Rosie's Birthday Weekend

What a weekend, what a lovely time we've had, but how tired I am now! I'm going to try and get this update done and out so I can then go and sleep. It's been awesome and worth it though. Let's get to it.

Very excited for Party Day

The sun peeks over the hills

Shredding to be done

Rosie helps split up oranges

Lovely and warm sat on the patio

Lots of fun being had on the balcony

Rosie cutting the cake

With her birthday cake

So much mess, so much fun

Opening some presents

Saturday was Party Day and it started with excitement and dancing with me and Rosie before Angela and Grandma were up. The sunrise was lovely and then when everyone else was around I headed off to do the rest of my tidying and chores, including shredding all this cardboard and then hoovering the stairs. In the kitchen Rosie was helping Angela to prepare the party food and being a really big help. I then took her for some hobby time while the final preparation was done. Soon enough it was time for the party to start and the guests started arriving. I took up station on the patio to open gates and guide people in and it was a glorious day to be sat outside. By the time everyone had arrived the party was in full swing and the kids were having a great time playing loads on the balcony while the parents sat and chatted in the lounge. Towards the end of the party Angela brought the cake up and Rosie blew out the candles before helping to do the first slice. She was having such a great day, and her friends were enjoying themselves also.  As the party wound down the playing continued but then it was time for everyone to head off and for us to recover and relax. We allowed Rosie to open a few of her presents but kept most of them for Sunday and Monday.

Rosie copies out her Cyrillic alphabet

New cones make a great race track

Up a tree with Grandma

Solid lump of ice

Playing at Parkaza

Sunday was another lovely day; the present Rosie opened first was a magnetic whiteboard with Bulgarian letters and she put them all out and then was copying and writing them on the whiteboard. She then asked to play with her police car so we got the present from Grandma which was some new cones and they worked really well. Even when the wind picked up later in the day the cones did not get blown. We also did some hide and seek, climbed into the tree house and Rosie climbed into another tree for a short while as well (though she asked to get down almost straight away). Angela was working a lot in the garden as the lack of snow is now starting to be a problem so she was watering the garden. I also went to check the chicken's water and found the water tray frozen completely solid! I accidentally left the tap (which was also frozen) on after checking it and it was only as I drove out later with Grandma and Rosie to go to Parkaza that I saw it had defrosted and the chicken house was flooded. I quickly shut it off then, after a really lovely time at the restaurant, went in and swept the water out before shutting them away for the night.

Rosie with her presents this morning

Diva pose with her presents

Grumpy Xena is grumpy

Ready to head to school

This morning Rosie was up early and her first words were "Am I four!?" which of course today she was. We allowed her to open the rest of the presents from us which were a stereo and a karaoke microphone and we had a nice sing along before school. The grimacing Xena was her telling Thelma to back off, not that Thelma paid any attention. Rosie was off to school today and had a lovely time with being the centre of attention.

Bekir gets started in the corner

Fitting battens to secure the plasterboard to

This part is now finished

All around the chimney is done

We had the men in today and while I didn't get up to take pictures as often as I like, there wasn't all that much really to photograph. They spent all day putting up plasterboard and it really is a fiddly annoying job in this roof. Lots of "playing" as they say, however the progress is good and they're getting through it steadily.

Rosie with her new coat and toy

A new dolly, called "Baby Rosie"

Sat in the restaurant having a lovely meal

Rosie getting stuck into her food

Space for ice cream

After school Rosie opened the rest of her presents that she received from her friends at her party, including this awesome coat which she insisted on wearing when we went out for her birthday meal. We went to the really nice restaurant where we had taken her on her first birthday and it was, as always, superb. Rosie had burger and chips and ate the lot then followed it up with ice cream. Awesome.

So there it is; a long and awesome weekend of birthday fun. Thanks for reading, and back tomorrow.

Back to fixing the toilets

What a day; it really has been a very busy one here for all of us. I've been working and helping where I can while Angela and Grandma have been non stop cleaning and tidying.

I took Rosie in this morning as, on top of how busy she is, Angela woke feeling really rough this morning. It was very cold as we headed down the hill!

Out fixing our toilets. Again.

More rolls of insulation

Lifting the rolls up into the roof

The men spent almost the entire day trying to fix the toilets as last night we were back to sawdust toilets as both of them went to the same state of the pump running continually and just not working. They fixed them eventually, changing out some seals and making the vacuum part of the pump sealed again. While they were out shopping for seals they also picked up a load more insulation and at the end of the day they shifted them all up into the attic then they also got involved in the great tidying task. I was, by this time, shredding cardboard as fast as possible in an attempt to tidy the stairs some. We got lots done but still there's a lot of cardboard that we will just move out of the way and shred next week.

Rosie and Grandma out for dinner

I decided to take Rosie and Grandma out for dinner to give Angela a rest after her epic day and we had a lovely time at the fast food place near us.

And there it is. Big day tomorrow with the party, I'll be back on Monday. Cheers for reading.

Run out of fibreglass

It's been another very busy day for all of us but a day of progress all over.

