Monday

Work and more planting, I shall continue to try to make it the most beautiful place you have ever seen. And more arches, because arches are fancy as f**k!

Mum has also been previously very insistent that we take down the metal and glass structure above the front door. Being quite broken it is rather ugly and with us getting the outside of the house done it needs to go. It definitely wasn’t falling on anyone however, this thing isn’t going anywhere and took a lot of work to get out. Eventually we got it down safely and no carotid arteries slashed so that was a win!

Also planning to extend a bit of one border and planted a little climber at the base of the new pool screen – I don’t think this will be very big before the wedding!

[10 April 2023]

Tuesday

First thing, I’m off up to the Mairie to collect our paperwork as the Declaration Prelamble [DP] has been signed off and we need this to do anything. Paperwork in hand it’s time for The Brave, The Big Guns, and that is definitely not me. It’s time for Rick.

Before the company comes to do the outside of the house we need to take the old roof panels off the old veranda. Problem is that it is high, very high. And you need to be both strong and brave – I’m definitely out! ‘Gladiators ready?!’ – at a safe distance, ready to call ambulance, supervisor ‘Ready?!’ – Hey, I’m the only one that knows how to call the emergency service and say “ils sont tombés” [they fell] and get them to the right place so we’re all playing to our strengths.

As terrifying as it is they do a fantastic job and manage to get them all off, pass them down to me and we get them piled up in the garden. I’m not sure that they would have been so keen if they’d seen what was supporting them before they pulled it off but as rotten and old as they were the beams were pretty substantial. I think I might get Rick to sign a waiver next time though

Few more bits to do on the front, this frame that mum was concerned might come down is apparently stronger than 3 of us and almost beat the angle grinder too. Still needed to come out.

Few plants to look at, including the first iris of the season and trying to rescue this pot bound Osteospermum.

[11 April 2023]

Wednesday

It’s so strange keep taking apart bits of my house, that I actually like and I’ve got a lot of use out of, with a ‘view’ to what we will do in the future. I get it, we will have to do/change a lot of these things and when we are paying a small fortune to do the outside of the house this is the right thing to do. I also know that many of them are a LONG way in the future so it’s hard, but we soldier on.

We’ve taken the veranda down as far as I am willing to let go. Last part is the cover over the back door. Ok, so the plastic isn’t exactly original but I like the structure and it serves a good purpose. Still, it shouldn’t be down for long… right?!

There’s only one thing for it, more playing with plants. Time to move things from the nursery (Room 1), to junior (Room 2), to high school (Greenhouse), college (cold frame) and to progress some to uni (outside and independent).

[12 April 2023]

Thursday

Matt and Rick continue to deconstruct the roof of the veranda. It’s wonderful having a monkey friend like Rick happy to climb trees and moving around the frame, the whole thing terrifies me, he’s like a confident little mountain goat jumping around without a concern in the world.

Good thing that they finished getting it down as the Toulouse team is here to start work on the exterior.

It’s every exciting as the scaffolding is going up.

Once work is finished Matt has asked me to help with his haircut. Hopefully you’ll agree that I have now progressed beyond basic Covid cut. Time to relax and finally the cat is trying out her bed.

[13 April 2023]

Friday

Scaffolders are here early but thankfully just getting on with it. Matt is up and working and I have lots of calls back to back so hardly a minute to breath. It was a bit frustrating answering requests to borrow a fork in the middle of a call and the guy turning up to ask what colour we wanted the house painted during another call but we struggle through.

I was on my last call when the doorbell went again to let us know that they were done and heading off but needed a couple of things, including their battery they were charging in my now locked potting shed. Finally I was back on my call. With meetings done, which have taken all day I can at least move and do my work on the road while we go and get the montants and rails so that we can frame up the downstairs bathroom. I was also having a look at the stone surround and found some interesting markings. Turns out they were from a pretty famous maker.

* Look for “mandeville-combeleran castelnaudary” amazing statues created by the company. Can’t find anything like what we have though but there’s an incredible set of lion statues but Matt says I can’t have them.. https://chrisholmesantiques.co.uk/products/french-terracotta-lion-sculptures-by-mandeville-combeleran-1880-1905

Back at the house and we’ve got the metal work into the house but we need to get ready to go out. JC are collecting us to go to Ed’s for the evening, and since it’s pissing with rain the lift is a great offer. We had thought we were taking Rick too but seems that he’s already walked so we were a little late but finally made it.

Fantastic dinner and company as always a good sing along. Really enjoyed ourselves and found that Ed used to be the GM at SoUK in Clapham when we were hanging out there with Doug at the GM at the Clapham North. Small world.

[14 April 2023]

Saturday

We’re up early(ish) as we have things to do. I’m tired but JC are coming over in an hour so we need to get the house vaguely presentable. Time for a quick look around to check what needs doing in terms of the painting and create a plan.

I’ve put all the recycling in the back of the car but don’t have time to drop it off. At least it is out of the kitchen but JC have just arrived with a very lovely picnic, sadly however the weather was too changeable to eat outside as was constant rain, sun, and then rain every few minutes. We had a quick look around the house and then they were off. Time for us to get cracking on the house again so it’s time to start sanding the window frames while the scaffolding is up.

