Making a beam

After the excitement of yesterday today it was back to the main task under the stairs. Last night Halil dropped Thomas back as his car was fixed which was good.

Bekir on the final section of wall

Starting to burn a load of rubbish

Hammer drill in action

Metal for making a reinforcement frame

Bekir sweeps up

Waterproofing a plank

Rebar frame in place

Now the cement goes in

First thing Bekir went into the cupboard under the stairs as there was some more wall still not done, which I didn't know about. It didn't take long for him to do this little section, however. They were in tidy up mode today and so started burning some rubbish which we also added some to. That fire has been going all day. Later on there was a lot of noise as Halil drilled out ready for installing metal frame and pouring concrete for a beam. Bekir was outside bending rebar to turn into the reinforcement for the beam and then Bekir swept up while Halil wrapped plastic around a plank to act as the bottom for the form. It took them a while to assemble and secure everything but eventually they were pouring the concrete into the form and it will now sit there all weekend curing. The window people rang about installing the door and I think they'll be coming on Monday which is exciting.

The fire keeps burning into the evening

Cooking on the wood stove

The fire was still going all day, and it's still glowing right now. They got rid of lots of rubbish! This evening I got to cook Daddy Pasta on the wood stove which was awesome to do and the first time for a while.

So there it is. We have promise of snow this weekend but you'll have to wait until Monday to find out. Thanks for reading and back Monday.

Nearly finished

Well as you can tell by the title of this update we have still not yet completed the work in Rosie's rooms however we are really close and there's a good reason why we didn't finish.

Beautiful autumn morning

I'll open, however, with a picture taken through a very dirty window of the morning as the sun came up. It was a lovely day, though got cloudy through the middle of the day, but still no sign of snow.

Halil paints with his new handle

Getting the music room laid out

Bekir burns some rubbish

The ceiling is now painted

Bekir hanging the lights again

The target for today for the men was to get the rooms finished completely so first of all they started painting, then went to the shop to buy a new paint handle, and continued with this for the morning. I took  a little time in the roof to tidy a bit and plan out where my guitars are going to hang, as well as put up some small tables to stand one of the guitar amps on. Halil ran out of paint so he went out again however this time Bekir stayed and did some burning for us. By the end of the day all the painting was done and they were onto rehanging the lights and doing lots of tidying. The final thing left to do now is the shelf in the bedroom for her cuddly toys to set on. We realised that the original plan, to just screw them into the beam, isn't the greatest idea and we need some shelf supports however because this is a late plan I didn't buy enough on Sunday and so Halil is picking some up this evening.

Rosie took over Dutch's cage

I'll leave you with a picture of Rosie who decided to kick Dutch out of his enclosure and sit in there instead. She's a funny one.

So there it is. Maybe tomorrow finally we can move on from this "short diversion task" and get the music room finished with guitars hung and posters up. Thanks for reading and back tomorrow.

Big storm, back to carpeting

We're back into the week again and so with another long update that I need to get stuck into so let's get to it.

The taste of Christmas has arrived

Lots of water through the wall

A rainbow shows up

First time I've seen sheep on our hill for AGES

Checking out our storm damage

The storm disappears into the distance

Rosie holding frozen peas in place

Candles for lights

We had a huge storm forecast for Saturday so before it hit I went out with Rosie to the shops and most excitingly I found marzipan stollen. Christmas is coming! We got back and then the storm hit. I took that video and then answered my question from in the video by walking upstairs and hearing the sound of watering pouring through the window in Angela's art room!!! There was then a short but very intense period as Angela and I rushed around with towels and mops and a bucket cleaning up the water, and cleaning out the window drains when the wind slowed slightly. We got ahead of it, but it was exciting for a while. Once the storm passed there was a lovely rainbow, which turned into a faint double rainbow after some time, and then it was a beautiful sunny afternoon. I headed back into town to get some more spray paints for the pine cones we were planning to use as Christmas decorations. It was after this that we found some damage from the storm - a ridge tile had come off and landed on the patio. It was such a lovely evening with a beautiful view of the storm as it flew off into the distance. The next drama of the day was Rosie hopping along and headbutting the wall really hard. She got an instant egg but she is fine so that was a relief. I was just settling down to a painting session while Angela and Rosie had a girly film night when the lights flickered and went off. We got all the candles out and lit and then found out that something in the house had tripped the switch. I reset it and our evening went swimmingly from there.

