Dial-up is such a pain that keeping the blog going is a real trial, and up-loading pictures virtually impossible, but for the moment this will bring you up-to-date on where we are now.
In terms of rooms not much has changed since the last posting – we have two bedrooms, one with an en-suite shower room, a kitchen/diner, the large sitting room with mezzanine and now a downstairs shower room. This latter is very useful when we have guests as they no longer have to use ‘our’ shower room. So what have we been doing all this time? Working very hard to finish all the rooms, and this is still very far from complete. The main bedroom and en-suite and the kitchen/diner require very little finishing now, I have not done this as other tasks were more urgent. The spare bedroom is only a little further on as it is useable and we want to complete other areas first. In the large sitting room the three non-plasterboard walls were crepied by Jean Claude and initially we were quite content with this. But we then employed another craftsman to crepie the walls in the hallway and downstairs shower room and he made a marvellous job of this with a much better finish. So we have decided that we’ll employ him to cover over the walls in the sitting room again to achieve the much better finish that’s possible – a double cost but we think worth it in the long run. I have tiled out the floor in the sitting room and carried this through into the hallway so that I could tile out the shower room and the next door walk-in cupboard. In having the shower fitted we employed a plumber who ‘sorted out’ some of Jean Claude’s less than wonderful plumbing efforts and we are much more content with it all. I have also put in the floor for the mezzanine and the ceiling underneath it. We bought a spiral staircase to access the mezzanine which, unfortunately, when I tried to work out how it would be fitted we realised that it would be rather ugly and intrusive in the room. So, research at various builders’ merchants led us to buy a second staircase that works extremely well in the overall context of the room. And we shall use the spare staircase to access the summer room we intend to make in the first floor of the open-sided barn, so not an entirely wasted purchase.
Most importantly in terms of comfort we have finally got a proper connexion to the electricity supply – two days ago indeed. It’s taken over a year to get to this happy position and even right at the end EDF managed to make things difficult for us. An appointment was made and confirmed with EDF but the technician did not turn up and EDF claimed that the appointment had been re-made for a day six days later. Result – we would be without a supply of any sort for that period. However, our ever helpful neighbours allowed us to tap into their supply, and as long as we didn’t use too many appliances at once all was well. But now with a proper connexion we can put in heaters and the like and not have any concerns about over-loading the supply.
Outside we have spent time trying to keep the courtyard and garden tidy. We have created a vegetable and flower patch, reclaiming this from the on-rushing weeds – it’s going to be a constant battle as we adjoin a field which is a haven for all sorts of invasive weeds. Foolishly we did not put in the necessary work on our field in front of the house. If you remember, or look back to the previous posting – July 2008 – we had the earth taken from the back of the house spread over the field but this contained a great deal of caillou (pebbles ranging from quite small to huge) and these need to be lifted before we can turn the field into even a quite rough grassed area into which we can put fruit trees. The area we did work on can be mowed using the sit-on mower but this accounts for only a quarter of the field and in the remaining three-quarters the grass and weeds went wild – up to three feet tall. Eventually our neighbour kindly cut it all using his tractor and attachment and turned and lifted the cut material to use for feeding his cattle. I have now used the mower to cut over this area as well but very cautiously trying to avoid the pebbles as much as possible. We must though carry on the tedious task of removing the pebbles so that mowing is not such a fraught task and we can establish the field in its proper state.
All work and no play I hear you ask! Well not entirely, we have met many people here both French and ex-pats and our social life is expanding quite nicely so that we are able to lift our heads from the grind of working on the house and simply enjoy the pleasure of la vie française.
Saturday, 27 June 2009
Tuesday, 16 December 2008
A Christmas Posting
We feel that we should let you know what progress has been made in time for us, perhaps, to be able to enjoy the festive season. Firstly we have now cleared all the furniture, clothes, books, pictures, etc., etc. that were in the house in GB and we wanted in France. A mammoth effort in that we had thought that we could have the moving carried out by a local South West British company. They had given me an ‘indicative’ quote over the ‘phone which was, on reflection, ridiculously cheap. On the basis of it we drove back to GB expecting to have to make only the one journey back. In the event when the company made a full assessment of the task they provided a quote which was 6 times higher than the indicative one!! We therefore hired a van and did the move ourselves. Much harder work involving all the packing and unpacking plus lots more driving, but worth a huge saving.
