Greetings and salutations.
So, construction continues, but slowed down a bit by the winter rains. And we’ve had some cold, grey days just recently, so here are a couple of photos from late last summer to warm things up.
The foundations are done, and the pool is done except for being cleaned out and filled up. It’s really the final few things now before timber framing starts in earnest (yes, I know I said that last time). We’re just sorting out some drainage issues (e.g., where should all the rainwater go when there’s a big downpour?) and getting power and phone connections up to the slabs.
Another in-progress job is sorting out a retaining wall for the bank of earth on the left side of the driveway.
What else? We’ve had a re-think about the order in which to build everything: the new plan is to start at the bottom of the hill and work up. So the first building will be the biggest one: the cafeteria and kitchen along with rooms one and two. We figure this will make it possible to open for business before all three buildings are finished. We can do the landscaping as we work our way up the hill, and use some kind of screen to hide the active construction from our first guests. With luck, we could have people staying for real by late summer.
With that in mind, this is the view you would get if you walked out onto the verandah of room one.
Our little menagerie keeps us as busy as ever.
We had a big scare recently when Pablo, the black-and-white kitten, tried to poison himself by eating an especially dodgy mouse, but thankfully he pulled through. Lost a bit of weight though. This is him milking his illness for all it was worth.
And in our animals’ defence, they do try to be helpful when we’re working on the site. Zeliş and Zeytin in particular are very sociable and like to park themselves in a comfortable patch of dirt and watch people work.
I’ve been pushing my welding skills a bit further. The power to join two arbitrary bits of steel together has opened up lots of possibilities for future interior and exterior decor. Here’s a simple little practice project I did last week…
I also started work on a metal security door for the pool’s machine room, but our plumber, Koray, took pity on my amateur skill level and offered to help out. I say “offered to help out” but really it was more along the lines of “what are you doing?! you’re ruining it! give me that!” Great guy though, and helping him build the door has been very educational.
The barn has been cleaned up a bit and features a new home-made workbench. The size and weight of the thing are probably overkill but I needed something heavy and solid to attach a vice to.
Seeing as I am about to become a very busy carpenter, I also put together a handy little drill storage board, as suggested by a friend (thanks, John). Getting a photo of it proved to be a bit trickier than expected though.
And last but not least, something we don’t do very often: a photo of the two of us.