After a couple of glasses of wine Matt wasn’t keen on my being up on the scaffolding but I promised to be safe, I wore my mask at all times and didn’t take any risks that I could fall off it. The big [entrances] make a nice place to stand and with the scaffolding only 6 inches away it’s all about paying attention to where you step. It’s time consuming to get it cleaned, sanded and then painted, but I enjoyed myself and it was very satisfying.

Meanwhile Matt has been down to Luchon to go and pick a few bits and pieces up. He’s also got me a lovely new plant 🙂

By the time he’s back I’m almost finished and then we’re getting on with dinner.

[15 April 2023]

Sunday

I’ve had a little bit of a lie in today but I can’t get iPlayer to work on my iPad so I guess I am going to have to get up before midday. Matt is out in the garden on the lawn mower, I’d be suspicious that this is his way of getting me out of bed, however it does need doing and you can’t make noise from noon on a Sunday so I will give him the benefit of the doubt.

We need however to prioritise the jobs that we can use the scaffolding for and/or that will be very challenging without it. I’m therefore back up and working on the top frames of the ground floor windows. Matt meanwhile has been digging through my flowerbed and punching the hole into the drain for the pool room toilet. It’s not an ideal time to do it what with them about to flower but it needs doing. The cat has been supervising from the pool.

Time for a quick lunch break and then back to it. I’ve managed to rope Matt in to helping me but first we need to take the broken roller shutter out of the window in the salle a manger. It was pretty exciting as it’s the first time that it’s been open since we moved in. So much more light in the room it was lovely. Anyway, onwards. Matt has prepped and done the main painting there so I then went round doing the finer points around the windows.

As the sun moved around to the front of the house Matt prepped the windows while I did the painting. They’re quite detailed and each one needs a little brush to do every part of it. They therefore took over 90mins each, just for the first coat. We’re going to need to wait until we have some proper exterior paint though to get them finished.

I’m very keen that we get them done right, being that we can’t usually get to them. I certainly don’t fancy doing this on a ladder.

Finally the windows are finished. Matt is taking the recycling down while I pot up some more of the sunflowers. I’m very keen that the bigger ones in the cold frame are sent off to the garden soon but we’re still not clear of frost and looking like a 3 deg night tonight. With the Saint’s de glace (ice saints) not until mid May I can’t wait that long, but I think we’re going to have to hold on for another week still.

Time for a bit of a tidy up and to get another clematis in while Matt makes dinner. I’ve also popped a few of the gladioli and few Guernsey Lilies in. They are intended for planter 2 but since we haven’t been able to finish that this weekend due to competing priorities I’m keen that they get started or we’ll have one bed weeks of the other. I still need to get the others started but there’s only so many hours in the day.

Matt’s had a shower first while I take to my face with a cotton bud soaked in some white spirit before I head to the shower, its starting to feel uncomfortable and I’m guessing it’s not the best thing to use as a facemask. A bit of TV and blog update and it is time to head to bed as the builders will be back again in the morning which also means being up early again.

[16 April 2023]

Monday

Up early to meet the builders and make them some coffee, well Matt actually made the coffee as it turns out that I entirely misunderstood how much was meant to go in it and it tasted like dish water.

JC came round about 10:30 to drop off the boys for a few hours while they go to the hospital. They are quite distracting but I do so love having them.

Matt’s off down to the Brico to go get a few things, including some more paint for me, but I have to work and stay with the boys. He’s soon back though and keen to watch the starship launch.

About 5pm and JC are back to pick up the boys, bye bye boys, see you soon.

Finally time for dinner.

[17 April 2023]

Tuesday

Very strange today having men hanging out around my office window. Ok, they are neither hanging out nor is it really an office, they are working around the windows covering them up and it’s the kitchen. It gave me quite the surprise even though I knew they were around though.

Matt is trying to fix Lionel again, we don’t know what is wrong with him but he’s stopped working again and Matt has taken him apart. Nothing obvious however so looks as though we are going to have to call the supplier during the week, which I can only imagine is going to be a nightmare.

Meanwhile I take a break to.. you guessed it.. pot up more plants under the watchful gaze of the cat.

Back to work for a bit before I duck out with Matt to do one more job once the builders have gone. We need to put more granules in the hopper. He passes them to me and then I cut them open and spread them about – this would be much easier if we could just blow them in. Unfortunately while doing so I took a chunk out of myself, lucky it’s just a mere flesh wound.

[18 April 2023]

Wednesday

Another busy day of work with the chaps working on the house. I had a few minutes at lunch and had some seeds from one of mum’s friends [Janet maybe? Sorry I’m writing this quite late and I can’t quite remember]. They’re perfect colours for the wedding so hopefully they will take and bloom at the right time.

Got a message from Ed today and it seems it’s a good day for wild garlic collecting. And we’re off…

We collected quite a bit. We’re definitely going to need to get some more butter for this lot but for the time being it’s on to dinner and, of course, wild garlic butter bread. The trick with wild garlic is not to cook it or you loose all the flavour so you add it after the bread is cooked.

[19 April 2023]

Thursday

It’s an absolutely miserable start to the day so the builders aren’t coming. It cleared up a little in the late afternoon so we managed to do a couple of little things on the house.

Dinner time and I was starting to get concerned that the cat was going to get mine too.

[20 April 2023]