In terms of the house we have the finished bedroom and en suite bathroom and the kitchen/diner. In the big salon the ceiling and one wall have been plaster-boarded and I have started painting the ceiling where there is some staging left from putting up the ceiling. Jean Claude has installed the wood-burning stove and we can now use it to help warm up the house. That is fortunate as the weather has been brutally cold on occasions. The electrician has also worked on this room so all the cabling, switches and sockets are in place. And therefore we are now having the remaining three walls plastered with crepie – a special chalk-based product which is particularly effective on earth walls. If this is finished in time for Christmas we shall be able to make use of the room for the festive period. I shall still have lay all the floor tiles and we have much to do to complete the mezzanine; but we can make use of the room in the meantime.
I have also completed the insulation and plaster-boarding of the spare bedroom which has significantly improved the overall warmth of the house. Now I need to fill all the joints in and paint the room, but it is a useable space and we have indeed slept in it when we had visitors recently. There is also work for the electrician to complete in putting in the switches and sockets.
If I then put in a plaster-board wall in the large cupboard in the hallway, so that we can hang the main electricity switch board, – the ‘tableau principal’ – we should be able to persuade EDF to let us have a full electrical supply. At the moment if we have too many electrical appliances in action at the same time we suffer the main fuse tripping out, usually plunging us into darkness.
So we are getting close to being able to live relatively comfortably in the house. When this phase ends we shall have to turn our attention to the outside and rescue to courtyard, the garden at the back and the field from the encroachments of the weeds, plenty therefore to keep us occupied.
In terms of the house we have the finished bedroom and en suite bathroom and the kitchen/diner. In the big salon the ceiling and one wall have been plaster-boarded and I have started painting the ceiling where there is some staging left from putting up the ceiling. Jean Claude has installed the wood-burning stove and we can now use it to help warm up the house. That is fortunate as the weather has been brutally cold on occasions. The electrician has also worked on this room so all the cabling, switches and sockets are in place. And therefore we are now having the remaining three walls plastered with crepie – a special chalk-based product which is particularly effective on earth walls. If this is finished in time for Christmas we shall be able to make use of the room for the festive period. I shall still have lay all the floor tiles and we have much to do to complete the mezzanine; but we can make use of the room in the meantime.
I have also completed the insulation and plaster-boarding of the spare bedroom which has significantly improved the overall warmth of the house. Now I need to fill all the joints in and paint the room, but it is a useable space and we have indeed slept in it when we had visitors recently. There is also work for the electrician to complete in putting in the switches and sockets.
If I then put in a plaster-board wall in the large cupboard in the hallway, so that we can hang the main electricity switch board, – the ‘tableau principal’ – we should be able to persuade EDF to let us have a full electrical supply. At the moment if we have too many electrical appliances in action at the same time we suffer the main fuse tripping out, usually plunging us into darkness.
So we are getting close to being able to live relatively comfortably in the house. When this phase ends we shall have to turn our attention to the outside and rescue to courtyard, the garden at the back and the field from the encroachments of the weeds, plenty therefore to keep us occupied.
Saturday, 27 September 2008
It’s been a Long Time
My apologies for the very long gap between postings to the Blog, there are two main reasons for this – firstly the difficulties of working with a dial-up connexion and secondly the fact that we have been working incredibly hard on the house. Below, headed “Real Progress”, is a posting I composed about a month ago in which the position was hopeful.
I can now report that some of these hopes have been realised. The bedroom and en suite bathroom have now been fully completed though not without some problems on the way. Most notably the shower had to be moved out of its corner as a consequence of a flexible hose developing a leak. This led to tiling and paintwork being damaged, an irritation rather than a major difficulty.
The temporary kitchen/diner is now fully operational though not yet absolutely finished. We have a working sink, new cooker and a range of kitchen cabinets and drawers with a complete set of work surfaces. Notwithstanding the need to finish off the work we have been able to move out of the caravan definitively – just in time before the weather begins to chill down in autumn.
Above this kitchen/diner a space has been created where a bedroom can be made. It has only a rather small window as a consequence of an error by the builder, but it should suffice for a bedroom. The next steps for this room will be to complete the wall linings and the ceilings and this will then become useable.
