Today and yesterday have been filled from morning to evening with what I consider, pretty hard physical work in the garden.
Most of yesterday was spent moving a pile of soil and spreading it around the garden where the earthmovers gave either cleared or driven their machines and left tracks, then spreading grass.
Today had been more of the same withe the addition of lifting 6 meter beams through the window onto the second floor and beginning the process of removing, cleaning and painting the basement windows. They are in terrible condition and will need to be replaced eventually, but it was just too expensive, so we only did the top living floors.
They look really dodgy now, but at the end of the week the painters will come to finish the plinth in the same color grey and we are hoping that the windows will blend in and be only noticeably bad up close. My painting job is pretty rough too, because it is not worth spending the many hours to sand back as well as reseam them.
What an awkward shot that one is. My wife took it with my phone and put it on wide angle, likely to fit me in. But the awkward comes from Smallsteps and I looking like we have no idea what we are doing - which was only half true.
We should have waited a little to plant the grass, but witg so many other things needing to be completed this week, we decided to do it while I had some time. The soil needs to be kept moist, which meant buying a hose extension to reach the other side of the house.
We only have one tap outside which we installed, so there were none prior. It is this cool system that doesn't freeze and burst in the winter. At some point later, we will probably get a rainwater tank with a small pump for watering the garden instead - as despite there being 200,000 lakes in Finland, water is quite expensive.
The exterior of the house looks very different to what it did a few short months ago and I am looking forward to moving more to the insides, although I am not so keen on the walking everything up the stairs.
The neighbour and his friend helped get the 6 meter beams upstairs, which because of their length, was easier than expected. It helped that the neighbour is also 190+ centimetres tall himself.
The friend lives in a similar old house near Helsinki and after seeing what we are doing with the attics, is now considering doing similar, as it makes the area far more useful.
The beams are to support the roof and will give us the maximum width we can safely have. The other option was to have pillars, but they get in the way and limit furniture position options. Once done, I think it is going to be quite a nice area.
We were crazy to think we would be finished with the upstairs floor by this time and will likely be 3 months behind when we can move up there. The only thing that would drastically cut that time frame down is if we win the lottery and can pay someone to do all the surfaces. Unlikely. So it will be room by room with whatever scraps of money we have left from our salaries.
Today was probably the last hot day of the year too and while we didn't really do anything fun like go to the beach, we did finish off the work with a little barbecue. There is still time for more grilling of course, but it is unlikely that mid 20s and up will be seen again until next June or July.
It is funny how little I thought off Summer in Australia, but when the warm wet at her is as brief as here, it definitely becomes "a thing" that affects thinking. Scarcity kicks in.
I will now try to catch up on what's been happening around here today, as I feel I have been very absent. It is weird, but life gets in the way of all of us sometimes.
Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]
