Visitors

Well, it's been so busy this last month or so with visitors from all over the shop! We had a Norwegian fellow called Arne come and help with some mud, then a Dutch couple and their two gorgeous children came and camped out for a few days also helping Oscar with the mud and me with the bathroom. We were also extremely happy to have two lots of relatives come and stay from Australia for a few days - more please!
The last lot was an unexpected surprise. Carla's school year had all gone to school with their bikes last Wednesday. They were going to ride out to a nearby picnic site and have morning tea in the sun. In fact we drove past them on our way home from shopping, to a chorus of "Hola" and waves from the many who know us through Carla or the academy. Anyway, we got home and after just enough time to make a cup of coffee and split a pastry in two, we heard a curious rumour of childish shouting and doggish barking. Apparently they'd set out from school a little later than planned and had run out of time to get to the picnic site so Carla had suggested our place as an alternative. Why not?! Coffee in hand we gave all fifty of them (plus two teachers and two local police officers) a guided tour of the place with explanations of how and why included. They asked heaps of questions and had a good play about with Luka and the countryside. Maybe we should think about doing some sort of formal educational thing...

A tour!

Finished rough mud and bathroom in use...
music by oscar

i see red

Except in real life it is nowhere near as fire-engine as these photos make it seem. The second coat has mellowed it to a deep ruby colour and we love it.
And here is our bedroom all mudded up ready for the final smooth coat which will be happening sometime in summer.

sample pots

I have discovered sample pots AND I LOVE THEM!!!
I have only bought four so far (and considering we had already chosen the colour we wanted, even this is a little extravagant) but they are so much fun. They are like those squeezy sponge shoe polishes we used to use at school to blacken our shoes except the colours are really cool.

Anyway, the bathroom is going to be the red colour you can see here, though there was some debate between that and the purple - in the end Carla will have the purple in her room. The shower area and toilet are cream so it won't all be screaming at us when we wander in of a morning. I did think about buying every sample pot in the store and doing little colourful squares all over the place but considering that our floor is already kind of like that I decided it would probably a bit much...

bottles

Here is a shot of the bathroom from the outside at night with a light on inside...
Inspired by Kirsten (see the link to the right)...pretty huh?

bathroom bathroom mud

And we are STILL working on the bathroom. It has almost all its walls finished now and lots of render done. Once the taps come we will DEFINITELY get it up and running.

Have also finished woodwork in hallway and as always more mud mud mud.

The Mistela Bottles are our towel hooks by the way.
Oh! And this is the floor we have chosen for the whole house...what do you think?

Marta and Mike's place

Last Sunday we got in the car and drove about an hour away to eat pizza with a couple of friends who are also building a house. Their place is amazing - real HOMEWORK kind of stuff. Have a look at the great bottle details...

Hot Water Cold Weather

Why is it that the people who have to do any work on the roof always come when it is raining? It is completely infallible. In fact the head of the local Agricultural Cooperative has officially requested that we do lots of work on the roof over the coming few months to ease the drought situation. No, really!

Just look at that sky...The solar fellas came to install our hot water heater at last (only five months after the order...not too bad for Spain) and apart from a bit of a leak which of course was conveniently situated right on top of my battery bank and electrical thingummy, all went well. Only trouble is we haven't had any sun since last Thursday so the water is still cold. Of course we don't need it yet. Need to finish the bathroom and kitchen first.

visits from all over!

Last Saturday Blake, who was one of the original seminar attendees, came from Greece with the lovely Ariadne to pay a visit and see how the house was going. They are the very first people to actually sleep in a bed in the new house! A bit chilly as there is still a small wall to go up, but apparently a nice view to wake up to.
On Sunday at about ten, Oscar's phone rang and it was Berthus from Holland (he without whom our house would not be completing itself so soon) with his marvellous Sole (pronounced sol-eh) who were at the French border and would be arriving at about six...if that was alright...? Of course it was and they bunked down in the house too, staying until Thursday.

We love having people who have worked on the house come and see how everything has progressed, it reminds us of how much we have actually done!

kitchen cupboards and watching the mud dry

I have been using our SOLAR ENERGY to run my power tools - so cool. Today I started one of our kitchen cupboards. This is the one where the sink goes - looking out ono the garden - and the washing machine gets shoved in the gap to the right, under the countertop. I am discovering that NOTHING in this house is square level or plumb.

And now here is a photo of mud drying. Exciting, isn't it?