Christmas Eve Eve

Today is Christmas Eve Eve and the last working day of the year for the men (and probably for me as well).

Rosie's super hair do

The sun burns through the fog

A metal strip to secure this block

Continuing to lay blocks

A beautiful flower on my dad's plants

Angela did Rosie's hair in a very lovely plat today and I liked it so much I had to take a picture to share it. I took her to school again this morning, the last day of the year for her as well, and it was foggy and frosty and cold and on the way back I stopped at the top of the village to photograph the sun burning through. Upstairs the workmen were in and carrying on with laying blocks for the walls up there. Bekir showed me how he is tying in the single bricks going up by the wooden beams either side of the storage access doors; he is attaching these metal strips to the wood and then embedding them into the cement. This will make these walls very strong and not likely to topple. I did a little tidying and that while Angela headed to the dentist and saw that my Dad's flowers are blooming where we put them on the windowsills in the lounge. They look lovely, and Angela has done such an epic job of keeping them alive.

A pile of leaves and grasses that Halil raked up

Ready to dump this into the toilet

Starting to clear out this unsightly mess

Burning the waste

Thelma and Xena play tug with the toy

At lunch time I took my food to sit outside on the patio as it was such a lovely day and saw that Halil had been doing some tidying by the end of the patio; he had raked out all the leaves and long grasses that were clogging that area. When I finished my lunch I grabbed the wheelbarrow and started to sift through all this material, removing stones, and put three barrowloads into the humanure and then another three or four over by the garden for Angela to use as mulch. In the mean time Halil was now cracking on clearing up the rubbish pile that has developed in the old lime pit we put there all those years ago. He separated out any wood that could dry and be used in his fire at home while taking the rest over to the other dump to burn. Angela came home while we were doing this and we discussed plans for the garden for next year while watching Thelma and Xena play with the toy.

Bekir continues the block work

Shoveling out years of rubbish

A goat leg, all ready for Christmas

Look at what an excellent job Halil has done

The cable ducts are cemented in place now

Inside Bekir was working away on his own to get as much of the walls finished as possible and he also moved the network cable that goes to Angela's art room. Halil continued with his clearing and tidying task outside and was making great progress, shoveling years of leaves and ashes and other assorted rubbish out of the pit. At lunch time the men had headed out and picked up the goat leg for our Christmas dinner and it looks like a very good chunk this year. By the end of the day Halil had completely cleared that horrible pile of rubbish while upstairs Bekir was done with the walls and had also cemented in the ducts that hold the power lines for the right hand side of the roof.

Rosie with her gifts from the men

Four eggs from two days

Rosie stirs the jelly

As the day came to a close and when Rosie got home from school we gave the men their Christmas gifts and Rosie received some awesome presents in return. I had heard a chicken laying an egg earlier and popped into the chicken house to find that we now have two chickens laying; this is two eggs each from two chickens. Very exciting. While I was writing the first part of this update Rosie was with Angela helping to make jelly for over the Christmas period which she did very well indeed. She's now in bed and hopefully sleeping well as she is understandably very very excited for Christmas.

So there it is. The year is done for the builders and near enough done for us. I may well be back during the week before New Year to catch up on Christmas but we shall see how it goes. Thanks for reading, Happy Christmas to you all.

More Progress

Today was a busy and important day. I was out for almost the entire morning at the bank but let's get to that in a bit.

Bekir slotting in an angled piece

Frosty over the burned area

Fristy frost on the gate post

Ducting in for cables

The men were a little late in today for some reason, my guess is their car wouldn't start as it was very cold last night and this morning. First thing they were straight into the roof to continue with the walls and filling in the slots at the very top. I wasn't able to watch much as I had to go to the bank to sign a mortgage to buy the first of two flats we are getting. It was still very frosty when I left so a couple of arty pictures were in order. It took far longer than it needed to for various reasons but everything was signed and agreed eventually. When I got back I found that the men had done the little bits of filling in and also had run all the conduit for the lights in the first two storage areas. I'm so pleased with how this is turning out, there's going to be loads of room!

Bekir slotting a piece into place

Funky angles at the top

The sun goes down

The rest of the afternoon was spent with the men cutting blocks to size and fitting them into increasingly odd shapes and spaces. There are some that require only very small slivers and others that are carved to angles to fit with the eaves. The right hand side is getting close to completed now. After the freezing cold fog of the morning it has been a glorious sunny day today with blue skies all day and the sunset was special. Much better weather than that miserable rain and thankfully winter has arrived.

So there it is; a busy day indeed. Thanks for reading and back tomorrow.

Path finished, on to chopping wood

I'm feeling quite jaded today, missing Dad a lot I think. Let's just get to the blog.

