LIBRARY!!!

 Yes I am that excited, maybe even more excited than the title shows, about the library. It is just awesome and looks just how we hoped.

Rosie with her unicorn

We'll open with Rosie and her presents from Bekir and Halil. The picture only shows the unicorn but she also got an awesome pull along caterpillar. She has been so happy about them all day and just now insisted on taking the unicorn to bed with her. Such lovely gifts and as usual Bekir gets them so right for Rosie - Maggie the Donkey is still a massive favourite from her first birthday.

Double sided tape to secure the underlay

Measuring and measuring again

Carefully cutting out for the door

The offcut which we'll save

And so to the day with the men. It was my final day of work but I was down a bit watching, helping, encouraging and being very excited. First job was to put some double sided tape underneath the edges of the underlay to keep it firmly in place. Then the huge roll of carpet was wrestled out and we worked together to calculate where the cuts should be. This was a measure ten times, cut once, situation. Once happy Bekir used his knife and cut the shape for the door into the gym, and then we sliced the length of the roll to make it the correct width. It turned out that the length of the roll was only just long enough; I'd have been happier with a fair few more cm left over but it turned out ok.

The carpet is rolled out

Halil gets to knee-kicking

Bekir cutting the carpet edges

Lifting the first bookcase in

Six book cases all in place

Hoovering after drilling (with Christmas tree reflection)

Running machine is moved as well

Up the top of the ladder

With the cutting done they laid out the carpet and then watched the demo video again before getting stuck in to knee-kicking and cutting. For this being their first attempt I think they did a really good job. The nail strips were a little uneven and not quite close enough but it's ended up being absolutely fine and by the end of my work day the carpet was down and it was time to lift the book shelves into place. I helped with this and we positioned them carefully, stacked two high, and seeing them all in place was so amazing. After the coffee break Bekir used the fixings to attach them to the wall to make sure they don't fall and then the job was done. The final task for today was to lift the running machine into the gym which took all three of us and almost killed my back. Now Angela and I have a bunch to do to sort everything out. The ladder I bought for the library fits nicely into a nook at the end of one of the bookshelves and is tall enough for me to reach the very top.

A lovely sunset again. Finally

Rosie running through the leaves

On the drive in front of the house

Looking down from the top bank

As well as helping the men after work I went outside with Rosie again - we had the first nice sunset for what feels like months and after looking at that (and saying goodbye to the men) we went for a tour of the land via the wood store (where Rosie shouts "Rats!!" to wind Louise up) down to the gate then up onto the back bank. It was lovely. This evening we had a call with my mum as she opened her pressie from us and that's our day.

There will be another update next week as the men are back for one day to finish the landing and do another few little jobs around the place. For now, however, a very very Happy Christmas to you all and Seasons Greetings. May the holidays treat you all well.