Friday and the weekend

I'm back, a little late as it was a very busy weekend, but I'll catch you all up quickly to where we are as I sit here early Monday typing away before work.

Cement mixer does all the work

The floor is nearing completion

Sammy the Snowman disappearing

Starting on the window sills

Sally Cement Man

Starting work on the wall

At the end of the day, the wall was this high

Friday was all about cement, and about the workmen getting the cement mixer operating properly again. They had a third of the floor left to pour and this went down very quickly indeed. Outside Sammy Snowman was down to his last little pile of snow and during the day he disappeared entirely; until next time Sammy! With the floor completed Bekir and Sally got stuck into the windows; measuring up and cleaning them of dust and the stickers (which have been on for about six years, and should have been removed as soon as they were installed so that was not an easy task). With the forms assembled every windowsill was filled in with cement and then the next task begun; building the brick wall that will separate the gym from Rosie's Room. By the end of the day there was a good few courses down and ready to be completed on Monday.

Saturday was a complete waste of a day and an example of why we moved to where we are; largely it seems the ex-pat community is filled with idiots and wasters (not everyone, clearly; there are some AMAZING people from the UK we know over here) but I drove 3.5 hours, with Bekir in tow, to collect a cooker and when I got there, was told first they were running 50 minutes late and then, 65 minutes after that, was told they'd be another 55 minutes (how they spent 65 minutes getting 5 minutes further away I don't know) so I turned round and came home again, another 3.5 hours. Really not cool and I just don't understand why anyone would bother to be such an arse. Frankly. The best part was chilling out with Bekir and trying out my terrible Bulgarian while translating "Red House" by Jimi Hendrix to him.

The board I completed yesterday

Lovely flowers from the neighbours

Might need defrosting

The right tool for the job

Yesterday was a far better day. I did some hobbying in the lounge, spent lots of time with Rosie and A and my mum, had an amazing roast dinner, the neighbours gave Rosie some flowers (beautiful) and I also de-iced the old freezer with a hammer.

Now I'd better get to work; heres to today being a really successful day.

Rosie's Room and Birthday

It's been a few days since the last update; firstly after the snow fell on Thursday the men didn't come back on Friday, which was fair enough, but then they also didn't come on Monday which was a surprise.

Here is Sammy Snowman; he has been a great Snowman

Glorious sunrise with Sammy in the foreground

Snow that crashed down from the roof

More yet to fall

Very lovely food I ate entirely too fast

We had a lot of fun in the snow over the weekend and I made Sammy who Rosie has taken to waving at a lot; now Sammy is only a very small pile of snow on the floor and tomorrow he'll almost certainly be gone. The snow melted quite fast and we had a bit of risk with it smashing down off the roof onto the patio; it made quite a bang. Thankfully no-one was underneath any of the falls. On Monday I headed over to Plovdiv to collect my mum from the airport as she has flown over to visit for Rosie's birthday and for a holiday. I went to the nice restaurant there but was in a major rush as the flight arrived 45 minutes early! This was good though as it meant we got back and A was awake and could welcome us back.

The day of tip tap starts

Much scraping and scratching all day

Getting towards the end

Old electrics have been removed

My mum getting a cuddle with Louise

Tuesday morning the men were back and you can sum that day up with the words "tip" and "tap". Most of the day was spent scraping the walls and removing paint. It is a boring job but they got stuck right into it very well. They also pulled the old cables out of the walls and ceiling which is something they don't always do and it is untidy having old cables appearing out of nowhere for no reason. Other than that it was a lovely day however very long as I worked until the early hours on Rosie's Hobbit Hole, the gift I was making for her for her birthday.

The final section of floor is broken up

A simple but effective ramp to protect the door frame

Delivery arrives

Bekir's son surveys the delivery

Sally applies sand

Insulation foam laid on top of plastic sheet

Cement mixing the old fashioned way

How it looked at the end of the day

The next day the men finished off breaking up the floor that we do not want; we have decided to keep the platform, it being the only one left in the building and we are so very keen to retain the character of the building rather than tearing it all out. The running machine will fit on it very nicely. It was while running around taking pictures that I found the awesome removable ramp they had made to protect our front door. So handy. First thing A took Bekir down to town to the builders merchant and placed a huge order for hopefully all the materials we will need to complete this job. This arrived almost as soon as they got back and was unloaded in very short order. The first task was to put sand down on the floor and Sally got to it with the wheelbarrow. After the sand was laid a huge sheet of plastic was stretched over the floor to waterproof it and then insulation board was laid on top. This is going to be a comfortable room with warm floors. Finally the day ended with them mixing up some cement (not using the mixer) and filling in footings for where the walls are going to be. It was a hugely productive day indeed.

And so we reach today and the big day.

Happy Birthday to my wonderful daughter

Rosie's First Birthday!!!

It's incredible to believe she's been with us for a year, and to think of everything that has happened in that year. Today has been amazing but also bittersweet and Dad has never been far from my thoughts.

Rosie's Hobbit Hole

The Pink Donkey

Mounds setting the level of the floor

Floor strips and a section completed

I did manage against all the odds to get Rosie's Hobbit Hole completed, after a couple of late nights, and I'm very pleased with how it has turned out. Sadly it was a normal working day for me (I wished I had booked it off) and the men were here however this was awesome as Bekir turned up with a pink donkey that Rosie has taken an immediate like to. It's awesome and plays cloppying sounds as well. Sally bought her a lovely teddy bear too - they are such awesome people, it's great to have them around for this day. In Rosie's Room the men laid the reinforcing metal grid down and then calculated the depth of concrete to pour with little mounds. They then joined those mounds with strips carefully which were set the width of the straight edge apart. Then the gaps between the strips were filled, again making use of the straight edge to keep it all level. It is a very traditional way of working, and is very successful it seems.

