Saturday 4 October 2014

Early September Stocktake

With the end of the traditional Greek holiday period I thought it was sensible to record where the project had reached before, hopefully, work started again in earnest in September.

The major difference that is immediately obvious from previous photos is that all the roof shuttering has been removed from within the body of the building. This really does give the first opportunity to fully appreciate the scale and look of the interior.

As can be seen from the photos below  several months' work remain to be done before the house is habitable but it is now really beginning to look and feel like a house and not just a building site. Or as a friend referred to it as a "shopping mall".

Because of the work that needed to be done to create a roadway around the back of the house to remove "the rock", (see previous post), some infilling has taken place against sections of the back wall. This has started to create an impression of how the earth sheltering will bed the house into the hillside.

On the roof the three chimney flues, for the wood fired cookstove, masonry heater and stove in the bedroom, are in place. The making of the holes for the flues proved to be a much harder task than had been anticipated, but was finally achieved with insulated  flue pipes inserted and waterproofed.

The immediate tasks to be done include:
    - finish the around house drainage;
    - install the surface mounted electric conduits;
    - install plumbing pipe work;
    - tidy up and seal concrete walls;
    - prepare for and lay industrial polished concrete floor;
    - finish waterproofing the roof  and install the roof drainage system;
    - constructing the east and west "wing" retaining walls;
    - etc.      

A view of the house as it was at the beginning of September

With the removal of the roof shuttering can begin to see the house layout emerge.

Looking westwards along the front of the house.

As the backfill starts one can start to get the feel of an earth sheltered house.

Looking eastwards across the roof. Note the waterproofing and the flues for the wood burning stoves.