Drainage

This year was the year of problems. Dominic and Giannis from Stagones left last year without finishing the siding of the roof and did not want to return this year. Over winter the drainage ditch caved in. Nikos Tsouknakis quit.

Thanks to Babis the drainage got finished in July. Spiros did the water proofing all around the house and Panagiotis placed the drainage pipe which has geo textile around it to prevent clogging from soil. Babis filled the ditch with gravel, put geo textile on top and on the sides between refilled soil and gravel to prevent clogging of the pipe.

Through Kirsten I found a local architect, who actually just finished a straw bale house near by.

Roof - South Half of House

Dominic and Giannis and others from Stagones also did the south half of the roof. I was not able to collect enough sawdust for the roof insulation. So we used part sawdust, part straw between the beams, and wood fiber boards on top of the beams.

Wood Framing of the Straw Bale walls - South Half of House

I did not have enough money to do the wood framing and roof of the entire house. So Dominic, Giannis and others from Stagones did the south half of the house this year. I used treated wood. Because I would only notice a wood worm infestation, when it is too late, and the hole structure needs to be redone. Which I don’t think I could do a second time around.

Stonewall

Nikos built a really beautiful stonewall. It took a long time. It is really an art to fit the stone together.

The northeast corner of the house, where the food pantry will be, has a stonewall to outside. The food pantry is under ground level and I hope that it will work like a potato cellar. There is also an interior stonewall as thermal mass and stonewall to bring the straw bale wall 30 cm above ground level.

Concrete Foundation

Yes. There is a concrete foundation. Because of the building permit. It’s gigantic. I try to see it from the positive side. I think the house will be ok with earthquakes..

Excavation

Babis excavated the site of the house. He also made a temporary dirt road for the concrete mixers to be able to get up to the building site. Four olive trees had to be moved. He did that too and they all survived. :-)

Making Charcoal

I forgot about that! You can make charcoal with two barrels. That way, after the initial fire burning the small wood in the outer chamber, the fire becomes smokeless, as it burns the gases released from the wood in the inner chamber.

I talked to my neighbors, Ilias and Nitsa. It is too dry now to do anything with fire outdoors. Between November and March then.

There is a farmer who makes charcoal professionally higher up on the mountain. But the way he does it creates a lot of smoke. So I will try the small patch barrel way.

Wood Chips and Composting

After two months I managed to find an affordable wood chipper that can chip the hard dry olive tree wood too. It is better to chip the wood when it is still green. But as I can not always be here and do not want to put more work than I already do on other people, I am chipping dry wood for now.

Brigitte and Stefan, my Swiss neighbors, have been giving me wet materials for the compost. :-) Way more than I can produce! I look forward to see it become soil.

Outhouse with Compost Toilet

Last week Xaris built the outhouse for the compost toilet with the wood from Dionisia’s old roof. It is nearly finished! I wanted to do it myself first but was afraid of using the chain saw without anyone’s instructions. And after seeing what Xaris did, it would have taken me a month…

Finally! The Building Permit!

Finally, we have the building permit! We got it mainly because of Elena Stavropoulou. And Kostas Kontomanos, Kostas Pavlou, Chrysanthos Maraveas, Dimitris Mantas, Panos Stasinopoulos and Tryfonas Vasilakopoulos.