Struggling a bit to cope

The last two days have been a blur. I have had such a crazy busy time of my paid work and then so much is going on here in the renovation that I'm feeling quite frazzled. I had a migraine yesterday which is still hanging around quite a bit now so that isn't helping. It is quite difficult sometimes, this renovation lark , but very worthwhile still.

Sunday evening

So I left the blog before dinner on Sunday which means I've a small amount to catch you up on. Not much though. Lots of pictures though.

Fire lit again, but the doors had to be opened

Our very own cauliflower

Cabbage harvest

So much green in this raised bed

Sweetcorn seedlings already

Sassy munching her Sunday dinner

Just before I started munching mine

Happy puppies by the fire

When I went through to the living room after completing the blog post I found that A had lit the fire (it was a chilly day) but it had got so hot that she had to open the balcony door and windows to get it back to a suitable temperature again. We had a good laugh about this however it was actually really nice to have the fire going, with it being on the chilly side. I'd requested a Sunday Roast as we haven't had one for a while and the vegetables in our raised beds are really ready for eating. We went out to harvest and found that the cauliflower is looking awesome as well, though we'll leave that for a while; I love growing our own food. These raised beds work so well and the sweetcorn, planted for maybe a week at most, has already sprouted. Sassy appreciated the left over cabbage bits and we both loved our honey roast pork joint with lots of veg including sprouts. Thelma was mostly liking the fact that the fire was on and spent dinner time shifting from one angle to another as close as she could get without burning. After dinner we both sat and read and enjoyed the peace and quiet of an empty house all to ourselves again.

Monday

My working week this week is a bit insane and so I am collecting the men in the morning so I'm available to work til later in the evening and tie in closer with the working day in the UK. This is also probably knocking me off kilter as it is quite a change in our routine.

Sally measures the height of the prop

It needed trimming a little bit

Demolition begins immediately

A hole for a plug socket is chiseled

Okhtay and Sally working together

I got up and made brews and then missed the time and was late leaving to collect the men but I made record time and wasn't late by the time I got to their village. They were all happy enough for a Monday morning but quiet as I drove back and then they just got stuck in as usual while I was glued to my desk for the beginning of a hellish day. The task for today was to remove the old chimney and get as far along towards the fireplace as possible as this is the last demolition job and after this the place can be swept and stay clean. Sally first of all measured up and put in place a support for the beam across and then he immediately set to bashing away the bricks. They don't hang around. Bekir was working on channeling and chiseling out for the plug sockets as this still remains a task to be done.  Okhtay did his usual job of carrying on with the scraping and then getting stuck in helping to clear the rubble Sally was generating.

A getting distracted by the puppies

Just what is she thinking?!

Lots of seeds planted

A had not got much work coming in so she took herself out onto the balcony to do the planting which the rain the day before had stopped. I went to see how she was doing and took the puppies along and they suitably distracted her from labeling the most recent batch. Sassy was sat chilling out with her and didn't move a muscle the whole time I watched. By the time she stopped for lunch she had planted quite a collection out so hopefully all of this will be fruitful.

The chimney has gone

Okhtay giving the place a good sweep

A bucket of concrete is added to the step

I really didn't get out of Room 13 much all day until my work day finished and I went to lie down to let my migraine dissipate. They few times I could get away I took the camera to find out what was happening. The chimney was down and there was a long discussion about how secure it would be until I said "I think that whole section is reinforced concrete" and this assumption was checked and I was found to be right. We discussed a few options for how to tie this in across underneath the truncated chimney and agreed on an angled concrete beam tied into the stone wall at the bottom. The next time I went down I found that Sally was well on his way to making the concrete platform on which we want the lovely fireplace we bought to stand. I had missed a lot of this process but saw that he has used some broken up sections of the old base-render from outside to fill out the space before pouring the concrete around. This is the last picture I have of the day but they finished this job and Bekir also completed a load more channeling while Okhtay assisted and tidied and helped in general. As I say I went to bed until dinner then got up and ate a really lovely sweet and sour meal and then was back to bed again and read until A came through having watched a film. My headache went then came again and I took more pills. I hate migraines.

Tuesday

Another day and this one has been manic; I feel a little better now than I did when I started typing as I relax a little into the evening but this is one day I'm glad is over and nearly done with.

