Aluminium Men

So today was cool and breezy even though we had a bit of sunshine but the wind was biting at times and with the aluminium men coming we had to have nearly all the doors open so it was bloody freezing indoors - so much so that I resorted to doing the ironing at one point just so I could warm up a bit.

Today we completed the final piece of the boundary puzzle.  We had the stone wall built around two sides and then we had aluminium fencing panels put between the 'turrets' of the stone wall and between us and Paul and all that was left was to replace the wooden panel between us and Gregoris and replace the wooden gate.

The wooden gate was the stumbling block because I liked it and I thought it was in keeping with the feel of the garden and we had brought our original gate with us from the UK in our container as we had seen it at the Old Creamery in Yeovil and fallen in love with the rustic-ness of it - it had been constructed from wood from a Quayside.  Sadly a wooden gate looks nice but in the Winter would swell and stick and in the Summer it would shrink - it was a constant battle for John and so we decided to replace it but we couldn't decide on the style and I just didn't want it to look boring and industrial.  Whilst the gate was being constructed John had also asked that the guest bedroom door and the main door to the bedrooms be made 'thermal' as they call it - so they would be insulated and hopefully then the bedrooms might feel a bit warmer.

John was up early this morning because he wanted to remove all the old wooden panels and frames and be ready to oversee the operation because he wants it done properly.  Our disposable income is limited so when we commit to a project it is a big decision and we have had our fingers burned on a number of occasions.

Some of the wood John removed can be used again in a building project and some of the wood will be added to the burning pile.  John also wanted to make sure that any work done was not going to adversely affect Gregoris and Theodora's property.  Sadly Alex and Popov (not his name) seem to have size 20 feet and they don't care where they put them so whilst I know they were working under difficult conditions in the front garden they just didn't care where they were standing which did rather piss me off because I could have cut things back out of their way rather than have then trodden into the ground.

At times John seemed to be tearing out what hair he has left because Popov always seems to want to do things his way.  Clearly in Russia they haven't come across the old adage that the Customer is Always Right!!!

Alex is a little more understanding and would often take Popov to task resulting in a tirade of Russian which of course neither John nor I could fathom.  Of course nothing about our house is square so compromises have had to be made - some of the levels probably offend John's expectation of perfection but overall I think it is a pretty good job - I have noticed that the light is central to the frame and the number is central to the door but they aint in line with one another!!!  He is now deeply upset and planning to address the situation!!!

The job seemed to take longer than we anticipated and we had hoped to get away lunchtime to meet up with Peter Wilks and his family - as it happened we couldn't get away and Peter was unable to make it anyway so we didn't miss out on anything.

Finally the gate and adjoining panels were in place and the guest bedroom door panels were replaced with the insulated ones and the panels in the main door to the bedrooms (which used to be an outside door when the buildings were separate) were changed and it was job done.

We had a fair bit of clearing up to do afterwards so I was pretty pleased when Di and Rob decided to call in on their way home from Rob having the pin removed from his poorly finger.  John and I had been thinking about him all day because neither one of us would have fancied having that done and then when Rob told us what he had gone through we felt so sorry for him.  Apparently normally the pin sticks out a bit more from the top of the finger but in Rob's case it was flush so they had to dig around a bit to be able to get a grip on the end with the pliers and then apparently the pin had begun to adhere to the bone so he could feel it being tugged out and as the pliers slipped off of the end he could hear a ping like the pin was being snapped off.   It is no wonder that he felt like passing out.  Hopefully now it is just a matter of time and physio before his finger is back to normal - we have our fingers crossed although that seems a totally inappropriate thing to say under the circumstances but he will know what we mean.

So big kisses to Rob for a full and speedy recovery because we know how frustrating the whole sorry episode has been for him.

After an early start we were all knackered and the house had been chilly after having all the doors open so John lit the fire even though we had thought we might pack it away now for the season.  We enjoyed some really tasty leftover chilli and a glass of wine and watched some trash TV - Looking at Boris I decided that next time I am coming back as a cat but only in a household like ours where they are spoilt rotten.