I have been so slack at keeping this blog up to date – apologies but a limited internet connection on the campsite, combined with an unlimited work schedule has meant more doing and less writing about doing!
So here’s a run down of all the tasks ticked off the list this summer:
The basement door has been painted a tasteful silver grey and the ugly piece of pink polystyrene that was wedged in the top of the door to stop people hitting their heads as they enter has been replaced with a strategically placed piece of wood, nicely painted white to blend in with the building…
The kitchen is looking great! All shelves, cupboards & hooks are up. Now everything has its place and commonly accessed utensils etc are within easy reach.
The laundry sink is tiled! It was a labour of love for Steve who patiently, single-handedly completed this project. It has really grown on us and has become our favourite thing in the kitchen! Almost the day after it was completed, guests arrived and innocently asked: “Can I do some some washing?” – “Yes!” we gushed! (and then ran off to quickly erect a washing line and dig out the pegs!!). Despite our reservations about it not being wide enough, everything fits in it fine! It’s great for scrubbing the big ole pan I use for most of the cooking and its a good place to leave pots and pans soaking over night. This is a poor picture of it (taken at night with a flash) but you get the drift…
A scabby old cupboard we salvaged has been painted with white gloss and is a nice addition to the communal building. Our eco books and Guest Book live atop and I try to keep fresh flowers displayed there too. Inside live all the board games, packs of cards etc…
We have signs!!! This one was artfully drawn up by Gav during his stay with the chalk board pens he brought with him from the UK. A piece of old wardrobe is transformed into a posh sign, varnished and protected from the weather…
And here’s another of Gav’s masterpieces… A back of a wardrobe was painted dark green and became the perfect canvas for our roadside sign. He even tried to reproduce the letters in our font and using a part of our logo:
The final sign is Mr Nik’s great work… The campsite name & phone number positioned here draws people’s attention to the bell (just above the sign) and means we can leave the site without worrying about missing business – people can phone and let us know they have turned up and we can dash back… You can’t see it in this picture but to the right of the sign is a motion-activated solar spotlight. It illuminates the sign and the gate at night and works brilliantly!
The last shower has been tiled!!!!! All 3 showers are now in use, shower curtain up – job done!
A random shelf unit that we salvaged was transformed into a handy bathroom cabinet by Nik & I. It’s a place for guests to put their toiletries and has hooks to hang shower puffs, back scrubbers etc…
Access around the site is an issue. We really need purpose-built steps in lots of places down from one terrace to another but its just too costly right now so we are trying to do the best we can with the materials available. One of the routes our guests want to take is from the basement down to the lower terrace, without having to walk up stairs, through the building and down stairs again or the even longer route of all the way down the garden to the steps by the stream. Nik loves to work with stone and doggedly sought out the necessary stones, lugged them up to the building, wrestled them into place and created a set of steps that run down alongside the concrete steps from the building… You can hardly see them in this shot but that’s a measure of how well they blend in with the existing stone wall!
Intent on tidying up the side of the building, Nik persevered with mattocking & raking the ground level and then barrowing loads of sand & gravel to cover the earth (which turns to a claggy mess when wet if not covered over!). It was really hard graft but the look was still spoilt by the ugly side view of the steps. Then I remembered the piece of bamboo covering we’d salvaged from Maja’s Grandma’s place and it fitted great…
I finally got my cork noticeboard finished and marketing material in place! The signs inside the building still need to be branded with our logo etc but at least we have ditched the unprofessional looking bits of carboard and have decent, laminated signs in Serbian and English for all key messages…
Alongside all these projects we’ve done some tidying & prettying-up (made up word alert?) – the basement is a really nice space now with room for both laptops, a library for our guests, cushions for chairs and roll mats neatly stacked and easy to access. The second plastic bottle window for the kitchen area has been completed and all these panels stack nicely in the basement. The mess and disorder in the workshop finally got too much for me and I had a good old clear out. The torn canvases soaked in mouse-pee have been removed (we managed to salvage some good pieces and scrub them clean); all the rags have been washed and sorted; the floor has been swept and boxes rationlised. You can actually get into it and find what you are looking for without too much hassle now! And the second wine bottle window that we decided not to grout around (it lets in more light this way) now has a neat wooden frame around it, courtesy of Nik the Carpenter, and its painted a nice dark green. It finishes it off really well and has attracted approving comments.
Then of course there’s the ongoing maintenance of the site. We’ve had to do some work on the greywater system and the compost loos have kept us busy too but these are for future posts in the autumn when I have more time – there is much to share here about our experiences of DIY green sewerage and toilet systems!
The waterless urinals are close to completion so I’ll report on this project, with pictures, soon. There are only a few key projects outstanding in the building: tiling the toilet walls; making hand rails for the steps out of the building and tiling these steps with lovely old tiles donated by fellow eco warrior Paul. Then, apart from the inevitable ongoing touching up of paintwork and further modifications to the kitchen to continue to use every inch of space to best effect, the communal building will be done, done, done! We are very proud – knackered, but proud!
Having got this far, the work ahead for the autumn, winter & spring will all be focused on the grounds. There is much levelling of earth to be done – we need more tent pitches and a level eating area for the 10 – 15 people we need to attract most weeks in the season next year. There are also areas of the grounds yet to be uncovered – spoil from the building works remains and once this has been dug out and used to fill in and level ground we hope to create new nooks and crannies for: another hammock, shaded seating areas and at least one outside bathroom (we have one bath and an offer of another!)
Hopefully now you’ll realise that my lack of blogging is for good reason! Wish us luck with the mammoth tasks ahead…










































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