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.