Hot water and steps

Today is the final day before the men go to help the lady in our village with a leaky roof and so there were a few bits that needed to be done before they could leave.

Halil cleans up in the Glass Room

Chiselling out for the new water supply

Channelling for the new water pipe

Sally prepares the ground

Halil drilling for rebar for the step

Heat joining the new water pipes

Ready for wire

I had a really bad night, I was actually up until 3.30 working, but somehow I have managed to make it through the day. The men were in on time and the two major tasks, hinted at in the title, were started with Halil and Sally in the Glass Room working on concrete steps around the bottom of the windows and Bekir was upstairs finishing off all the work on the new over-sink hot water thing.

Drilling through for conduit

Cement mixing

Working fast to finish the job

Drilling through for internet into the gym

Steps done and going off

With the water heater fitted and all the old pipes removed Bekir went on to drilling through the wall so I can run network cables out of Room 13 and around the house. We are going to put conduit through the walls and floors so I can change my mind, run more cables, and generally have better control over what happens. I collected Rosie and when I got back I went straight back out for cement as they were running out. Bekir had finished the drilling, and also fitted the new timer for the boiler in the guest room, and so he got stuck into tidying up the end of the library ready for finishing when they come back. I also had him drill a hole through near the door into the gym as we may end up putting an internet TV in there. Sally and Halil were working overtime, literally, to get the step finishing and then they stayed even later to tidy up prior to their work elsewhere next week.

Now I've got the task of redoing the network in the house but I'm waiting for a few bits before I can do that; not having the men here next week will mean I can empty Room 13 to do this which means I can give it a deep clean. Sadly Angela and Rosie are also going away for a bit to Ireland so I'm going to be home alone for a while. Thanks for reading.

Washing the floors

 Suddenly it is Thursday again and only one more day of the week for the men; time does fly when you are crazily busy.

Another socket by my hobby bench

Halil gets a globe down

Full of water (the bulb was still good tho)

Fog burns off in the valley

The day began with Bekir in Room 13 fitting the two extra plugs I want in there, UK sockets with USB points, and Sally and Halil scraping and removing plaster (which was a very noisy and dangerous task as the video above shows). Halil took one of the globes down and found that it was still full of water, this must have been in there since the first year I was here when there was no roof and it flooded really badly. Incredible! By this time the early fog had burned off and was quickly disappearing from the valley but I noticed and grabbed a picture before it completely vanished.

Sally clambers up

Another extra socket fitted

Loads of rubble from this ceiling

Uncovering cabling and pipes

Long drill bit to go through the wall

The rest of the day was very noisy with lots of plaster falling from the ceiling, and banging and scraping. Bekir finished the electrics and Halil started tidying as Sally reached the end of the cleaning job which I'm sure he's thankful for. The next task for Bekir was to fit the new over sink boiler in Room 13 so he started to chisel away at the old plumbing which was a long slow manual process so as to avoid damaging the plastic pipes in the wall. The internet cable here will be put inside a conduit so I can change it out or add more cables if I want. The new water heater sits above the sink and so he had to drill through the wall, and through the splashback, for more plumbing and he got that nearly done before the next task came along that took basically all the rest of the day... lots of water for washing the dust off the walls and floor.

Sally hosing the walls down

A huge muddy puddle for Rosie

The water is pushed downstairs

Such a beautiful lovely airy room

Halil passed a hose up through the window in Room 13, I had to help as my arms are longer than Sally's, and then it was time to soak down the walls, ceiling and floors and create lots of puddles and mess. The three of them worked together sweeping and spraying and now everything is drying with the windows open. Tomorrow will be cement underneath the windows in the new glass room (which is just so lovely, I kept going into it when I had a moment today) while Bekir will need to get water back into Room 13 as next week they have another job to do so are taking a week off from here.

So there you have it; another day in the bag, and nearly another week. Thanks for reading, see you tomorrow.

Glazing

 Today has been a busy and exciting day with loads happening however let's get back to the beginning.

The scraping begins again

Scaffold onto the stairs

Half supported

Safely on blocks

All the scraping going on

I finally had a good night sleep and, after dropping Rosie at school (she was a bit sad as I left her, but OK really) I got back to the busy work day. The men were in by the time I got back and Halil and Sally were cracking on with the scraping, such a horrible unpleasant job and I feel so guilty whenever they are doing it. It had got to the point where Sally was trying to do the stairs and the walls there are high; they used their ingenuity to construct a very solid base that allowed them to use the scaffold with a flat surface and no wobble at all. It did look very dodgy when I first saw it, however.

Ducting for the internet cable

The window people arrive

Fitting the porch windows

Enclosing the library

Rosie gets tilt and turn

Enclosed porch

Bekir meanwhile, after we looked at the boiler again and decided it was leaking too much to use (we can look at it another time at leisure) headed into the library and installed the ducting that will have the internet running through it. After lunch the excitement truly began as the window people turned up dead on time, to the second nearly, bringing with them the windows for the library, the porch and also to replace the ones in Rosie's room and play room with tilt and turn. They stayed for over two hours and in that time got everything done and also replaced the broken hinge on the back window which has been bust for a year now. We are all so very excited by this progress today; the library is now all but a little bit of plastering away from carpet fitting time, and the porch is glazed and ready to act as a little green house (once a bit of cement work has been done). The window boss had another look at the balcony as well and requested a little more steel work and he said that these will be fitted in November as well! Amazing!

