Sunday and the usual order has resumed in the house. Yesterday and last night bought with it another 10cm of snow. Before I can take advantage of it however I am put to work again as the lady of the lamp. All the power is off to the house as we endeavour to put in the temporary board to replace the somewhat dangerous mess that currently exists.

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Once the temporary box is in I take the opportunity to have a bit of a clear up. May as well stack the polystyrene against the walls to act as insulation while I’m at it. Won’t make a jot of difference but what else am I going to do with it?!

Quick check of the fuel levels and seems that we probably have 2-3 weeks left, assuming that we continue to only run the boiler for about an hour to heat the water for showers in the mornings.

Lunchtime and we decide that since the snow is so nice that we will have leftover tartiflette and mulled gin on the veranda.

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Since we have done a few bits and pieces I decide that we really ought to make the most of the new snow. So we make a snowman. Well, technically, we ended up making a snowlady. She had a nice red lipstick on and her hair all done up nice ready to go out. Incidentally, I posted this one on facebook and it seems that Tim, who has recently moved from the UK to Saint Gaudens (not far away), has built her a boyfriend (I hope he doesn’t mind me borrowing his picture).

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I also have to make a snow angel too…

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That done, we need to move on and get the lighting fixed in the dining room so that we can move the kitchen in. I didn’t much like the look on Matt’s face while he was investigating it. Apparently it’s some of the oldest wiring in the house. Where you would expect there to be a [jumping box] it was just two wires hooked over one another. This has caused arcing and it’s small wonder that it hasn’t caused a fire. We have some light cabling though so Matt is able to replace it and make it safe(r).

Next job was to see if we could run a cable into the dining room for the oven. Unfortunately, after two holes in the floorboards and one from the basement, we weren’t getting anywhere, even with an 80cm long drill bit. We finally went with option two. I’ll grant you, this is not the most traditional place for an oven, but it will do in the short term. With any luck it will spur on the work in the other areas of the house and speed up the work in the kitchen.

The fridge is moved in and the other oven. That will have to do for now. We’re done and it’s time for dinner.

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Ooops! Was looking at the UK clock not the French one. I thought it was 11pm when I committed to spending the next hour updating the blog. It’s not. So now it’s 1am and I really need to get to bed. I have to be up to drop off the car at 9am, local time, today, before work. Night all.

Monday

It’s super early, but today is the day that the car is booked in at the local mechanic. Apparently I have to get up and go too in case we need to explain the problem again in French. Sadly, the car being in the shop also means that we won’t be able to go to Luchon to get the remaining parts to work on the ceiling.

It’s another crisp morning in the snow as we walk home (about 200 metres).

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Matt and I are both back to back with work (on our real jobs, not the house) for most of the day. A brief sojourn outside for lunch, last of the tartiflette and some pizza.

There’s lots more work to be done today, and a couple of deliveries. The first delivery guy was great, called to say he was on his way and later to ask if we could meet him at the road. Looking at his van and the snow in the drive there was no way he was getting it in, and if he did he certainly wasn’t getting it back out again, so fair enough. Thankfully it wasn’t too heavy, just bits that we had been waiting quite a while for – more gaines (electrical ducts) etc.

While most of my work today was prep work for the big meeting tomorrow and an event in Feb, I did have a half hour conference call. Of course, this is when the second delivery guy rang. For the first time. Matt tried to help me answer it, unfortunately he had no idea what the guy said. So I excused myself and spoke to him. He wasn’t in the driveway and couldn’t see him waiting in the road. I confirmed that we were indeed in and waiting for him. Matt went off to stand at the edge of the road to meet him.

That was that, I thought, back to my call. Nope, another call, Matt is outside so I have to answer – this time it was ‘what is our address?’.. Seriously! I gave him the address and again thought that was it. A few minutes later, and yet another bloody call. I excuse myself from my call and explain again that my ‘husband’ (mari) – not the mayor’s office (Marie) – was at the side of the road waiting for him. Finally, back to the call. What a joke – the only half hour in the day I was busy and had an entire team waiting for me to advise them and I spent half of it speaking a complete ass of a delivery guy!

More pics of it being sunny, bright blue sky and some snow..

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Anyway, more work done and finally it’s evening. With the car in the shop there’s not much we can do so it’s an evening of watching TV and finally getting us back on track with the blog updates. And, since this one is now done it’s off to bed for me. Night all x