English: Corridor – French: Couloir

Friday

Another busy day as always. I was up early (for me at least). We’re expecting the plumber to come but no idea when. In France it is either first thing in the morning, late afternoon, or (more often) not at all. Almost all my meetings were pushed back for one reason or another – seriously people, I am not a morning person, if you will insist on early meetings then don’t make me get out of bed only to delay them.

Once the meetings started, so of course did the deliveries. Matt was off working on other things so my colleagues were treated first hand to my GCSE French with delivery drivers – I really must learn where the mute button is. Good news however apparently while I was talking the underfloor heating mat for the bathroom arrived.

I have been on calls for most of the morning/afternoon however Matt has managed to find some time to start measuring out the base for the shower in Room 2, ‘the Mum’s Room’. I’m afraid that I have no idea exactly what this all entails but do know we need to ensure that the fall is sufficient to make the water drain out properly or it will overflow – and French water is high pressure.

Once I’m off my calls and on to a conference I head upstairs to try to do my part. Shaun and Jessica were great speaking about the work being done around physical and mental health, while I was busy sanding down the old iron radiator with the laptop propped up next to me.

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With still no sign of the plumber however I finally got a return text message – very rare in France. While for no good reason the appointment wasn’t in his diary I have to applaud him for recognising that we had discussed it previously. Therefore our (lack of) heating situation is higher priority than some but more typically however I was greeted with the ‘I will come on “a” Saturday’. All well and good but what year? Hopefully I am jesting, although I expect it is not tomorrow as none of our bathroom parts are here yet and nobody really knows when they will arrive.

More work and back to the bedroom. There is no way that we can get the radiator downstairs so it’s going have to be painted in place so lots of sheets of plastic are required. Before it’s painted it needs a good clean however; fluffy thing, reverse hoover, general clearing. Pressure wash would have been better but not practical in the bedroom. Seems that spray painting isn’t my forte, not sure why I thought walking through Leake Street a few times would prepare me for this.

Back to work for a bit. Matt is pretty stressed and not too happy, something has broken again and he has to fix it. [I know that you’re meant to have learnt more about your partner during lock-down but I have no idea what’s going on even if I look at his screen – mine is gantt charts, word and powerpoint pictures, his is all nonsense as far as I can tell but it seems to mean something to him]. Guess that I should find some other things to do!

Probably best to start cleaning the kitchen and getting some dinner on for him. Since nothing else has been prepared it seems like another opportune time to pull out some of Mum’s wonderful lasagne. In fact probably a good idea to also pull out that lovely big pie for tomorrow too – the list of jobs for the weekend is pretty long.

While the oven is warming and dinner is cooking I thought I would try to make a start on the hallway. We’ve been talking about reclaiming it for quite a while and it doesn’t seem as though it’s high on Matt’s to do list. [I’ll be interested to see what he occupies himself with once we get into the decor stage.]

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Ok, I’m not sure that you can really tell the difference but I cleared a good space in the basement and have rehomed a lot of the kitchen parts. Clearly still a lot more to go though. Anyway it’s time for dinner. Thanks again mum!

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After dinner mum was free so must have spent about an hour talking to her. Sometimes it’s hard to be away from home. Not long later Lee and Vicky called so chatted to them for a bit. Starting to get tired so had to call it a day as still have to finish the last blog ready for mum and the ardent readers who insist on having something to read over their Saturday morning cup of tea. With that done though it really was time for bed.

[19 November 2021]

Saturday

Good news of the day, woke up to a message from the plumber, he can come next Saturday. It’s not yesterday but it’s not 2023 either.

On the not so good side of the coin, we had a message from the Huxtables and Jonny [having been back to infection island] isn’t feeling well and they need a Lateral Flow test. As natural hoarders we have a few in the cupboard but Matt needed to wake me up to know where. So Cressida dropped over to collect a couple, at a very safe distance outside of course. Fingers crossed it isn’t covid. We haven’t seen them since Mum and Tonia were here, who both had negative PCRs so confident we don’t have it too thankfully.

After a quick chat with Cress we were off back upstairs. In the bathroom the old radiator hooks need to be removed as where they are currently you’ll smack your head on them in the bath and that could be pretty bad. Guess we’re going to need a new radiator though so maybe add that one to the Christmas list.

Time for an extended discussion about how we are going to wire and plumb the bathroom. I’m not entirely sure what I add to these discussions… I think Matt just likes me to understand the ‘process’. Once it was decided however the question for me was what height I wanted the light switch, thermostat and plug socket [French ‘Norms’ (Regulations) say you have to have a plug socket in the bathroom – a complete no-no in the UK]. Fair point I guess, I just measured the height of the others that we’re retaining in the hallway and Matt checked it was in agreement with the ‘Norms’.

With that decision made it was time to start to cut the channels for the cables that Matt will run – he’s very clever. Since my decision making skills no longer required and I’m no good with either plumbing or electrics I was off to find something else to do.

