Planting gets underway
This week: Finishing the hall floor; The next part of the project; The last cuts; Planting gets underway;
We have had another sunny week here in Dol, however with the clear skies at night, temperatures have dropped to low single figures.
My weather station has still not recorded an air temperature below zero up to this point in our winter.
That said, in exposed patches there has been some evaporation frost on a couple of mornings. Živa wanted to know why we had gone for a walk when the ground was cold and she had no boots…
As soon as the sun warms the ground, the frost returns to dew.
I had to go over to Split this week for an eye test and new glasses. Whilst there I took the opportunity to shop at Bauhaus for some screws, fittings and timber.
In the sun it was really warm, although on the ferry home, a cool breeze lowered the temperature preventing me from sitting outside.
Spring is here in Dol. Walking round the village this week, the first Almond blossom is out. This tree was covered in pink, even though it is being slowly strangled by Ivy.
My almond tree is covered in swollen buds, but is one of the last to come into blossom. However this week the first Crocus are in flower.
I also noticed the first Hyacinth flower too. The leaves have been visible since December and several have unopened flower spikes.
In a week or so, the air will be heavy with the scent of Hyacinths.
Finishing the hall floor
I’ve finished the hardwood flooring in the hall. That is, as far as I can go with it for now.
‘Ivan the Terrible’ is a local plumber who I employed to install my central heating and solar hot water systems.
His shoddy work, failure to use the correct piping and not insulating pipes in the loft led to 14 burst pipes in January 2017, when we had an unusual week of freezing temperatures.
This week I found some more of his work when I was on my hands and knees in the hall.
I have a double panel radiator in the hall and I hadn’t realised how he had installed the pipework, where the copper pipe exits the bathroom.
This will have to be altered, however for me to make the changes I need to drain the central heating system.
Yes, you are right in thinking that this will not happen until the warmer weather arrives!
Because of this, I can’t install the final newel post, which means I also can’t fix the last two lengths of flooring up to the wall.
So for the time being, I have done as much as I can on the floor.
The matter of the “bridge” across the stairwell will remain unresolved, until a new entrance to the building is constructed when the lounge is finally built.
The next part of the project
Looking at the cross section of the floor / ceiling, the various layers are all visible, and they dont look very nice.
There is the plasterboard between the beams, which hold the floor up. Then the post 1942 fire, replacement wooden floor boards. On these I have fixed 8 x 5 cm stripwood, cut to make the hardwood floor above level.
As you go up and down stairs all this is visible and it doesn’t look nice.
I have been looking for some wood to cover this, but the cost of timber mouldings is horrific. At €25 for a two metre length, and I will need a minimum of five lengths, I’m just not willing to pay that price!
I don’t have any surplus lengths of hardwood flooring, because I didn’t think of this at the time I ordered the timber from Zagreb.
What I did find at Bauhaus is some Douglas Fir book shelving boards, of exactly the right thickness.
For less than the cost of a single moulding, I bought all I needed.
The first job was to cut the shelving to the correct width. Then I needed to fit the first one.
With that done, I moved on to making the fine adjustments for a perfect fit.
Next I will use my router with a decorative bit to cut the top and bottom edges. Then will come the varnish and I can fix them into place.
I often get sent links to YouTube videos of wood workers making things.
They all seem to have at least 75 m² workshops, perfectly laid out, with every wood working tool known. It would be fantastic to have CNC computer controlled sawing and routing tables.
Sadly I have to live and work in the real world of limited space and resources…
The last cuts
Knowing where the last floor boards will go meant that I could calculate where to make the end of the stairwell.
When Cvjetko cut the opening last year, he deliberately left some overhang for me to finish when the floor was down.
I measured and marked how much of the old floor boarding to remove and then made the major cut with my large circular saw.
Sawdust went everywhere because there was not enough space to connect my exhaust vacuum tube.
The bed of the circular saw prevented getting completely up to the wall at one end, and where the newel post will go, at the other.
To finish the job I used my oscillating cutter with various size blades to make a neat finish.
I now have neat, 90º cuts, ready for the edging boards to be fitted. They are some of the very few 90º angles in any of my buildings.
Planting gets underway
I mentioned last week that I needed to prioritise planting, especially some fruit trees.
With warm, even hot sunshine I was in shirt sleeves in the Drupe orchard, to replace two peach trees which have died.
I don’t know what killed them, but they have never been particularly happy where I had planted them.
Just next to them are two Apricot trees, which seem extremely happy. I have to aggressively prune them to keep their size within limits and they fruit extremely well.
The previous peach trees were “dwarf” varieties and I winder if they were not suited to my clay loam. They had been protected with weed matting which had almost completely disintegrated.
After removing all the weeds and wicks, I examined the roots. Neither tree had really developed an extensive root system.
There was no obvious sign of disease or insect infestation. They were just extremely dead!
After clearing the underground drip irrigation pipes and enriching the soil, I planted the new trees.
One is the variety “Baby Gold” and the second “Carson”. Both trees are self fertile.
The fruits on Carsen ripen at the end of June and are a dessert variety. Baby Gold ripens a month later and is a juice or bottling/canning variety.
I can smell the aroma of ripe peaches already! NCG