Halil mixes up some cement

Off for a run in the fog

Rosie helps Angela with some planting

The final blocks are laid

Starting to make their way through the wood pile

Lots of wood split, lots left to do

It started off a lovely morning but very quickly the fog rose and it stayed around most of the morning. Autumn is definitely here. Bekir and Halil were working to finish off the block laying first thing while Angela and Rosie had a really fun time in the garden, both planting things out and playing. It is a national holiday here today so no school. By the time the sun had burned through properly and the day was warming up, the last block was being laid. The rest of the day was spent cutting and splitting our wood pile ready to be stashed. The steel was being cut today and apparently it will be delivered tomorrow now.

Rosie cycling her trike

Rosie and Xena sat together

Making a sandcastle

Moving the wood towards inside

I had a little hobby time with Rosie as we painted a bit more of her cardboard castle then we went outside onto the now clear patio and she had a lot of fun with her scooter and her trike. After that she went off playing with Thelma while I started to shift some of the wood away from the pile and into the wood room. I shifted a load onto the driveway then got about 1/3 of that inside before dinner.

So there it is; one more day of the week and is there a chance we'll have our steel tomorrow!? Let's hope! Thanks for reading, back tomorrow.

Starting to cut tiles

Today has been a much more normal day, which is a relief as a person can have too much drama in their life.

Cleaning up the mess in the mist

Halil wheeling, the bucket going back up

Bekir removes the last of the tiles

New tiles starting to go down

360 degrees from the roof terrace

The blocks are started to be delivered

The men were in on time and got started up on the roof terrace straight away, despite there being drizzle in the air. It remained damp and foggy for quite a lot of the day. First of all they swept and cleaned then chipped out the last of the old tiles. It is kind of sad to see the lovely blue sky tiles all gone but getting the roof sealed is far more important. By nearing the end of the day all the prep work was done and they were starting to cut the tiles for the edges and odd shapes, which is the slow part of the job. It had turned into an absolutely glorious day with stunning views from up there. Just as my work day was reaching an end the truck arrived bringing the first of the materials for the next job. I think it's going to be a bit unlikely this will get completed before the snows but we can try; if they can really crack on with the tiling (and I may ask if they want to work Saturday as well this week to get that done) there is a small chance. Rosie was awake just as the truck arrived so I stood out with her (she was in my arms when I took the picture) and she was grinning and loving watching it work.

Tables arrived so well packaged

Lovely sunset

I headed down to town with Rosie after this to collect four new tables from the courier, and then go to the shop. This was a lovely little trip. The sunset this evening was also stunning.

And there you have it; a normal day. So needed. Thanks for reading.

Pool fun and ear pain

I'm sat here not very comfortable as during the night Saturday my ear blocked up and it is still blocked right now. It isn't painful but I'm surprised how much it has impacted my ability to concentrate and operate. If it isn't better by tomorrow I may well head to the doctors.

New desk in the painting room

Sun breaking through the fog

Rinsing the filter out

Lots of meat on the BBQ

The whole group, eating

Dramatic sun-lined clouds

On Friday night I assembled my new desk in the painting room, with some help from Angela to lift it over once the top was on. It's a really nice desk and I've enjoyed painting at it the last few nights. Saturday dawned foggy but that cleared up quickly. I went with Rosie into town to try and buy a pipe to attach to the drainage outlet of the new pump but the shop we bought the pool from doesn't sell the pipes! I came home and jury-rigged one of the spare 4" pipes to direct the water into the drains and this worked perfectly. We had guests coming for lunch which turned out to be a wonderful time. Rick and I went in the pool, Rosie was with us most of the time (though she did get stung by a wasp but she reacted very well and was back in the pool almost straight away) and then we went onto the balcony and did the BBQ. It was just a brilliant day and nice to spend it with lovely people like Rick and Linda.

The plants Bekir has saved

Sunday I had my bad ear and it was tough to do anything. I did get out with the mower and I did the rest of the lawn as I couldn't achieve anything else I could at least walk up and down not thinking. I found a load of plants that Bekir and Halil have saved while digging out for the patio; it looks like they've been watering them as well.

Morning view from my desk

That fan is spinning!!!

The trench being dug again

Foundations and more drainage

And so to today. I slept well despite my ear but woke with it still blocked which was disappointing. I was at my desk while the sun rose and the new desk is rotated so I can see the view while I'm working (or writing this update). I dropped Rosie to school as Angela was feeling really poorly with a recurrence of the bad cold/flu that she had before. The men were in and first thing they got the new fan working however didn't fit the switch to the wall as I was on calls with work so much. Instead they went back to the patio and they have finished digging the foundations for the end wall and have started to build those foundations. They also put additional drainage in to take water away from the Green Building which is really awesome.

So there you are; hopefully tomorrow we'll both be recovered from these ailments. Thanks for reading.