First of all we move on with the foundations for the walls laid, and quite a nice outline of the house appears!

Then they fill the enclosed areas with rubble and tamp it down by repeatedly driving heavy machinery over it.  This compacts it to take bear the load of the floor between the strap beams (or so I’m told!).

So in the end the nice outline completely disappears, covered over with rubble and soil!

Meanwhile the west boundary, which faces the mountains, and has a 2-3metre drop to the olive grove below, is the centre of attention.

This drop forms a “haha” – a concealed divide with the neighbours, and we are hopeful that we can make it at least sheep (if not goat!) proof.  This will enable us to have the view out to the west, without any fence interrupting it.

Moving the digger down the drop and back up again is a skilful process. 

To protect and reinforce the side of the property we are having large rocks stacked up in a sort of natural wall (or artificial rockface!).

So far they’ve only done the South end of the boundary, and will add rocks to the other end when the pool has been dug out and concreted.

We are both keen to have a natural boundary here, and to avoid a retaining wall.  We’ll see if we can make it work!

Up at house level the drains are being laid, at least those that are below the level of the concrete.  There have been some issues of access but they’ve been sorted.

We are also worried about drainage of surface water over the plot.  The plot is on a slope, and the house is set some 2-3metres below the road level to the East, our “Cliff Face” as we call it!

Together with Eirini, our engineer, we have devised drains, slopes and run offs.  We will use troughs with metal grills to collect water from patios and paths, and concealed pipework to take the water away to the lower parts of the garden.

The foundations have been cleaned up Under the ground floor concrete is 5cm of extruded polystyrene insulation

And they’ve dug out a big hole for the pool

And so, here we go again

Its quite a process, all happening over the space of an hour or so. The concrete coming over the swan neck is directed to cover the area.  It looks sorta straightforward but takes a lot of experience to get just the right amount of concrete to fill up to the level of the shuttering – itself carefully measured and levelled.

As its being spread, one of the workers uses a hook to raise the reinforcing plegma to ensure its embedded in the middle of the concrete.

Another uses a long plank to spread, even out and smooth the concrete.

It was a long day – the concrete not arriving until late in the afternoon.  Which meant that the builder was working late into the evening

So now the shuttering for the frame of the house can be constructed. Wait for the next stage!

As we come to the end of the year in which building has actually started, seemed like a good time to reflect on the process.  Most of this comes down to interaction and communications with the builder and the architect, along with a few skirmishes with public authorities.

As for the latter, we were the ones who kept pressing to get the electricity pole moved  – it was right in the midst of what will be the house – and got it done months earlier than it would have been.  Note the stones at the base, hopefully not to stop it falling over. And the guarding cat!

And getting the water connected, and now an electricity connection – same process, they need to do it, but we need to pester and chase to get it done.

The maxim of our builder is “don’t worry”, the essence being, as our architect describes it, that he can put right most of the mistakes he will make.  This contrasts with our approach to avoid making them in the first place!  But it does mean waking up at night worrying about details. 

Some examples – the plans have been updated many times during the design process but there is no version control.  So the builder is constantly working from the wrong plans, or losing them altogether!   We are still not sure he read the detailed 50 page agreement that we drew up and he has signed!  It took some while for them to take on board that the toilets had been moved, and so the location of the soil pipes (crucial before the ground floor concrete is poured) have been moved.

They never make any plans it seems – when we ask about forward dates, they always review the steps as if they’d never considered them before!   Planning is not in their vocabulary or their understanding!  Despite steady time creep they still maintain that the completion date will not change.  Not the idea that it might be useful for us to know the 100 things we will need to select and source in advance of them needing them “next week”.

For Greeks, everything has to be made verbally when we are together.  They rarely give us answers in emails or messages, even when it’s a simple “yes” or “no”!   They like to have meetings, but even more rarely do any of their agreed action items!  They are amazed that Yasmin writes down so much during the meeting!  The action lists become longer and longer as we are constantly chasing them for things they haven’t done.

And the mobile phone, not only is it one of the main causes for the many many road accidents in Greece (the most of any EU country).  Every meeting with the architect will be punctuated by several phone calls, to which her response may be lengthy, and serves to break up whatever train of discussion we had got into, and render fairly chaotic trying to work thru an agenda. 

What the Greeks did before mobile phones we’ll never understand.  Maybe that’s why there are so many concrete frames and unfinished buildings dotted around, as they couldn’t get confirmation that the position or structure was right and just built it anyway!

