So that is what a Greek storm is like

Even doing this every two days the update times come round very fast; it seems like only yesterday that I was typing away, late to start, rushing to get it done. Maybe it seems so recent because once again I'm late. I had a shock just now as my camera had changed settings and it looked like all my pictures were corrupted but I've managed to save them though that delayed me starting as well. Onwards, I'll try and be quick.

Wednesday

The forecast for the end of the week was terrible and we had briefly toyed with the idea of sending the workman for a three day holiday as if the forecast had been correct they would not have got any work done at all. As it happens this isn't how it turned out.

Cloudy to begin with, but the sun broke through quickly

Men pulling tools up

A hive of activity

Little Lady's gift to us

Bekir fixes the back door

On with the new window

It dawned very gray and overcast on Wednesday morning and it seemed for a while as if the forecast would come true however the skies cleared quickly and we had quite a lovely morning with sun and a fresh breeze. The workmen were out early up the scaffold continuing to put the insulation materials on the walls, up round the eaves particularly, and were in a good mood. I didn't do much while A was out but I did get the tape measure and calculate how much fence we would need to make our lawn puppy-proofed. Nothing in this build is small; 45m! The flowers that the Little Lady gave us a few weeks ago have really taken and are blossoming nicely. When A got back I asked Bekir to have a look at the back door as the key wasn't turning and he fixed this very quickly for us. Then he was on with mixing cement to do the bathroom window surround.

Fitting insulation into the tiny gaps

Lots of fake snow from shaving down the boards

The string guide

Tapping dents into the walls

Bekir does a huge mix

Thelma with her stick, as always

They had left the insulation with some gaps up by the eaves so the first thing they did, while it wasn't bad weather, was get up there and get as much of that done as they could. This involved much measuring and cutting and it was not a quick task. This is my fault as I want open eaves to provide a habitat for the bats that we have around here. I hope they aren't disturbed too much by all this activity. Inside Sally was working on the other side of the corridor, putting cement up to smooth it all out and make it easier to tile and plaster later. He used a string to get his levels and it was amazing again how uneven it is. I caught him using his hammer to chip away into the existing plaster to provide a rough surface for the new cement to adhere to. Bekir was mixing cement and putting it into the new window, as I've said, and there was quite a lot of cement required.

A start is made on turning in the windows

Working in a modicum of shelter

Sally cementing the corridor

Ooops - water in through the windows

The drainage holes are blocked

As the weather changed it became harder for the men to work out in it; there was no point in them getting soaked through and then becoming ill and completely unable to work whatever the weather. They had just started to turn in the windows when it really became too wild but they still stuck outside for a bit longer and did as much of the sheltered work as they could, around the entrance. The wind was coming in from a very unusual direction though, the Greek Storm of the title, and so even under there it was quite damp so they stopped and waited it out. Inside Bekir and Sally were out of the elements and making good progress and I discussed the next steps with Bekir including electrical and plumbing aspects, and that we should wait for the bath to arrive before finishing off in the bathroom. While I was working away in Room 13 I heard some dripping and saw lots of water coming through below one of the windows. I called Bekir and he quickly identified that the drainage holes for the window had become blocked. A few pokes with the brad awl and it cleared and the water stopped coming in.

Rain hammering down

Top of the men's Cheren Put - where has Greece gone!?

Our drainage working over time

It really was a filthy afternoon with high winds and torrential rain and it didn't clear until well into the evening. I think the problem with my camera settings happened when I was out taking the daily photograph juggling with an umbrella and the rain dripped on the touch screen. Ivan and I went into town to do a bank run, I picked up some flowers for the garden and he got ingredients for the meal he was cooking for us that evening, and then we went to check out the fence that we had picked out for the garden. We discovered that it was a firm who would do everything including installation and painting, but onto a slab base, but the price while very good for what they did was more than we really wanted to pay at this stage. We'll look into other options. The journey back with the men was interesting because of the weather as it was like a hurricane at times. I dropped Bekir as close to the door of his cafe as I could and then, in a break from tradition, took Sally back to his village as well. It was crazy and as you can see our drainage is again proving its worth dumping loads of water off the land into the lane.

More flooding through the windows

A stop gap measure in place

Our proud chef

When I got back from that trip I got completely soaked getting the car through the gate but that was nothing to what greeted us when we went into the Living Room. There were puddles all over the floor and the water was pouring in through the windows, particularly badly up at the end with the TV. We got a bucket and some towels and mopped as best we could then laid towels along the edge of the windows to try and prevent it from coming in too much. It was too wet for them though and I kept hearing more dripping and having to go and wring them out. With the amount of thunder and lightning around we decided to unplug everything electrical so we went without internet all night. This was no real hardship as food was excellent, cooked by Ivan, and then we had lots of fun with the puppies playing and singing. I went out to get a video of the storm and, predictably, it didn't do the continuous flashing and rumbling while I was there but I did catch one. By that point the storm had pretty much passed and the rain had stopped though it was still quite windy and the concern about the materials piled outside was quite high.

