So, we had a coup. An attempted one, anyway. Thank you to the many friends and family members who checked in to see whether we were OK at the time. It was a scary and confusing 24 hours of news coverage. But for us that’s all it was: a day of watching TV and browsing the web, trying to figure out what was going on. At times like that it’s nice to live in a small town far from significant buildings and infrastructure.
It was a sad day for Turkey, with around 250 people killed. And in the aftermath a lot of young soldiers are potentially facing long jail sentences, while many people have lost their jobs for alleged links to the shadowy Gülenist movement. All of this comes on top of the ongoing troubles in the southeast of the country, a terrorist attack at Istanbul airport, and so on. Interesting times indeed.
Of course we hope that the situation will improve. But there’s not a great deal we can do about it on a personal level, and the truth is it hasn’t affected day-to-day life around here at all. So we have just been pushing on with construction work as usual.
A big recent milestone for us was getting the roof completely covered with wooden planks. (The planks are there to support the waterproof membrane and the roof tiles, both still to come.) As you can see in some of the photos below, the planks shrink a little after being nailed down, so there are some gaps that let light through. But it still feels much more like a building now that it has a covered roof.
Koray sawing planks on the roof.
Verandah coming together.
Roof planks completed.
The pool has been a lifesaver, making working through the hot days of summer much more bearable. Which I guess is a good sign of its future popularity. One of our little pleasures is a drink by the pool in the evenings. The water is so warm that you don’t really want to get out.
Evening drinks by the pool.
The new roof at night; lights of Germencik in the background.
And now a photo of me looking grumpy in the heat. (Sirem insisted that I include it.) It looks like I should probably go for a swim and cheer up.
Portrait at 40 degrees C.
In parallel with the roof work, we’ve been building up the straw bale walls. It’s a mixed bag of a job: sometimes it’s easy and fast, like when you have a long run where you can use whole bales. But then you get to a fiddly bit in the corner or between two windows, and there’s a lot of splitting and re-tying the bales, which can get tedious. And especially when you have to lift bales up above your head for the higher sections, you end up wearing and breathing a lot of straw which is not the nicest feeling in the world. On the plus side, you do get to play with the chainsaw, which is essential for carving the bales so they fit neatly around the building’s wooden frame.
Straw bale interior.
Essential equipment for shaping bales.
Roof from inside. The white part is a test for one of our ceiling ideas: going to need something to hide all the insulation between the rafters.
There was one final part of the structure that we’d been putting off for a while: an overhanging verandah for the cafe area at the west end of the building. It’s mostly done now. There were a few steps involved: concrete bases for big 15cm x 15cm columns, getting the support beam up on top of the columns, then getting the 5-metre rafters up. That’s where we are in the “after” photo below. And still to come are planks, guttering, waterproofing, and tiles, just like the rest of the roof.
Before photo: the front of the cafe area.
After photo: the verandah will add shade for plenty of outside tables.
It’s no surprise that summer has brought more visitors than winter did. Some weeks back we hosted Elisabeth and Max, some friends from Germany via Southampton. They got very involved in the construction work and we’re grateful for their help. Elisabeth and Max (and some co-conspirators; looking at you, Alex) also have a fine tradition of candid photography that truly captures the modern, relaxed German style. So who were we to refuse them?
German efficiency.
The next batch of visitors were my mum and dad, Diane and Barry. They were last here exactly a year ago, when nothing had happened yet up in the orchard. (And previously they were our very first visitors, a year before that.) So, once more, it was great to see our recent progress through their eyes. Dad especially got involved in the building work, and mum played an important pool-testing role. We really appreciate their help.
Mum and Dad visiting, checking out their soon-to-be-favourite area of the cafe.
Animal lovers, you thought I had forgotten you, didn’t you? Not a chance. Apologies that it always seems to be the same animals in these photos: it happens because some of them have pre-emptively adopted the building site as their new home, while others live down in the old farmhouse and thus keep away from the cameras.
Sookie being sweet, in between psychotic episodes.
Tito feeling a bit tired and sorry for himself on a hot day.
We were originally expecting our roof tiles several weeks ago, but there were delays from the supplier’s end. Apparently they needed to make a special batch just for us, because generally they don’t sell a lot of roof tiles in the middle of the summer. Apparently no-one but us is foolish enough to do roofing work in the heat. We are currently finding out just how sensible this accepted wisdom is: photos of the tiled roof to follow next time, I hope.
Roof tiles arrived at last.
Roof ready for tiling. That’s a temporary plastic cover in case of rain.
Finally, we want to dedicate this post to our great friend Jesús Palomo Muñoz (1967-2016). He was a fantastic person who has left us all much too soon. We will miss him.
Great to see the progress! And evening drinks by the pool sounds perfect. We’re glad things are generally calm there now and hope it stays that way. Big hugs from all of us!
Thanks! We will keep your drinks cold.
Looking fantastic. In between being very hot and very tired, you must be very proud to see it all coming together. Amazing achievement
Cheers, Tim. It has been a long road, and lots still to do, but yes, it’s a great feeling to see it emerge as a proper building.
It is coming together at a rapid rate now and looks fantastic. Take care of yourselves and try not to over do it. I was moved by your sad dedication to Jesus and no doubt you have been devastated by his untimely death. Love to all Anne.
Thanks, Anne. Yes, it was a huge shock and we’re still getting used to the sad fact that Jesus won’t be around any more.
You can see the crazy in the eyes. Sookie’s, not yours.
Can’t wait to visit and finally meet!
:)
It looks fabulous. After so much work-life building ideas, it must be so satisfying to *actually* build your ideas. Love, love, love the roofline.
Thanks a lot for noticing the roofline! We were taking inspiration from local farm buildings. No significant snowfall to worry about so a 3:1 slope (18 degrees or so) is typical here.
Looking good Jason. It’s good to keep up with your progress over there.
That grumpy face is a bit scary though. :)
Cheers, Matt. :) Hey, what can I say? It was a hot day and someone had just told me how many more bales I had to carry.
Hi Jason and Sirem
The progress looks fantastic, and the “small village” environment you are trying to create is really coming together. Jason: you seem to have inherited the Noble creative design genes from somewhere???
Hopefully your location will mean that you are not too badly affected by the downturn in Turkish tourism emanating from factors outside your control. It will be great to hear from you after the initial “paying” tourists have stayed at your establishment.
The news re Jesus, which as you would know we have heard about through Barry, is really terrible. If you are talking to them, please pass on our regards to Fina, Manuel and Mar. It is much too young for someone to die.
Keep up the good work and good luck with proceeding to the next phase.
Cheers
XXX Marg and John
Thanks very much.
Agreed: we can’t do a lot about a downturn in tourism but we hope that a) these things go in cycles and good times will come around again, and b) the type of tourist we’re after is a bit more intrepid and less likely to cancel a holiday because of some bad headlines.
Will definitely pass on your comment about Jesus to Fina, Manuel, and Mar. Could not agree more that 49 is much too young.
Nice to read another one of your blogs, Jason. I’m glad you were safe during the recent troubles and far from it all. I’d heard about an attempted coup in Turkey but didn’t know it was quite as serious as it was.
Cheers, Sandeep. It was certainly a strange day. I wouldn’t want to have been in Istanbul or Ankara. Scary stuff.
Hi both, The build is looking fantastic. J :)
Hi back, and thanks!