Looking forwards to seeing family and friends again, even if only for a small period of time.
Hoping to get the basics of the bathroom done before leaving, so all we have to do when I get back is one big job, the Summer Kitchen rebuild...and any left overs from the bathroom move.
Thankfully all the big infra-structure work has almost been completed...it has been a massive job as I look back on the photos, I can't believe how bad the conditions of the buildings were...crumbling walls, collapsed walls, collapsed roof, leading to the collapse of the entire building on the old big shed, soon to be the new big room, cracked walls in every room, no floors in some rooms, no windows in 2 of the 4 rooms, no bathroom or kitchen, no water inside and so on.
Anyways, it has been so much fun, it has been an amazing experience indeed.
I have loved digging in the dirt, making plans to try and preserve as much authenticity as possible while making the place as comfy, cute and as pretty as is suited to the area...and era... in a way.
Then all that has to be done after the Summer Kitchen is rebuilt is to get the floors laid with parquetry and complete the little things left over.
Hopefully it will all be semi-ready by late Oct for a preview opening for insiders and then completed by March/April when things begin to warm up and everyone awakens from the European hibernation of winter.
Will have to build the big room in March of next year now as I lost 3 months from not having the guys here to work...which was a bit of an unforeseen blow.
Plus, no one can build from November until March because of the cold, so it is an enforced rest which means...set up my travel plans for Dec until March!
Thankfully there were 3 lots of volunteers here over those 3 worker-less months and except for an odd day here and there with my normal workers, we got so many little things done which make a house a home, it was fun and a very creative process..
It's been a work in progress for sure and I'm almost at the stage of heaving a sigh of relief that there will be no more dust around for a while. It will be nice to have a real house by Xmas !
As the new big room will need a special draftsman to draw up the exposed beams, load bearing walls and mezzanine floor etc, I'll get the other building for the end paddock drawn up at the same time too.
Life in this part of Europe and parts of Ireland are so different to anything I've ever known. Touristy things close down in late October until April...amazing. They have to make their money in that period that will last them over the 5 months they are closed.
So, for me, even though a lot of things will be closed, I'll be a tourist from December until March, so will need a caretaker here...any volunteers?
Am anxious now that this stage is nearing the end, to get crackin' with the next part of the adventure. Will need that caretaker for the growing garden work, cum live in housekeeper ASAP.
Will buy a little wood heater for the kitchen dining area, as it has the perfect flue arrangement for a real wood fire.
Even though I was coughing and sneezing with the wet sappy wood last winter, the winter before I wasn't.
I just remembered that the other day. So much going on, I clean forgot that I had a decent amount of old dry rubbishy wood and used that up and bought a load or two from the hardware store early on and it dried out OK.
The little woodshed is full of old and drying timber, so I'm game enough to have a go again. There is nothing as warm as the real wood fire, the heat from it is entirely different to anything else.
Something small like this...I don't think I like the pot belly stove as much as these types.
 |
| The floor will be real wood parquetry like this too...only a different pattern... |
 |
| One of the new set of chairs I bought... |
 |
| The front of the shed now only has to be tarted up and a bigger door put in so we can get the cement mixer in etc and this will be another project completed on the outside. The inside still has a bit of painting and repairs, but can be done OK later on. |
 |
| Bottling time is over for the season,, so the neighbour's chooks get to eat up all the remaining tomatoes! |
 |
| Istvan is putting in the back fence at the end of the shed. We are using the old timbers that came out of the roof of the same shed as fence posts. Exactly long enough for 3 post sizes! |
 |
| Meanwhile Zoltan has to move the sand pile to dig the septic trench...oops Mary, I put the sand right in his way... |
 |
| He has to dig to this grey pipe sticking up. |
 |
| The back part from the new loo position is all done and this is the new gutter drain trench to the well.... |
 |
| The drain pipes from the new back gutters are being fed into the well... |
 |
| All hooked up and ready to flow! I'm standing at the well. |
 |
| Just got to get to that grey pipe in the back there now, where the shovel is up against the wall. |
 |
| Almost done the first cut out...It looks wobbly, but it's just the grass falling over into the cut out... |
