Two major upgrades to my house to report today. A few weeks ago I went over to Izmir to pick up a dishwasher machine that I was given. It was also during the first rains of the season and when I got into the middle of Izmir it started raining. Naturally I turned on my windscreen wipers just to see the business edge of the rubber blades stay stuck to the windscreen while the metal carriers screeched across the windscreen like a fingernail down a blackboard (you have to be a certain age to appreciate that). It happens every year because the sun rots the rubber during the summer. Luckily it was only a light shower (unusual here) and I was able to carry on although a bit more careful than usual. I had been looking forward to having a beer and a chat with the guys I was picking up the dishwasher from but unfortunately that was not to be. Anyway suffice to say I got the machine back home cleaned it up and temporarily connected it to give it a test and find out how it works, I’d never used one before you see. The supermarkets in Kaş had lots of different detergent options, I had no idea which one to use but I’d seen a little compartment in the door of the machine so opened a box with tablets in it. They seemed very small but were exactly the size of the compartment so I took them. Well it was a revelation to me, I’ve never seen my washing up so clean before. Yes it’s a bit of childlike excitement, it’s pitiful really but I love getting new things, or even old things that are new to me and I’m treating it like the 21st Birthday present I never got. I won’t be using it all the time, I don’t generate enough washing up for that but when I cook up a few things to freeze for the coming month I use every pot and utensil in the house and I hate washing up after myself then. I’m not going to bother with a photograph of it, it’s a white cubiod thing just like a million others.
Every autumn for the last five years I’ve made weather resistant panels to keep the rain out of the porch with some 2×2 and polythene sheeting. It has worked well and kept the porch dry and surprisingly warm as the sun is low in the sky and the porch faces south. Sometimes it gets up to 35C in there, it’s lovely to sit in there in January wearing shorts and tee-shirt with a cold beer and read a book or do a crossword or two. The trouble with it was it looked terrible and I wasn’t proud of it. Anyway I was tidying up a few weeks ago and came across a brochure that someone gave me a couple of years ago advertising custom made screens which zip together. I decided to give them a call to find out how much it would cost to have some made and they came to measure up and give me a quote. A couple of days later I got an email with the quote , I replied asking them to go ahead and a couple of weeks later they turned up in the late afternoon to fit them.
It took a while and the guys weren’t finished until late afternoon but it was a good job and I’m happy with the result. The screens look a great deal smarter than my polythene ones, you can see clearly through the windows and the material is stronger than the polythene too.
Because it gets so warm in there with the screens it tends to keep the house warmer in the winter meaning that I don’t have to use so so much wood in the stove and the dogs have somewhere warm and dry too. All in all a good addition.
Cukurbagli's Blog 
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