Storms and Welding

It's Friday and time for the last blog post of the week so let's get stuck in.

Fog clings to the hills

Removing insulation

Scaffold onto the balcony

Bekir up the big ladder

Hard at work at the support holes

Panorama from the balcony

Still drilling and chiselling

Once again the day dawned misty and foggy but once again it burned off over the morning. Once again, as well, the men were quite late arriving and I thought they weren't going to come. They were up and at it quickly, though, getting the support holes they began yesterday completed for the top beams. This was quite an involved process involving carving out the insulation and getting the chisel drill in to remove stone and bricks. They got the scaffold onto the balcony to help and were at it all morning pretty much.

Beam received, with accidental wooden attachment

6m becomes 8m

I help get the next beam up (bare foot of course)

More welding

First beam in place

Bekir cements the beam in place

Slight damage to our wall

Short but very sharp downpour

With the support holes finally the correct size the main beams were lifted onto the balcony and I was able to assist a lot here as the long 6m beams are very long and very heavy and it was not really possible for Sally on his own to get them up over the wall onto the balcony. Each 6m beam (there were two dealt with today) had about an extra 2m welded to the end to make them to correct length. Bekir and I popped down to town for some more strip metal to use to reinforce the joins. At this time the thunder was building and rain was threatening and during lunch it hammered down. It cleared by the end of the break, however, and the men did not lose any time to rain delays today. Both the beams have been lifted into place now and Bekir has started to cement in around them. There was a little damage to our bedroom wall which is a shame but should be an easy fix I hope. It rained very very hard this evening just after the men left but the evening has been nice enough.

Angela had a super busy day today sorting out paperwork for Rosie and with the help of the legendary Dilyana we think, after a LONG time of trying, we may finally have succeeded. This is a good thing.

Thanks for reading - see you on Monday.

Columns

It seems that the weather is settling into some kind of rhythm. It is foggy and cold in the morning but steadily that burns off and the temperature rises and it is nice most of the morning and early afternoon. Then storms blow in and it rains very heavily indeed until about 5 or 6pm when that blows over and right now it is clear blue skies and barely a cloud in sight.

Broken nail for Thelma

Rosie doesn't like the gates

First steps to columns

Bekir mopping up the rain water

Clouds and fog clearing

The day began with checking out Thelma's toenail which she split and damaged quite badly. Angela was taking her to the vet first thing and so after breakfast off they went. Rosie was outraged (and still is) at the barriers that are around the stairs however she was able to climb the stairs a couple of times, just with me in close attendance. The men were very late today, so late I thought they weren't coming, but got stuck in quickly once they finally did arrive. The job today was steel columns so while Bekir was going around mopping up the water from the rain yesterday Sally and Halil put in place a wooden guide to assist the installation of the first column. The heavy fog and cloud started to clear, as I said in the intro.

Bekir makes the first cut of many

Passing the column up

Get it straight, now

Sally welds it in place

Next length is cut, loads of sparks

Columns in place on the far wall

And so the main work began. Bekir was operating the grinder, cutting the 10x10 box section to the correct length. This was then passed up to Sally by Halil and then offered up and held in place absolutely level while it was welded to the base plate temporarily and then Sally went on welding while Bekir and Halil dropped down to cut the next length. Other than tripping the fuse at one point because they are using the welder so much (and it draws some serious current) this very efficient method resulted in a lot of fast progress and by lunch the first uprights are all in place and you can see how much glass we will end up having. Eventually. If I get a job.

Sally using the water filled pipe. For what?

