Porch Progress

I'm back and it's been another day of progress; the craziness of the world continues as well - this whole virus thing is like a bad dream though thank god none of us are impacted. Onward with the update.

Slab at the beginning of the day

A grub that was mixed into the concrete it seems

Hikmet starting on the rubble pile

Holes for the column rebar

Making sure everything lines up

First course going down

Bending metal for the columns

Last night as I said the slab was completed; A spotted a grub climbing out of the cement and when I pointed it out to Sally he suggested it had been hiding in the sand they used to mix the cement. Crazy. Hikmet had completed clearing the front lawn of stones and sticks and so got stuck into the next clearing task; moving all the rubble and rubbish down by the table tennis table. This has been there for years and is well overdue clearing. The rest of the day involved the workmen building the walls for the porch. Bekir drilled out the holes into which the rebar will be inserted for the concrete posts at each end of the walls and then Sally and Halil got to brick laying while Bekir made the steel frames for the columns.

Hikmet hard at work clearing rubble

Three courses and rising

There's a window space now

Sally up on a scaffold

Hikmet getting to the end of this task as well

Wood for the door surrounds from the builders merchant

Halil and Sally making shuttering

The afternoon was more of the same. Hikmet was shovelling and shifting soil and stones and rubble and windows and glass from the rubbish pile outside the workshop and Bekir, Sally and Halil were working together to build the walls, and create the reinforcement, for the porch. I helped to work out how large the windows were to be and then on they went, getting up to the level at which they will be pouring a concrete raft above the windows. Hikmet was really clearing and it is (as I've said over and over) so good to have these jobs that were put back for years finally being done. After lunch I had to go down to town with Bekir to get a few more bits and fortunately the builders yard was still open. The day ended with the rafts being made which will have concrete poured into tomorrow. We did find a blind to go up in Rosie's bedroom but that'll probably be done tomorrow now, along with the final work around the doorway as Bekir now as the correct wood to finish this job.

So there you are; I've just fallen asleep on the sofa after the busy day, and now I'm going to do a little hobbying before an early night. Thanks for reading.