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July 09 to May 2010
Almost a year has gone by since we last updated this part of the site - who knows where
the time goes?
We've spent some time travelling around Europe and quite a few months in England.
Therefore, progress on the interior of the strawbale studio has been sporadic but we're
almost finished now (cue quiet cheering)...
We now have electricity (thanks Hristo) and water (thanks Jason) and a fully functioning
bathroom (thanks to Aussie volunteers Phil & Yvette and Jason). We also have internal
walls and a bed platform above the bathroom.
Most of the recent work has been focused on an adobe kitchen and adobe floor.
Traditional building in Bulgaria has included the use of 'kirpitch' (also known as mud, cob or
adobe bricks). We kept hundreds of these from barns we'd demolished so were keen to
use them where possible. We heard from friends (thanks Nick & Su) that such bricks could
be used to build a kitchen and so decided to have a go.
Having gained confidence from working with adobe bricks on the kitchen floor, we then
decided to build the rest of the ground floor using the same materials. Eileen worked with
Martha, Su, Roberto, Yanni and Heodis on this and we're grateful for all their help.
Back
Almost a year has gone by since we last updated this part of the site - who knows where
the time goes?
We've spent some time travelling around Europe and quite a few months in England.
Therefore, progress on the interior of the strawbale studio has been sporadic but we're
almost finished now (cue quiet cheering)...
We now have electricity (thanks Hristo) and water (thanks Jason) and a fully functioning
bathroom (thanks to Aussie volunteers Phil & Yvette and Jason). We also have internal
walls and a bed platform above the bathroom.
Most of the recent work has been focused on an adobe kitchen and adobe floor.
Traditional building in Bulgaria has included the use of 'kirpitch' (also known as mud, cob or
adobe bricks). We kept hundreds of these from barns we'd demolished so were keen to
use them where possible. We heard from friends (thanks Nick & Su) that such bricks could
be used to build a kitchen and so decided to have a go.
Having gained confidence from working with adobe bricks on the kitchen floor, we then
decided to build the rest of the ground floor using the same materials. Eileen worked with
Martha, Su, Roberto, Yanni and Heodis on this and we're grateful for all their help.
Back
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| Kitchen plinth and beginnings of wall |
| Plinth completed & walls going up |
| We decided to try building an adobe kitchen floor as well...which worked OK |
| Bench structure and kitchen floor almost complete |
| Getting there...worktop and sink now in place |
| The finished kitchen - with baskets, flooring and limewashed walls |
| Kirpitch soaking before being positioned on the floor |
| One corner almost complete |
| Pattern emerging |
| Halfway there |
| Cobles - made from straw & mud - were used as a skirting board |
| Cobles in place |
| Close up of finished floor |
| Floor in the sun, with truth window and artistically arranged duster! |