Dust extraction done

Friday finally and time for the weekend. It's been another busy one today so I'm going to crack straight into it.

Moon in sunrise clouds

Thelma in one of her favourite spots

Morning snuggles

First thing this morning was a beautiful sunrise which coloured some high clouds red. The moon was still out and it was a great picture. Thelma had found a bed on my rocking chair while Angela and Rosie were getting cuddles from Xena and Louise.

The old mattress goes upstairs

Seedlings on the racking

The men were in and got stuck in to finishing off the dust extraction; early on Bekir called me down to demonstrate how what I was so insistent on wanting was completely wrong. Thankfully he caught it before doing any cutting and fitting but the new way meant they were short of pipe by about 60cm. We have new beds coming for the guest suite and so together Bekir, Halil and I lifted the old mattress, which weighed a huge amount, up into the roof space. Angela and Rosie were out in the garden today for the first time for ages which was awesome. They planted a load of stuff and repotted some stuff and also got a frame up to support the seedlings.

Bekir straightens more pipe

Beds delivery

Struggling with the grate

Supports for under-bench storage

Bekir and Halil picked up the missing items and finished off the extraction pipes, though I don't have a picture of the final configuration so I'll get that next week. During lunch the two new beds arrived but I was on a call so Angela and Halil unloaded and stacked them. After lunch I helped Bekir and Halil lift them all up to the roof. The afternoon was slightly less productive as the men struggled to find material to use for the grate I want over the dust extraction channel. The thin wood was too warped and, as it happened, so was the thicker wood. Frustrating. They did manage to get supports in place for under bench storage, however.

Thelma snoozing on my leg

I'll leave you with a picture of a very relaxed Thelma who joined Rosie and I for some book time after I finished work.

Thanks for reading; back Monday or maybe Tuesday morning.

Getting to dust extraction

Today has been a much more pleasant day, both in terms of my work (though I've been busy) and how unwell everyone is. We are all slowly recovering.

Just before the sun rose

There it is

Bekir wiring more plugs in

Plugs in front of the table saw

Drilling through for the pipes

Such tidy wiring

The pipes are into the centre channel

Perfectly positioned

While I was downstairs first thing this morning I noticed that the sun was shooting a read line into the sky. After picking up Rosie so she could see, and shouting Angela over, I ran to the balcony to get a picture. Beautiful. The rest of the sunset was pretty special also. The men were in on time today and got stuck in with the electrics (Bekir had actually done more plugs last night that I realised) and he quickly finished them all. This included putting two double sockets below the table saw and a single on on the other side into which the saw could be plugged. With this done they started to fit the vacuum pipes; Bekir used my dad's old drill (which I always love seeing in use) to drill through into the central channel and then (after a trip to the shop to pick up some clamps) they fitted a big tap and pipe so I can connect my vacuum from either corner. Next up will be the complex arrangement by the table saw where we'll have a T junction and be able to connect the outlet from the saw directly to the vacuum system.

Rosie and Xena cuddled up

Rosie has been a lot better today, though she is still far from 100%. Xena really has settled and she snuggled up to Rosie and fell asleep for quite some time. Just before this Louise had been on the other side of Rosie.

Friday tomorrow; we nearly made it! Thanks for reading.

Slow day

Another slow day today, both for me and the men. And Angela has been with sick-note Rosie all day too.

Many layers of varnish

Various bits and pieces from the shop

Straightening pipes

Halil trying to fix heaters

Bekir working on plugs

The day started later for the workmen as they went shopping first thing for some parts for the electrics and dust extraction. I did expect at least the plugs to all be fitted by the end of the day but the first thing they did was to cut the pipes to length and then straighten them; this was not an easy task and involved heating the pipes up then tying them to a board. After lunch they headed out to the shops again to pick up the final things (the shop had been out of stock of some stuff that morning) but then in the afternoon they didn't use those items anyway. The replacement sensor for one of the gas heaters had arrived and Halil got it working which is great news. Unfortunately the other non-functional heater distracted them for a lot of the rest of the day and only two of the plugs got fitted.

I do hope that tomorrow there is more progress. Anyway, thanks for reading.

Electrics and Shopping

The illness is still hanging around over here; today I was a lot better but still sneezing lots but Angela and Rosie have been rough. They finally got to the doctors and have some medicine for Rosie now so hopefully she'll start to recover quickly. Poor little thing.