Thursday

The forecast for today was, if anything, worse than what we had experienced the day before. Ivan looked at the forecast and said he may get an hour here and there through the day but to not expect much more than that.

Heavily weighted down

All the water that came through the window

The temporary cover for the bathroom window

Blossom on the tree

The men up the scaffold nice and early

It wasn't too terrible first thing and I did my rounds to check on everything and found that the materials had survived. The bucket in the Living Room that we had rung our towels into shows just how much water came through. Fortunately Bekir had put a covering up on the open window as we asked and it kept the bathroom from becoming damaged. I'd noticed that one of the new trees in the orchard is blossoming really nicely and, even with the high winds, these flowers have clung on and look beautiful. The workmen were out even earlier this morning to take advantage of working weather before the forecast rain hit very shortly.

A bag full of stuff to be sent to my parents

Contrary to forecast, the sun breaks through

Superb scrambled eggs

I had lots to do while A was collecting the men. First of all I had to empty the humanure as we've so many people using it the buckets are filling up fast. Then I did a bit of tidying around the pool table to allow access to the roof for the guy who was due to start today to carry the plasterboard into the roof. Then I got stuck into packing a suitcase up following a brain wave (a real actual clever thought!) from the day before. I'd been worrying a bit, what with the security implications of the terrorist attacks recently, that me flying back to the UK with a camping stove in my checked baggage could cause problems. I was also aware that I needed quite a lot of stuff taken back for my trip. It suddenly occurred to me that Ken would be going to my parents anyway to collect the bath and other items so why couldn't he take a bag for me. He agreed so I was able to put this together and send it to him today. I even got my best mate's sleeping bag packed so he doesn't need to buy a new one. When A got back we discussed breakfast and I decided to join her with her excellent scrambled eggs.

A casualty of the storm

One man handling a board

The toilet room is started

Bekir chiseling out a light switch location

The first task after breakfast was for A to get out and do the watering as we hadn't got out to do it the night before with the weather being so bad. She discovered one casualty of the weather which was the greenhouse which had tomatoes, sweetcorn and strawberries in it and none of those things are going to appear now. Sad times. Inside we had our new guy, Okhtay who had worked here before. He got stuck straight into shifting the boards upstairs, after I had worked out with Bekir's advice where they should sit. Sally had finished the corridor the day before and was moving into the toilet room to do the same thing, smooth out the walls with a skim of concrete, and he'd already done the chipping by the time I got down there. Bekir was marking out the locations for the light switches following a good conversation with me where I gave him plans of what we wanted drawn onto the architectural diagrams. It really helped to be able to point at this and explain some of the complex requirements we had.

How the Old School looks now

Sally putting the cement on the wall

Bekir up a scaffold in the rain

Checking out the downpipe problem

A dog leg takes the water away from the building

Working under the shelter

Later on, after a doze over lunch which both A and I really needed, I got the daily picture taken then snapped a good shot of the current state of play from a slightly different angle. Then it was nearly time to go into town to shop for the electrical stuff, and a new boiler. Outside the weather was deteriorating sharply however we had got a full morning where it had been expected to only get one hour of work. Bekir had noticed that the correct fixing for the main electrical supply wasn't fitted so he got involved and sorted it out and while he was walking around he noticed the reason we had been so badly flooded in the Living Room the night before. The downpipe was splashing water from half the roof onto the window ledge! One of the insulating men went along and put a length in place to direct the water away and hopefully this will solve the problem. The rest of the workmen were in the porch again and I gave them the mini scaffold so they could work on the ceiling in there, the floor to Room 13, and then it was time for me to go into town with Bekir.

Kitchen floor once again

Wooden storage into the workshop

Towards the end of the day

Ceiling of the porch

The trip out with Bekir was a success though we didn't have our diagram for the consumer unit so I'll have to go back to get those switches. We did get a big boiler large enough to supply our huge bath so that was good, and then he took me to a second hand bazaar type place that was fascinating, but we didn't get anything. When we got back I found that Okhtay had finished moving the plasterboard so I got him to help me move a few more bits and pieces out of the way while he was there, including the really heavy wooden shelving unit I built. Then I asked him to shift the tiles so we could work out our kitchen units over the weekend. The workmen outside worked as much as they could be eventually the weather just got too bad so about 6pm they finished up. The trip for taking the men home was easier than yesterday and I didn't get quite as soaked coming through the gate.

Awesome lasagne

And so I've been sat doing this update while the lasagne waited to be put in the oven, then was put in the oven, and I have now just sat down after eating the lasagne and what an epic meal it was. I'll leave it there, we're going to watch Mrs Brown's Boys and relax for the evening and tomorrow is going to be another busy day.

Ciao.