Another column in place

All the columns are up

Halil drilling out for the beam

Plastering preparation time

Hole cut for drilling out tomorrow

Plastering going on

The afternoon started as more of the same and involved the use of a long thin plastic tube full of water to apparently line something up, but I couldn't work out the benefit at all. Very odd. Whatever the purpose they were cracking on. Angela and I went into town with Rosie to try and sort her vaccinations which was a frustrating waste of time but maybe we've got a route to go down; it's tough over here as no department says exactly the same thing so it's like snakes and ladders where you feel you're getting somewhere only to suddenly find yourself back near the beginning again. The weather changed as well and it was flooded in town and raining when we got back home. The men had put all the outside columns up, however, and were in the process of drilling out the holes for the beams to go into the walls. Not long after they came inside and have plastered over the holes in the guest room wall so that is done. Another nice thing, just before we headed to town Bekir's daughter, husband and child came to visit him and to meet Rosie which was lovely. They only just caught us, though, so it was a much shorter visit than would have been preferred I think.

And so we get to the end and I'll leave you with a picture and video taken just now while I was writing the blog. It really was a lovely evening, it's hard to believe quite how miserable and heavy the rain was earlier. It is cool enough that the neighbours have their fires lit, however, which is very unusual at this time of year.

Thanks for reading; I'll be back tomorrow.

Back on a Wednesday

The men were back today, so I am also. Before we go into today let's go back to the weekend, however.

Rosie climbing the stairs - I'm only poised, not helping

Now exploring in the garden

Louise watches while asleep

Playing with the neighbour's son

The weekend and beginning of the week was pretty good, to be fair, though I did get quite down missing my dad for a chunk of it but that is to be expected. Rosie has really learned to climb the stairs and has continually begun without either of us near her which is heart stopping. She is so determined, though. She's also really enjoyed being outside and exploring there. Our listening to music during dinner routine started again (and has paused for the past two nights which is a shame) and so Louise, when waiting for the music to stop, actually fell asleep sat up. Bless. The Other Brother and his son came over with a toy helicopter one evening and we had fun while they tried to use it but one of the blades is broken so it doesn't generate lift. His son is so awesome with Rosie, however, it's amazing to watch.

The Sun appears

All the lawns are mowed

Beautiful tiny flowers

Nasty huge hornet

Clouds bubble up from Greece

Threatening behind us

Sunday was warm almost all day and I spent the entire day, pretty much, mowing all the lawns. It took quite a while and I was pretty exhausted when it was done but as it has rained almost continually since I'm pleased I put the effort in to do it all in the day. I really will need a ride-on mower eventually. I spent some lovely time with Rosie in the garden after I finished, looking at flowers and then avoiding the hornets that are once again taking up residence in the Oak Tree. As the evening drew in, however, the weather changed and that is what we have had since pretty much - some awesome rumbles of thunder but nothing close, and periods of rain with an entire week of the same forecast.

Removing shuttering from the wall

Making a new extension cable

Fitting the plates to the column

These are all around the walls as well now

Bekir asked if this was OK. I said "No!"

Rosie can't get to the stairs any more

Gaps filled in

Beautiful double rainbow

And so we get to today. It's been crazy busy for me with looking for work but the men were in as I say and got progress done on the balcony. They cleared off the shuttering and tidied up the cement and then dragged the old welder onto the balcony and started putting the plates on both the wall pillars and around the edge of the other pillars. There were a few issues with power, first Bekir had to make a better extension cable and then the power line on the machine broke but they got the welding done and were starting to plan out the steel work on top when the heavens opened and I encouraged them to come work inside. Bekir has fitted the baby-proofing (which we don't need around the fires any more) around the bottom of the spiral staircase so while Rosie can still try the stairs and practice, we will be with her when she does. Sally and Halil filled in the gaps in the plasterboard in the guest room from where the water pipe was installed. There are a few more inside jobs that, if it does rain like it is threatened to, I'll have them doing over the next few days. There is no point in working outside in torrential rain. The rain did stop, and the sun came out, just as I came upstairs to start this update giving us the beautiful sight of a double rainbow. Stunning.

I'll close the blog with a little bit of sad news; one of the new puppies from the farm got onto our land and I've no idea what happened but while I was strolling on the lawn Rosie saw it and I found that it was dead. This is very sad, it was only a tiny little thing.