So windy!

The last two days have been pretty amazing but can be summed up with two words "So Windy!". Right now it is a lovely evening which has calmed down dramatically from even ten minutes ago so hopefully we can eat once more on the balcony but we shall see. Obviously I have a lot of typing to do to update and once again I'm a little late starting to type. So here goes.

Just before the sun came up, with the clouds

Yesterday morning dawned relatively nice with a few scattered clouds to add drama to the sunrise. I was up and about at roughly the same time as A as today was the day my parents were arriving and we had lots of things to do to get finally ready. We still took a few minutes on the balcony however to enjoy the morning and enter the day slowly.

A slight leak in the roof space

Water in the vestibule

Flooding in the bedroom

I had only had a few sips of my tea when I decided I wanted to check out how the new water tank in the roof was doing; had it filled up over night? When I got up there it was not the best sight I have ever seen. The tank was completely full, yes, but also there was water on the floor as there had been a leak at some point. I went downstairs and sure enough there was a lot of water coming through the ceiling and down the newly plastered walls! Disaster, after so much effort to make the guest suite look really nice for the parents. I went to A who was on the balcony, apologised for spoiling her morning, and we went to deal with it which basically involved brushing the pools of water away so there was no standing water, and specifically from around the holes drilled for the power cables. With this done the water stopped dripping through and we opened all the windows we could to encourage it all to dry.

Work starts on the bathroom again

A headed off to collect the men and I cracked on with my tasks. First of all I cleared all the accumulated bags of rubbish from the mini landing out round to by the other back door; it was too windy to put it outside but we wanted to clear it out of sight. I also moved the sofas on the top corridor into position and swept up the rubble that had been hidden. Finally I swept down the stairs and the entrance hall and threw all the dust out of the back door (being careful that it not just blow straight back inside) and then they were back and I showed Bekir the problem. The good thing was that there hadn't actually been that much water spilled so it would dry quickly we hoped and also it didn't look to be leaking any more. With this problem put to bed the men got on with the bathroom, Sally grouting and Bekir putting the fittings in.

Rigging the boiler to the wall

We had realised quite early that we would need a small pump to provide more water pressure into the bathroom from the reservoir in the roof and so, after Bekir got his tasks done, we headed out to town to try and get one. These tasks mainly involved fitting the boiler to the wall and getting the shower on the wall. There was one amusing moment as he was drilling the holes for the boiler when he was balancing on the edges of a bucket full of water and it tipped and he poured water all over the fourway next to him, causing the circuit to flick. There was no lasting damage fortunately.

Salt water on Louise's eyes

Our shopping trip was a mixed success with everything other than the pump being purchased. We did get the pump ordered though and were told it would be ready to collect the next day so that was fine. There was some water pressure, enough to get water out of the shower, just not to push the boiler. When we got back we carried on with the tidying and cleaning and getting ready for our guests. Louise has had a slightly swollen and weeping eye recently and so A has been cleaning it with salt water which she actually puts up with very well. Afterwards she is even very happy about it, so it maybe does help a lot.

Sink and mirror and light

Shower and still-protected window

While we were working away, so were Bekir and Sally and by the end of the day we had a bathroom with a shower, a sink, a mirror and working lights and everything. It looks really good and I'm really pleased with the units we chose. The shower is a little dodgy, I need to get some more washers for a few of the joints so they tighten up properly, but as it was ex-display this is hardly surprising. This is a minor issue and simple to solve.

Hosing it down

It was much earlier than expected, and just as the huge storm that finally hit having threatened all day had cleared over a bit, when my parents arrived. This is the first time they have been here since driving over with me last year and it is so lovely to see them and to be able to have them staying here with us. They have, however, brought the English weather with them with these storms and high winds and shiver-inducing cold temperatures down to about 26 degrees!

Evidence he had seconds of rabbit food

We had a lovely relaxing afternoon together sat watching England stuff the Aussies at the cricket and enjoying being together. They remember this place in a far worse state than it is now and it's nice to see that through their eyes a bit; sometimes it can feel like progress is very slow. While I took the men home (and a huge hailstorm went through at the Old School which I missed) everyone else had a shower and I had one when I got home and even though it was only a dribble and I found the aforementioned issues with the shower, it was SO nice to have a proper wash without having to hold the shower head or stand outside. Unfortunately we washed away the grout that Sally had done. Whoops. We were off to our favourite restaurant for our meal and this was also lovely. We had excellent service as usual, the food was top notch, and the lady with the unreasonably high shoes sangs us a song and dedicated it to us. My dad even had extra salad which is unheard of! After we finished eating we got a doggy bag for the puppies with the bones and left over rice and headed home, tired and pleased.

Much more overcast this morning

Unfortunately I didn't sleep all that well last night. I got through to about 2am and then that was it, something woke me and I was stuck. The wind was quite high, the bedroom door was banging (we stopped this eventually, after it woke A, by stuffing my t-shirt underneath) and I could just not drop back off for anything. I don't know how much later it was when I finally worked out to cocoon myself in the bedsheet (A said I looked like a sleeping jesus) and finally dropped back to sleep. When I woke the next day I felt pretty rubbish however there was some great pleasure to hear my dad had had his best nights sleep for weeks and we also got to share our morning balcony ritual with them which was a brilliant thing.

