Two days of hard work

Sorry for the super short blog yesterday; I really could not get away from the jobs in hand to sit down and write anything. Even today it is nearly 9pm before I am sat down to write this so a late night beckons. Never mind, it's been an epic two days which you're about to find out about.

The sun gives a hint it is on its way

Just the slightest edge showing

And there it is in all its glory

First of all yesterday morning I was quite awake first thing (A commented on how chirpy I was being, which tells you something, My reply was "it won't last" which it never does when you are that happy straight away. It is always better to enter the day slowly and build your feelings of joy. Anyway, this early energy meant I was straight up and out on the balcony with her before the sun was up and got to enjoy that lovely sight as it announced itself with a glow then suddenly sprinted up into full visibility. I had a lovely comment on the blog the other day about the notch and where it goes to and all I can say is when they were building the new road they unearthed a stone age settlement around here so there could well be ancient worshiping places. True to form they took pictures and buried it again under rubble.

With one cup of tea in me I decided that I would not wait any more and would go straight outside to start scything, seeing as Bekir had sharpened the blade for me. First of all I took it for some practice swings around the area that we had strimmed the other week. The head came a little loose, as it always has, but it cut quite well and looking back at this video I am not too disappointed with my form; muscle memory from last year is obviously kicking in.

I did some more scything

With the wedge firmly hammered in, and the hammer down with me on the front, I set to work on the bottom part of the land. This was before A set off and she left as I was half way through and I had set the challenge of getting right down to the front fence on this line before stopping. I got very close but it was super hot work even that early before the sun was up and I stopped a few metres short. I was again quite pleased with how I was doing though and the grass is piled up drying now which won't take it long in this heat.

We have vestibule lights in

I went back inside having stacked all the cut hay as I say and collapsed into my chair and worked for a bit, until A got back with the men. They were not that bothered that I had done the betonkontakt the night before; I think they had considered the job complete but I didn't mind really as I'd rather have done it and it not needed doing. I then made myself a monster breakfast with lots of bacon, some egg, some fried tomato and toast, and it really hit the spot from all the effort put in first thing. The men were getting on with things in the guest suite and pretty quickly Bekir was able to show off the lights in the vestibule which were working.

Sally plastering the bathroom

Sally was the one with the pressure on as he had to completely plaster the bathroom so tiling could begin. He always works with a smile on his face which is great and he laughs a lot whenever I'm in there taking pictures. Anyway over the weekend we had decided on getting a ceiling fan for the bedroom and had had some difficulty with the shipping costs on the website for the one we found we liked however their service by email was excellent so I had to head into town to send money via bank transfer to pay for it. It was a really warm day already and I was in and out quickly without stopping anywhere but the bank.

Sharing a chair

When I got back I found Thelma and Louise trying to take over A's chair once again. They are triers.

Filling in the holes in Room 13

True to form I was feeling a little down by the time it got to lunch which is standard when you wake feeling so positive. I kept moving however and slowly recovered my mood. Lunch was yogurt with my new pear preserve in it and tasted lovely and then slightly later I got Bekir to help me mix up a small amount of cement so I could fill in the holes in the floor in Room 13 in preparation for tiling. This didn't take me long at all and so we again blocked the room off so the girls can't get in there to dig it up.

Top corridor windows

We had been promised that the window people would return on Tuesday to do the windows however Tuesday came and went with no sign so I got Bekir to ring them and they promised they'd be there on Wednesday. It got to quite late in the day and no sign and then suddenly there was beeping from the lane and it was two new people I'd not seen before come to work on the windows. They were not happy about Rambo but I refused to put him in the trailer as it was too hot and just stood with him while they walked past. The set to on the windows in the upstairs corridor and at first said they would not be able to do much at all as they didn't have the tools with them but eventually ended up knocking the bricks out so we had huge holes in the wall over night.

Putting in the light fittings

Sally was working away hard all through this and Bekir got involved to help with some of the window work while also getting a good amount done on the electrics for the guest room. We have chosen to put the old lights back up in there as the main room lights and so he was taking the light fittings he had cleaned up and fitting them to the ceiling. They look great and it really vindicates the decision to keep some of the old fittings from the old use of the school and have them feature in the renovations.

Clearing up after the window men

Once the day job had finished I started the task of collecting the whole bricks that had been knocked out of the wall by the window fitters and transporting them downstairs. At first I did this by hand but then I got the wheelbarrow. Before they had finished it was time to take the men home which I did and it was a quiet trip back as we were all so very hot. I saw the window fitters washing themselves at the water tap on the hill as I came back up so I knew they had left and as soon as I parked I was back to cleaning. This took me a fair while and it was nearly dark before I had swept and left it totally clean. So that was the reason for no blog and that was the reason for shifting lots of wheelbarrows of stuff around last night.

