I returned to Arné a bit later than originally intended but full of hope that with the Permis close to being granted I could get on with the business of confirming some dates with the various artisans to work on the house. I should have known better!
Of course everybody I’ve talked to has warned me of the difficulties in making anything approaching reasonable, let alone swift, progress. And so it has proved. Builders who’ve visited previously have simply been unobtainable or have promised to visit but haven’t, leading to frustrating days of hanging around to no purpose. One set of builders who did visit were quite encouraging but are so busy that they cannot quote for a date before next year – this is of no use whatsoever given the advanced state of collapse the house is now in. And completely out of the blue another French builder has recently visited and says he will contact me on my return from the brief visit I’m making to the UK – he’s done work in the village for another English couple and is quite keen to work for the English; I’ll see how this pans out.
I have made some progress on my own behalf. I have many a visit to the local tip – the Dechetterie – with my trailer and disposed of a lot of rubbish from the house. I’ve also knocked down the pig-sties nearest the house in order to prepare for the work on the end wall – see the pictures above. Not as easy as it sounds as it was put together with what I call ‘amateur mortar’ – that is, made with a much stronger mix than a builder would have used and therefore impossibly hard to break up. In the temperatures we’ve been enjoying this has made for a very hard task indeed. How much further I go with this depends upon the builder who eventually takes the task on – there is a great difference of opinion about whether the end wall actually needs to come down and be replaced; presently this stands at two who would remove it and replace against two who would patch up and strengthen around it.
And I’ve spent an age in, frankly, ‘displacement activity’; that is I’ve cleaned up the second of the gates and then painted it over with anti-rust paint. With all the curls of metal-work this is a task that seemed to take forever. But the results are good as the picture above shows and though I can characterise it as a displacement, the reality is that to have replaced the gates with equivalents would cost around £500; so worth doing I guess. The other comment to make is that as it the task was conducted on the edge of the road it led to regular interruptions from passing neighbours who wanted to talk about the state of the house, what I’m doing, which artisans I will have to do the work, the state of the weather, the harvest, and so on. Pleasant in that it enables me to get to know more of my neighbours, but frustrating as it demonstrates very clearly to me how poor my command of French really is.
I must say though the inexplicable delays that seem to be a normal part of being here are certainly testing my patience. I fear that if this gets to be too much I could well be tempted to call it a day with this project and look to spend my retirement in other more enjoyable ways. Perhaps the comment of someone fed up with the lack of progress and an unwillingness to fight through French bureaucracy and apparent indolence. We’ll see how this evolves!
Of course everybody I’ve talked to has warned me of the difficulties in making anything approaching reasonable, let alone swift, progress. And so it has proved. Builders who’ve visited previously have simply been unobtainable or have promised to visit but haven’t, leading to frustrating days of hanging around to no purpose. One set of builders who did visit were quite encouraging but are so busy that they cannot quote for a date before next year – this is of no use whatsoever given the advanced state of collapse the house is now in. And completely out of the blue another French builder has recently visited and says he will contact me on my return from the brief visit I’m making to the UK – he’s done work in the village for another English couple and is quite keen to work for the English; I’ll see how this pans out.
I have made some progress on my own behalf. I have many a visit to the local tip – the Dechetterie – with my trailer and disposed of a lot of rubbish from the house. I’ve also knocked down the pig-sties nearest the house in order to prepare for the work on the end wall – see the pictures above. Not as easy as it sounds as it was put together with what I call ‘amateur mortar’ – that is, made with a much stronger mix than a builder would have used and therefore impossibly hard to break up. In the temperatures we’ve been enjoying this has made for a very hard task indeed. How much further I go with this depends upon the builder who eventually takes the task on – there is a great difference of opinion about whether the end wall actually needs to come down and be replaced; presently this stands at two who would remove it and replace against two who would patch up and strengthen around it.
And I’ve spent an age in, frankly, ‘displacement activity’; that is I’ve cleaned up the second of the gates and then painted it over with anti-rust paint. With all the curls of metal-work this is a task that seemed to take forever. But the results are good as the picture above shows and though I can characterise it as a displacement, the reality is that to have replaced the gates with equivalents would cost around £500; so worth doing I guess. The other comment to make is that as it the task was conducted on the edge of the road it led to regular interruptions from passing neighbours who wanted to talk about the state of the house, what I’m doing, which artisans I will have to do the work, the state of the weather, the harvest, and so on. Pleasant in that it enables me to get to know more of my neighbours, but frustrating as it demonstrates very clearly to me how poor my command of French really is.
I must say though the inexplicable delays that seem to be a normal part of being here are certainly testing my patience. I fear that if this gets to be too much I could well be tempted to call it a day with this project and look to spend my retirement in other more enjoyable ways. Perhaps the comment of someone fed up with the lack of progress and an unwillingness to fight through French bureaucracy and apparent indolence. We’ll see how this evolves!
1 comment:
It must be so frustrating Ned, but think of how much better it is than working!!! I expect that things will eventually speed up. Must have a pint with you on one of your visits home.
Best wishes
Geoff
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