A and my Mum get stuck into baking

The finished Birthday Cake

The state of play at the end of the day

It being Rosie's Birthday A and my mum got stuck into baking her a cake during the morning and very successful it was indeed. It even has pink icing. In the room the men completed the middle third of the floor and that leaves only one third remaining to be cemented tomorrow and then maybe they'll start building the brick wall that'll go between Rosie's Room (where the floor is) and the gym room.

Rosie all dressed up and ready to party

Money-pinning time

The cake is brought out

"Is that ALL for me?!!?!"

"Ok.. just a bite of the slice then, please"

And so it was time to prepare for the evening. We were going out with our neighbours to the local restaurant we like so much and there was a fair bit to prepare including getting Rosie dressed up nicely. Doesn't she polish up well!? The evening was just so lovely; the neighbours are the best and Rosie had such a wonderful time, being the centre of attention. She had lots of cuddles and ran around lots and had money pinned to her and ate well and received gifts and laughed and shouted and waved and waved and waved and then, to top it all off, her birthday cake was brought out while we all sang Happy Birthday to her. She even blew the candle out herself (with a little help from Mummy). And then, not to be outdone by us all eating said cake, she took huge bites out of A's slice and really enjoyed it.

And so I got back and came straight upstairs to write this blog. It was very important to me to get this done, on Rosie's birthday, and not let it slide another day as it would have been so easy to do.

This blog, again, written in memory of my father - I missed his presence today and wish more than anything that he could have seen how much fun Rosie had today.

Snow stopped play

Well I am back for the third day on the trot however it's likely I won't be here tomorrow as today we had a dump of snow that started just before lunch and fell so fast and thick that the workers had to leave just after lunch or they risked getting stranded here. Very frustrating indeed.

The men arrive and get started, rigging a light

Stripping and cleaning the walls

Bekir uses a heat gun to loosen the paint

Snow begins to fall and settle

When the men arrived this morning it was raining quite heavily so they parked up on the land and got stuck into rigging some lights in the room as it was very dark indeed. I had a crazy busy day today and so wasn't able to get down as much as I wanted however at one point the clouds cleared and I could see snow on the hills near our other house - it had been a big thunderstorm but rain up until that point. The workmen were stripping the walls today which meant slower apparent progress but they were working hard and making use of the tools including the heat torch. The snow then started and after falling for a while it suddenly started settling and getting deeper all the time.

Rosie watching the snow out the back window in the snug

State of play in the room at the end of the day

Rosie watching the snow fall on the patio

Rosie climbing up me to look at the snow

I had a short chat with the workmen and suggested they head off rather than getting stranded and so they warmed the car off and headed away; I've no idea if they'll be back tomorrow or not; probably not. It is a shame but the roads will not be very safe. Rosie, meanwhile, was having a great time taking every opportunity she could to watch the snow. She was fascinated! The thunder continued through the day and we've lost power multiple times for varying lengths of time.

So there it is; I'll be back when the men are back, but until then thanks for reading.

Work begins on Rosie's Bedroom

After such a drought here we are the second day on the trot with an update. My thinking is updating every day makes it a short task whereas trying to update less frequently will become a drag. Let's see how long this lasts, though.

Firstly I want to mark today as the 2000th day since A joined me; what an amazing time this has been, and what a lot has happened. Thank you for joining me, and making this life with me; it has been amazing, and I'm sure will continue to be!!!

Now, to today's progress....

How the room looked at the beginning of the day

Bekir and Sali getting stuck into clearing

Bekir's son on station outside taking materials through the window

The spare door is hefted to storage in the Green Building

Room clear, the next stage can begin...

For now, however, here we are on the first day of the return of Bekir, Sali and Bekir's son (I need to find his name out!) which has been a great success indeed. Bekir's son drives and so we don't have to give them lifts both ways any more which makes a huge difference in our days, particularly now we have Rosie. They arrived just after 8am and after a briefing (I was rather stressed with a super busy work day as well) they got stuck into clearing out the room and this was done in double quick time. Bekir was a bit upset I was going to just burn some of the left over chunks of wood in there so he took them to use in his bee houses. For all the materials I wanted to keep that was being moved to the Green Building they took a fly screen down and passed it all out the window which was much more efficient. Some stuff was too large, of course, like the spare doorway so that had to be hefted the long way round. In double quick time the room was cleared and the next stage could begin.

Sally breaking up the slab on the floor

It didn't take long for this process at all

Bekir grabs a scraper for the wall while waiting for spoil to move

How the room looks at the end of the day

The next stage involved breaking up the slab and carting it out in wheelbarrows. This was already quite broken up and loose and with a pickaxe it did not take long to make a substantial dent in it. They cycled the jobs, two pushing barrows and one swinging the pickaxe, and once Bekir got stuck in to scraping the paint from the walls, and in this way the job moved forwards at a great pace. I had asked them to put the spoil onto the driveway by the entrance where we had worn some dips into the drive and this they did very well. By the time it got too dark to work they had done about 5/6 of the floor. Tomorrow will involve getting the big breaker drill out to take the platform down and then it'll be onto digging deeper to put in insulation, water proof layer and metal reinforcement.

It's been a busy day, but what a great progress to report. I'll try to get back tomorrow with another update.

Thanks for reading.