Elsewhere Jean Claude has cut the hole through and placed a window in the downstairs shower-room. There is still much work to be done to the walls and ceiling to complete this, but for the moment it provides a downstairs loo and wash basin. In the very large salon he has also put in the French doors which gives us easier access to the back of the house and the garden – this is a hopeful word to use as at present it is a weed-filled jungle for the most part.
Jean Claude has also commenced on the difficult task of ‘rescuing’ the very fragile wall at the western end of the house – you may remember, and can look back in the blog to see, the very large crack there was, and is, in one corner of the house affecting the stability of the wall. There is a long way to go to finish all that he plans to do to ensure that this wall is fully stabilised but once he has done it we shall commence to work in the large salon as we want to arrive at a point where we can put in the wood-burning stove to start providing heat inside the house.
There’s still a long way to go before we are at a point of true comfort even in terms of just the half of the house we are now aiming to complete. But real progress has been achieved and to be able to ‘abandon’ the caravan is a major step forward.
I can now report that some of these hopes have been realised. The bedroom and en suite bathroom have now been fully completed though not without some problems on the way. Most notably the shower had to be moved out of its corner as a consequence of a flexible hose developing a leak. This led to tiling and paintwork being damaged, an irritation rather than a major difficulty.
The temporary kitchen/diner is now fully operational though not yet absolutely finished. We have a working sink, new cooker and a range of kitchen cabinets and drawers with a complete set of work surfaces. Notwithstanding the need to finish off the work we have been able to move out of the caravan definitively – just in time before the weather begins to chill down in autumn.
Above this kitchen/diner a space has been created where a bedroom can be made. It has only a rather small window as a consequence of an error by the builder, but it should suffice for a bedroom. The next steps for this room will be to complete the wall linings and the ceilings and this will then become useable.
Elsewhere Jean Claude has cut the hole through and placed a window in the downstairs shower-room. There is still much work to be done to the walls and ceiling to complete this, but for the moment it provides a downstairs loo and wash basin. In the very large salon he has also put in the French doors which gives us easier access to the back of the house and the garden – this is a hopeful word to use as at present it is a weed-filled jungle for the most part.
Jean Claude has also commenced on the difficult task of ‘rescuing’ the very fragile wall at the western end of the house – you may remember, and can look back in the blog to see, the very large crack there was, and is, in one corner of the house affecting the stability of the wall. There is a long way to go to finish all that he plans to do to ensure that this wall is fully stabilised but once he has done it we shall commence to work in the large salon as we want to arrive at a point where we can put in the wood-burning stove to start providing heat inside the house.
There’s still a long way to go before we are at a point of true comfort even in terms of just the half of the house we are now aiming to complete. But real progress has been achieved and to be able to ‘abandon’ the caravan is a major step forward.
Real Comfort!
The progress alluded to in the last posting has continued and we now do actually have a functioning bathroom which is complete in terms of the facilities and only a little decoration needs to be finished. The bedroom is also fully formed with its cupboard in place but there remains quite a lot of finishing off to do before we can consider the work in it to be completed, but it is not ‘heavy’ work at all.
Work has commenced on the smaller, back room which will eventually become a study/sitting room. But for the moment it will be used as a kitchen/dining room. The concrete floor has been laid, a new doorway has been cut in to the room off the hallway and the existing two window holes enlarged and new windows mounted. A start has also been made on putting in a first floor so that we shall be able to form a bedroom above.
Given the problems in the British housing market we shall call a halt soon to the work. But the aim is to have sufficient of the work completed such that we shall have two bedrooms, two bathrooms, kitchen/diner and very large sitting room. Much of the building work required to get this finished will have to be done by us rather than our builder, but then we haven’t much else to do!!
Work has commenced on the smaller, back room which will eventually become a study/sitting room. But for the moment it will be used as a kitchen/dining room. The concrete floor has been laid, a new doorway has been cut in to the room off the hallway and the existing two window holes enlarged and new windows mounted. A start has also been made on putting in a first floor so that we shall be able to form a bedroom above.
Given the problems in the British housing market we shall call a halt soon to the work. But the aim is to have sufficient of the work completed such that we shall have two bedrooms, two bathrooms, kitchen/diner and very large sitting room. Much of the building work required to get this finished will have to be done by us rather than our builder, but then we haven’t much else to do!!
