The plot keeps transforming

After two weeks of rain, we could finally move several tons of rock, mud and soil and create a low platform to lay the copper tubes into the ground for the underground geo-thermal heating systems. Now that low flat area will be filled up again to the level of the lower terrace. The high steep slope will be levelling off more gently downwards, and the builders will integrate some path with steps and a staircase down into the lower part of the garden. The side of the house that is still comletely open at the moment (south), will disappear behind that garden-slope. At least that's the plan... Difficult to imagine at this stage!



At the front of the house, Iker, the man with the bulldozer, has filled the gap between the mountain and the house, (which was built into a hole in the mountain slope), so now we have a platform almost at the correct height of the entrance, which is the upper floor.



That way, the builders could get close enough to the house to move the big wooden beams for the roof structure and the front facade, which they have started setting up already. Looking at the house from this side, the lower floor is now completely "underground".



At the other side of the house (north), the bulldozer has created the platform for the carport. From the top, the slope comes down, stabilised by big rocks - this slope and the next slope going down will hopefully be one day some kind of herb-garden and flower beds, possibly with some trees!



At the bottom of that, they have already installed the tanks for the rainwater collector, as well as the two tanks for the dirtwater-cleaning system. The ground will be filled up until it levels off with the top of the tank-access.



The truth is that at this stage, things look quite horrible - steep slopes, large holes, tons of mud and dirt and rock, and it is difficult in places to imagine what it will look like once it is finished, but after all, this is only a point in time, and we are looking forward to the day it stops raining, so the builders can get on with things and start on the roof structure and then on the floor between the two storeys!

Back to work after a rainy week

After having been stopped the entire last week because of the persistent rain, today we had splendid weather and the excavator could finally start to work on the plot. One single day has been sufficient to put it almost entirely upside-down.

One of the things that we've changed during the development is the driveway to the house. We've extended it and now it comes straight from the neighbourhood to the area where the carport is going to be. What the arquitects hadn't seen on paper, we saw very clearly once we were on the ground, so we asked the builders to change it. This way we won't have the steep driveway which would have caused problems in winter because of snow and ice.

They've also started to prepare the yard in front of the house, covering the hole with soil. Once they've finished, Juantxo and Joseba will bring all the timber to start mounting the structure of the roof.

The rain water harvesting deposits have also been put in place. We've got two that take an overall of 13.000 litres that we will use for the toilets, the washing machine and the garden.

Of sheep, kitchen and other building stories

The walls of the first floor are almost finished.

The excavator will come again on Monday to start with the development of the surroundings of the house: stretch of road till the carpark, area at the entrance, area for the ground heat exchanger, rain water collector, sewage treatment trickling filter and facultative pond, etc.

Once some of these tasks are organized, Juantxo and Joseba will start mounting the wooden structure for the roof.







The builders have also finally set up some fencing for security around the scaffolding and the free-standing terraces and balconies, after the official building supervisor told them to do so!

The "empty" space at the front will be almost entirely made up of windows.

Juantxo has also organised a tiny little kitchen in one of the rooms. Now they've got a small stove for cooking, a box with food, oil and other stuff, plates and cutlery - I hope they don't think of moving in soon!

On Sunday we also had some "neighbours" visiting us at the house. Well... the visitors were not the neighbours themselves but some of their the sheep and lambs that had found the way out of the neighbour's plot and made it to ours.

The lambs played on the slopes, racing up and down, to great delight of our dog Donnou, who was totally annoyed because he wasn't allowed to "play" with them and he sulked for an hour.