A short day finishing up

Today has been the final day for the workmen for who knows how long. We only had Halil here as there was so little left to do and it only took him a short time this morning to get everything done.

Still only a small amount of snow, but pretty

Rosie attacking me with snow

Before that, the snow stayed over night, and a very small amount more fell as well. The hill was very very slippery and icy which made the drive down to Rosie's school a little interesting however when we reached school she had lots of fun throwing snow at me as we walked in to the school land.

Getting started on the tiling

Halil showing off his mop skills

Door rehung and done

Rose found a new hiding place

The task remaining for Halil was to complete the very last of the grouting in the cupboard under the stairs, then clean over multiple times to leave it ready for use. It really didn't take long; the fact of running out of grout did add some time as he had to go down to the shop to grab more. With the grouting done he then washed the floor multiple times before heading off to his summer break. When Rosie got home she was excited to have a new hiding place for hide and seek (at least until the cupboard is filled up!)

Rosie with her Den-den

I'll leave you with a picture of Rosie with her Den-den that she built after school with my help. She is taking it down now before bed.

So there it is. I have no idea when the next update will be so thank you for reading so far and back at some point in the future.

Tiling and grouting

Nearly done with the men as they've made good progress today. Let's get to it.

Slight snow fall over night

Halil gets started on the car storage

Lots of space to display the cars

Tight space to work in

Wall tiles and already grouted

A few more wall tiles being done

Tiles clean, time for grouting

Fast grouting work

There was a small skiffle of snow last night, very much not enough to be exciting but just enough to make the hill a little slippery on the way to drop Rosie. The men were in and Halil split off to do the small task to hang up the hotwheels display unit. Bekir, meanwhile, was wedged in tiling at the bottom end of the cupboard under the stairs. With both these tasks done they went to the tiling of the walls which went fast and then it was grouting time. They did all the wall grouting then managed to get very close to complete on the floor grouting. If we cannot think of another task for them tomorrow then Halil will come on his own tomorrow just to wrap it all up tomorrow.

Dancing girls

After school I had lots of fun with Rosie as she made a den-den then did lots of dancing. It was great fun!

So there it is. Tomorrow will be the last update for a while I reckon. Thanks for reading.

Christmas, New Year, and back to tiling

All through the Christmas break I've meant to write a catchup update so my update today wouldn't be quite so long and crazy however I'm sitting here now with the men working downstairs and I've got a bunch to catch up on so let's get to it!

Pickle riding her plane

Snow still on the ground

T shirts are now hung on the wall

Rosie vacuuming under the old desk

Rosie with her final advent calendar chocolate

A glorious sunrise on Christmas Eve

Now that's a big goat leg

Too big for our cooker!

Sammy still hanging on

Getting stuck into our feast

Rosie ready for bed

Now Christmas can happen

So back to Christmas Eve Eve and one of the most fun Elf hunts we had which involved Pickle riding the foam airplane round and round while attached to one of our ceiling fans. It was epic! Rosie really loved the Elf this year and now that she's gone she is already looking forward to next Christmas. I had to pop to town to collect some stuff from the courier and while I was out was called by Angela because of a broken blender so an emergency pit stop was help which ended up successful. When I got back I spent some time hanging up some of my gig t shirts along the roof corridor and then Rosie and I did our Saturday cleaning with Rosie being super helpful and operating the vacuum cleaner. Christmas Eve was another beautiful day, Rosie was happy to finally get to the large chocolate in her advent calendar and we had a fun day of goat preparation (including me getting the hack saw out again) so it could be prepared before the big day. Sammy the snowman had just not completely melted yet and there was some swinging and running around outside before a super fun Christmas Eve Feast, like a buffet which we all really enjoyed. Rosie headed to bed with her Christmas Eve toys and Angela and I watched Die Hard before hitting the sack early ourselves. Rosie had been told to not wake us unless it was light outside but we had no real hope of that happening...

A very super excited Rosie

These puppies love Christmas

Rosie loves her new puppet

Rosie has worn this dress EVERY day since!

