Some storms, some rushing, nearly done

It's been a strange couple of days with quite a lot going on but a feeling of the last days of school as well. The weather hasn't helped, for sure. Anyway, onwards.

Monday

Monday was the big day of the concrete pour with a cement pump and wagon booked to arrive at 11am to start pouring and a second due at 12 to finish the job. This was the plan. We shall see what happened to that best laid plan...

A very horrible view from Room 13

Asen cutting the lengths for the pins

Sally starts to plaster the ceiling in the dining room

Plastic and metal inside wooden frames

The day dawned so dull and miserable you couldn't see across the valley from the window in Room 13. I was up and about doing my morning routine which includes emptying humanure as we're all out of routine with all our visitors and then back to my desk to get on with my day job. The workmen went outside to continue getting ready for the cement lorry and Asen was cutting up lengths of wood to act as pegs for the wooden frames. While this was going on Bekir was continuing his work on the electrics while Sally had made a very exciting start on the plastering in the dining room. This will involve two coats of byal and he was flying through the first coat. The construction of the forms for the concrete was going well though it was really miserable out there.

The boss man walks with the driver

Bekir works on the outside light

The father moves rubble to put on the track

Clouds build over the parents' hotel

He arrived early and even more grumpy

Early on Ivan had rung the company for the cement to get them to double check on the access up to the top bank for their truck. The boss of the company came with the driver and they wandered around looking concerned and making noises about how it was dangerous but then agreed that they would do it when Ivan pointed out that we would be laying broken up mosaic from the side of the house on the track that leads onto the top bank. Success. They were expected at 11 so we had a couple of hours. Bekir was still working away on the electrics and was outside tying off the cables which will have the sensor light outside the kitchen door. The father and Ivan worked together to shift the rubble onto the track and had done a really good job when the pump truck arrived unexpectedly and not just that it was not an integrated pump but a separate machine. There then followed twenty minutes of discussion which resulted in this pump truck turning around and leaving as the driver, who was very grumpy, who had previously agreed to go onto the top bank was now refusing to. Ridiculous, particularly as a mixer truck with six cubic of expensive cement was already on its way and this meant it was dumped at full cost to their company.

First coat on the roof terrace wall

Asen makes a start on the balcony wall

His father does the garage wall

The grumpy driver returns

It is a very heavy truck

Here is the cement lorry

There then followed a period of telephone calls and panic which resulted in, wait for it, this same driver turning round and coming back, after they'd prepared another mix, but he was still refusing to go onto the top bank. Ivan shrugged and the workmen said they would just shift it with wheelbarrows. While they were waiting the work continued around the building with more paint going on and more plastic being tacked up to protect the walls from splashes from the cement. Finally, an hour after originally booked, the pump pulled forwards onto the patio and set up, initially in the wrong place and then to my eyes still not far enough but again the grumpy driver just ignored all requests and did whatever he wanted to do. I was feeling distinctly unimpressed with this company by now.

Usmivka has a chat with the driver

Thelma and Louise watch, with A

The first pour is done

A very huge pump

Having to manhandle the hose because he refused to move closer

Father and son work together

All of the excitement had attracted our neighbour's attentions and Usmivka had come over to chat to one of the drivers, who he knew, and Bekir, who had come out as well to check out what was going on. A had taken the puppies, who were now confined until the cement was dry, up onto the balcony and Louise was singing a song for me which was lovely, if noisy. And so the process began and there was an amazing amount of running around for a little while as it was all hands to the rakes and shovels to get the cement into the correct places before it went off. I was outside as long as I could be but work called me in so I couldn't stay the entire time. While I was there they poured the front in record time but then, again due to recalcitrance from the grumpy driver who refused to move his truck a few metres forward to help out, the cement had to be dumped and shoveled by hand. He really was a grumpy so and so and because of him I will never use this company again.

The second driver watches on and laughs

Super grumpy driver prepares to abandon the job again

A poised and ready to shovel

With a sensible driver things are much easier

Lots of cement rushing down to the men

Hard work, but the men are having a laugh as well

We nearly had enough left over to do the whole path

With this in hand I returned to my work as I said and then after an hour popped outside to see what was occurring. I found a second cement truck had arrived and was parked on the top bank with the driving looking very bemused and amused at the truculence of the pump driver who was still refusing to drive up there (patently really easy to do as this guy hadn't had any problems) and had just cleaned his machine and was driving off. After some discussion A persuaded Ivan that she should be allowed to shovel this waste material into a wheelbarrow and pour it underneath the washing line however he took over pushing the barrow anyway. The new driver was far more reasonable and intelligent and he manouvred his truck so he could unload it down a chute made of plastic into the trench that needed filling; much more sensible. This did mean the workers had to go very fast to move the cement before it overspilled but despite herculean efforts it was quite messy. A did a great job, though, on the path. Now we won't trip over stones any more.

