Trying to keep track of what we did on every day is sometimes difficult as these blogs are usually written a few days after things actually happened. Thankfully I do recall the kind chap at the garage reminding me that Wednesday (mercredi) comes before Thursday (jeudi) so it must have been today that we got up super early to get the car to the garage at 9am. [When he initially
Read moreIn order to get the kitchen finished, we’re probably going to have to put off taking the car to the garage to Tuesday as we have no idea how long it will be there. I will drop by though to let them know it needs to come back. Rather busy with work but do manage to make it down to Luchon to go and clear them out of board for
Read moreAnother day that I am up earlier than expected (no, that doesn’t mean early, just that Matt has well adjusted expectations.) Once I am up we head into the kitchen to carry on with the task at hand, putting the new suspended ceiling in. Matt has spent a lot of time up and down the scaffolding marking, drilling and attaching the rods I made and then adding the rails. I
Read moreMatt and the car are not playing well together today. It seems that despite the early fix it hasn’t done the job as is likely to be a lot more expensive when we take it back in. As I understand it, there is a second hydraulic thing somewhere deep in the engine which may also have to be replaced. Nothing much we can do right now but Matt is not
Read moreEarly start again this morning as we have a planned power cut from 8:45-12, so taking advantage of the fact that we can can’t do any work. We have a long list of places to go and visit over in Pau (about an hour and 15 north west of here). Obviously we weren’t actually up at 7 but Matt was up at 7:45 and made me tea to lure me
Read moreBrutal wake up call. The fuel delivery for the boiler was due between 7am and 12. The French phone rang at about 8:20. Not a good time of day for me but I managed the standard ‘Oui, d’accord, j’arrive’ (yes, ok, I’m coming) – if I can convince Matt to answer the French phone I recommend that he just uses this and puts the phone down. If it’s more complicated
Read moreBusy day with work today. This afternoon however we have the pellet boiler guy coming from St Gaudens to scope it out and see whether it is an option. It’s not our first choice but the chance of getting a professional of any sort over the threshold is appealing. For a house of this size we’ll need a fairly big one which means we’ll use a lot of pellets. We’ve
Read moreIt’s suddenly much warmer today. Unfortunately the front hasn’t passed yet so it’s just grey and raining all day. Pretty damned miserable if you ask me, but hopefully it means that the house might be a little warmer too. We’re still somewhat limited in what we can do since the car isn’t back unfortunately. When I got downstairs however I’d expected to see Matt working on something but seems he
Read moreThroughout the day I have been musing on this post and the various activities that we have been doing over the past two or three months. Within this I have determined three distinct phases of progress: Backward Backwards Backward Forwards Forward Forwards Square 1 – Backwards backwards – as you have probably guessed, this is the least desirable of the phases. It is however, at least on a DIY [and
Read moreIt’s Friday again and I have a pretty light day today. Thank heavens, it’s been a pretty heavy week with work. In today’s news: curfew in France is now going to be pushed to 6pm across the country. [It was previously 8pm in most places, with some large cities already at 6pm.] In order to make the most of my ‘time off’ I have packed my diary back to back
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