Wednesday, 2 July 2008
A July Up-date
Given the fact that we now have to rely upon a dial-up connexion it is very much more difficult to use the internet and therefore posting to the blog has all but ceased. For that, apologies. There are two posts just below which reflect the position as we saw it towards the end of April and in mid June in this one I hope to bring the position up-to-date as it is in early July.
Work has continued apace on the central section of the house. The bedroom and bathroom are very close to being fully formed and the services to them now need to be fully connected. We have had the electrician working over the past two weekends and all the necessary points and lights have been put in place. The hot water tank has still to be set up but this will not take too much time or effort and the shower can then be installed along with the wash basin and loo. Sliding doors for a cupboard are also on site so a fully operational bedroom and bathroom are a possibility very soon – perhaps next week!
We decided that we had had enough of the caravan’s facilities any way and have set up a bed in the main salon. It’s rather odd to be in the house with bits crumbling off the walls and birds flying around above us, but hey it’s still much more comfortable!!
At the back of the house a huge quantity of earth has been cleared away from the walls to create a very large area which will form a patio for us. We shall install land drains to assist in diverting the water away from the walls of the house and this will ensure that the drying out process is maintained permanently. Of course in digging this area out an enormous quantity of earth had to be removed and it has all been placed on our field in front of the house as the pictures above show. We have had this earth ploughed over and now the very, very tedious task of picking up and moving all of the ‘caillou’ or ‘river stones’ – that is very large pebbles – has had to start. This will take us ages but it’s essential to complete it prior to seeding the field for a lawn into which we shall also put fruit trees.
So hard work all round but definite progress. We feel certain that we shall have the ability to live comfortably in the house very shortly with all ‘facilities’ on stream. The next step is to get the big salon sorted so that we use that properly and decorate it out. Watch this space!!
Work has continued apace on the central section of the house. The bedroom and bathroom are very close to being fully formed and the services to them now need to be fully connected. We have had the electrician working over the past two weekends and all the necessary points and lights have been put in place. The hot water tank has still to be set up but this will not take too much time or effort and the shower can then be installed along with the wash basin and loo. Sliding doors for a cupboard are also on site so a fully operational bedroom and bathroom are a possibility very soon – perhaps next week!
We decided that we had had enough of the caravan’s facilities any way and have set up a bed in the main salon. It’s rather odd to be in the house with bits crumbling off the walls and birds flying around above us, but hey it’s still much more comfortable!!
At the back of the house a huge quantity of earth has been cleared away from the walls to create a very large area which will form a patio for us. We shall install land drains to assist in diverting the water away from the walls of the house and this will ensure that the drying out process is maintained permanently. Of course in digging this area out an enormous quantity of earth had to be removed and it has all been placed on our field in front of the house as the pictures above show. We have had this earth ploughed over and now the very, very tedious task of picking up and moving all of the ‘caillou’ or ‘river stones’ – that is very large pebbles – has had to start. This will take us ages but it’s essential to complete it prior to seeding the field for a lawn into which we shall also put fruit trees.
So hard work all round but definite progress. We feel certain that we shall have the ability to live comfortably in the house very shortly with all ‘facilities’ on stream. The next step is to get the big salon sorted so that we use that properly and decorate it out. Watch this space!!
The Position in Mid-June
After our efforts to get the preparations completed for the flooring we now have a concrete ground floor in the majority of the eastern end of the house and this would have dried out much more rapidly had it not been for the appalling weather we have experienced – it has rained at some point in each 24 hours for the past month and we have had some amazing storms where the amount of water coming down has overwhelmed the new guttering and it’s simply poured down the side of the house.
Jean Claude has also constructed a first floor in new wood in the centre part of the house, and most of the wall needed to form the bedroom in that part of the house has been put up. So in the centre of the house there is a clearly defined hallway, a downstairs operational loo, a cupboard with the board for the mains electricity supply and a ‘developing’ bedroom with en suite bathroom. These though still need a good deal of work for them to be in any sense complete and useable by us.
