Last Heavy Beam

I type this extremely exhausted as I had a very bad night last night (sleep wise) and haven't been able to drop off during today when I tried to nap either. There's loads of video as well so I'll get cracking as quickly as possible.

A funnel web spider (maybe?)

A more traditional spider web

Sally welding an upright

Wooden target for the top beam

Huge beam is welded

Shelves. Lots of shelves

I was up early with Rosie and it was a heavy fog and even still cold. When Angela woke I went to try and doze but couldn't however on the way I popped onto the back bank to snap some pictures of a couple of awesome spider webs highlighted in the dew. Beautiful. It burned off quickly and was warm and sunny while the men started in, Sally up on top welding an upright. With these in place they used some thin wood to work out roughly where the beam would reach the existing roof and then got to work welding it together. I thought we needed to buy more steel for this but we just had enough. Bekir needed some more electrodes for the welder, and a few more cutting disks, so we popped into town and on the way back my delivery of shelving units arrived - they were on sale so I ordered up to free delivery. The next task, which I got stuck in with helping, was getting the long beam up onto the framework. I watched the first half, then was on the end of the rope to help swing it up and over and we needed the four of us so it was good to help.

Relaxing briefly on the swinging chair

Bekir removes tiles and knocks through

Looking out through the gap

Sally welding again

The storm clouds blow past

In the morning I had carried the swinging chair down from the top corridor for the first time and set it on the balcony and after lunch I finally got to go and sit in it for a bit which was just lovely. While I was doing that Angela took Rosie to the front lawn with the kite and they had fun there. On the roof the men were at work taking tiles down and knocking through for the final beam to slot into the roof. As it happened it was at the perfect height to sit on top of the existing wall - amazing luck. The weather was on the change, however, with a big storm blowing across the back and threatening us. Sally worked away welding the uprights to the big beam when it had been positioned correctly while thunder rumbled. I did have to laugh when he asked Bekir and Halil to move the scaffold while he was still stood on it, though!

Sally and his welder. Again

Plastering

Sweeping up

Sally finished off welding the uprights and then he headed inside to do the final touching up on the plastering in the guest room. This is now complete which is great. There was then, however, some discussion about how far apart the ribs should be and we think we'll need to order some more steel as the men want them closer together than originally but that is fine. A bit later for some reason Bekir decided that the support beams that Sally had just welding in place today were too long so he ground them off and tomorrow slightly shorter uprights will be put in place. Sadly the airbrush bench didn't get done because of this delay. The storm was really around by this time and it rained very briefly but that passed quickly.

And there you have it. The storm passed and it is sunny now (I'm writing this early so I can get an early night). Thanks for reading, as always.