We are trying to think of how things might be in the future, hence our plans to generate mainly our own solar electricity, for when there are shortages, the infrastructure breaks down, it gets too expensive.  And to store rainwater collected over the winter months.  There are already water shortages in many parts of the Apokoronas, the rain/snowfall in the mountains is decreasing, the infrastructure to collect and transport it is inadequate, old, poorly maintained and peppered with leaks.  But these efforts are met with bemusement, resistance and obstacle placing!

Everyone says how we must be excited by building our own house, whilst we find that we are often quite tired and exhausted thinking of all the details.  Oscillation between despair, stress and trying to see the humorous side of it, at the same time coping with it.

Maybe its also age related – we are now in our 60s – 70s, and the last time we did this was 15 years ago!  And the start of our adventure in Crete and the realisation of our dreams when nothing seemed to be impossible and we could rise to whatever was required. But Folia Agapis is to be our forever home, we have learnt from our experience and our mistakes, and we are determined that it will give us a wonderful home to live in.

Now its back to work!  We’ve moved on since the basement, with a host of issues!   Where the toilet soil pipes will go, finding out all the fittings we need to select and source, how to deal with surface water – the plot is on a slope, and part way down a hill.  But the outline is taking shape. So  now we can begin to see how it will look! 

The shuttering and steels are laid for the strap beams which will support the floor slab.  We think the level will be at least 60-70cm higher than the cleanng concrete level.

Bit of disappointment at first that it looks smaller than the 3D walk thru.  The Atrium which seemed to be imposing is quite small – snug as Yasmin said.  But the views will be tremendous.  And the whole thing becomes a bit more real.

At the moment it looks almost subterranean  as the ground level in the SE corner is more than 3.5m above the cleaning concrete.  We need to create more space around the house and reduce the surrounding ground level too.  And we’ll need railings to avoid falling down the cliff face.

Looks pretty solid tho, can’t see those concrete structures letting us down, even with a massive earthquake.

Closer to everyday, We are concerned about ground water running from above, and running down the tiled and concreted slopes towards the house.  We’ve just had some pretty big rains – 4cm in a day – to remind us of what it can be like!  We’ve talked with our architect whose suggested some drainage troughs with grilles over around the edges of the path.  Emptying out into our plot below the house.

And inbetween a time off to eat at Ginger Concept amongst the jungle of banana palms. 

We ve begun the task of selecting fittings, starting with  toilets, sinks, taps and tiles.

We’ve been several times, for the last two, staying at a charming little house on the edge of the sleepy village of Amari, facing out over the Amari valley, with beautiful views. 

We ate out pretty much every night, there aren’t a huge number of places but we’ve sussed out some lovely ones.  Aravanes, not the same now that Haroula has left for Athens, after managing the front of house for 8 years.  But still with great food and wonderful views over the Amari valley, framed by Psiloritis on the left and Samitos on the right.

Romeo and Juliet we finally got to after finding it booked out all the previous times we’ve tried.  It’s a quirky place right on the roadside and great for people (and car) watching.  Matt and Yanna serve an eclectic fusion mix: Indian, Thai, Chinese and Greek, all good, and there are wild cocktails!

We got round to visiting the monastery just down in the valley below us, at Asomaton.  It was deserted and ruined for many years but has now been taken over by nuns (at least a few!) and partially restored. Psiloritis looms in the background

Yasmin got interested in their vegetable garden, very neat, and tended by a very elderly nun (the younger ones watching telly in the new block no doubt!).

Our last night was at a taverna at a local village which we’d spotted on our travels.  Lovely atmosphere with the occasional car driving right thru the square, and a friendly Maria cooking great local food.

The inspector finally visited!  The first one turned down the opportunity, and the second didn’t have a car!  Had to brought out by our engineer.  But he came, he saw, he concurred!

Here is the plot, ready for the basement foundation to be poured

The steels were in place.

And Yasmin ready to supervise!

Theo ordered the concrete and, on Wednesday 6^th August, Folia Agapis began.

The swan neck truck arrives which will pipe and pump the concrete from the trucks onto the site

It unwinds quite gracefully, watched by Theo

And the first concrete truck arrives.  They come from Agia on the Omalos road so Theo says, its about 20 minutes away .

They use a vibrator machine to tamp down the material and remove air bubbles, then use a long plank to tamp it down and even out the surface.

Samples are taken of the concrete to be tested for strength.

And then its time for some celebration!