Sunrise was beautiful this morning

Setting the fire off

Rosie watching the flames

An awesome tasty breakfast

Thelma being doctored

More storm aftermath

Three doggies playing hard

Relaxing in the sun (and wind)

Sunday was a busy morning. I was out pretty much straight away, as the sun came up, taking lots of cardboard that we have been collecting waiting for rain. I got it lit and later on Rosie joined me to watch it burn, then it was inside and I cooked breakfast including giving Rosie her first taste of fried bread and she liked it. At some point during the day Thelma came to see me and she was bleeding from her wound. I panicked a bit but when Angela got back from taking Rosie to the park (what a great idea and she had a LOVELY time!) she just cleaned it and put a bandage on. Later on I was outside playing hide and seek with Rosie when I saw lots of water in the wheelbarrow. After playing we both sat on the patio watching the puppies playing and enjoying the late afternoon sun. A lovely way to end the day.

Bekir checking any damage we had from the storm

Getting underlay in place

Carpet being dragged into shape

Blowtorch and heating a rod

The hot rod makes a hole in the carpet

Bekir sharpens his knife

Carefully drilling for the top step profile

So we finally reach today. First thing the men checked out the damage on the roof (but they didn't get to fixing it today) and then they were on to doing the second section of the stairs. First it was double sided tape and then insulation (which was JUST not wide enough so he had to add about 10cm to make it fit) and then they fought the carpet down the stairs. I finally managed to get a picture of Halil heating up the metal rod and Bekir using it to drill through the carpet which is a really cool technique. After all the fitting was done Bekir went down the whole carpet and trimmed the edges with his knife, which ended up getting blunt and he had to keep sharpening it. The final task, which was a bit of a pain, was to fit the angle at top of the stairs. The cement crumbled at one point however they were able to recover and use some insulation to patch it up and ended with this completed as well, near enough.

Pine cones sprayed silver

Pine cones sprayed gold

Goodbye sun

When Rosie got home from school we went outside together and sprayed the cones with silver and gold spray paint. They look great and tomorrow we'll spray with the sparkle spray paint I picked up on Saturday. As we were doing this the sun was setting in a beautiful display.

So there it is; a pretty good weekend to be honest, and a good day today.

Short and sweet

Today's update is going to be short and sweet as I've started to feel a little ropey (Halil was sneezing yesterday) and I truly cannot afford to be sick for my journey at the weekend.

Getting ready to mount the scaff

More materials required

Progress on the right

Over and above the door

Up to the eaves

So onto it; the workmen were doing the same thing through the day, continuing to apply the mortar to the walls by the stairs. They worked to get the right hand wall done and then above the doorway before finally getting back onto the suspended plank and working on the top of the wall. The improvement is great.

Getting rid of some waste

I ended the day while feeding the chickens by seeing the men had started a little burn so I put some waste cardboard I wanted to tidy up onto the fire and it went quickly.

So there it is. Two more days to go. Thanks for reading and back tomorrow.

A bonfire day

Today started off cold and rainy and ended being nice enough to have our dinner on the balcony.

Bekir applies a skim to the block wall

Hammering nails through thin metal to hold the insulation in place

Bekir gets to more grafting

A duck having a swim

This morning when the men arrived, after heading over to our friends house again to get their car started, they were up into the roof once more to continue up there. Bekir started off skimming more of the wall while Halil cut and fitted insulation to finish the wall of the corridor nicely to the ceiling. They then worked together to secure the insulation in place and then did a first skim over the top of that as well. After lunch Bekir was grafting more pear cuttings onto the saplings on the back bank; these are ones that he brought from his own village for us, from a good tree for fruit apparently. I was checking out our grey water sump pump and enjoyed seeing the duck in the pond, though that pond really needs a clean!

Fire burning well

Halil stoking and stacking

Bekir skimming near the top of the stairs

Halil cleaning the windows

With the grafting done it was decided that today was a good opportunity to burn off the waste wood and grass cuttings from last year so after some struggle Halil got the fire lit and then it burned very well and removed a lot of the old rubbish that was lying around up on the top bank. Once it had burned down enough they headed to the shop to pick up the rest of the bird netting however they'll fit that tomorrow as they wanted to finish the jobs they were on with in the roof. Halil did more plastering and then took himself to clean the windows at the end, inside and out, while Bekir continued applying the first skim to all the block walls.

Rosie bounces high

After school there was again time to play on the balcony with Rosie including a very fun bouncing session on the trampoline.

So that's the day; it was so nice to be out on the back bank while we did the bonfire; the fresh air and sunshine did me a lot of good. Thanks for reading and back tomorrow.