Draining the reservoir into our new drainage

Even at that time it was windy and it just kept getting more and more so all day. I found this very hard to cope with and spent rather more of today trying to sleep to hide from the noise and bustle and hassle of the really high gusting winds. I did also get a bit of paid work done as and when I had it available and that is good as it made up the full week for me finally. Bekir had said that he wanted to buy a new reservoir for up in the attic however mid morning he said he'd fixed it and we didn't need a new one which is good as it saves money. He did want to empty the water out however so he rigged up the hose and siphoned it off out through a hole in the back wall and into the drainage.

Laying the triangle tiles

Sally had been cracking on grouting in the bathroom but ran out of materials so came asking for more work. I asked him to finish the floor in Room 13 and so on he got with the job, fitting the triangular shapes around the edge, blocking in the gaps along one side with concrete, and even getting a tile in underneath the water pipes in the corner which I was going to just leave until next year or whenever. This took him hardly any time and by the time I got back from my trip to town (after an amusing episode where A had left the ignition on in Thomas and his battery was completely flat. We managed to push him out into the open between us and finally got him started from Lucy after having to clean the contacts on the battery) with Bekir with pump and lots of black and white grout he was ready to get going with the grouting in Room 13 as well. I had expected him to go in and finish off the bathroom but they really prefer to finish a job rather than switch and swap over and over.

Puppies waiting to steal the string

I had a snooze briefly then and when I roused myself I found my parents reading on the balcony and A down by the wood pile splitting of bundles of twigs and tying them together. There had just been much hilarity from my mum as A had put the string down after cutting a length and Louise grabbed it and ran off with it. They are very cheeky puppies.

Really enjoying their break

The parents have been really enjoying their break already and today has been spent almost entirely on the balcony reading. It was too windy for me but it doesn't bother them as much. They work way too hard and seeing them relax like this and just chill out and not feel any pressure is amazing; it really made up for the fact I was tired and distracted by the wind.

Handsome girls and me

I was still tired, though, and so when A went to take Rambo and the puppies for a walk up to the lake with my parents I declined to go with them and went back to bed. I was so tired. The girls had their harnesses put on them for the walk and then straight away jumped onto the bed to join me. They have not yet built up a high level of excitement for walkies. Once they had all gone I closed all the doors and windows and fell into a deep sleep. I woke up just before they got back and lay there listening to Bekir and Sally pottering about. The room had got really hot in the hour or so I had slept but that was preferable to the wind and noise of having even a window slightly cracked.

Happily running around the fields

Still lake in the hills

It's been so dry here

An old Russian truck that is in our village

The walk had been a real pleasure for the rest of them and hopefully next time I'll go with them. A took my camera and snapped some pictures which I present to you above. Apparently the girls were really good off their leads and were very like Rambo in that when other dogs were around they just did their own thing and didn't get drawn into a confrontation. We're very lucky to have such beautiful countryside just up the hill from us and seeing these pictures makes me realise how silly it is for me to not have gone up there at all since I got back.

Black grout in Room 13

Sally and Bekir, as I said, had not been idle while I slept though they did probably miss out on their afternoon coffee (though they know to make it themselves if they are desperate) and Sally was cracking on with the grouting in Room 13. This is now about 1/6 done and there's probably another day or so of effort to put in but that is good as next week they will be working Monday and Tuesday and then have a holiday for the rest of the week.

Tidy waste

Bekir has plumbed in the pump, put the ballcock into the reservoir to prevent over-filling (what I think happened the previous night) and finally he went out and put in the drain so the water from the bathroom no longer spouts out of the wall and splashes everywhere. What a good day of progress there.

Rainbow around the setting sun - gorgeous

I took the men home with no real excitement other than Orhan was sat with the men at the table in the village and he waved very brightly to me, which I returned with interest; he was a top lad last year. When I got back I straight away got stuck into the watering round which A was beginning with my mum and was shouted at by the Little Lady to go for coffee but it was too close to dinner time. We had also had a delivery which is the aerator for the pond so that'll now go onto the "needs to be done soon" list. I then came upstairs and did the first bit of this update before dinner was announced so we all moved onto the balcony. There was an absolutely stunning sight to greet us which I personally have never seen before. No rain around at all but around the setting sun there was a gorgeous rainbow which grew brighter then fainter then brighter again as the sunset developed. It stayed for quite a while which was great as everyone got to see it while we ate.

Lovely dinner

A had put the slow cooker on much earlier in the day and we were treated to a lovely pork chop chasseur with rice which was really nice indeed. The wind had dropped enough that it was comfortable out there even for me and we sat for a while after finishing, then had some tiramisu for afters, before I had to come in to write this up. Now A has already gone to bed, my parents are relaxed and as soon as this gets published I'll be going to try and get a good night sleep. We have a lot to do tomorrow.

The sunset this evening was pretty special however my dad got all the pictures so you won't get to see them unless you know him on facebook.