Was definitely cold last night!

Matt’s up reasonably early and he has a present for me..

Super excited, my axe has been sharpened! It’s a good man that’ll get up and sharpen your axe for you before you get up.

Also got our first post today which was exciting, thanks mum.

Time to test the push lawn mower to see if we can at least get that up and running. Bit of oil and some fuel and bingo. Up and running with the best of them.

Ok, seems Matt wants to have another go at that bedroom light so time for me to get up and help. First and foremost, check that the electricity is off. Seems that the first ladder is too short and the second needs a bit of ballast on the opposite side as it’s pretty dodgy. Might be worth investing in some scaffolding in the not too distant future. Anyway, he’s up there and seems that the wiring in the ceiling isn’t too bad, either way it’ll be a dog to get to as it is directly under the joist. Good enough for now.

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The chandelier however is in a far more sorry state. The in house expert has confirmed that it is suffering from ‘Really shonky wiring!’ There also appears to be about 20 or so years of dirt on it, so if we can’t make it work, we may as well take it down for a clean. It’s clearly useless where it is.

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Pretty pleased with that if I say so myself.

Now it’s time for the lessons section of the day. First up, filling and starting the lawn mower. Not too tricky, I can handle this. Not sure why they needed the extra handle to help it go forward but also prevents it going backwards, just going to assume that it is a French thing. Pulling the cord hard enough and quick enough to get the damned thing started on the other hand is an entirely different kettle of fish. I think I’ll come back to this or maybe just use a rake like normal people.

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The French do like to have a peaceful lunchtime anyway so that’s enough of that for now.

What’s Matt up to now?! Ooh, he seems to have found something!

Well, well, well. I never. He’s only gone and found a second well. Nothing in it mind but quite exciting. Matt’s response “Well we may not have a dungeon, but this will serve in a pinch.”

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Lunchtime. Galettes and pate with a baguette again.

Figured we may as well have a look in the other well while we are here. Much deeper and this one also has water in it. (Bonus points if you spotted the pun in the title).

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Apparently it is log splitting axe not a chopping axe but didn’t stop me giving it a go. It was hard work though and the wood kept bouncing around. Matt soon convinced me away with a promise of a bit more demolition.

Up to the twin room and time to see if we have some nice beams that we can expose rather than the awful boxing and wallpaper that just makes the whole place seem much smaller. Success. Definitely big old beams under there.

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They’re not in great condition but a bit of planing down and some varnish and I am confident that they’ll come up nicely.

Next adventure. Time to finally find out what is in the pigeonnier (or tower if you prefer).

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Well not a lot. Pretty much just a small broken window that is going to need to looking at at some point. It’s also terribly difficult to get into, particularly without touching the insulation or hanging onto the ladder. Generally felt quite precarious so time to head out and see what other bits and pieces are up here.

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That’s pretty interesting. It’s quite delicate as pieces were falling off it as Matt pulled it from the eaves. We’re guessing that it probably used to sit on top of the tower.

Back down to the kitchen and Matt points out that the old extractor needs to be removed before the fridge arrives. This thing is disgusting and covered in fats and other eugh so I think we should suit up for this one.

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The wooden surround was actually concreted into the wall so had to just cut it back as far as we could. Matt is very excited about the potential to use the old chimney as a riser for the upcoming electrical works. Also may have given rise to a potential change in the siting of the master board.

I, obviously, was more excited by the old wallpapers behind it.

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Clearly I was looking pretty fly in my get up so thought you deserved a sexy shot. Damn I make this look good!

Back to the garden to see if I can get the lawn mower to start this time. Well that’s a hard no. May as well get a bit of it done though while it’s running. It took nearly an hour to mow this much (had to go over twice to pick up all the leaves) and it’s probably less than a 10th of the whole garden so Matt definitely needs to get that ride-on mower working soon!

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I feel dinner impending so time to tidy up. Actually I might do a bit of a blog update in front of the rugby replay and let Matt carry on with that. He seems to be almost done and it’s starting to get dark to time to close up the shutters, turn on the boiler and get dinner started.

Our first proper homemade meal, 4 types of fruit and veg no less. It’s chilli. Bon appetite!

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A long day mostly done. Time for a nice St Emilion and to formulate the next plan of attack.

Few boxes of clothes and things moved upstairs while I have a big strong man to help me. Amazing how big this chest of draws seemed in the old flat, now it’s tiny!

Moved stuff across to the other side as it lent itself to becoming a temporary dressing room and made it all look much tidier.

Really pleased to hear from Edwin that I went to Uni with today. Being so remote in so many ways right now it’s nice that in some small way this has also brings us closer to some people. Makes the time and effort of doing these blogs seem a little more worthwhile. So thanks to all of you that are taking your time to follow and read these. In the words of Jeff: “Think of the fans!” 😉

Anyway time finally for a bit of rest before bed.