Week fifteen.

Friday

 

Market day again so it was an early start and into Chirpan, after stopping at M & D's to feed the cats. We spent the morning stocking up on fruit and veg for the week and stopped for coffee and breakfast at a bakery. We then went straight to SZ as today was the day they had promised to get our tiles delivered (we had enough to finish the floor now but weren't sure how many would break when we took up the ones that needed replacing.) Whilst in the big builders merchants we also got paint for the 'not horrible room' and a few other bits and pieces. Before coming home we stopped off at a big supermarket to buy special goodies that we can't get in Chirpan - limes and peanut butter, exciting stuff!!

 

Lavender off cuts found on the road

 

On the way home it started to rain, ALOT and we got back to find our tent nearly collapsing under huge puddles of water in the roof. Ahh! Lucy was also looking quite soaked, even though she had been sitting in the tent when we got back. Although it was quite late in the day already me and Pete got the tent sorted and then went to the house to do a little bit of work in preparation for tommorow. Pete taped and jointed the plasterboard in the 'not horrible room' (need a new name for this room!) and I painted the final coats of paint on the ceiling in the bedroom. By the time we finished it was quite late, but well worth the effort as we are now one step closer to moving inside!!

 

Lucy is a bit wet

Taped and jointed!

 

In the evening we had a simple dinner and a beer in the now sunny weather and at about 9.30 we drove round to M & D's to wait for the cats to come home whilst drinking beer and watching South Park on the laptop.

 

Adventurous Bilko

Sunset over camp

At M & D's with cats

 

Oh also! Sydney the duck has escaped! We sort of overlooked the fact that he could fly alot better than chickens can. Happily though we have seen him occasionally hanging around on the garden walls so we have left food out for him and we hope he might eventually come back and be a free range duck!

 

Saturday

 

In the morning Pete and John drove to feed the animals whilst I pottered around the house washing up and tidying. We then all got to work around the house. John was set the task to strim the whole garden which had already gone madly overgrown. Pete was in the 'not horrible room' plastering our lovely new walls and I was in the bedroom getting up some of the floor tiles that we needed to replace. In total 30 tiles came up, amazingly nearly all of them without breaking (so we didn't need the spare tiles after all.) Taking up the tiles was easy though - it was hammering out the old adhesive which was more difficult and took all day!

 

Plasterer at work

Tiles up!

Smashing

Strimming

 

Lunch break

Plastered

All gone

Overgrown

We can get to the shower now!

Overgrown

Lovely and strimmed... time for a beer!

 

We all worked very hard into the afternoon (Pete managed to get two coats of plaster up) and had a well deserved beer at the end of it all! In the evening we had a yummy dinner and I skyped my parents. Later on me and Pete popped round to M & D's again to get the cats in and came home for an early night.

 

Lucy loving

Sunday

 

Another early start this morning as there was no stopping us now - no rest until we are in the house! Pete and John went to feed the cats again, as well as taking a load of stuff to the dump (in the same village) that has been sitting by the gate for ages. I cracked straight on with putting John's new tent up - a much bigger four man tent, as he had finally had enough of his tiny one man-er!

 

Bigger tent - too hot for out layer

 

When they were back we quickly finished a few things on ceiling in the bedroom, including putting up the light fittings (and lampshade - our first bit of decoration in the house! :D ) Very annoyingly we found that one of our spot lights wouldn't fit in the hole as we hadn't made the ceiling deep enough. Oh well, we will be able to sort it out - you live and learn! After these odd jobs it was all hands on deck to finally finish tiling the whole room. John was mixing up adhesive whilst me and Pete were laying the new tiles. This took all day and was quite annoying job, but looked amazing at the end - we have a proper room at last!

 

Decorating!!

Annoying - too low

 

At least the other one looks good :)

 

DONE - Bilko is loving it already

 

In the evening Pete and John went for a walk with Lucy and came back with terrible news. Whilst out walking Lucy had raced off into the brush and came out with a dead Sydney duck in her mouth. Disaster. This put a bit of a downer on the evening, as you can imagine, and we were feeling especially guilty for not looking after Sydney properly. :( Another evening dinner and trip to M & D's to feed the cats. RIP Sydney.

 

Monday

 

Another day started by feeding cats! Another hard days working today: using plaster to bring down the ceiling so we can fit our light switch in (doesn't look great yet!), Pete built a stone step in the door way, which already looks fab and will look amazing when finished and I spent several hours caulking the ceiling so all the edges look sleek and lovely - I'm starting to get a bad neck with all this ceiling work!

 

It will look good (I hope)

Step taking shape

Caulked

Robbie is too hot!

