share this post. Then I’ll get onto posting about what kept me so busy…

z

a great score!

Posted on by
Reply

Guess what I found lying in the corner of a parking lot this morning?

A ton of old doors, windows, shutters and other useful stuff!

Turns out it was from a family friend’s renovation, so I just asked if it was ok to take it, and took it. It was as simple as that.

Well, actually it took about 6 phone calls. First to see if a guy with a three wheeler could collect it. Nope. Too big for him. Then to my cousin who works for a transport company, then to his boss (who happens to be my great uncle), then back to my cousin, then to the family friend, then back to my cousin…

Easy!

Luckily they were having a slow day (and the doors were right opposite the depot!) so they were able to go collect the pile straight away. Since I was having coffee with a friend, I couldn’t go pick and choose what I wanted, so they loaded it all up. I got there right after and lead the way to the container.

They put it all inside to keep it out of the awful weather and now I’m ready to adapt any doors and windows which might work for the container!

I’m so excited, you’d think I was given the best present ever. I really didn’t want to miss out. I saw the best green house project made by a fellow Paros inhabitant last week and was so envious. I won’t be making a greenhouse, but I definitely needed doors for the container and some of these will be ideal.

The rest will come in handy for other things – like a temporary shelter for the dog bath among other things.

Cool.

Meanwhile, here’s a photo of Vincent at the cafe.

Vincent: ‘And I’ll have a bacon and egg sandwich please. Lots of crispy bacon!’

I have been calling him Vincent lately. Vincenzo when I’m being ‘continental’ and Vincentius when he’s naughty.

It just sounds right.

He’s still Vince Vega, but now he’s a bit more proper.

He’s doing really well. Toilet training is progressing well and we are working on the separation anxiety…

z

the container

Posted on by
Reply

Let me remind you of where we left the container…

It’s still there.

Or at least I THINK its still there. We’ve had thunder, lightning, pelting rain, constant rain, hail and all sorts since last night. And the night before. And all day today.

I wouldn’t be surprised if the container hasn’t slid down into the shrub…

Anyway, this is part of what I had begun writing last night, before I lost it all and before I was hit over the head with money owed for car registrations (and rates!!!!) and lost all will to live.

I’d been out to visit the container and measure the area inside to figure out what will be the best/easiest/cheapest way to line the floor. And perhaps the walls? Not sure I’ll need that, but I’d like to at least line one wall cause its so nice to be able to put up hooks and shelves and its so much easier to do on wood.

I also met up with the engineer and discussed the solution to the container position problem. Apparently the diggy-diggy man was appalled when he saw it. He said they should have brought it out with a bigger crane. Duh.

He will fix it. He’s got a bigger crane and when he starts work on the concreting he will move the container.

So it will be after Christmas before its in place. IAt least I hope its in place by then. It won’t be if this weather continues.

This is the floor of the container.

Its worn in quite a few spots but the worst is near the door. I’m not sure the best way to tackle it, but I will find a way. I have faith in my imagination.

Watching YouTube videos on how to fix up containers and tiny homes gives me plenty of ideas… I just need to find the right materials, tools, and power to be able to do it.

Its not like I can build stuff in my back patio, carry it through the house, transport it in my tiny car, then take put it where it needs to go… A generator might be an option I need to look into but it won’t do for months on end. I’m told they’re expensive to run… let alone buy…

I spent one morning this week applying for water and electricity for the site. I’m told it will be summer before we get power there (odd since its supposedly quick to get ‘construction’ power…) and there are about 5,345,246,294 applications for water before ours.

Well, water can be sorted with a tank. I think I have a handle on that.

All in all, the application process went really fast considering this is Greece. Surprising.

Of course I’m also expecting the cost to be surprising, and not in a good way.

What can you do?

Right now I’m living according to Field of Dreams. “Build it and they will come.”

Only in my case its more like ‘Start and you will finish.”

z