Thursday 16 August 2012

" 'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves / Did gyre and gimble in the wabe; / All mimsy were the borogoves / And the mome raths outgabe." ("Jabberwocky" Lewis Carroll)

It is August.  In Italy August is holiday, but seriously.

The motorways and the beaches are crowded.  Every town, and then some, is having a Festa.  Music can be heard in the hills 'til the early hours.  It is hot.

Work on our main house has been suspended, though, to be fair, most of the building work has been completed and we await plumbers, electricians, bathroom and kitchen fitters and, one day, the decorators.

Earlier this month, Paolo and the crew turned their sights to the annexe building.  It should not be such a demanding undertaking as the main house.  The base has been laid with TWENTY EIGHT cubic metres of concrete.  That's a lot for a little building.  The depth was specified by our "seismic" engineer and the exact amount of concrete needed calculated by Paolo.  At the first sign of seismic activity the annexe is where you'll find me!

For now, we are in the depth of holiday season.  But, Ferragosto has come and gone.  Soon it will be September.  Life, as we have come to know it, will begin again...

Alex constructing the weld mesh foundations for the concrete base.  The igloos are in situ to reduce the amount of concrete required.  The base will lie on 15 5-metre re-enforced concrete posts drilled into the ground.

Paolo deep in thought in the site "office" calculating the amount of concrete mix to order.

Weldmesh sheets added over the base and levelling datum points set.  All the shuttering panels are in place and fingers crossed that they will not give way - a potential disaster!

Three huge concrete mixers were required to manoeuvre gingerly over unstable ground

Plenty of practised standing around watching Alex do all the work.

The finished base.  This is what 28 cubic metres of concrete looks like.  The weight is 750 quintals approx. of mix.

Shuttering removed

The view from what will one day be the Annexe portico.