An ancient occupation…stone mason...muratore…still practised by a few special men.
Hauling out the stones from the inside, putting up the stones on the outside
Tearing out the previous outside wall to make the arch into our new office
The continuous and laborious work on the stones
Everything with the yellow stone blocks is an addition to the old stone house…starting at the far end will be the pantry, then the office in the middle with the arch, and on this end the utility room and the new added on bathroom that goes across the entire width of the house at this end.
A little easier to picture from this angle…the back door into the utility room which walks right into the bathroom
Tearing down the outside wall to make a doorway into the newly added pantry…the artifacts (carved stone and opening) on both sides will be preserved!
Finishing up the outside walls on the new addition and almost ready for the scaffolding for the upper level
A little break in the work to visit our builders sheep and new babies…
Precious!
Theres more than one way to get at those prime, yummy cactus petals…known as Fichi di India in Sicily
Back to work…up goes the scaffolding
You can’t imagine how heavy those stone lintels are!
A tight fit…
Now to lift it into place
5 guys…super heavy…great job!
Perfetto!
Woke up this morning before work to a beautiful view
Staying in a friends little country house for 7 weeks while the all of the beginning work happened…John was still in Fiji
Two more lintels leading into the pantry off the kitchen, not quite as heavy this time
and more lintels…
Lintels all in place and new scaffolding up with a wheelbarrow entrance from the upper terrace
Working on the big arch from the living room into our office area
Taking an morning walk to the upper fields, a daily ritual
Ready to get started on the upper area that will be the sopalco (loft bedroom) and then the roof
Preparing the top of the first floor for the cordelo (reinforcement around the entire house and interior walls)
First they need to build the rebar frame, and lay it all around the house and inside walls. This is a square frame made out of rebar and laid all along a channel that has been made along the upper walls of the house and then filled with cement, as a safety feature against earthquakes. As the crow flies, we are only about 60 miles from Mount Etna, one of the most active volcanos in the world. On occasion we can hear her blowing off steam!
Putting in the rebar framework. Then the walls will be built up around it and filled with cement.
The cordelo helps tie all the walls together. There is one at the top of the first floor and also one at the roofline. Next… bringing the walls on up to the top level, adding the roof and moving on to the inside work! I will be heading back to Fiji soon, more weddings to work on, can’t believe how fast these last seven weeks have gone! Returning with John in February and we will clean up, stain beams and put temporary doors and windows up to keep the pigeons out! Piano Piano as they say here in Sicily…slowly, slowly.