Frost on the inside of the back door

Ice crystals sparkle in the morning sun

Bekir checks out fit for a wall in the vacuum channel

Shiny varnished work surface

Electric cabling going in

It was very cold last night, so cold that we got some frost inside the back door as is quite normal in those conditions. The sunrise was beautiful also but I was most distracted by the glitter of ice crystals on my windowsill. Beautiful. The men were in on time again and first off we had a discussion about the next steps. I explained again how I want the central vacuum channel to go and we also talked about the plug socket requirements for the workbench. After applying another coat of varnish to the benches they headed out and did the shopping for the day, returning with almost everything but no sockets as everyone had sold out of the type I usually go for. The rest of the day was spent running all the power to where I want the sockets to go on the workbench, really neatly, and then they did another coat of varnish and were done for the day. They'll go collect different types of plugs tomorrow and wire those up.

Sick day watching a cartoon about a monkey

It's been a crazy busy day today, after the non-day yesterday, but I finished up work on time and went and sat with poor Rosie on the sofa; Xena was cuddling her really nicely as well. I really hope she gets better soon!

So there you are; thanks for watching.

Sick weekend and Monday

We have all been struggling with this nasty cold over the weekend and it has been pretty tough going to be honest. I'm still not right even now so I'm going to try and get this done as quickly as possible so I can go to bed.

Rosie playing with Xena in the snow

Rosie making footprints in the snow

The fixed fence; a good job

Rosie clapping the snow off her hands

All that is left of Sammy Snowman

Saturday morning Rosie and I went out into the snow for a little while and had a lot of fun running around before it was time to head to town with Xena for her vets appointment. I did take the opportunity to finally check out the repair job the men had done on the fence and it's pretty good. Sammy has, however, disappeared finally. Poor Sammy. He'll be back.

Sunset over footprints

Sun rise over snow

Peaceful coexistence. Kinda

The sun went down and then it came back up again on Sunday and it was very much a non-day for me. I did get to sit with Rosie, Thelma, Louise and Xena for a bit on the sofa while Angela planted a load of seeds and I also did a little hobby but I was in bed and asleep for 8.30 and I needed it!

Drilling to begin the cut

Cutting carefully with the jigsaw

Chiselling the step out

Table saw fitting

Tablesaw in place

And so to today and today was the day the Bekir and Halil fitted the tablesaw into the workbench. This involved measuring out the hole, then cutting it carefully with the jigsaw before smoothing with the router (no pictures of this) then a careful chisel to put the step in to fit it snugly into the bench. With this done it was lifted up into place and held there temporarily on some concrete blocks to check fit and finally a supporting scaffold was permanently fixed to the legs to hold it up. We even turned it on. Next they fitted two of the in-bench tape measures but I found I was short one of the most important ones, with a zero in the middle, so I have ordered one to my mum's house for her to bring next week from the UK.

Rosie has been off work today and I managed barely half a day myself. I'm feeling a lot less ill, though still very lacking energy, but hopefully Rosie will continue her recovery and I'll be better for work tomorrow.

The snow returned

Somehow we've made it to Friday. What a week.

Suns rays going up before dawn

Crepuscular rays down from the clouds

Halil holds the top steady while Bekir secures it

Bekir clamping in place

Halil tidies up while the snow falls

Trying to fix the router

A few cm, but not that much, snow. Looks pretty though

Sanding down the channel for the tape

Lovely clean channel

Floor for the vacuum channel

First coat of varnish on the 3D Printer bench

It was a beautiful start to the day, but the clouds the gave such a lovely show were bringing snow with them. I took Rosie to school, which I always enjoy, and when I got back I found the men in and working away to fit the other side of the workbench. During the morning the snow arrived and it fell steadily until mid afternoon. Halil tidied up the wood and stuff left outside so it wouldn't get ruined by the snow and then went back inside to help Bekir. They were struggling with tools. I have a router but it doesn't have a guide with it (I bought it second hand). Bekir brought his own today but it didn't work so they spent quite some time trying to fix it before they swapped the guide from his machine onto mine and were able to get going. By this time we had quite some snow on the ground. We agreed on how far in we wanted to put the embedded tape measure and then very quickly all the channels were routed out. I have some more decisions to make on this (where is zero going to be for the end tapes?) but for now I'm very happy to see it. We also agreed that we would fit the table saw, then set all the tapes in place, and then cut through the tape when we did the cutout for the mitre saw. There is a lot to think about to make this right. THe final tasks for the day were to fit the bottom to the vacuum trench in the middle of the bench and apply a first coat of varnish on the 3d printer shelf.

So there it is; another week done. Progress, but not where I hoped to be but that's the nature of this project. Thanks for reading.