138. Walls!
At the start of the week, it’s very quiet at The Best Abode Yet. The Old Folks aren’t talking to each other! I’m looking from one to the other and shaking my head in despair!
The temperatures are still up there. It’s been hot all week, and that’s a massive understatement! Its baking, and that doesn’t cover it either!
When the front door opens for First Walk, the temperature inside and outside have a marginal difference. The sun is up but not over the mountains – nothing is bathed in warm gold yet. And so, the air has a fleeting glimmer of lighter, cooler, and fresher, about it. But its short lived!
When laundry gets hung out it dries in a second. The Folks have discovered the hard way that clothing has to be turned inside out to reduce colours being bleached and faded by the sun. And the only time of day that it’s possible to use a steam iron is early in the morning.
Tin Heart misjudges the printing on Soft Touch’s new official Menalon Trail T-shirt. It was the take-away souvenir from the recent Epic Expedition. After ironing, the logo looks soft, smeared, with blurry edges, and accompanying blobs, and smudges, that weren’t there before. It’s been rebranded - and not well! (OMG!!!)
Later, I see Soft Touch lowering the offending garment into the trash and closing the lid! It’s had a short life – it’s hasn’t been worn yet!
Thank you to everyone who has supported Soft Touch’s Big Outdoors Epic Expedition of walking the 75-kilometre Menalon Trail. The total amount raised to kickstart the Kardamyli Village Community Fund is £2,130. That’s a HUGE ‘thank you’. Due to fundraising ID requirements we had to raise cash in sterling. Playing the money markets means Soft Touch has been able to create a ring-fenced account and convert GBP to EUR. It’s now safely banked as a whopping 2,500 Euros! Thank you so much! More news on a regular basis as plans progress…
This week we have been waiting for Concrete to arrive on our land site. The Old Folks keep looking at the shuttering which we assume is ready and waiting... It makes three-dimensional forms the correct shape, thickness, and size of walls for the Cut-and-Cover rental unit, and the swimming pool. But early in the week more vans, trucks, material, and labourers arrive on site.
The shuttering receives additional reinforcement. A series of side supports get added to the structures and these in turn are bolstered up by lengths of timber placed at angles to the surfaces and the floor. Metal attachments with plates are secured to joins in the material, strengthening the points where two pieces of board meet and binding them together.
Pouring concrete into upright forms creates extreme pressure – its thick, heavy, material that is liquid enough to escape if it can. The weight and mass load strain on the parameters of the forms so they need robust support structures to ensure the liquid Concrete cannot distort the intended shapes – in this case, large, flat stretches of walls.
On Thursday, Concrete-mix trucks are seen on the Petrovouni Road! From the driveway, concrete is pumped through the hydraulic arm into place. Seeing the recent slab going in was exciting, but standing walls are VERY exciting! We can’t wait to see the three-dimensional structures of rooms and buildings starting to take shape!
And on Friday that’s what we see. Walls! (OMG! It’s happening!)
Our Engineer explains that the walls of the Cut-and-Cover have been formed to a half-way point plus. The next stage is taking them to full height and putting the ‘roof’ slab on top.
And the swimming pool now has miniature walls on all four sides. These will be concealed underneath the completed structure of the pool. There is room here for the necessary kit and space that links back to the plant area in the lower ground floor. The next stage is pouring the base slab of the pool, and the four walls to their final height, in one. Apparently, it helps with waterproofing.
At the end of the week, while the concrete rests, sets and cures, more shuttering is put up across the lower ground floor of the house. We can see walls defining the various spaces. Its amazing!
We hear rumours that this year water rationing has started early. Households dependent on mains water, without back-up water tanks don’t have any – the taps are running dry! It often happens in the height of summer, but not usually in June! The local Government has promised water through day time hours, just not at night, but the reality is that the clear stuff flows for only 2 hours each morning… (OMG!!!)
The Best Abode Yet has a large black back-up water tank, but unlike many, its above ground and clearly visible by the sun, as it makes its way around and over the sky. It roars into action with a loud mechanical motor sound when water is being drawn from it, signalling hot weather is here as it takes over from the national supply.
It’s good to turn the tap on and see water coming out, but this week all taps at the Best Abode Yet are running hot. That’s not warm, or tepid, its full-on boiling! There’s no insulation here! So, no need to use anything but the ‘cold’ tap… which is, yes, hot-to-boiling, and scalding in temperature!
Most mornings after breakfast, I stay indoors. I stretch all four paws out flat, bend low, and creep under the bed. Its marginally cooler and the sun doesn’t shine here. I then press my stomach and undercarriage onto the original terrazzo floor that runs throughout the Best Abode Yet. This surface is freezing in winter – old houses are built straight onto rock with no insulation – and it’s still cool in summer. I stay here until the sun has passed the mid-day high and well into the afternoon hours – no venturing outside for me until early evening – it’s just too HOT!
But not so for the Enormous Amber… Our upstairs neighbours run a large taverna on the main street that is open from breakfast to after dinner drinks, seven days a week. They also have staying guests in rooms above. So, for six months of the year its full on all hands-on-deck.
The Enormous Amber lives outside through the summer and when all family members are working, the front door is closed. This means the huge hound is confined to the small front terrace and even smaller area around the side of the building. Neither is in full shade – its sort of patchy and dappled at best…
Needs must! I’ve seen the pooch stretched out half under the side hedge desperate for anywhere cool and away from the sun. He burrows himself deep inside, distorting the branches and crushing the vegetation. Apparently, his coat gets grubby, full of leaves and debris… So, recently barricades have been put up – planters, lengths of plastic pipes, and more (???!!!***!)
I see the pooch trying to jump over the various piles of in-the-way stuff and dive into the hedge in his search for shade. But no! The fortifications stand their ground, and he has to give up.
That’s another day of roasting outside then…
Feeling slightly guilty, I pad back inside, and creep under the bed… And I don’t mind quite so much when Soft Touch gives the hound one of my snacks as we head out for an early evening walk…