Darkest week so far!!!!

I last posted in August after a lazy summer and I imagined the next post would be all the goods things that have been achieved and how nice it is to be back to normal temperatures and best of all more workers to help us get a tad closer to finishing!

I will start with the positives and some photos of some lovely bits that are getting very close to the final push!

Bedroom - well what a bloody horrible job to get the floor smooth and finished! Rich started the process first and after really a few seconds the room was full of cement dust and impossible to see anything at all! Simon had brought over a small diamond cutter to fit onto a small and normal grinder so we knew its was going to be a long job but not as bad as it got!

One week looking like this! 

Rich had a go a few times having a sand for maybe 15 mins and then having to leave the room, I had an idea of using a spray bottle at the same time to keep the dust down. that helped a little but not enough! Rich got pissed off and said he had had enough. I don't blame him bless, but that did mean that I would have to take over!

I started the same way and after half an hour realised it was impossible, I am not sure if Simon said to use water or not, and I did not look on you tube like I normally do so have no idea what happened next but I just opened the spray bottle and chucked the whole of the water in the floor, fired up the sander and went for it!

Phew!!!!! it worked like a dream, no dust and amazing smooth finish. Rich entered the room a few hours later and got all excited and started to help me. He wet in the areas I was heading and between us we managed to finish the room in 2 days!

Then I started the slow process of painting 7 coats of linseed oil onto it! I was amazed how water proof the floor became very quickly. Also when you read on, you will see how it really did work when water came pooring in the window a few months later.

Nice shining floor, grit sanded down looks ok! I even took a photo of a dog hair for you! 

Love finished bedroom! Like a little place to hide in!

Pallet wood treated with linseed!

To give the room its final finish we painted both walls in a lovely pale purple and we treated all the wood again with linseed. I do love my bedroom window so much and all the wood used the room was free as all found in the bins. The mud walls are painted white with talc that smells lovely and flour, yes normal plain flour, makes a great cover for all the little cracks!

I painted some old mis matched furniture in the purple as a wash and used wax afterwards for a shabby chic look. TB mounted on the wall and new rug down and it really is a finished room and at the moment my very favorite place to be!

Cheap furniture painted and waxed! 

Afternoon sun comes through the stained glass window and is very special!

Bathroom - Rich really did a great job using old pallet wood on the walls and he made a really lovely mirror frame! I about finished with the tiling and have just about finished the grouting! White gloss on the beams in here to allow more light to bounce around as it is a dark room! Only the pipes to box in and a few more tiles on the bath and in here will be all done! Room number 2!

Rich making skirting boards from pallet wood!

Cheap pretend limestone tiles and Rich pallet wall painted with watered down white paint and then waxed!

Rich made me a super nice wooden frame for a piece of glass I pinched from a skip!

White ceiling to bounce the light down as its dark room! Shelf to put stuff on when taking a shower!

Hiding the caravans well underway using pallet wood! Rich office and my office will very soon be invisible from the road and we will look less like a gypsy campsite. The large van very soon will be moved down on the arena and hidden from view.

Rich caravan with its coat to make it invisible from the road! it really works just my little one to do the same and then move the large one down below! 

We had a great team of workers who had a massive push of mud making and managed to get the 2 end walls covered! Just the back courtyard now and then try to source some lime to add to the final coat to make it water proof!

Workers back! yippee! Craig and Harry same as last year.....

Sad thing number one was saying goodbye to Irene and Jose the 2 wonderful architects, without these two we would never have started this project and we will miss them! What I didn't realise was, that to have us as an open project for this length of time looked bad for them! It had not even entered my head that it is a full TWO years since we employed them and we drew out the white lines for the house.

If anyone had said it would still be so unfinished after a whole 2 years I really would have got angry and said "no way". I think we would have found another solution maybe and not been so eco. However doing it this way means that we do have an amazing house build with so much love and laughter and that I suppose is worth wait!

STORM DAMAGE!

September, just at the start of the month we had the normal what they call Gota Fria, big heavy rains in one small space of time on dry, dry land! So we have floods etc. This year was bad as we had a months rainfall in 2 days! We didn't suffer too much really and as a surprise to us both the roof did not leak too bad! A few rock falls near the horse area but nothing too bad.

wet wet and more wet!

Normal car park! so lucky I moved em!

Another lucky break as this is where the horses stand! 

So you can imagine then at the end of October we really didn't expect it all to happen again! It was forcast to start on the Thursday night at 11pm and it really did. I was stupid and ordered way too much hay which we tried to cover as best we could! I had a few buckets out to catch the water so I thought I was ready!

What a bloody night, I think I read that we had 2 months rainfall in 3 hours and we really did suffer this time. No idea why but we put the cars in a different place as we would have lost one I think to the stone wall which came down!

Horses lucky not to get hurt as the wall above them went for a slide down the hill! The worst area was in the courtyard as the clay wall decided it was the right time to give up and fall into the area right next to the back door, Falling on all the plants and making a right mess at the back door. Dogs running in and out with muddy feet like you would not believe! Poor little pig needed rescuing as the mud turned to clay and she could not walk!

Little pig standing next to the floor that is falling away from the hillside, can you just see a crack! 

Terrace gone under the solar panels which took out the wall below and moved water containers and buried the cables to solar system! So all this mud and mess and no power from system. Fixed a week later and we think it was a lightening strike that damaged something!

Well I think that's it and surely that's enough! I am not going to mention the damage down at The Orange House and leaks and unhappy clients and staff but I can say that last week was the worst to-date by a mile and one I really don't want to repeat!

I will end with a happy photo though as I do love this house so much and things can only get better!? Yeh?

EXACTLY TWO YEARS AGO TODAY!!!!!!!!!