What a good day

As the title suggests, today has been a cracking day and we have got loads done.

Once again it is about 7.30 and I've not been long home.

There were a couple of little things I forgot to post about yesterday, mainly we had a visitor from the centre of the village wanting to "borrow" (read: have) a table as someone had died and they were having a wake. Who was I to say no, so Bekir (having refused to allow me to do so) toddled off with this table on his back for these ladies. I think this is going to be a regular occurrence and they work out that an Anglachenin has bought the place.

Anyway, that is yesterday tidied up.

The sunrise this morning

This morning I woke with the alarm and found my friend watching the sun rise. It was epic and amazing! I've not seen anything like that for a fair while, and hope to see many more when I am over here for good.

We picked the men up and were able to see the first snow of the year settled on the tops of the distant Greek Mountains; this was greeted with much comment as we have been discussing the potential for snow every day this week.

Removing the windows

Once we arrived at the school the first task was to sort out the big window from the end room which had been blown in (or attempted to be stolen possibly) and was blocking efforts to clear the room out. First of all the men removed each window whole, in its frame if possible, and stacked them outside in the next room. Then we (and I did help) lifted the window down so it was no longer precariously balanced.

Lifting the window back into place

Once this was done some nails were hammered in to add rigidity and then it was lifted up and pushed into the hole. Every corner but one went in easily. Isn't that always the way.

Making a ladder

No problem though, the men quickly made a ladder and then clambering like mountain goats the window was secured in place in no time. I then asked the men to put the big storage unit which had been knocked down by the window back up and so they lifted it into place, and them hammered a wooden brace to keep it upright.

Up the ladder hammering in the replaced window

All this was achieved in the first hour.

After this I took Bekir to the VeK and left Sally and the new labourer we had for today and tomorrow to keep working on the roof. The visit to the water people went well, with us first seeing the Russian lady (who recognised me as I walked in) and then, after a short conversation, going down to the clerk downstairs to fill in paperwork (in triplicate, and with no photocopier, so poor Bekir had to keep writing my name and address out; bless him) and then hand over 20lev for the registration fee.

From here we were to get a new cup for the new worker, breakfast in the form of more Banichkas, and a weighed amount of three different sizes of nails.

Sally on the roof

Back to the school and I was impressed with the amount Sally and Tanir had got done in our absense. My friend had also been busy, taking the opportunity to start stripping the horrible pink/purple paint from the lower half of the walls in room 13 (our store room).

The men got back on with the roof and we went to the end room, now accessible with the window and storage unit moved, and started to sort through the crap on the floor. I have now got a large collection of mechano, loads more magnets, and quite a lot of very interesting chemistry style glass ware. We spent a good hour or so just sifting and sorting through the rubbish before deciding we had enough, and were throwing more and more rubbish out of the window preparatory for our burn.

The fire starts

I brought the oil drum round onto the basketball court and the used the wheel barrow to bring the rubbish from below the window and my friend lit the fire and before long it was roaring.

Roaring fire

I did two or three more trips with the wheel barrow to below the window, and then several more into the end room and we burned all of this; when we left this evening it was still smoking.

This warmed us up as today was not a greatly warm day again, though the sun was out more than previous days.

Sally putting new beam in

We went in to do a bit more wall stripping, and I went upstairs and saw that Sally had climbed through the hole in the roof and was attaching a new beam; my camera was quickly fetched for a photograph.

The men really were making excellent progress now.

At this point I started feeling hungry so my friend and I went down to the town for a kebab; these really put the yucky ones in the UK to shame. While in town I popped into the bank and picked up my new card and PIN so now I have a fully operational bank account here.

The sagging part of the roof, now fixed

We headed back to find that the sagging hole which had been worked on first was complete and had been boarded; all there is to do now is to put bitumen over and baton that down.

On the other side now

The men were now working on the hole around the chimney and had removed most of the old ruined wood and were putting up new wood to support the new covering.

Around this time a chap turned up and started speaking to Bekir. It turned out he was a chap from the next village (maybe he saw our smoke signals) and he wanted to buy the old tiles. He was told to come back in March but this is a good thing; maybe I can offset the fact that the tiles are a bit old and rubbish and it looks like I'll need entirely new set, by selling them for an amount. We shall see.

'Elf and Safety?! Pah!

I took my bravery in hand and climbed the ladder and took a few pictures standing with my head through the roof, mostly inspired as my friend had done so before me and I didn't want to be shown up ;)

View from the roof

I spent a little time considering what to do regarding spare rooms and guest showers etc; it is almost certainly decided that I will build at least two, and maybe three, but the dimensions and layout is not clear in my head just yet. After I post this blog I will be getting pen and squared paper and drawing some ideas out; these I will take to Veselka on Monday to be incorporated in the design.

And so the day ended, with enough work to keep us very busy tomorrow, but such that it should be easily finished in the day.

I have decided to keep the chimney, just remove the bits which are precarious. This means that when I arrive next year I can put a small petchka straight into room 13 and make it warm, which is really a big win.

Tomorrow is Saturday but the men are OK to work and so I will be back tomorrow with my final building update of the week.

Steak and red cabbage for dinner tonight; can't wait.