Every project has its hills to climb.  There comes a time when for one reason or another work slows down and you feel like you are moving in treacle and everyone is out to get you.  It could be weather, it could be availability of men, it could be sickness or injury or taking your eye of the complex ball juggling act that is running your own project.  This lull normally coincides with a faintly sick feeling over the amount of money you have spent and an even sicker feeling when you remember how much is still to pay out.  It also normally coincides with your suppliers turning from reliable to bloody useless overnight.

Last week we reached that point in this project.

Phil hurt his back
The roofers couldn’t get the terrace roof gable right despite three attempts, 3d computer generated walkthroughs and helicopter views to show them how to do it.
Every rendering team in Kusadasi decided that they could make it rich by quoting us horrendous prices.
Every plumber in Kusadasi wore a blank look and tutted a lot when told we didn’t want pipes running diagonally underneath floors and in revenge also quoted horrible prices.
The stone masons tried to charge us for the door holes.
The bank ran out of money because I was taking so much out and the cashiers went pale every time I walked through the door.
The supplier we ordered the bathroom fittings from failed to actually order them because they thought 800ytl was too much for a single sink (ha!).

All that saves us at times likes these is experience.  We have done this all before. On three continents. And at some point, in every single project you get a time like this and like a long distance runner you just grit your teeth and push on through the pain barrier and it starts to come right.

You find suppliers, you juggle the schedule and you do little jobs yourself so you keep the whole thing moving forward (which is why my arms are currently a fetching shade of Ceviz from wood stain).

And eventually, with true grit you get back on track.

So now we have a rendering team, and we have a tiling team and the LPG combi system goes in on Saturday and all first fix electrics are done.  Tedas have brought in the three phase power and the roof is tiled and looking lovely and I spent a day in Izmir (where they understand that sinks can and will cost 800 ytl each and hold stock) buying bathrooms (all except my lovely Vitra bath which is being made to order and is on its way from Istanbul).

Over the hump, it’s all starting to take shape.

We are on final countdown to completion, 25 days and counting.  My beloved daughter comes for a visit on the 20th May and I had better have something nice to show her as I have been working 6 months on just the construction phase of this project.  She won’t be impressed with just stone work, the inside needs to be something exciting by the time she gets here.

Inshallah!
posted 04-05-2007