Monday

Seems that something has come up and the plasterer isn’t able to come until the end of the week now. Oh well, so it goes. Having any French person coming over to do work in August is a bonus right!

Otherwise, just a day knuckling down to work.

[16 August 2021]

Tuesday

Busy day of work.

Matt has decided however that we need to make progress. I’ve decided to ignore the ‘need’ however to strip more wallpaper. [This would involve dragging the steamer up 3 flights of stairs from the basement, filled on the ground floor and drag up again to the second. If I do the work he will no doubt then tell me that we are going to put up a false wall or take it down entirely.]

Since the first floor needs to have a lot work in terms of running power and data, which will need to come from the attic or basement, it’s off bounds until we have a route in. The last thing we need is 3 floors of rubbish everywhere. We may even have a guest one day (they will need to help move the old bathroom suite out of the first floor hallway though).

So, we’ve decided to prioritise Room 6, Tonia’s room. We have made the decision however to do what is right rather than what is easy (ugh, it’s the right call though). So time to pull off all the old plaster and the ancient batons.

• 

• 

• 

The other side is the exterior damp-proof membrane, basically it’s the external tiles so zero insulation. Half way through and it’s time for dinner. Glad I started to take down the sides though as Matt is a little heavy handed and just the other side of that thin wood is our very delicate slate roof.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

After dinner we were back off to strip most of the rest back. It was disgusting by the way. We were covered in years of dust and, well I don’t know what. Thankfully some bright spark saw the dark clouds dropping with each pull and thought it would be a good idea to get masks and rubble bags!

Not bad progress after a day’s work. Time to relax, speak to Tonia and update the blog again when the boss goes to bed.

Ah.. damned computer time zone. It’s nearly 1am, I need to get the cat out, brush my teeth and go to bed.

[17 August 2021]

Wednesday

Another very busy day. I was back to back with meetings when I heard Matt shouting to me. Not much I could do about it as I was upstairs in the middle of a call that I couldn’t jump off. It seems that the guys had arrived to chop down the tree under the main power line.

Managing to get off my call a few minutes before the next one I came running across the garden to speak to them. They were offering their services to cut down other trees. After a quick tour of the garden there were a couple that we’d discussed previously that we asked them about. Unfortunately, having just minutes to rush back to another call we made a bad decision and got badly ripped off. But at least the trees are cut back and it’s another job we don’t have to do, even if we probably paid twice what we really should have.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Lots more back to back calls all afternoon until 7pm. I’ve been so busy I haven’t been into the garden for days. Time for a quick trip round the veg patch. Heavens, I swear these cornichons go from tiny to massive in a day, how do the farmers manage to crop them at such consistent sizes?! The other thing is that the recent hot weather seems to have made the broccoli bolt, so apparently today’s table flowers are broccoli flowers..

After work Matt was keen again that we made progress. This time however it was making decisions about bathrooms. Good gosh, we really can labour a point in this house. I swear we have discussed and measured this a thousand times.

After a good couple of hours of looking at every cabinet shower available in France and on every website possible, we decided we’d go down a different route! [I’m starting to see how Tonia may have possibly found this slightly annoying.] Once we decided to change the dimensions of the shower, and that there weren’t any nice options we decided that the best choice was to essentially ‘make our own’ to use all of the space available and give a good sized shower in what could be a small space. I’m sure we are going to have to model this soon so that we can triple check the plans, and maybe reconsider again.

In the interim, decisions are almost made and this is what we have decided on this shower screen. Now just to choose a sink, taps, shower heads and tiles, and probably a few other things. But that’s one bathroom moving forward.

We then launched into shower trays. I think we have a shortlist of about 4 currently. It’s amazing how complicated you can make these things if you try, or simply if you are us. When these things are finally done I hope you all appreciate the many hours we deliberated over the smallest of details, including the curvature and shape of the shower tray and plug holes… [Yes, that is a thing, and I have an opinion on everything, however it also changes – woman’s prerogative right.]

It’s 9:30pm and we are definitely over bathroom shopping, only 6 more to go.

Time to relax. Matt got up to see if the cat was about only to find two black and while cats running onto the veranda. One runs in the house quickly followed by a larger black and white cat, apparently with a full tail. No idea what was happening there but if Meow’s reaction was anything to go by she’s decided who she wants to be with, and it’s clearly Matt.

Right, it’s been a long day. Time for a quick blog update and to get to bed. It’s going to be another long day tomorrow.

[18 August 2021]

Thursday

Back to back calls today. The plasterer came back today which was good. Just the chap on his own this time. I got a message about 2:30 saying that he was done for the day and off, which is fair enough as I’d had the doors closed and was talking away. Seems that he’s done a lot of the work on the roof now so not sure what the next step is. He’s left all his stuff here though and plans to be back tomorrow. Hopefully a much calmer day and I might have 5 minutes to speak to him.

• 

• 

Absolutely exhausted by the end of it but got good feedback about my chairing and managed to finish the Ops Group on time, so taking it as a win. Matt however has managed to sneak off and fix the lawnmower.. That boy is amazing, I have no idea how (or often what) he does but he never ceases to amaze me.

Once I finally finished it was time to take the cat for a walk. Matt caught up with us half way round the garden and showed us some of his additional handiwork today now that the new lawnmower parts have arrived.

• 

• 

• 

• 

Another quick check of the garden and we amazed at how many times we must have missed this cornichon, it’s massive. Time to make some more pickling juice and get them jarred up. The massive one’s not going to fit so might see if at that size it tastes the same as a cucumber.

• 

• 

• 

After dinner it was time to do the PAYE, VAT etc, taxes are fun aren’t they…!

Definitely deserve a bit of TV and a rest after all that.

[19 August 2021]