Covering a long time

 This update covers the previous two weeks, but I'm going to try and keep it short and sweet.

Angela and Rosie head off to Ireland

Tools all tidy at last

Bekir on the roof across the village

Moving terrain into the corridor

Running network cable around Room 13

Angela and Rosie headed off to Ireland to see her nana, going for a long time so they could quarantine and still get the chance to get out for the visit. It was very sad waving them off and they return on Wednesday and I cannot wait! While they have been gone the men have been working on a house in the village fixing the roof and only actually returned on Friday. I have been really busy with the paid job but got a few chores around the house done like hanging all the gardening equipment on the wall in the garden storage room, which looks great, and I also emptied out the Games Room in preparation for  Bekir to knock the hole through for my model railway. I have also run the network cables around the house for internet, though I'll come to some more detail on that in a short while.

The sun breaks above the fog

Still have butterflies

A glorious sunrise

Middle of October temperature

Sunbathing puppies

Fire had to be lit though

It has been changeable, weather-wise. We've had some absolutely glorious days, and some stinking cold miserable days. Mainly nice, thankfully, however the mornings even on those nice days are getting colder and colder and so finally the fire had to be lit; the puppies were very pleased and I'm doing OK at keeping Room 13, which I managed to move back into just in time before the first really cold damp morning, warm and comfortable for us all.

Bekir after the drilling incident

Sally getting the finishing off started

A route for the network

Power for the kitchen, waiting to be fixed

Networking through the roof

On Friday I asked the men to come in mainly because the hole for the networking into the library just wasn't large enough. There were other little jobs to be done as well like finishing around the window there. Unfortunately Bekir drilled through the main armoured cable the fed the kitchen, by mistake of course, and so what should have been a really quick job for him became a digging-out-and-replacing-cables monster task. He got it done, and also sorted out some other badly-run cables at the same time, as well as putting in all the pipes that I wanted so I could run the cables on Saturday. Which I did, though it took me nearly all day to get everything done. Bekir and I got to town to get steel for the balcony, so the windows can be measured, and also tried to find tools and other items to fit the carpet with but failed so that is now on its way from the UK and we won't have carpet for at least two weeks still.

Morning sun through the tea trees

The pans are now hung

Such a lovely hot day

Evening sun

Sunday was a beautiful day; I got my shopping done and when I got back put the hooks up in the kitchen to hang our frying pans from; this was a surprisingly difficult job as that beam is REALLY hard. After that I rested and hobbied and did a few other bits and pieces but I also got to sit outside which was lovely; I've not been outside very much the past couple of weeks. The sun in the evening on the hills was lovely, as was my roast dinner.

Measuring, though they didn't cut there

Welding the beam back together

Sally puts a second coat of plaster on

Bekir and Halil fit the beam in place

Another casualty; easily fixed though

And the tile on the inside window as well

A very messy floor, but a clean repaired wall

Sally covers over the pipes again

And so we reach today. The men were back in and the first job was to put the steel up on the balcony that will have the windows attached to it; this was a good job that they spent the morning doing and, other than trimming it too short which I caught and pointed out just before they started fitting it, they did a great job and it is very secure. While Bekir and Halil continued with this Sally came into the library to put a second coat of plaster around the window and door. There had been another breakage of tiles on the balcony as well so Bekir fixed this then took the glue and fitted the tile on the inside windowledge in the library. Upstairs Sally and Halil had some cement and were fixing the walls; Halil made a huge mess and had to then spend ages clearing up; I'll suggest he puts cardboard down like Sally did tomorrow.

And so finally I've finished what wasn't a short and sweet update, but an epic! It's been so lonely and weird without Angela and Rosie here; I've seen them on Skype every day pretty much which has really helped but tomorrow being the last full day before they get back is a Very Good Thing in my book. I cannot wait. Thanks for reading, though!

Been too busy to blog

After all my good intentions of blogging every night this week I got into bed every night realising that I had completely forgotten to do an update. I have been working very hard on my website (if you are interested you can click here, though it is not yet open for registrations) and every minute I've had at my desk has been devoted to that.

Saturday morning is here, however, after working until 2.30am or so this morning I got a lay in until about 8 and have just had bacon and eggs and I'm feeling like a New Man. I've not got all that many pics and will sweep through this quickly as we are heading out in an hour.

