Lintels ... not lentils

Progress has been good during the last week, with the lintels being placed around the house, topping the windows and doors. So now there is a proper feeling of a walled in structure.

Here is the result:

We can now see the pillars for the entrance porch, as well as the foundation for the porch itself. The lintels run around the entire outer shell, tying all the outer walls together.

For the sake of completeness of record, my project manager did manage to send me some photos earlier in the week as the remaining pillars where prepared, shuttered and poured:

This is the entrance door just after the pillars had been poured, evident by the colour of the concrete. For sure it looks uninviting... but of course everything has to be pointed and rendered.

This is the shuttering for the pillars of the main deck, in front of the kitchen. The area shown will have the BBQ / outdoor kitchen and seating area. All covered, so usable in high summer or even rainy days... mind there is a fair breeze blows through Faial in the cooler months, so it won't be 100 percent good in those conditions... but hey.

And here's the kitchen and kitchen window before the lintels went on, taken from the main deck area. The big gap on the right hand side is where the large sliding glass door goes from the living area.

That's it for the photo diary this week. I'm hoping that progress moves well in the coming week, as work stops on Friday for the Festival of the Sea, or 'Sea Week' as they call it. It's an island holiday, and most of the shops are closed, everyone parties and has a good time. We could do with some of that in the UK.

So, hopefully next weekend we will get some photos of progress from the project manager, then the next ones will be from me, yours truly, as I visit the Island and build.

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Meanwhile, back here in the UK, I have continued to price and spec. various items and finishes, assembling a master spreadsheet as I go along. The post-build prices are mounting up, so it is a juggling act to get nice items at a reasonable price. I have made use of Prime Day on Amazon, to acquire several items that I will be shipping over, and saved a few pounds.... generally items that I like and will be difficult or expensive to find overseas.

I am speccing a sofa and chair from Sofology:

Really I can't find much in the way of a gorgeous leather yellow sofa anywhere else but them, but also they have been really great and send me an email every so often, as some of the staff are following the blog with interest. Great. So I think their customer service should be most excellent. Unfortunately they don't ship directly abroad, so it is a case of taking delivery in the UK and organising my own forwarding, which I will do along with all my other items.

Kitchens... I'm looking at going back to the drawing board. No, not completely, but my original pricing was for B&Q - - however, I'm reading really good things about IKEA kitchens units and doors, so over the next few days I'm going to see if savings can be made. It does seem that IKEA supplies 'complete' units including all the drawers and doors, rather than buying them separately; more efficient, less room for error, and perhaps cheaper. I'm informed the quality is superior to even some of the bigger name brands.

Next week, I'll report on how it all adds up.

Next Up: - - Pause for Fun