Bits and Pieces

Frustrations of the DIY sheds....

Did you know that you can't buy bath taps without a shower hose attachment because otherwise how would you rinse the bath?

Neither can you buy old fashioned taps with Hot and Cold in French on them because it is 'always' in English.

We have taken out the old stairs so everything now has to go up a ladder. How are we going to get the bath up the ladder?? Buy a bath that turns out to be surprisingly light. Oh no, can't be good enough quality, it's too light???

Need to sort out lighting in the kitchen. Want a light over the table. Where are we going to put the table? Grrr we have a room 7m x 5m so how come there's nowhere to put the table?? There's too many doors in this room. Eureka, let's block up the front door and have a window. We could use the front door as the back door. But then we have to change all the electrics that were at the front door, and we would need an outside light, and, and, and.......

What else

The attic windows are fitted and look lovely. Not the railings or handles but you can't have everything.

The balcony man took the balcony away to remake the top and we haven't seen him again.

The roof has a leak but everyone is bustling about looking concerned.

We have walls to both bedrooms and have decided to joint another landing wall which will look great.

And so it goes on. Feeling much nearer and everything is looking brilliant which is very pleasing.

Well that was January

Another month gone. What's been happening in the house. The roof  has as much teddy bear lining as we can do without some of the windows and walls. It makes it all cosy and snug. That's towards the view end, with walls for bathroom and our bedroom and hole for new stairs on the right.

 

The door from the road to the cellar is blocked up because the floor of the kitchen cuts it in two when you remove the stairs. (Look at the lovely golden stone that was revealed when the concrete 'fell off'.)

 

We bashed out the stairs this week. Some thought of saving them because they are a lovely shape but, as usual, completely rotten when removed.

A weary Him Outdoors with the corner revealed.

 

 

Replacing joists - how many more tools will I have to find so he doesn't have to get out of his hole?

 

 And here's what he got up to while I was in England having a lovely time playing with our new grand daughter and her family. No, he's not burying bodies, it's the new asparagus bed. Of course it would be delivered in the only week I was away!

 

Happy New Year

May 2014 bring you everything you wish for.

I was going to write a blog about what a lovely Christmas we had had in spite of floods and power cuts in the UK but I am going to rant instead.

The electricity in our rented house keeps tripping. It is a winter problem so we had decided to increase the number of kilowats that come to the house in the hope that that would make the power able to cope with the heating as well as everything else. There has been a six week delay between making the appointment with EDF and them being able to come.

So we spend every day juggling electric radiators and the various appliances.

Today is the day that EDF come. Some time between 8 and 12. So up early to find that it had already tripped in the night, use the gas hob to boil a saucepan of water for tea so that we don't have to scrabble about in the dark for the meter when it trips.

Him Outdoors is off walking via Lidl to buy their excellent German paint which is on offer today.

Phone call. This is a telephone rendezvous from EDF. Nope sorry don't understand we have a rendezvous with an engineer, not a telephone rendezvous. No, I am ringing to make a rendezvous for the 20th. What, you mean I have organised my life so that you can ring me on my mobile phone?? Yes madame, there is no-one coming today, I am making a rendezvous for the 20th. My French must be improving I was able to rant at him that I had already been waiting for 6 weeks, we spend our life with electricity that cuts all the time and that WILL NOT DO. So he scuttled off to see what he could do and ring me back. Bet he doesn't though.

And on rechecking the email to make sure that it was them not me (it was) I notice that if we had decided to change the appointment there would have been charges involved. Sigh. Feel better now.

House

Roof all finished. Can't speak highly enough of the guys that did this. Brilliant, thoughtful job, thank you so much. (We're going to have to have pierres apparentes on these walls aren't we.)

 

 

Inside we have started on the insulation (yes R and A we have at last decided what to use :-) The first layer is like lining the roof with teddies' fur which is actually hemp and smells lovely. Then polystyrene to seal it in, then two more layers of hemp before the plasterboard! Should be able to heat it with a candle - or four candles (always makes me smile).

 

 

We've also decided what to do with the floor and beams which has been a point of debate between us for weeks. Him Outdoors loves pale wood floors while I hanker after a deep polished glow. I set too with a sander seeing what things actually looked like when sanded and we have decided on a mid brown wax/stain for the floor to camouflage all the rusty nails and clear on the beams. Phew just hours of sanding then :-). Hurry up 2014, I can't wait to move in.

Christmas

 

Happy Christmas everybody. I hope you all have a wonderful holiday. I made a tiny decoration in front of the fire amidst the dust and collection of tools, bags of cement that is our kitchen at the moment. Tomorrow we fly back to spend Christmas in England but yesterday we had this.

 

 

and this. The town had laid on a lovely evening of vin chaud, streets lit by candles, decorated shops open late and a carol concert. On a beautiful clear, frosty evening we walked around the medievalness with candle lanterns, perfect.

 

 

And here's our tree in all it's party lights.

 

 

Happy Christmas.

 

 

Saturday again!

 

Where do the days go? Every week we say the same - must be getting old :-)

 

Most of today has been spent working my way through the mountain of tree offcuts that are left after the tree was cut down and having a huge bonfire. Well, a small bonfire for a long time. I've got about halfway through and have smoked out all the town. Fortunately we have been in fog all day - no, not all my fault - so maybe they haven't noticed. 

 

The roof is coming on brilliantly. It's watertight which is a good job because it rained quite hard last night. And the special 'patrimoine' veluxes are in. They haven't started tiling the other side yet but it's ready to go on Monday.

 

Inside, I started brushing decades of dirt off the beams in order to have some idea what to do with them. Unlike most beams, they will be very close. They are not ancient and are not oak. You will only see the A frames not the rest of the beams because there will be masses of insulation. There is not a huge amount of light up here so need to be pale I think. Sort of thinking 50/50 cream chalk paint and water. Had left the cream back at the ranch so did some blue. Didn't like the paint as is but quite liked the wash. Will try the cream tomorrow. What do you think Annie Sloan expert??

 

And here's the promised picture of the decorated tree. The space it's left is a continual sunshiney delight so I hope it's happy here.

More roofers

We are having the most amazing weather this week. Frosty starts and then brilliant blue skies and sunshine. Yesterday afternoon I was admiring the roofers'  handiwork and noticed that the old boss of the company was up there too. 'Does your wife know you're up there?' When he came down he was telling me that he hadn't been up on a roof for more than a year but he obviously couldn't resist this one - I'm honoured, I think. He did the roof last time and is keeping a very close eye on things.

They are using this vehicle to get the tiles up there. It is an enormous bit of kit that completely blocks the road - more boys' toys!