And we signed up to a contract at the KEP office in Kalyves, signatures certified by Despina!

And he has started!

Christos Pantelakis from the local builders merchants where we used to buy gravel and soil from his sister Maria.  He gets to work with his big digger, first clearing the plot. 

Our ideas of what to do with the natural slopes and contours of the plot, and even its ha ha, having been completely overtaken by the massive amount of earth and rocks from the excavations.  Everywhere there are great piles, the ha ha wall has disappeared, and we realize we will have scope to remodel the grounds when the build is completed.

Meanwhile the 4 olive trees which were “in the way” and which we want to try to save have been moved and the roots covered with earth.  We and Theo are trying to make sure they get watered enough to survive until he can get them put in their final locations.

We’d asked Eirini, our long-suffering architect/engineer, to design the house for us. She talked about the house of her family which had a courtyard enclosed on three sides, and how this helped with both protection in windy winters, and shade in sunny summers. She asked us to draft a “How we want to live”.  This turned out to be a masterstroke, forcing us to think about just that, rather than getting into the nitty gritty of what rooms, what sizes, what details.  This is a summary of what we came up with, and here the full details if you are interested!

Our philosophy is “Inside out, outside in” – meaning that we want to be able to enjoy outside from within and we want outside spaces that we can use like inside

We spend a lot of time cooking, eating and drinking, mainly on our own

We need separate space for clothes washing, drying, ironing

We are active people and regularly work out on mats with weights. But we expect to have live in help at some point in our lives, and need to be able to accommodate them

Cosiness with a fire for cold dark winter nights; music and space to relax and be calm

We spend almost all our time together in the same house, but often do separate activities

We sleep in a large double bed and like space around us whilst sleeping

We do not use a bath, and we don’t spend a great deal of time in the bathroom

We don’t often have anyone to stay, so a temporary sleeping arrangement (sofa bed say) is fine

We want to cast as small an energy footprint as possible, so we have 10cm insulation, and solar photovoltaic array on the South facing roof

And we’d like the house externally to make a statement, to stand out as somewhere different. Not extravagant, but bold, unconventional, arresting

Thats from the NW with the road on the left. Its altered a bit since that picture but it gives an idea.

This is from the west and faces the views of the White Mountains. Our studios are on the left – the balcony isn’t quite that wide now!, and our bedroom on the right. The pool has a 10m swimming lane and a little area where we can lounge about on lilos. It will be sort of infinity with an overflow wall on the west so we can float towards the mountains.

Eirini was we think, quite enthused by this challenge, but uncharacteristically hesitant in presenting her first design suggestions.  Turns out she was worried that she might have got us completely wrong and that we might be put off by her proposals.  She needn’t have worried, we were thrilled with the result with the two blocks connected with an atrium which opened out onto the swimming pool.

In the end we swopped over the “living” from the “sleeping” blocks, with the larger for living, and the other containing both bedroom and gym/future live in help space!  Some tweaks here and there but the original design, with its position as high as possible on the plot, looking out over the views of the mountains and villages to the west, stood the test of several revisitings.

And is now being built!

We tried to stretch a two bedroomed place in Neo Horio and raise the ground level so it would be step-free. In all we saw 19 properties over several months. We were moving on to realizing that, in order to get what we wanted, we were going to have to build again, and from scratch.

So, we’ve made the decision to build from scratch.   We don’t want to go back to Northern Europe – too wet and cold, too foreign, too much of a wrench.  We don’t want to rent because there is no security of tenure, – we’d might need to move every 3 years.  We’ve looked at buying an existing house – but they all need so much changed to make them suit us its just not worth it.

We’ve found and bought a plot.  In the nicest village in the Apokoronas,with all the amenities we like and need.  A plot the right size (~1000m2), with wonderful views of the mountains, in a quiet area of the village surrounded mostly by expats, within walking distance of the centre of the village, even – at least for the moment! – a “local” serving good beers and food within a stone’s throw.

So this is it – still green and edged with trees. Lovely views of the mountains if it wasnt for the sun setting in the west!

Here’s a picture of the plot from Google Earth, our little 1000m2 plot marked out in blue. The school is to the east, and lots and lots of olive trees to the west, but well below us.

And on April 25 we have signed the all the papers at the offices of lovely Artemis, with our long suffering lawyer Athina, and the agents who seem to do all our business, Elizabeth Estate Agency with Elizabeth and George.

So now we need someone to design a very special house, the love nest in which we intend to live out the rest of our lives