The House in Greece: Last Jobs

The House in Greece: Last Jobs

(with a few quotes from my book, ‘It All Began with a Watermelon’)

Front  Door

Year 2002

At first glance the building looked imposing, but on closer inspection the ‘mansion’ turned out to be less impressive. The stucco was stained, all the windows were boarded up, and a very dilapidated balcony hung above the front door.

As I waited a few people walked curiously by. Hoping they wouldn’t think we were trying to break in, I nodded and smiled at each. But it would have been useless trying to force our way in as the front door, though covered with peeling paint, was very solid. In addition, I could see that all the lower windows were shuttered or had metal bars. The bars, I later found out, weren’t an architectural fashion but had the practical purpose of keeping out gypsies, pirates, and maybe unwanted relatives!

When Takis returned he angrily told me the back door was also bolted, from the inside. But when he tried the key in the great front door once again, to our great relief it swung open.

Year 2014

And in the house we still have many jobs to be done. For instance, we still haven’t fixed the huge old front door; its paint is still peeling and there are large gaps around the door jambs. So this year, as usual, we’ll leave saying, ‘There are still many things to be done To Krono’ (next year).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Year 2015!

 

 

Top Floor Staircase

 

'Why don’t we get a whole container, and take some household items? I’m sure we could fill up all the space ourselves.’

He raised his brows in speculation, and then agreed when I added, ‘We could pick up a lot of very useful things at the local auction house.’

In January the auction rooms in Melbourneopen after the Christmas break, so as soon as students returned to school and we weren’t needed to assist with baby-sitting, we began haunting our favourite auction house in a nearby suburb. Although we’d begun to think about comfort, I considered it too early to buy specific ‘hotel’ furnishings, for as yet we hadn’t decided how many rooms and ensuites we might install. However, I thought we could at least find something that would be suitable for a traditional Greek house and give the right ambience. I’d put aside my earlier ideas about French chateau or Italian farmhouse styles, for I’d now seen pictures of Greek houses in the north of the country. These were rugged stone farmhouses and the furniture in them was solid but with a simple elegance. This style was more suited to our island than that featured in magazines of house renovations on popular islands like Santorini.

Soon we were bidding for garden seats, oak tables, chiming clocks, oil paintings, oval mirrors, bookcases, desks, beds, candlesticks, chests of drawers, lounge chairs and bedroom chairs, more tables, lamps, carpets and copper pots. All these were to be packed up and placed in the container, along with an IKEA kitchen and that icon of Australia, a rotary laundry hoist that we’d bought at a local hardware store.

One of these items was a huge roll of carpet for a staircase. This is another of our ‘last jobs’. Bought over ten years ago it has stood in a corner, occaisionally unrolled and vacuumed, on sometimes sprinkled with moth repellent, it is now resplendently adorning the top staircase.

Note re stairs:

These stairs, two flights of them, have huge treads! If we come a little out of condition after six months of walking, climbing, running up and down these stairs our heart- conditions soon improve, no need for any other exercise.

Jobs Still to be Done – The Old Laundry

 

As I wandered around I was pleased by the evidence of this having been a working home for a large family. Behind the house were two ruins, one of them revealed an old, very large, brick oven. Though a tree was growing up through the roof of the room next door, and most of the outer walls of the structure had tumbled down, the chimney of the oven appeared to be still intact. Another smaller stone structure, with a roof and open sides, was not far away. It seemed to have been a laundry, as there was a sink and some washing lines inside.

 

Later Takis and I were walking around the property doing one of our post-siesta inspections, we were stopped at the back wall by a voice calling to us from the now reinforced car park above. It was Irini, another neighbour. She was hanging her washing out up there. She and Takis spoke of various things and then I whispered a question, ‘Ask her if she can remember if there was ever a well here.’

I’d been looking that day at a concrete square in the middle of the rough stone floor of the old laundry, and I wondered about it. Now she pointed to this very building and said, ‘It’s in there, in the old laundry.’
‘Right first time,’ I murmured to myself.

After she’d left we went to inspect the concrete block more carefully. Takis got a couple of tools and levered it up while I wedged it open.

‘No nasty smell,’ I said. ‘It’s not the septic tank.’
‘They wouldn’t have put the septic here, away from the house. We’ll probably find that closer to the bathroom.’
I found a small stone and dropped it into the hole. We both stood listening. A couple of seconds later we heard a splash. We whooped with excitement. We had our own water supply on the property: what a bonus!

 Though the old laudry still needs finishing, so this year, as usual, we’ll leave saying, ‘There are still  things to be done To Krono’ (next year).