28th December 2014 - Well, we have a resident dog!!! Complete with copious amounts of poo ! We entered the house as usual, to be met by a small, yapping dog who was defending, what he considered to be, his territory. Anyone reading this who knows Eddy will have a fair idea of his reaction.

The workmen have been feeding it (empty dog food cans in evidence)and had also barricaded him out of their kitchen/dining area (see last entry). I hope he knows his days as a sitting tenant are numbered.

Dog seeing us  off the premises.

The render is almost completed and work has started on the ceilings but the main focus of the work since the last entry has been on the pool terraces and basement. We need to move our furniture from our friend's empty house (where they have kindly let us store it) as they also need to have workmen in. 

We have had a lot of rain in the last couple of weeks (as you can see from the water level in the pool) and we think this has slowed things down.  Having said that, the plumber has been working and we have sorted out the paperwork (and money) for the electricity to be connected. This should happen in a couple of weeks time. We have to have 3 phase, due to the size of the build, but we are told that it will be much better for us in the long run as we can have more solar panels. This week has been Christmas-tide for us ex-pats but living in a Muslim country has meant that things went on much as normal. However, it is New Year's Eve in a few days and the country will come to a standstill so we don't expect much progress this week.

14th December 2014 - We have spent quite a bit of time on site this week, deciding where electric points are to go. The amusing thing was that as fast as the elctrician was spraying red paint on the walls for switches and plugs, the renderers were covering it up. A few heated exchanges between the two trades in Turkish sorted the problem though. The weather for the last few days has been rainy and damp, perfect weather for rendering aparently!

 The water tank in the lounge will, hopefully, not be a permanent feature!

 The workmen have set up their base in our media room. With a plastic sheet covering the window, it is quite cozy.  They have hammered nails into the walls to hang clothes and plastic bags for food storage and, although it can't be seen in the photo, they even have a small gas cooker in the corner. Should we be charging rent?

 Our bedroom with a Modern Art piece above the bed?

 Kitchen starting to take shape with indications of where the electric points will be.

 The pool levels have gone in this week and with the amount of rain we have had, at least we know that there are no leaks.

 The roof will be started this week, we are told (hope so as money has changed hands) and we will need to order roof tiles. I think that is the only thing left for us to do as all  other items - floor and wall tiles, sanitary ware and kitchen are on order so full steam ahead (fingers crossed).