Crete is very hot in the summer but it can be very cold in the winter - they don’t call them the White Mountains for nothing! Although the pipework is in place for a boiler and radiators, there is no heating in the house. As we are planning to live here all year round something needed to be done. Which is why I was in Crete, in August, watching the guys from YdroTherm in Vamos knock out the old, inefficient fireplace and install a brand-new wood-burner.
They did an excellent job, taking just under two days for the whole thing. Day one was all about the heavy stuff (removing the fireplace, cutting and drilling the hole, building the brickwork and plastering). Day two was the relative easy tasks of painting and fitting the new burner. None of this was helped by the huge thunderstorms that rolled through on the first day. One of these knocked out the electricity and that wasn’t restored until the following morning!