2. Hemp insulation project in San Vito, Puglia – Work Begins
We decided that, so that we could start from scratch, I would have to create one big room which would be the starting point for the new design. I was relatively confident that the wall between the 2 rooms was NOT a supporting wall, but just to be sure….I thought I might take a few blocks out and take a look. After taking out a few of the blocks it was evident that the wall was not a supporting wall so, happy days, lets take it out!
Job was good, a manual achievement, 1st task on the list completed. Knocking the wall down was quite physical, however, once done the “fun part had to start…the cleanup. It took me about a full day to knock down the wall and remove the rubble. We now had our one big room, best we look at starting the design.
“Its a tough job but somebody has to do it.” The knocking down is fine, it’s the cleanup thats a real pain in the butt.
As mentioned, the second room was a small storeroom, so most of the stuff had been taken out and either give away or dumped. We were the proud owners of lots of buckets, tools, ladders and devices I can only guess at what they were used for. After the big cleanup, we were left with around 10 transportation devices for my wife, Natalie…..see below
I used one of our multiple long ladders to take a look at what the state of the roof was, thinking this would actually be a good place to start, if I wanted a dry space to work and no damp or mould. It was pleasantly surprising that it looked really good and I thought at the time that all I would need to do was to clean off the liken, mould etc and give it a lick of paint.
My thinking went like this: I had to purchase a power washer but then I also obviously needed water and electricity!
On the property, was an existing well which we were told worked perfectly and was previously used to irrigate the lands. We had not yet had the electricity switched on for the property so if I wanted to start cleaning etc, I would need to purchase a generator which, in theory, would allow me to run the existing well pump and proved the electricity for the power washer or any other electrical device I would need. I would therefore have what I needed to start cleaning the roof and move forward.
After many hours doing electrical fault resolution (wow that sounded technical), looking at why the existing well pump wasnt working, even when plugged into the generator, I started doubting myself. Was the generator strong enough, had I wired the pump connection correctly, how can I get this working. Tuns out, I needed to buy a new well pump for a 95 meter well, how hard could that be…..
