A Very Little Progress

As noted in the last posting we were firmly informed by the Maire that we must not undertake any work on the house. However, the alternative view from the architect is that of course we can carry out repairs and we decided that we would, with caution, follow the latter advice.

So we have made a start on clearing the courtyard at the front of the house to make access for the car easier. Originally it’s clear that this area was covered in pebbles of varying sizes and this would have been kept clear of all vegetation. But over the years weeds and grass have established themselves and collected earth as well. With every passage of the car over this area the earth has got churned up and the area is turning into a muddy morass. This was made more likely by the fact that the weather has been unseasonably wet – we ‘enjoyed’ some amazing storms. In the event our efforts only cleared a relatively small area including the splay in front of the gate.

We also purchased a trailer and I also found a place where I can buy gravel and sand at very low prices – much better than the various builders hypermarkets. So I’ve loaded up the trailer a couple of times and put the gravel into the splay and created tracks for the car to stand on as well. This has improved the muddiness factor significantly. I’ve also cleaned up one of the gates to see if it can be rescued and have painted a goodly portion of it. Some of this can be seen in the photo above.

I have also worked with chaux for the first time. This is chalk render which is recommended for working with earth walls. It creates a waterproof outer coat but allows the earth wall to breathe and thereby lets the rising damp transpire out of it. Using this I have repaired most of the major cracks in the front wall thus stopping the water penetration that is the most significant factor in causing the walls to deteriorate. Hopefully with the weather improving with these repairs in place the house will not suffer further significant damage at the front. The picture of the front of the house above shows some of the repairs.

Upstairs at the eastern end of the house I have started clearing out the very substantial amount of straw and hay which litters the floors. This is both a fire hazard and a ‘falling through’ hazard – that is you can’t be sure what’s underneath the straw/hay and could put your foot through a hole where the water has caused the floor boards to rot. The problem is what to do with this material – something I’ve not yet worked out though I suspect I’ll use it for composting on our field in front.

And talking of the field we have been fortunate in that our immediate neighbours offered to and then actually did mow the grass in it using their tractors. The grass had got to be well over two feet high and we were rather despairing about what we should do with it. Having mowed it they also took away the cut grass to feed to their milking herd of cattle so there were mutual benefits in this work. But we shall have to invest in a sit-on mower to help keep the field in shape. And in due course we want to plant it up as an orchard with fruit trees such as peaches, pears and cherries.

I did also discover the local “dechetterie” and make my first visit. This is the local rubbish dump and I disposed of all the metal items I took out of the house in my visit in February. I can see that I shall be making many visits with my trailer to get rid of the substantial amounts of material which will be generated by all the work we shall be doing.

So not a great deal of progress really. But at least we feel that we are moving forward still and as I said at the end of the last posting, we are still optimistic that we can make the important work that will preserve the structure of the house happen prior to winter.

Planning

Having arrived and got settled in the next step was to determine how far the whole planning process had got. So on the first Saturday we went to the Mairie – it’s only open Tuesday and Saturday mornings for a couple of hours. There we had the good fortune to meet with the Maire himself and attempted to discover from him what stage our request for a Permis de Construire had got to.

He had reviewed it and passed it on to the next stage – the DDE in Lannemezan. As far as he was concerned it was all OK except for one detail which he described but I simply could not understand. We were rescued from the impasse by the arrival of a lady who also lives in the village – she’s French but has taught in England for a number of years and has an English husband. She resolved the matter which is that the Maire would like us to retain the wooden trellis work at the top of the barn wall facing on to the road. We indicated that this would not be a problem as far as we are concerned.

So far so good and we were feeling quite positive. But he then told us that it would be the end of August before the Permis could be granted. Further we absolutely must not touch the fabric of the building at all. Not even repairs can be contemplated. Everything has to be left strictly alone. This is most unwelcome news, not least as I had agreed with the roofer that he would start on the house in July.

