Slowly but surely.

It is great fun working on our just under forty square meter floor mosaic but we are starting to think it would have been wise to have done this kind of work twenty year ago. It is very hard on the back and knees, crawling around for many hours every day, making sure all the tiny pieces are positioned correctly and level. We are also working on the walls and the connection walkway into the old cottage, so there is work enough to go round. And in the garden the weeds, grass and vegetables are all putting on tremendous growth, demanding our attention. We are proud to say that the teenagers in the family are chipping in, harvesting vegetables, painting, baking, cooking and washing up. Every night we are all very tired and collapse into the armchair and sofa, for a movie and a well earned rest. Our social life is nonexistent. But we still think it is worth it. There is a great sense of achievement, building and renovating your own home and creating a sustainable garden together. In the years to come, when we have most of the building work done we will have a lot more time to share our house and garden with friends and family.

The middle star section of the floor is now finished and we are adding the outer sections, slowly working our way around the floor. We started in the blue water section and are now adding the green earth part of the floor.  In the next couple of days we will add grout to parts of the design and it is something to look forward to as it always brings out the pattern and unifies all the elements of any mosaic.

We decided to gradate the background colour in each section for the outer stars as you can see in the pictures. This gives a greater contrast between the different sections and adds a three dimensional feel to the whole floor. We also add more of the coloured ribbons as you get closer to the walls and make them thicker.

The evening sun shines on the floor and makes us dream about future days and nights, when our extension is finished and we can relax in there, with a cup of tea or a glass of wine.