Get a move on!
In the meantime, I am travelling up and down to the Netherlands. There is work to be done over there as well, and business to take care of. And especially, trying to visit as many loved ones as my energy allows in a short period of time. And this is not easy. Spending time in the Netherlands is always very full of appointments, errands and shores. But how nice it is to meet some of my colleagues again in person! To eat some brown bread with a good Dutch farmers cheese! And although it takes a day and a night, it always feels nice back home in our cozy apartment in Rijswijk. When I come back later in Portugal, topped off on adrenaline, it appears that no one has been lazy here as well. So many things have happened!
Septic Tank
As there is no sewage system in this part of our village, we need to install a septic tank. A very comfortable grave is being constructed in the ground, on one of the best parts of our plot. All sewage and turds are collected in this tank and will be decomposed in a biological process. We already bought this tank quickly due to the augmenting of prices. Now that the concrete of the roof is hardening, there is enough time to work on these smaller projects on our planning.
Eaves of the roof
The preparations for the eaves were already done, and these can be filled as well with concrete. Why are they so high, even some of the builders ask, as they are not used to making them like this. Well, we need to cover the concrete platform with several layers of insulation. An inclination must be made so that all rain water will flow to the draining pipes in each of the four corner columns of the house. A whole park of solar panels and solar thermal collectors needs to be installed on top. And as we do not wish to see these ugly things on the roof when we are in our garden, the eaves are higher than you are used to! Capice?
Drains are hidden
Unfortunately I can not translate this nicely into English, but ‘verstopt’ in Dutch means both clogged as well as hidden… Just to explain how our working people are true artists with all these raw and hefty materials like bricks and concrete. We do not want to see the drain pipes, and so they hide them (verstoppen) behind a narrow wall of bricks on each of the four outer columns. Like this our piping is ‘verstopt’, not clogged, but hidden. Do you get this? And just if and when it will be raining very huge cats and dogs for many months there are a few extra holes in the eaves a bit higher up. So that our expensive solar park will not drown. This is also Portugal, in climate changing era, you never know what will happen, but we will be prepared!
