We have a Conservatory...

It's official and it might have been a long time coming and it has cost me in cups of 'chai' and my bestest cranberry and white chocolate cookies and I have a full to overlowing bucket acting as an ashtray but today the men came and they finished the work - well finished is kind of relative isn't it?  John is picky so unless he had done it all himself it was never going to be finished to his standards plus they didn't have enough gromitty things on the van nor did they think about how they were going to finish off the downward aluminium struts!

We got up early today because we had been promised that the gang would arrive at 9.00am as there was a lot to do and we really wanted them to finish in a day if possible and I am guessing they did as well as they don't normally work on a Saturday.  Nine o'clock came and went and I could tell that John was getting a bit rattled because phoning doesn't always achieve very much and after all they had promised they would be here.  I was stoically ironing but staring out of the window pleading with them to turn up and soon.  In the end I phoned to be told '5 minutes' but I wasn't sure whether that was 5 minutes and then they would be leaving Paphos (and therefore a good half an hour away) or that they were 5 minutes from Droushia.  John was scepticle either way but in fairness four of them pitched up at about 10.15am - maybe that is 9.00 somewhere in the world!!

The gang of four should have been very grateful that John was there to lend a hand - lend a hand and supervise of course!  The three huge huge panes of glass which make up the majority of the ceiling needed the five of them to lift and position.  As I have said before, health and safety plays no part over here - wibbly wobbly ladders and fag in hand is just par for the course.

At 10.30 John came in with a tea/coffee order - they had only been here 15 minutes and were about to down tools - this did not augur well for the job being completed in a day but this is how they work and perhaps they work better with a cup of chai and a biscuit inside of them. 

The temperature outside was rising steadily so you can imagine how warm it was working under all that glass.  I kept out of the way indoors just peering out at John to look for some sort of indication that it was going well - lots of so-so hand gestures did nothing to put me my mind at rest.

Gradually though I could begin to see the structure taking shape.  I asked if they were going to clean the glass before they left which they found highly amusing and Alexi told me that God would clean the windows by which I am guessing he meant the rain!

They dont quite finish things off in the way that John would have liked but eventually they declared that they were done and our two buildings are now joined.

Through John's vision we have created a light, bright and airy space which will capture the sun and hopefully - if we open the windows - we can equal out the temperature between the conservatory, lounge and guest bedroom.  The cats are confused and will remain so until we get the second cat flap in so that they can come and go as they please - at the moment we have to keep one of the doors cracked open and of course this can let in a draft!

It was fantastic to be able to get the furniture back into place and to know that when Laura is here she can put her feet up and snooze in the warm - probably accompanied by two little lovelies who have claimed the sofa as their own.

John has yet to get electric into there but we do have a light so the space is ready to be used and I can't wait.  We couldn't do much this evening because we were going down to Paphos for one of our pickleball meals which is funded by the subs we pay each time we play but we ran round and took loads of photos because we knew that Mum and Dad would be itching to know how the day had gone and what the end result was. 

The view from the terrace of the whole structure is quite impressive and you can see just how much glass there will be to clean!  It certainly is quite a feat of engineering!

We had a lovely meal at Duomo's but John and I were absolutely exhausted so came straight home afterwards.  The conservatory was still standing so that was a bonus and the kids were inside with their little noses pressed up against the glass looking out for us.  It was good to be home!