Cloches to stop birds stealing our seedlings

Sally tries to fit the fireplace together

Very inquisitive puppies

My migraine didn't keep me awake and I slept OK but was woken by Louise early and then didn't get back to sleep again very well. I was up and out to collect the men and while I was gone A did the watering round and then put cloches back over the small greens in the garden as we think a bird has stolen one of the seedlings! Cheeky so and so. When I got back I was able to spend some time with Bekir, Sally and Okhtay as we talked about the fireplace and eventually they just lifted it through and set it in place. There then followed some struggles as we attempted to get it all joined together and as one bolt was being tightened it broke. I was able to go out with Bekir straight away and it took five shops before we found the right bolt. When we got back I had to go and work and so I left Bekir to drilling out and fixing it all up. He got it sorted and now the fireplace works well. It was really nice actually to work with Bekir and figure a few things out that he hadn't been able to. We had a good chat in the car too and agreed that he would be going off to help our ex-friend after he's done the kitchen, which is also good as it gives A and I the lovely opportunity to have some time together with no one else around.

The lightning conductor people get going

Digging the trench for the earth strip

A 3m long pole, hammered home

Just before it's all covered over

The actual rod, just prior to mounting

We had been expecting Chaz and Ivan to arrive early in the morning with the insulation men after their break but when we received a phone call from Chaz to say Ivan had been in an accident and the car was a write off that immediately stopped being as important. It was with relief we heard that Ivan was totally fine and it had been a mechanical failure in the car. The beemer from the pictures last week has had to be scrapped, though. They rang later to say that they would be coming down this afternoon and also that the lightning conductor people were on their way and would be fitting this equipment today. Late morning Ivan called to say that they were waiting in the centre of the village and I spoke to him and confirmed he was OK while I walked up to meet them. There were three of them and after beginning to communicate in broken Bulgarian I found that they had a little English which meant between our two attempts we got along fine. I was under the impression that the metal poles buried in the ground would go a long way away however they found a suitable location very quickly and started digging. The pole was hammered into the rock with a special tool and they told me it was about 2 or 3m in the rock by this point. They took a short lunch break and then called me out as they were about to bury everything as it was all tied together. The actual lightning rod was there as well and it was long.

The first of the bricks have been laid

He's always smiling and up for a laugh

Bekir cracking on with building the container

Back and working already

The rod is fitted

It's a very long pole

Inside the progress was also exciting. Bekir had started to build the brick container for the fireplace already. I went to check this out and had a good laugh with Okhtay as he cleaned the bricks for Bekir's use; he is going to be "grunt master" tomorrow as he paints the primer on all the walls so Sally can start to plaster. The fireplace is looking just perfect, it really fits in the space and as we go we are refining the plan for how it will look. For one thing the size of the angled beam has been reduced and I think is now just right to look natural with the fireplace below it. It was about now that the day got really manic. Chaz and Ivan turned up with three workmen which was great to see them looking well after their dramatic morning and their workmen got stuck straight into chipping off old render. Then the people from the company who are making the extra kitchen units we need turned up and this distracted us for a fair while as I felt steadily worse until I extracted myself and left A to make the decisions. She showed me what she had decided and I like it. The gutting thing is we cannot get matching doors so we are having to get all new doors even for my parents old units.  Never mind. Outside the lightning rod had been fitted and so I also had to pay them.

Inside the enclosure

How it looks with all the bricks in place

Sally working around the spiral staircase

All the metal in place at the end of the day

The kitchen people left after receiving their deposit and giving us a contract and I was able to relax a little bit. Work was frustrating me though so I was still quite stressed out. In the kitchen Bekir had built up the walls to the level of the top of the fire and was just putting together the metal work which will be used to reinforce the concrete slab going on top. We will have a good size shelf here and then the chimney will be extended at an angle across and down to join with the exit from the fireplace. Elsewhere Sally was finishing off various bits and pieces and had spotted that around the hatchway needed to be finished and in some places chipped away quite a lot to make it smooth. He never stops, that man. By the end of the day the fireplace was fully enclosed and looked amazing.

A load of insulation is de-trucked

It was a glorious sunset

The lovely head waiter took this picture

Ivan very excited about his pudding

So I've just got back from dinner to write this final paragraph. Once I reached the end of my tether for work earlier I headed to bed though I just lay there reading and relaxing. A put the puppies in with me when she took the men home and a bit later Chas and Ivan got back from their trip out and shouted up. I stayed in bed a little longer and then went down to see them just as a couple of trucks full of materials arrived, which were swiftly unloaded. After this they took the men food shopping while I got stuck into doing this update. A went onto the balcony with the puppies and threw their toys for them a lot. I looked up and noticed the sunset which felt like the first for ages. Chas and Ivan were ages out shopping with the men and we were ready for dinner by the time they got back so we jumped straight in Chas's car and headed down to our favourite restaurant. It was a lovely evening with good service and great food and Ivan didn't get a main so he could get pudding.

And so there you have it. Tomorrow we expect two more workmen to arrive so we'll have six on site for the insulation and hopefully this extra body will speed the process up. We shall see. I'm done.