Importantly the electrician is due to come back to the house in the next few days and wire up the majority of the eastern end giving us sockets and lighting. There will also be an electric hot water tank to service the western end of the house – there will have to be a separate tank for the eastern end as the house is so big. The problem with all of this is that the electrician and the builder do not exactly get on with each other and I am something of a ‘piggy-in-the-middle’ trying to ensure that they do actually collaborate and produce what we want.
Jean Claude has also constructed a first floor in new wood in the centre part of the house, and most of the wall needed to form the bedroom in that part of the house has been put up. So in the centre of the house there is a clearly defined hallway, a downstairs operational loo, a cupboard with the board for the mains electricity supply and a ‘developing’ bedroom with en suite bathroom. These though still need a good deal of work for them to be in any sense complete and useable by us.
Importantly the electrician is due to come back to the house in the next few days and wire up the majority of the eastern end giving us sockets and lighting. There will also be an electric hot water tank to service the western end of the house – there will have to be a separate tank for the eastern end as the house is so big. The problem with all of this is that the electrician and the builder do not exactly get on with each other and I am something of a ‘piggy-in-the-middle’ trying to ensure that they do actually collaborate and produce what we want.
A very late April Posting - Less, but More
We returned as planned in early April bringing two cars, loads of stuff to keep us going for the next six months and our dog. We had dreaded the journey for ages as Morag, the dog, had proved herself to be a very bad traveller. But in Joanne’s car she proved to be perfectly O.K. and indeed a good companion on the very long journey – we did the drive in one day, a foolish thing to do but it got the journey out of the way swiftly.
From the progress report we had had from our builder we had hoped that there would have been a completed floor in the centre of the house with the construction of a wall allowing for the installation of a bathroom. However, when we met him it emerged that he had injured himself falling out of a tree that he was lopping and had been unable to work for three and a half weeks. So no real progress had been made from the installation of the septic tank and the six windows.
But our presence here has re-energised the project and much progress has subsequently been made, albeit as a consequence of the efforts that we have made. The floor in what will be the central hallway area has been fully dug out and hardcore pebbles put in. In the large room we have cleared away all the rubbish and again shifted pebbles into it – this is not yet complete and we have another delivery of 10 tonnes of pebbles to face moving. A telephone connexion has also finally been made – there was a problem with a blockage in the pipe under the road which took a deal of solving. We now have a landline connexion but it cannot support broadband unfortunately, so it’s dial-up only for us.
The water supply has also been brought through into the house with a new connexion to the meter. Again though there was a problem in that there was a leak on the water company’s side of the meter so they had to come out and fix that. After considerable effort by the technician sent out to deal with it, and a new meter, we were re-connected. And on Sunday we shall have electricity inside the house to provide sockets for the fridge, freezer and washing machine we have also acquired. So as Jean Claude keeps saying as we make progress – toute moderne!
Notwithstanding the humour we are beginning to be really hopeful that we can effectively move into the house in summer with a full range of facilities available to us.
From the progress report we had had from our builder we had hoped that there would have been a completed floor in the centre of the house with the construction of a wall allowing for the installation of a bathroom. However, when we met him it emerged that he had injured himself falling out of a tree that he was lopping and had been unable to work for three and a half weeks. So no real progress had been made from the installation of the septic tank and the six windows.
But our presence here has re-energised the project and much progress has subsequently been made, albeit as a consequence of the efforts that we have made. The floor in what will be the central hallway area has been fully dug out and hardcore pebbles put in. In the large room we have cleared away all the rubbish and again shifted pebbles into it – this is not yet complete and we have another delivery of 10 tonnes of pebbles to face moving. A telephone connexion has also finally been made – there was a problem with a blockage in the pipe under the road which took a deal of solving. We now have a landline connexion but it cannot support broadband unfortunately, so it’s dial-up only for us.
The water supply has also been brought through into the house with a new connexion to the meter. Again though there was a problem in that there was a leak on the water company’s side of the meter so they had to come out and fix that. After considerable effort by the technician sent out to deal with it, and a new meter, we were re-connected. And on Sunday we shall have electricity inside the house to provide sockets for the fridge, freezer and washing machine we have also acquired. So as Jean Claude keeps saying as we make progress – toute moderne!
Notwithstanding the humour we are beginning to be really hopeful that we can effectively move into the house in summer with a full range of facilities available to us.
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