Back to full complement

Last night was not such a great nights sleep. After several excellent nights in a row I suppose it was due. As soon as the light went off, and I was feeling really tired then, I woke up and spent the rest of the night alternating between light sleep and awake. Not ideal. When A woke up I muttered and groaned and stayed in bed. Even when Louise came and jumped up on the bed after going out her licking my face didn't wake me up. I've stayed awake the whole day today in the hope that I'll sleep better tonight.

Shifting rocks in the... cold morning

I was up and out of bed before A left to get the men and once I finished my brew I headed outside to start retrieving rocks from the pile chipped out for the driveway. After yesterday when I felt like I was able to get loads done in the time between A leaving and returning today I only managed about six or seven wheelbarrows and they were driving round the corner. I did get quite a lot shifted in that time, though, and was slowly running out of suitable rocks to move.

Another angle on the support beam

After the picture yesterday of the support for the shuttering which was not really taken in a very sensible way I decided to shoot it again but showing what it actually is doing. The metal hammered in at the base of the support came from the old plumbing in the building while the wood is part of the old roof, I think. Even though this was not done by Bekir or Sally, they are still frugal and reuse where possible.

Some morning sunshine - way over there

It was a pretty overcast start to the day again today which during the morning got clearer and brighter and ended up actually quite pleasant. This didn't last, sadly, and by the end of the day it was again quite chilly and cold, though certainly not as bad as yesterday. As a demonstration we have only just lit the fire properly rather than having it burning all day though I still wouldn't really have liked to be out all day working like Gyuner was on the back patio area.

Sally up the scaffold once again

We had another brew when A got back and then it was time for us to head out to town for our shopping trip. I spoke to Bekir first thing about what he wanted to do, letting him know if he wanted to do the outside work now and leave the living room until later however the desire to finish a job once started was too strong. Sally was on with the plastering again while Bekir realised that the step on the balcony was very important so he made a start on that. Our trip to the shops was a mixed bag of success. The one shop didn't have enough black petchka pipes but we did get other items we needed and we also bought all the food, ordered the remaining curtains, and got cake.

Teddy has grown, but has a weird front right leg

On the way we had stopped to say hello to Teddy and he was very happy to see us. A spotted that there was something wrong with his leg and then the Special One came out and said that they were taking him to the doctor. It looks very floppy and once you have seen it then it is very obvious. Poor Teddy. We picked him out a toy on our shopping trip and stopped off on the way back to let him have it. He's such a lovely dog and was more interested in us until we left and then grabbed the toy and took it into his little shelter.

Waiting for us to get home

We got back to two very excited puppies who were, as usual, stood up on the bed in the spare room looking out the window as we pulled up. There was no damage or destruction this time at all which is very good. It was quite an unloading experience with everything we had bought but eventually we were done and it was time for a brew for us and the workmen.

Still at it, and flying round

I went through to check that it wasn't too late for coffee and found that Sally had finished plastering the external wall and was onto the internal bedroom wall. He really does fly when he's working; it's a pleasure to watch. The room really is starting to take shape now, what with the walls no longer dirty and broken and the plaster on the ceiling as well as the walls. So much brighter.

Our outside step

Outside I found that Bekir had just finished laying out and concreting the step. There was no progress on the tiling at all today as they need this to be finished. He had made a choice for us without asking, though I think it was a good one, in that the corners are curved and not straight. My only concern with this is we want it all to be tiled and that will be an interesting challenge for anyway but no matter; I'm paying for a good tiler so he should be able to manage.

A whole lotta cement mixing going on

The other workmen were hard at work having been stood around waiting for a cement delivery when we left for the town. They were involved in synchronised cement mixing as I watched and it was quite an impressive sight to watch.

Frames laid out for the inside steps

After lunch A went into town with Bekir (I was too busy with work to go) and got the plugs and light switches for the living room, as well as an external plug socket for me to use in the chicken house and tools to sharpen the chainsaw with. Later on I distracted him from putting together the frame for the internal steps to help me actually doing the sharpening and it turns out it is very easy indeed. The little trick, to tie a string around the chain at the point you begin sharpening, was the best thing he showed me. Back to those steps and we've decided to mirror the outside shape inside and after some discussion came up with the correct dimensions and now we are happy.

Dig dig dig dig dig

As mentioned earlier Gyuner has again been out the back digging and breaking up rocks and generally doing a good job of a really hard task. He's having to lower the level of the whole area to about 10cm below where we want the little patio to be, and then later he'll have to dig down to put the new drainage in along the front to try and prevent it all from suffering subsidence. After this picture was taken he also removed the remaining bricks from the mini porch so we can see really well what we will end up with and it looks great.

Living room looking much brighter now

Walls

And so once again the day drew to a close. The retaining wall at the back of the parking area has now been fully filled with concrete (more than the picture above as that was actually taken early afternoon but I didn't get out to take another afterwards) and the living room is now completely plastered, though Sally said he's going to do another coat tomorrow. The drive back was pretty uneventful and I got home to a dog inside the gates looking out which wasn't one of ours! I chased it around for a bit and eventually it jumped over our fence so that goes to the top of the list of Things To Fix next year.

The fire was on when I got back as I said and dinner was on its way and I didn't even start writing this update until after I had eaten. It was the pulled pork from yesterday but this time on a bed of fried rice. Lovely. Now I'm going to finish this up, sup my brew, and head to bed and hopefully sleep much better.