There's a little of Sammy remaining

Perfectly cooked goat leg

Playing with mummy

... and it didn't. It was about 5:30 that Rosie appeared upstairs super excited having found her stocking hanging on her door with some gifts in it. That was it and our day began and what an absolutely lovely day it was. Just the best. I did take lots of pictures of presents being opened through the day but won't bore you with them all. As is traditional Thelma and Xena got incredibly excited to tear up wrapping paper. Sammy did hang on until Christmas day, against all the odds of the warm weather we've been experiencing, so we can pretend it was a white Christmas. The roast goat was just beyond amazing (as always, to be honest) and after dinner there was still time for playing with some of the new toys she received, some fun swords and shields.

Now I can listen to my records again

Rosie with floppy eared bunny

Cooking up breakfast

Rosie all made up

Rosie is great at this game!

None of us are good at this game

Setting cones out to drive around

Chilling out at Nanny's house

Amazing tasty Goat Curry

Boxing day began with time to set up the sound system in the roof so I could listen to my record that was my gift from my mum. Rosie also came to join me and it was a lovely time to listen to Pink Floyd together. Then I cooked up some Bubble & Squeak from leftovers from yesterday and it was very tasty indeed. The rest of the day was full of fun and play. Rosie got her new makeup up, then we played a few games of air hockey (a gift from me to Angela) and finally a game of "Who Am I?" which was bought for Rosie and we had a great time. The weather was so lovely Rosie got to drive her car around the patio for ages before heading over to the neighbours and spending time with Nanny. My favourite time of the year, however, is Goat Curry and it was just so tasty. Everything has been awesome this year.

Rosie on the Merry Go Round at the park

Rosie checking out the Christmas decorations

Let's have some burger for lunch

Thelma dragging Rosie around

Another burger at another restaurant

DVD storage in place

Rosie planting some bulbs

Very proud of finishing her jigsaw

Rosie taking pictures of EVERYTHING

Between Christmas and New Year we continued to have lots of family fun and taking advantage of being able to spend time together. We went to the park in town to see the small fun fayre, check out the public decorations, then went for lunch at a takeaway. Later on we went to go to a new restaurant a friend has just opened however unfortunately he didn't have his chef in so we went to a normal restaurant where we technically needed a reservation but they fitted us in anyway. I also found time to put up a new DVD storage unit which actually isn't big enough so we've got another one on its way. Outside the weather was nice enough that we got a few jobs done, including planting out a whole load of bulbs to brighten up spring.  Rosie has been getting really good at jigsaw puzzles recently and finished an epic one before New Year. She actually did another the same size just last weekend. Brilliant! New Year was both awesome and a bit rubbish - the rubbish was because Angela came down unwell and was not able to join us however the evening was back to the best again and Rosie and I had a blast before heading home just before New Year so we could watch the fireworks from the balcony.

Rosie riding her bike around

New bass guitar and she's a beaut

Angela chipping up some sticks

Rosie teaching Dutch on the lead

Working on a small jigsaw

Gluing together wood with me

She's now finished this jigsaw

And so to the last few pictures before today. We've continued to have lovely weather and have taken advantage as much as we can to get outside, both for play and also to get chores done. I got a new bass guitar, Dutch was trained a little on his lead (and he's rubbish at it!) and inside Rosie did more jigsaws and also helped me with some fabrication of wooden frames that will be used for the new model railway that is being started.

Bekir working in the cramped area

Bekir chiseling away at the floor

First wall tile being positioned

A whole lot of wall tiling

State of play at the end of the day

Today we had the men back to complete the tiling for the cupboard under the stairs. The first task was the floor tiles and they got almost all of those done, the only ones left are the final few right round the corner into the lowest part of the cupboard. There was some fiddly pieces to cut and fit around by the door and then they began to set the tiles on the walls to act as skirting boards. This part of the job has now almost been completed as well so tomorrow hopefully they can complete those last few tiles round the corner, and do the grouting. We shall see.

So there we have it. We're caught up, and should be back again tomorrow. Thanks for reading!