We also covered the window sill so it's not so dusty

After lunch we got back in the room to grout the tiles - the final stage before we can MOVE IN! D popped by to pick up Robbie and gave us a lovely mimosa tree as a gift for looking after the pets. He also invited us over to K & R's for a drink in the evening, which seemed a perfect way to celebrate finishing the room, so we finished off the last of the grouting and got ready to go out. We had a very lovely evening with beer, gin and tonic and roast potatoes cooked in a bonfire! Lovely :)

 

Baby Mimosa tree

Grouted

Great evening

Tuesday

 

Woke up to a drizzly morning and a slight headache so had a bit of a lie in and enjoyed our last morning sleeping in the tent. Eventually the drizzle cleared and we got up - it was moving day after all! For some reason we thought it wouldn't take long to move to the house, but you'd be surprised how much stuff managed to fit in that tent. After umming and arring about where to put the cooker (we didn't want it in the bedroom with us and obviously having it far away in the tent would be ridiculous) we decided to clear and clean one of the rooms upstairs and make it in to a temporary kitchen. Once the bedroom and kitchen were sorted we also made a nice area to sit in the garden and on the balcony, as well as clearing the garden sink area and making it nice to wash up in. Everything looked fabulous and after a lovely beer and dinner in the sunshine we watched in a film in our new bedroom. 1st night in the house! It has taken 101 days (it sounds long when you say it like that!!)

 

Last morning in the tent!

Looking lovely and clean before we move in

New seating area for lunch

Bed going in...

Before..

 

Uncovered the sink!!

Can see it now

Balcony seating area

Kitchen in the house

... and we're in!

Wardrobe area

Still a mess outside!

Empty tent :(

Lucy on her new bed

On a less happy note we also found one of our chickens had been eaten in the night. As Lucy is an amazing guard dog - actually circling the land and barking off unwated guests at night - we have stopped closing the coop. We assume that a wild dog got in when Lucy was out with us at K & R's until quite late last night. 2 dead birds in a week - not good.

 

Wednesday

 

We felt like we deserved a day of rest today so we did a bit of shopping in Chirpan in the morning and then came home and hung up all our hammocks in the garden. Apart from the odd shower it has been insanely hot here (mid thirties) so we had a day lazing around in the beautiful sun. I did do one job in the bedroom, which was to finish off the grouting along the stone wall - we had run out of grout before. In the evening the boys cooked a lovely chicken dinner (not ours!) and we sat out by candle light to eat - even the evenings are warm now. We then sat up in our bedroom and played scrabble and drank beer. A great day.

 

Donkey in the builders merchants

Hammocks up and in use

Last bit of grouting and the tiles on the step

Me and the animals enjoying a beer...

...whilst the boys cook dinner

 

Thursday

 

We don't like to rest for too long around here and today we were back to work! In the morning I went up to the pool - fancying a quick dip - and found it was completely green. We hadn't been taking care of it at all and had left it uncovered. This time it was too far gone to fix so we decided we would drain the water and start again. We attached the hose and let it drain away into the garden - and it still wasn't empty by the end of the day!

 

Time for a clean!

 

Our next goal in the house is to finish to 'not horrible room' (and it's not too far off really), but before we could do anything else in there we needed to change the lintel above the window. So all three of us set to work putting up the props inside and knocking out the old stone and wood. We actually found that the two centre lintels (there are four) were in good condition, so we only needed to replace the outer two. The job only took a few hours to do but it was hard work in the midday heat and we decided to finish up when we were finished - at about 4. During the day I also grouted the tiles on the step and pointed between the stones, so that is looking good too.

 

Before

Props going in

Old one gone

New one!

New one inside

 

In the evening we went out to dinner in Chirpan and had a great meal at Flamingoes.

 

Friday

 

Massive spider

 

And already it is market day again - can't believe how quickly the weeks go! We had another morning at the market and then decided to go to SZ to get all our shopping for work done in one day. This was a bit of a failure though as we didn't find anything we needed so felt we'd wasted a long journey and several hours. As well as that it was way too hot to be sitting in the van, Pete is ill and has a sore throat and John started feeling sick from the heat. By the time we got home it was already half four and we just decided to chill out whilst Pete had a bit of a nap. One thing we did manage to get in SZ was an electric fan - much needed as the bedroom is almost too hot to sleep in!

 

 

We had a simple dinner and lay in the hammocks and I wrote up the blog. It's been a great week and we feel so happy and proud that we have such a lovely room to sleep in in our house.

 

The room:

 

Before

During

 

AFTER :D

Until next time xxx