Library light fittings go in

I'll wrap up with a picture of Bekir fitting the lights in the library; they are lovely and really give a warm glow to the room; I cannot wait to sit in there and read and relax with a cuppa.

What a great day; see you all again tomorrow.

A storm, scraping and Room 13

 Today has been a day of two halves.

Heavy rainfall

Rain falling sideways

A leak into Room 13

The day started with heavy rain and then torrential rain and then biblical rain. It was raining as hard as I've seen it rain for a while. It rained so hard that it overloaded the drains on several windows and we had water inside in a few places. It was also blowing a gale and the rain was falling sideways at times.

The scraping commences

Blinds being fitted

So much scraping!

Room 13 blinds done

Plumbing work

Inside Sally and Halil were cracking on with the scraping down the stairs and they were at this all day, and still haven't finished. It is a large area as the walls are so high but they have made superb progress. Bekir was in Room 13 fitting the blinds and he got these done pretty quickly. They look great and I hope they give me enough shade in the height of summer. After this he set to on disconnecting the old boiler and fitting the new one however he found a small leak right at the end of the day so that'll be investigated tomorrow. He's nearly finished in there, however, and I'll be able to get stuck in to my network upgrade when he is done.

Storm over, the sun comes out

The second half of the day was warm sun and clouds breaking then disappearing; it was such a huge change.

So there you are; another day in the books. Here's to tomorrow.

Tap tap and fire

 Welcome back to another week here, after a lovely weekend.

As the fog clears, a beautiful day

Carpet roll strapped to Thomas

Fireplace is safe

Planting out lots of cabbages

Rosie having a wander

Temporary office location

The days here are settling into their usual pattern of heavy fog in the morning that burns off to a glorious day; both Saturday and Sunday were like this, as was today actually. On Saturday we had a lovely day with a call with my mum and sister and after Rosie's nap we headed into town to collect the blinds for Room 13 and also the carpet for the library. It was huge, but travelled safely on Thomas' roof. I also got round to fitting the barriers around the fireplace so now we really are ready for winter. It hasn't yet been anywhere near the weather for a fire, however, with blue skies and glorious sunshine. Angela got some more plants potted out onto the balcony while on Sunday I finally got Room 13 emptied and moved the desk into the upstairs corridor (where I'm typing this up now) ready for the work to be done in Room 13.

Hikmet in the fog breaking sticks

Sally sweeps

Black paint on the metal pole

Grinding out a support

Here is one of three he made

Black paint around the library

Today again dawned very foggy and Hikmet could barely be seen breaking more sticks out past the chicken enclosure. Inside Halil and Sally cleaned up the library floor, Halil then going on to paint the pole for the curtain at the end of the corridor, while Bekir set to making the brackets for the pole to hang from. With the library floor clean Halil and Sally did more painting, Halil touching up some missed spots on the walls while Sally did the skirting very carefully. We're now all but done in there; tomorrow I'll ask Bekir to fix the ducting for the network and then we'll be stuck until the window people finally show.

Halil starts scraping

Sally begins the tap tap chore

Drilling out to fit the brackets

Picking up fallen fruit

A fitted pole for curtains

Chainsawing the larger bits

It wasn't long before Halil was upstairs starting to scrape the walls outside Room 13 and the Games Room. Sally then came and joined in and so the tap tap began. Bekir had made all the brackets now and so started to drill holes to fit them but then it was lunch time and he and Hikmet gathered bags full of fallen crab pears to take for their cows. After lunch he got the next two brackets mounted (though first of all, so they didn't make lots of noise when Rosie was just napping, the men carried all the boxes of books down into the gym out of the guest room ready for our visitor this weekend) and then when the pole was in place Bekir went to help Hikmet with the chainsaw as Hikmet still doesn't like using power tools really.

Sally keeps going - such a horrible task

Halil grouting the window tiles

Hanging the dust sheets

Let's start a fire....

.. paaanniiiiccc!

Aftermath of the out of control fire

Wood stash for next year

Sally continued on the tap tap going down the stairs and they made very good progress on this; we did change our minds and decide that rather than only do the landing area we'd do all the stairs as well; I've also decided to put some plasterboard on the wall that will have the model railway on it, to make attaching things to it easier. Halil did some grouting in the library before going to join Sally while Bekir lit the bonfire that Hikmet had built. It was all going fine before suddenly it got out of hand and they were all out frantically beating the fire out before it spread into the woods behind. Thankfully they managed to do this but it did burn a chunk of our back bank first. We may end up waiting for a very still day and doing more of this as it really does drop the weeds well. We shall see. I ended the day, after a really tiring work day, with Rosie and Angela asked me to check the wood stash that Hikmet has built and wow what a sight. That can now stay there until next winter.

There you are; a longer blog as usual on a Monday but a lot has gone on. Thanks for reading, see you tomorrow.