Reversed roles

Today has been a different day to our expectations. It began like this last night when A was unable to get to sleep. I also struggled a bit as I kept hearing movement outside and waking myself up to check what it was; I am sure now it was only Rambo patrolling but it disturbed me so I worried I'd not drop off to sleep but worse, disturbed A so she didn't. I was fast asleep and not aware of the extent of the issue but she was awake until nearly 4am. It's horrible when this happens as I know well as it happened to me not that long ago.

Yes it was still that dark

What this meant was that when the alarm went off rather than A being up and about I was straight out of bed, took the puppies for their morning toilet while I let the birds out, then took a brew in to A as she dozed. She was quite insistent that she would be up to collect the men however I was quietly sure that she wouldn't be. Two hours sleep is not enough for anyone, and certainly I was not keen on the thought of allowing her to drive while so exhausted.

Last night my finger with dead skin

This morning my finger peeled

While I was up and making the brew I had a good look at my finger. It is certainly getting better now and when I went to bed last night (picture one above) there was a lot of dead skin around the nail which came off over night to expose fresh new skin that is healing well underneath. There was a little bit of puss again today and the cream has been helping as this has just been coming out without pain or problem. Now the finger has lost almost all of the dead skin and is pink and fresh looking.

Changed weather; cloudy start today

When it came to be time to go get the men A had fallen back to sleep so I slunk off quietly. Unfortunately the girls were outside and they tried to follow the truck so I had to stop and lock them inside, aware they would probably run and jump on A. This I found later they had done. I would have taken them with me if I didn't think A would panic if she went looking for them. It had rained over night, on and off, and was still raining as I left but the sky was a lovely picture.

Little Teddy in his house

As I was leaving the village I spotted Teddy in his little house. This is the barn that has all the hay in it and he has a lovely snug nest in there. He is on a chain but it is not a short one, he's off it quite a lot, and his tail wags whenever anyone goes near. We think the Special One dotes on him. The Little Lady came round the corner just as I was taking this picture out of the car window and I think she was a little bit surprised. I waved and drove off.

I like spotting mileages like this on my cars

The collection was pretty simple; Gyuner was waiting at the bottom of the hill when I got there, slightly delayed by spotting as I was driving that I was on 111111 miles. I was able to stop and take a picture by the side of the road before it flicked over. When I found, however, that it took an hour for him to get to this pick up point from his house I told him we'd collect him from where I normally drop him off and save him half an hour at least. I popped into the shop for bread and then brought the men back. One more benefit of the temperature dropping is the men get to talk easier in the car as the windows are not down and this morning the chattered away the whole way.

Sally getting the electric and water channels dug out

With the living rooms completely scraped, and the holes all filled, this morning Sally wanted to get on with channeling out where the cables will go for the lights, switches and plug sockets. I grabbed the yellow chalk and marked up where A and I had decided we wanted lights but left the sockets to double check with her. He got straight on with it and by the time I came back very soon after with A to discuss the socket positions he had already completed one channel for the switch by the main door and was moving round the room fast. We have decided on nine double sockets around the walls, four wall lights and another above the stairs with a switch down in the kitchen as well as upstairs.

Balcony looking really good

Puppies looking up at me wanting to play

The other men were working away finishing off the parapet wall around the edge of the balcony. This has reached the two brick height we want and it makes quite a difference to how big the area feels; certainly now that the chimney is gone, the whole floor is smoothly concreted and the wall is up it feels the 133 square meters of flat area that it is. This evening we went out again and with the wall now higher than that picture it feels even better. The slope, and number of drains, is also a bonus.

Putting the drains in place

Bekir has focused today on finishing off the drains. We are probably going to end up with the utility room done this year (without the boiler in it as we'll be moving that from Room 13 eventually) so our washing machine will be able to run off the reservoir in the roof. To this end the drains need to work so he is putting a two way drain in for now. This will both take the run off from the washing machine, and have a length going through into the kitchen for the sinks. The ViK water for our drinking tap has also been brought in and all of this has been concreted into the walls now.

The balcony tiles are delivered two days early

When we ordered the tiles for the balcony last week we were told that the tiles would be ready for collection on Wednesday. We then arranged that we would get them delivered on Thursday. This morning Bekir received a call saying that they had arrived and where available for delivery, if we had the money here. We did and so mid morning the van arrived. All of us pitched in to unload and it didn't take very long at all as Bekir was in the truck-bed and handing the stacks out to us. So this is what 155 square meters (133 for the floor and 22 for the walls) of tiles looks like.

We had been waiting for a call today as well about the tiles for the living room and it arrived not long before the balcony tiles got here. Once that unloading job was complete I headed out with A to go and get these, and look for lights for the living room. We went first to the tile place but it was shut up so off to the lighting shop we headed and we had a very successful trip. We got some lovely wall lights that will match very well with the tiles and curtains, and found a totally different style of light for above the stairs but we were both happy with these choices. After this it was back to the tile shop and she was open this time however she gave us a slip of paper and said to go to another shop round the corner. When we got there we paid the balance and were given another slip of paper to go to a third location, the warehouse, to actually collect the items. There then followed a loading process that was quite involved as the tiles we have bought are quite large and the packets are very heavy.

It was a slower drive back with such a laden Thomas but we made it safely and then me, Bekir and Gyuner unloaded them quickly into the kitchen which is now cluttered with stacks of tiles. It'll be quite a job getting all of these up the stairs when the time comes for them to be fitted. I'm very excited to see both sets of tiles down as I think we've made really good decisions. This is highlighting, however, that we need to mark out the steps that we want up to the double balcony doors. We shall have to do that tomorrow.

Building the shutters for the cement work

With the wall completed around the edge of the balcony the workmen set themselves to making the shutters they need for the next stage; the concrete raft around the top of the walls and the concrete pillars at regular points. This took them the rest of the afternoon and they headed off once it was done. Bekir, Sally and Gyuner stayed a while longer finishing their tasks (Bekir has now gone into the roof to get the pipe from the reservoir down the living room wall and into the kitchen, and then to do the electrical wires as well so Sally can cement them in) and I took some time to show Gyuner the design for the duck pond.

A took the men home so she could see where to pick Gyuner up from tomorrow morning and while she was gone I got the watering round done and also filled all the bottles up. The pressure wasn't great enough to get the hot water running in Room 13 so no washing up got completed however I did have a beer waiting for her when she got here. We had planned on a lazy pizza dinner but we found that there was no pizza in the freezer (again) so she has been making us a lovely smelling spag boll. I'm going to publish this now before we eat so you'll hear all about it tomorrow.