Tuesday

Pink and blue for the morning

Mesut ensuring his levels are right (they were)

Painting wood stain on lots of planks

Mesut approaching the end of the basic tiling

Tuesday dawned red and bright and stayed glorious and warm all day - I think it was up about 28 degrees inside. Amazing for October 30th. The awesome weather also supported some amazing progress as Mesut flew through the tiling in what will be the Tool Room (and my airbrush booth) and Bekir was getting set with the bezir on the wooden boards. I took some time away from my desk to help out with this which was great - I like to get involved as I'm sure you've noticed. All in all it was a very pleasing day. We also headed over to the garage to collect Thomas and were told that everything had been changed, all the fluids etc - all set for winter.

Wednesday

Pre-dawn colours

Sun appears for the day

It was another glorious start to Wednesday, though with fog in the valley this morning. 

Leaking Thomas

Coordinated wood-staining, with Rambo "helping"

Mesut contemplates the Final Tile

A collected the men and then we had a look at the oil leak she had spotted underneath Thomas and decided that he needed to go to the garage (having just come back from a full service - not cool). A was feeling pretty rough with a cold but insisted on going so I was left with Pat to head out and get some more bezir as we were running out. Of course the shop had now also run out so we bought their final stock and were told to come back the next day for more. Just as I arrived back A rang to say that Thomas was not well at all and it would take a fair while to fix him so I turned round and went and collected her. Not good news as we had Okhtay now working with us so Pat would have to transport three workers each way.

Starting to put up the scaffold

Mid way up

There it is

At the top

Taken down, moved, and being put back up

After lunch Bekri and Okhtay set to assembling the Scaffold in the first spot to begin putting the wood up under the eaves - they chose the most complicated and convoluted area to start with and it was quite a thing to watch how they managed it. I once again was left saying "there's something I will not ever do" but they are fearless. The completed the wood at that little bit and were half way through erecting the scaffold in the place, round the corner, when the day ended.

The edging really finished it off, and protects it as well

A makeshift bridge over the wet tiles

Caught by surprise by the camera

Grouting in progress

Mesut for his part was cracking on with the Tool Room. He put the 6cm lip up the walls in very quick time and then got started on the grouting. He made very creative use of the top of my little internal scaffold as a bridge over the most recently laid tiles by the door, to allow entry. By the end of the day about 1/3 of the floor had been grouted, as the final task of the room.

Doesn't look like the end of October, huh

Sad at being out on my own

It was OK - not great, though

It really had been a glorious and warm day however A had not been able to enjoy it at all as her cold was at its worst. I took myself out to the fast food place on the way back from dropping the men and had a lonely meal down there, but I did get to try something new out. Fortunately that marked the point where A started to recover and now she is all but completely better again, which is fantastic.

Thursday

A foggy and cold start

Louise cuddling on my shoulder

And then fast asleep

Warm enough for November 1st

We were up and about to collect the men when Bekir called with a family emergency and they weren't coming, which was far from being the worst thing for us as it was a day less to travel in Pat. It was a misty foggy start that ended up clearing into another absolutely cracking day, 24 degrees sat at my desk. A headed out for some reason and Louise did her parrot, and then they fell fast asleep to wait for her to get back. It was a day of me at my desk and A recovering still from her cold.

Friday 

Cool and damp start

Friday again was a cooler start and it stayed overcast and foggy for quite a while before clearing later, though reluctantly.

Three man job getting these bits up

Okhtay clambers up

Meh - it'll do :o

Hammering up the beams

Large ladder and makeshift outriggers

Working into the evening gloaming

A collected the men and then headed off to do her shopping while I rushed around like a crazy person - it was such a busy day yesterday, and long. The men finished erecting the scaffold and set to fitting the boards. This was fiddly work with a lot of angle cutting needed but they made great progress and by the end of the day were mid way through the next dismantling and erection of scaffold, to go along the front of the building. To my great pleasure they had to bring the large ladder out of its storage so that purchase got another proof of its usefulness.

All the grouting done

Taking dust into his clean room

Tools storage

Damping the dust ready for sweeping

Cracking on still, into the dark

End of the day

Mesut finished all the grouting then spent some time cleaning it up, only for me to then tell him we had to shift all the dusty tools in there to clear the Men's Room. He also helped lift up the big units, one into the top corridor and one into the attic, which was hard enough work as they are very heavy. With the Men's Room cleared he damped the dust down, swept it out, and got stuck into tiling. By the end of the day he had made a good start in the final hour or so left to him.

Making stew for the freezer

Bottle Kill to end a hard working week

A had also been super busy and the final thing she did was make a large batch of stew for the freezer, and an awesome curry that we ate half of last night for our dinner when I got back from dropping the men. I was then up to my desk and at about 2am or so I finished this tiny drop of whisky to bottle kill this bottle and headed to bed.

Now I'm about to make us late so I'm going to dash; see you next time, thanks for reading.