So we paid a visit to said roofer and told him the sad news. He was quite sanguine about this alteration, having had experience in France, and therefore accepting it as ‘normal’. I also spoke with the architect who, by contrast, got very fired up. He stated that the Permis ought to come through in July at the latest if all was well with the submission and that of course we can carry out repairs, it is alterations we cannot undertake. He agreed to ‘phone the DDE and find out exactly what progress had been made. But when he ‘phoned the person dealing with the submission was on holiday and once again the process stretched out. I finally heard from the architect only after I arrived back in England that the submission is regarded as complete and that all being well the Permis will be granted as at the end of July.

Subsequently I’ve received a letter from the DDE repeating this message – that is that I have “autorisation tacite” as from the end of July. There is however, a but to this. In a subsequent paragraph which I cannot fully understand there is a statement that as there is a referral to an external body – this relates to the septic tank – it may be that planning might not be actually given. If therefore I proceed with the works it could be that I’ll have to undo them under what appear to be some severe penalties. Obviously I shall have to clarify this and will call on the services of number one son who studied French at university.

Despite these caveats I do feel that we have made some progress – the submission is not going to be referred back which would have put the whole process back to the beginning, i.e. another three months from a re-submission. So it could well be that I do achieve a roof on the house with walls repaired and the ground floor sorted out prior to the onset of the winter. We keep our fingers crossed on that score.

The Journey

So finally we got round to towing the caravan to the house having decided to have it made ready at our own expense and then hope to recover some of the money via the solicitors (a rapidly disappearing hope). In the hurry to get to the ferry at Dover I very nearly killed us by causing the caravan to fish-tail as we passed a slightly slower lorry - how we got out of it I still don't know, nor frankly care to relive the experience to try to work it out.

Thereafter it took three days to complete the journey as I played it extra cautious. And we had a salutary warning when on day 2 we came upon the aftermath of an accident where a caravan had clearly fish-tailed turning itself onto the side and causing the car to crash into the central crash barrier. Fortunately it looked as if the people involved had escaped without personal injury. But it certainly reinforced the message to me that I should be careful.

Thus we were mightily relieved eventually to reach Arné in the afternoon of the third day. But of course nothing is easy and we arrived to discover that the road ouside the house was being resurfaced and access to it therefore was blocked. Oh the frustration! However, I managed to talk with the guy in charge of the team and he arranged it such that we could drive to the house. The downside of this of course was that we would be observed trying to get the caravan onto the courtyard by the whole road-laying crew.

Miraculously I managed to drive simply straight onto the courtyard with no hitch whatsoever, much to my relief. We then went off to purchase essential supplies and returned later, by which time the crew had disappeared. And then we sweated over getting the caravan into the position we wanted it to finally sit in. Said thus it sounds so easy. In fact we spent a good hour going backwards and forwards, slipping and sliding in the mud, hitching up and then unhitching and moving the car around or the caravan manually until, just as we were beginning to despair, it simply went in between the posts of the open-sided barn and into place. If you look at the picture above you'll see how tight the fit actually is.

The next issue was to provide ourselves with water, gas and electricity. In the case of water the problem was that someone had stolen the tap on the pipe from the mains! Unbelievable, as it couldn't be worth anything, but of course I had to replace it to be able to use the mains supply easily. For the gas we needed a French distributor to fit onto the bottles and only when we got this back to the caravan did we find that the caravan has push-fit fittings and the French system is based on screw-in fittings. So more explorations in the hardware supermarkets and we got something that would work. But that wasn't the end of my troubles as I couldn't get the fittings to screw into the gas bottle we'd purchased. So I took the bottle plus fitting back to the garage where I'd bought the gas. And all it was is that in the case of gas bottles the fittings are screwed in counter-clockwise - the man at the garage clearly thought that I was absolutely mad and incompetent; a very perceptive man therefore!

And for electricity we purchased a small generator. This worked first time and has proved very effective; albeit that it is expensive as a way to have power as well as noisy.

But with all of these things in place we could be comfortable and dry, cook for ourselves and begin to get on with the tasks in hand.