Iain has been so busy over the last week or so, we had decided to have a day away from DIY on Thursday, so we in the morning rallied Nese and after Turkish coffee, headed downstairs to check out Jill and Den’s flat. Jill and Den are in Oman, and are planning to sell their apartment, so asked us to have a look at it, and remove some bags of clothes that they wanted to give to charity.

We gave the place a good airing and retrieved the clothes, sorting out any good quality jumpers, which Nese will give to the poor people in her father’s village.

We lazed the afternoon on the side balcony, reading and dozing in the warm sun, when we got a call to say the laminate floor was here from Izmir, and would be delivered late that afternoon. All materials and a large circular saw duly arrived, and Iain signed the chitty to confirm. The manager of the shop as well as the carpenter came too, to survey the job and agree that he would be around the next morning between 8.30 and 9 to start.

Friday morning, and the workman arrived at 8.55, fully clad in a rather nice navy blue suit! He then, snuck behind the corner to change into work clothes. He began straight away, laying underlay, and then the boards, cutting as needed as he went. By 11am, he’d done a quarter of the room.

Pat arrived, bearing the ficus that she and Jan had bought for us, and while we chatted over coffee, Attic from across the road popped in to have a look at how the work was going and to say ‘hi’. He’d managed to get himself a black eye from playing football the week before. A glutton for punishment, he told us he planned to play again that evening!

Chris soon joined us, he’d come over on the dolmus, and so I made a quick lunch for all before heading off into town with Pat and Chris to offload J&D’s clothes to FIG. Iain stayed back to monitor progress. Friday is the main religious day for Muslims, so at around 12, the workman changed back into his suit and told us he was going off to the Mosque and would be back in an hour or so.

We’d planned to meet Jan in town, and see Mustafa, the carpet man, but Chris told us Jan had phoned and Mustafa was in Izmir. After FIG, we headed off to Mustafa’s shop anyway to see if Jan was around. Bekir got us all tea, and then played a few games of backgammon with Chris, while Pat and I surfed the net on his shiny new laptop. There was no sign of Jan, so we headed back to the car, and drove to the Kosem for a round of drinks and a forage through their book store. Armed with a new set of reading materials, Pat and Chris dropped me home.

The workman had made excellent progress while we’d been out and done over two thirds of the room. Iain said that the other carpenter, Ergun, who was making our doors had told Adem that they were made and ready for a viewing. We grabbed A&N and headed off to Hedef’s shop in the Toyota. The doors were indeed made and undercoated as was the frame, just requiring glass, handles and a final coat of paint. They looked brilliant. He said they would be ready for installation on Tuesday!

After a coffee and a chat, we came back to the house where the laminate floor guy was just finishing off for the day. He’d be back tomorrow to do the last few boards, and then fit the skirting boards. The floor looked fantastic. We chatted with Adem about the next stages of work preparing the kitchen over a beer. After some time Nese came in wondering what had became of her husband! It seemed the only way we could get him to go home, was if we went too, so we took Nese up on her kind offer to feed us, and went next door. After dinner, Adem fancied watching a film, so Iain went to get Swordfish, which was great on his big TV! One last look at the shiny new floor and then off to bed.