Going both ways

What a difference a day makes. Today has been far from as wonderful as the previous days. Frustration and anger across the board but we'll get through it or die trying.

You can see smoke from the neighbour's chimney

My favourite tree

Mist in the valley in the moonlight

Anyway, it'll be a short update. Last night was disturbed for both of us and A got very little sleep indeed. I was up with the puppies a few times and was so awake I headed onto the balcony to take pictures of the brightness of the moon. It was like daylight. Amazing.

I woke up alone as A had not come back to bed and she was still asleep so I headed off to get the men. It was again about 2 degrees but I was in my barefoot and flipflops which did prompt a comment from Gyuner. It was a more talkative trip back as I gave a villager a lift to our local town where it is market day and he was nattering away. This was good as it covered up the continued awkwardness between Gyuner and the other two. I have now pretty much given up on that situation and just hope they can get through this year without falling out worse; we're close to the end of building season and still have a long list of tasks to complete.

Grinding down a metal fixing point for the surround

I'm not sure what Bekir did during the early part of the morning as the time I went to check on him for coffee he was sat on the sofas in the lounge chatting to the balcony workmen. Sally was straight downstairs and outside to get working on the frame for the garage door but even he, normally so industrious, didn't complete as much as I expected. We do have two hung doors now, swinging nicely, but that was done early afternoon and I was hoping we may have the metal sheeting riveted in place, or maybe some of the bricking up around the edges done.

Tiling the curved edge

Shortly after first checking on progress with Bekir I headed back out to see what was happening and he was on with the step out to the balcony. He did as much as he could there, though not as fast as I expected, before stopping so the men on the balcony didn't tread on newly laid tiles.

Cleaning up on the balcony

They were still out there working away to clean and polish the tiles and fix any little issues with the grouting. Their boss came out to see what was happening and collect the balance as they were finishing today and I had a quick word about all the nails that the other workmen had scattered everywhere over the driveway and land. He agreed this wasn't good enough. I hope to work with this company again next year to do the basketball court and maybe a few other jobs that could do with doing without distracting Bekir.

Bookshelf gets fitted to the wall

With as much of the step tiled as he could Bekir moved on to fixing the new bookshelves in place. We had a few minutes discussion about where they should go and then he cracked on and put them in exactly the right place. We can now put our books out at last. After this Bekir went onto the roof to start working on the chimney which is now our target for completion by the weekend so the living room becomes usable after dark.

Tidying up after a colleague

The balcony men finished their stuff up there and then, obviously under instructions from their boss, went and cleared up the nails on the driveway. I feel slightly bad for them as it was the other team who did this but at least it shows that my complaint (not very vehemently put) was taken seriously.

Nearly full moon

And so the day came to an end and I took the men home and this time, with no extra passenger, it was a dead quiet trip. The window people have been rung today and should come tomorrow (having been "should come" on Monday already this week) so hopefully they'll have a date when they will fit the two doors and window we are waiting for from them.The moon had risen again earlier and as I drove back I admired the lovely orange colour. As soon as I got back (though not before fixing the chicken house door which had actually totally fallen in while I was away) I took A onto the balcony so we could look at it and get some pics.

She's now serving up a lovely smelling dinner so I'd better get these pictures in and publish this update. Here's to tomorrow being better.