Louise with bone, Thelma with ball

Lots of plastering completed today

A huge storm all around us

The storm cleared away, though still threatening

With the cement poured and the trucks gone the men were pretty exhausted and took a break for a while as they had shoveled many cubic of cement in a very short time. I was still working away while A was playing with the girls a bit on the top bank after her exertions. Inside, and very much not forgotten, Bekir and Sally had worked to complete their tasks. Bekir was nearly done on the electrics while Sally had almost plastered the dining room; it was looking great. I went out onto the back bank with Ivan to have a look at the progress and saw some very bad weather indeed coming in threatening to hit us at any moment; it was very black with lots of lightning around. Not long after it was time to take the men and true to form their village had beautiful hot weather while on the drive back I was watching fork lightning ahead. I was quite tired by this point myself and the evening involved a very lovely pork curry, a fire in the living room, two bottles of beer and a glass of Kilchoman. Unsurprisingly I slept really rather well after that and was not disturbed at all by the storm in the night.

Tuesday

Apparently in the night there was a huge storm, lots of thunder and lightning and when A took the puppies out for the toilet in the night she was watching the flashes and bangs. I don't know about any of this as I was dead to the world and only woke up not long before the alarm. What a full nights sleep and just what I needed after the stress of the day before.

Raining into a bucket

Snowing up in the mountains

I was up at the usual time and we were ready for A to go pick up the men when we had a call from Bekir cancelling their work for today due to storm damage in their village. I love this about Bekir, he never waits until it is too late but rings as soon as he can to let us know. At our village the rain was still falling and it was quite torrential; Ivan noticed that where some of the guttering isn't quite complete it was emptying onto the new cement path so he headed out with Asen to put buckets underneath to protect the not-yet-dry concrete. As it happened there was no damage so that was good. With the weather set to be terrible for the morning I got Ivan to cancel the digger that was coming to dig out the trench for the kitchen and bathroom water and after I'd done everything I could for work we go into Thomas and went for our morning journey out to visit an obshtina in a nearby town to investigate some plans. I'm saying no more here now other than when we went for a bite of brunch we found the cafe refused money for the banitzas as someone had paid for them to be free all day; very strange but apparently a tradition to honour the dead. On the way the weather was pretty bad and as we climbed into the mountains the temperature dropped and suddenly it was snowing! I stopped to snap a picture as I couldn't believe it. The trip was pretty much a success and we were back to the Old School by lunch time.

Plastering underneath the balcony overhang

Shaped to channel water to the drainage

Attempts from swallows to build a nest

More finishing around the windows

When we got back the sun was just coming out and the men were working again having had the morning off due to terrible weather conditions. There was a lot left to do, it seemed to both of us, and we were a little concerned that having pushed their departure back from 3pm today to tomorrow morning they still wouldn't have time to complete it all. We'd already agreed that the chimney stacks can be left as they haven't been started yet however everything else needed to be completed. The concrete path was looking outstanding though and did a great job during the rain from the night and morning. Inside our annual fight with the swallows has begun and they are trying to build a nest in Rambo's entrance hall; indeed as I type this I have helped Rambo chase one out of there and he almost caught and killed it!

Looking absolutely amazing from the top bank

One of the butterflies fluttering around

Louise watching something

Thelma returns the ball

Louise chews a stick

Thelma reaches a thrown ball

Sisters sitting happily in paradise

The flyscreens are on along the corridor

Plastering on the bedroom window finally

I was having a particularly frustrating day at work even though I'd been away all morning I was still waiting for things to be done for me so I took myself outside to enjoy a burst of sunshine in what promised to still be a dull day. While I was up there I was watching some beautiful butterflies including one lovely blue one that I didn't get a picture of sadly. After a little while A came out and joined me, bringing the puppies, and we had some nice time playing with them before I headed back inside. The finishing off was continuing with fly screens going onto windows and finally the balcony door and windows being plastered ready for painting.

Finishing off underneath the tile overhang

A second coat on the bottom part of the wall

A bowl of very tasty pork in mushroom sauce

This was not part of the plan for late April

And so the evening beer began early as I didn't have to take the men and now I've finished my second and I am going to resist the urge for a third. I worked late and so did the men but the weather turned again and it rained so they weren't able to stay out until 8pm; their decision to take an hour off at 3pm therefore was a bit frustrating as they lost that time as well. They have got a fair few hours of work left to do tomorrow; here's hoping the forecast is right and the rain that is falling now disappears over night. Dinner was a superb pork in mushroom sauce with lovely potatoes and green beans on the side and went down very well however the temperature drop means the petchka is once again lit.

Now I've finished this I can go into the living room and sip another whisky before hopefully sleeping very well again tonight.