A wise man said to me recently: it’s all just a construct of mind. He was referring to the world as we see it and the actions we take according to those views, but the same goes for the limit we invented separating one year from another for example. It does help to have those kind of reminders built in our culture and society to remind ourselves to pause from time to time, to review where we are and whether or not the direction we’re going to is where we actually want to go.
So where were we with the renovation?
The house was stripped of everything we could bare to miss.
Not many things went in the desired direction on this project but on a good day I still consider myself quite lucky. I was amazed with all the work Marko, our Croatian partner architect did in the struggle to keep the dragons of bureaucracy happy in the quest for a legal renovation.
On top of that we stumbled upon the perfect contractor to renovate the stone walls. A small family business from Sutivanac, a village 30 km away. The dad (Mladen), the son (Kristijan) and their young employee from Slavonija (Domagoj). They have an incredible range of experiences renovating stone buildings in the vicinity for the last 40 years and are one of the rare companies in the surroundings that can validate their knowledge with a conservationist license. They care about quality, strive to make lasting details and there is unpretentious beauty in their technically superb solutions. They are amazing and as fast as greased lightning on top of that.
The moments we shared solving problems over ‘voćkanje’ (a break in the afternoon munching home grown fruit) or talking about daily occurrences while cleaning the joints of the stone walls will go down in my memory as pure jewels of quality cooperation when life and its struggles make sense.
I did realize a while ago it is extremely important who you work with. Because no matter how carefully you plan things, there are always unexpected situations that occur and to be able to rely on people doing their best to solve the issues in those situations is priceless.
So what else have we gotten apart from the perfect contractor?
A crane
skela (=scaffolding)
a fridge
limenka (=a box to keep our belongings safe)
a moving office with the best view ever
and two boards clearly stating we’ve turned into a building site!
Looking over the shoulder I was throwing some last gazes on the year behind us. Doing this type of project was/is really hard from time to time and I am truly happy we made it this far. I have yet to thank everyone involved making my dream come true endowing professional or personal assistance. Many thanks to everyone that expressed an interest for this project in one way or another as well. I wouldn’t get as far as I did without any of you so my deepest appreciation for your support. I’m gathering my spirits to finish the rest of the stone house renovation this year and if you would like to be a part of it in any way, let me know.
Wish you all a colourful year full of hope and magic. It’s nice to get some of both from time to time 🙂