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Although not high on Matt’s to-do list the hallway definitely needs to be reclaimed (again). It’s amazing how quickly we clear a space and then it’s claimed again [with this level and speed of land grab it’s like being an estates director in a hospital]. We can’t very well invite the Huxtables to act as caretakers while we are away at Christmas (and their kitchen is being redone) without a bit of clearing so they can actually use the space.

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Not quite finished but Matt wants to go up to Montrejeau to get plumbing bits and something else which apparently requires my help. As much fun as this was (not very) we then had to go to Rural Master to pick up the other bits, how much more match time can we miss?! [it’s the England v South Africa Rugby Union Internationals.] Managed to get back for the gripping end of the match though – 27-25 to England!! 🙂

Once the game was finished it was time to finish the hallway. It always amazes me how big it looks when it is clear, bamboozled every time.

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Dinner up next. Going to need to ask mum to leave reheating instructions next time – she’s not overly receptive to responding to text messages. We were hungry though so muddled through.

OK, time to watch the NZ v France match. Thankfully my washing is finally dry too so I can get my jammies on. What a match, France are going to be hard to beat in the 6 nations if they play like they did today. Relaxing time and Matt off to bed while I work on the blog. But now time for me to go to bed.

Night

[20 November 2021]

Sunday

First up we need to clear the bathroom again so that we can work out exactly where the bath will be positioned, the location of the taps, the route for the ensuite shower next door and power and lighting.

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Since Matt has all those jobs to do that I can’t help with I am off to do the jobs that he doesn’t want to do. Yep, cleaning. The apparently large floor that exists in the hallway could certainly do with a once over and hopefully Matt is hidden away so won’t start walking all over it.

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Matt has been down in the basement finishing building the shower base for the mums ensuite – it needs to be raised for the drainage or we’d have to cut out all the old floorboards and that got a hard no from me. While I’m keen to upgrade the house I’m also keen to keep as many of the ‘bones’ in place as possible and the beautiful old floorboards are staying. If styles change in years to come I’d hate to have ripped the floor out, plus it would be incredibly difficult to ever access if there was a problem.

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One of the things we picked up on the Montrejeau trip yesterday was a piece of wood for the new/temporary lights in the kitchen. Before they can be fitted however the wood needs to be varnished. Despite ‘the’ idea that we only needed to varnish one side that’s not going to work in a kitchen where it just absorbs any fats etc, it has to be wipeable so needs to be varnished on both sides. With a 2 hour wait for each coat however – and turning time – this is not a quick job, despite being one of the most enjoyable things I have done.

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Since I have to wait I guess I should find other things to keep busy, I mean it is Sunday right no time to be lazy. Before I do any work on the house though I need to call mum and see how she’s doing. Since’s she’s ok and I’ve had some baguette, pate and cheese I guess I should really crack on with that work. One thing that piles up incredibly quickly at this house is recycling so it’s time for a trip to the bins around the corner. If there is a world shortage of boxes I’m pretty sure you will find them all here.

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Back at the house and I can finally coat the other side of the wood. Thankfully they put the sticker on the the slightly less attractive patina.

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Thankfully the dining room is starting to be reclaimed now.

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Meanwhile Matt has been very busy upstairs. We now have hot water running to the ensuite, power and lighting. He’s pretty impressive. He is however exhausted from running up and down the stairs and has had a terrible sore throat that kept him up all night so he’s done for the day. Time for me to go around after and tidy up, at least now I can remove the deadly tiles that tripped me up in the dark last week.

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I still need to do another coat on the lighting board. Just in time too as it was starting to get pretty dark and about to rain. Finished just in time but my newly cleared hall is already starting to get filled up again as I need somewhere to put it to dry out of the rain and then there’s the light fittings.

Matt is going down hill and has terrible chills – ok, something not unfamiliar in this house however this definitely seems to be something different. Thankfully we still have some more of mum’s pie for dinner and I make an excellent nurse – when I want to. With the oven on, it’s time to clear the kitchen. Apparently it was a light job – an hour later I’m finally happy that we can call it ‘tidy’ – not sure it would pass the mother test still though.

Anyway, after dinner, Chateau DIY, lemsips, changing the bedding [if you don’t demand fresh sheets when you’re sick you’re a heathen], electric blankets, regular blankets, paracetamol, pain au chocolate to go with some ibuprofen, water and getting the heater on I think I’ve got everything ready for Matt to get a nice early night.

With Matt safely tucked up I’m free to catch up with Mum and Tonia. Then time to crack on with the blog. However a quick glance at Facebook reminded me of what we were doing two years ago – hanging out in some very uncomfortable hospital seats in London waiting for our ‘main man’ to come out of surgery. Seems Mumma Camp is up so we also had a good catch up. Last up it’s time to get the blog updated. I hope it’s worth it. Night

[21 November 2021]