How our house was built

Work on our house began in 1999. 

Here's the plot of land. 

First step: clearing the land. Very exciting day when the bloke with the digger came hurtling onto the plot, hair and beer belly flying in the wind.  

 Next came the foundations. We did the traditional Foundation Blessing Ceremony. Step away from the blog now if you are an ardent vegetarian or cockerel lover. 

It involved slaughtering a white cockerel and then pouring its blood onto the foundations. Then, at the four corners, we laid four coins. The priest said prayers and whisked incense around and we all went for a meal with friends and family. 

 First floor built. 

Now it starts to look like a house.  

 







The garden stayed as messy land for quite a while but here you can see work beginning to transform it. Laurence is sitting on the truck, enjoying watching the paving stones being unloaded.

The wooden pergola looks wonky here but that is my bad camera angle.  



We had a fountain built. It turned out rather larger than I had envisaged. The poor guy who built it has since passed away. He was so slight that I felt very sorry for him every time he hauled another rock into position. Maintaining the fountain turned out to be costly and difficult-everything kept breaking down so now I have turned it into a Flower Folly.  

Here the Pichas brothers are putting up the railings at the front of the house. Sadly Thanasis Pichas (wearing the cap) has also since passed away.  

Garden is shaping up.  

And here is the finished product-view from the back...

view from the side... 

And the garden in all its glory. 

We moved into the house in July 2000 so the whole thing took about 18 months. Garden obviously took somewhat longer for everything to grow. I think this garden pic was taken around 2006.