Rosie giving Xena a really lovely cuddle

First sunrise for a while

We will open with this lovely picture of Rosie cuddling Xena first thing this morning. So lovely. Oh and this morning there was actually a sunrise so here you go.

Grandma mopping up in the balcony

Bekir secures fibreglass, lots of dust falling

Putting mortar up around the chimney

Lots of insulation

Lots more insulation

Anyway, I did get a picture of Grandma mopping the balcony but everything that Angela did today, and it was a lot, I didn't manage to get a picture. Suffice to say she's not stopped today. Upstairs the men were cracking on with the insulation; they were securing the fibreglass in place, then spent a little time putting mortar around the side of the chimney stack so when they come to doing the plasterboarding it is all finished above where the plasterboard will sit. They then carried on with the fibreglass and they finished every bit of the materials we had in. Back to the shop tomorrow I guess.

Anyway, that's it really. Thanks for reading as always and back tomorrow.

Roof insulating

After the epic yesterday, today is going to be a super short update. That isn't because not much got done, but mainly because I didn't get enough pictures through the day of everything that Angela and Grandma got up to. It is Rosie's birthday party on Saturday and today has been a focused day of cleaning and clearing. I helped where I could, but wasn't able to that much.

Bekir and Halil working on the plasterboard

Bekir secures another section of plasterboard

Grinding away the solar boiler support

The men, for their part, have been in the roof working away on finishing the insulation and then installing plasterboard along the next section of roof. It's quite a fiddly thing to do, with lots of little angles and small sections, but they're working through it nicely.

And that's that. Thanks for reading, and back tomorrow.

Away again, balcony program

It's been another busy week as I've been away to Belgium for the past week. Angela was here and snapping pics through the week as she also did everything else. I'll go through my trip away then have a look at what they got up to.

Sat on the plane ready to fly

Spraying the anti freeze everywhere

Stunning sunset from the plane

What a great room this was

Pretty good breakfast every day

Nice beer, chips and burgers

This steak was a very VERY nice thing!

A lot of fun bowling

My flight was an evening one which worked a lot better really. I was able to spend time with Angela and Rosie in the morning before heading off. I had a great seat and just caught sight of them spraying the antifreeze onto the wings; that isn't something you see every flight. The view as we headed across Europe of the sun going down was really special as well. I caught three trains across Europe and reached the final station to find no taxis in sight and so I ended up walking twenty minutes to the hotel. It really was a very good hotel, the room was really comfortable and the food there was incredible. I also went out a few times, had some INCREDIBLE steak at a small place in Bruges and also went bowling which was also great.

I got dropped right here by the taxi

The first statue I found

Going for a ride

Another statue I found

Amazing costumes next to the organ grinder

Walking in the dunes

Getting ready for some water sports

My friend with a sandcastle we found

Bruges is a lovely place and I will definitely be trying to go back with the whole family. I had a lovely time walking around taking boring pictures of amazing architecture. I had a lot of trouble getting there, though, as Belgium just doesn't do public transport it seems. There were horse-drawn carts to explore, lots of statues and also a big group of people dressed up as if they were going to a mask-e-rade.  It was great. I then met up with an old friend and we went to Zeebrugge, walked on the beach in a gale, drank some very nice beer and whisky and then I was back to the airport for a very delayed flight home and finally a loooong drive back which got me home at 5am.

A cold frame that was a pain to assemble

Getting the toilet pumps reassembled

Breakfast time for Rosie

A petchka in Grandma's room

Working on the plaster board in the balcony

Now we have two heaters per side

Grandma is collected, time for lunch

So back to what was happening at home. Actually, just before I left Angela and I put together a cold frame for the garden. But NOW what happened while I was away. First of all the men fitted the new bellows pumps to the toilet pumps and then tried to get the upstairs toilet working however it's been a bit dodgy and today stopped working again; these toilets are so unreliable. The rest of the week was a lot of effort on Angela and Rosie's part to get the house ready for Grandma arriving while the men, with the toilet finally fixed, focused on the balcony. They were fitting the second two heaters and then continuing with the rest of the plaster-boarding. Finally on Saturday it was time to collect Grandma from the airport, and to stop for food at the good Italian restaurant.

Fitting the spot lights

Wiring up the switch

Taking dirt out of the chimney

Xena watches Bekir up the ladder

Getting the petchka fully cleaned

The lights now work

Putting up insulation

I was too tired yesterday to do the update however there really hasn't been much to take pictures of in the current tasks. Yesterday morning they got stuck straight in to fitting the lights in the corridor and then after lunch spent some time cleaning the chimney and fixing the pipes for the kitchen petchka which has been smoking badly. This morning they finished the job with a full pipe clean before going back into the roof to finish the lights (they are all done now). They also took down the old ventilation pipe from the humanure collection point as the wind has been making the metal spinner make really loud noises at night. The final task was to keep going on the insulation task in the roof. There's no sign of the window people coming back to fit the doors yet though.

So there it is; caught up and back to daily updates again. Thanks for reading, back tomorrow.