 |
| One has to get used to family calling in for a lookee and chat while the working family member continues to work!!! |
 |
| 3 post holes dug and the posts will be cemented in. |
 |
| Zoltan has finished his big dig, connected the pipes and back filled the trenches while I caught the bus to town to buy some more 45degree angle connector pipes |
 |
| The last of the yard clean up...removing the volunteer family little girl's sand pit... |
 |
| Forgot to pick the tomatoes for a few days...dohhh. Have run out of jars, freezer and fridge space now! |
 |
| Yard all tidy and ready to pull down the summer kitchen and repair it when I get back from OZ in late September. |
 |
| Meanwhile inside, Imre is doing the other bread oven! Everything else is ready to move the shower and loo on the weekend, so I thought. But he just informed me the floor should really go down first, via Google translate. So Hamburg is off and a trip to some local cities hardware shops is the go now! I know it can be done either way, but would rather get it done first so there is no cutting around things to do. |
 |
| So, off comes the 2 doors, architraves and all! |
 |
| A bit sad to see this go...but... |
 |
| He'll cut out all the chimney face and make room for the washing machine and dryer...or I'll just make it a linen cupboard. |
 |
| No turning back now...chop-chop-chop... |
 |
| Back outside, Istvan hit a problemo...a big tree stump right where the wire fence has to go! |
 |
| So, just dig it out Istvan! |
 |
| Yooo! 30 mins later, he has a nice big wooden stump to take home for about 3-5 hrs of burning time for winter! |
 |
| Imre has cleaned the rubble away, chipped the correct size into the chimney, put in the new higher lintel and thrown a mortar slurry seal over the old fire area bricks to tidy it all up. |
 |
| Istvan is finishing off the fence. We were going to buy some wire but found the leftovers from the other fence we put up earlier this year. We needed 4 metres exactly. Guess exactly how much was left on the roll? With a bit of stretching, it fitted exactly! Thank-you again my Guardian Angels. Cement underpinning holds the wire into the cement and a few hooks into the wire holds the wire firmly down into the cement too. Now we only have to make a new back gate and that bit is done! Yooo. |
A new bathroom room set up in the old kitchen and remodeled to all the down pipes and septic system pipes completed at last, to the yard being really finished...not counting the newly set aside work area.
Heaving a sigh of relief.
The past 2 weeks has been cutting out mud bricks and old chimney walls...urghhh.
The dust becomes almost an inch thick on the ledges, fridge top and on the glass panel edges around the doors every time Imre chops into another piece of wall, mud brick wall, I mean.
Even though I keep both the doors into the rooms closed, the dust finds its way in anyways!
For now, I think that will be the last of the chopping out of mud brick walls...except if I decide to double the size of the new kitchen existing lovey window toput in the new ones. If it is kept the same, no chopping will be required, but If I want to open up the area more...12 inches on both sides of the existing window will be removed.
Am thinking it will be worth it in the end...even though I am really tired of being perpetually in a state of mud brick covered dust, both in the entire house and all over me and in my hair etc!
Wow, I must be really over it as I'm having a big winge it seems.
Not really, but I guess I'm excited to be really close to having the worst of the big works completed and can see my way clear to do a lot of girly things now, like putting up curtains and so on.
Am heading off for a couple of days next week to hunt for the wooden floors so I can order them to be laid in October when I get back.
Was going to Hamburg to see my fave show, but opted to go floor hunting in some cities in northern Hungary instead...partly because the floor has to go down before the shower gets moved...a bit of a nuisance actually.
I went into Tiszafured a few weeks ago to order the floors...but, cry- cry, they don't do parquetry any more locally. So that threw a spanner in my schedule too,
Will spend a few days away, just looking in the big hardware stores in the bigger cities around the areas, having a break from the dust and ash. Just booking accom now and the trains and buses run every few hours, so no problems.
Am in the middle of drying all those tomatoes in the pic here on the blog and also making a few batches of chutney. Then I'll pull a lot of the tomato plants out and only leave a few in for when I get back.
Have just pulled out the cucumber plants. They all die off when they are spent, so that's handy, but still have about 30 cucumbers in the fridge, even after giving 3 lots away, just today!
OK...will go and publish and post this and catch you all early next week with more pics.
Cheers,
M
xxx
.