Fried rice for dinner

Dinner was a lovely fried rice concoction which really hit the spot and it was nice to pause in the cleaning to sit on the balcony and enjoy this. It was still rather hot, but a nice breeze was blowing, as we were sat there but one thing we really noticed was just how quiet it was. No car noise from the new road, no music from town. All we could hear was ourselves and the birds. Outstanding. THIS is what I want it to be like.

More clearing

With dinner over we went back to clearing stuff and before heading down to do the watering round A threw the broken window frames off the balcony onto the back bank for later removal up to the bonfire circle. I was still on with the rubble and dust and was throwing it all out the back door into the mess that is there and will be cleared up when we finally do this part of the renovation.

After the sun set

Just as I was getting to the end of the cleaning the Little Lady came over to look at what we were doing and have a chat. She stayed for a little while which was nice and she was admiring of the holes in the wall for the new windows, and the progress in the guest suite. While she was here I noticed how the sun had lit up a cloud in a beautiful way so I snapped a very quick picture from the back window which came out great.

Washing outdoors again

I was feeling really sweaty and horrible after all the heavy work clearing the top corridor so as soon as the Little Lady left I was out to the water drum and having the most amazing wash ever. The water was really warm, having been in the sun all day, and I just wanted to keep pouring it over myself for ages. Eventually I stopped and dried off and then it was A's turn. We were up and in bed pretty quickly after this and both of us slept pretty well though I was awake in the night and took the girls for a toilet trip in the hope that they wouldn't disturb A early doors.

Sadly this attempt did not work out and it was really early again when Louise was jumping up and demanding to go out. We're sure she hears A moving as she gets close to awake and that is it; she's up and on the bed. Not cool at that time in the morning. Today I really struggled to get going but eventually I joined A on the balcony. I was stiff from all the physical work I'd done the day before so chose to not do any more scything but decided I would begin to clear the living room. I got all the bricks that were up there moved downstairs by the time the men were back and had shifted the windows as well. A was off out again almost straight away to get the floor tiles for the bathroom and I stayed and got on with my work, having cut my finger quite badly on some glass earlier on.

Windows fitting

I had Bekir ring the window men at about 9.30 when they had not arrived as we were not happy with the gaping hole in the wall considering this weekend is set to storm and storm quite badly. Surprisingly enough they arrived quickly after this and got stuck into fitting the windows in these holes at least. Unfortunately they had knocked a course of bricks too many out the day before so while the windows are now in, there is a big gap under each one which we'll need to fix for tomorrow.

Finally tiles go on the wall

Sally smiling as he joint strips

The morning was taken up with Bekir doing some small tasks on the electrics while Sally fixed up the ceiling in the other guest room. When A returned with the new tiles (which match perfectly which is great) this prompted Bekir to get started on the tiling finally which was a great relief to me as I had been a bit worried about only having a week until my parents are here.

There was quite a list of things to get before we could start our own tiling, and after lunch I had a word with Bekir that I wanted the doors for the guest room made before the other room was started. We headed down to the builders merchant and picked up everything we needed, including the new buckets for the guest room bathroom humanure, finally. There was some confusion about the doors which Bekir thought I wanted to have swinging in and out and so I almost got some ridiculously expensive hinges but this was sorted out pretty quickly in the end.

First ever attempt at tiling for her

And so it was back up and A got on with beginning to tile Room 13. Bekir gave us some time, stepping away from his work for a bit, to help set out the beginning of the tiles, snip off the small corners that needed removing for the first few tiles near the wall, and then Sally helped me to mix some terrakol and then we were on our own. I was working so A was able to get on with it without me hovering which was a benefit I think.

And for me

Once I finished my work day she asked me to take over and slightly reluctantly I did however I found that it wasn't as hard as I had thought it would be. If you are really generous with the mortar, really careful with actually putting the tile down, and really gentle while moving it into place then it turned out to be quite easy to keep it flat and even.

How we ended the day

And so it was suddenly the end of the day. Before we left Bekir used my new chainsaw to chop up some wood to take back to his so he can use a tool in his shed to prepare the frame for the doors and he said it is a very good chainsaw so that is good; maybe I'll even use it one of these days. I dropped them off near his house and then headed back and it was really hot, up to 40 degrees even that late.

Again the sky after the sun had set

On getting back here I sat on the balcony with A then we had dinner which was belly pork, wedges and garlic bread, and then I was straight in here to get this done while she did the watering round (gutted again to have missed it).

Now it is about 1.5 hours after I started which considering the length of the blog isn't too bad. It is, however, still up towards 30 degrees inside and at 10.20pm that is less pleasant. The heatwave is due, as I said, to break over the weekend which is typical as we've been invited to go to Greece by the neighbours again on Sunday. We've told them it depends on the progress of our work which does put pressure on getting the floor done. Watch this space.