Friday

Having done a tour around the house on the scaffolding there were a few things that we’d seen that we weren’t 100% happy with. We had a chat with the builders though who seemed happy to look at them all and address them which is great, better to raise it now than when they take the scaffolding down eh!

While I’d love to just crack on with work that idea croaked. We have to go up to St Go for Matt’s scan. As soon as we got out the car I noticed a strange sound, almost like singing but.. not. I suddenly realised that we had parked next to a large pond. There must be a whole heap of frogs in there singing to us. We’re a bit early so I encouraged Matt to help me investigate. Jeremy Fisher, I’m bloody well right! There are huge numbers of them.

Fa,la,la, boring waiting scans. I tried to get some work done in the waiting room but the reception [excuse the pun] was terrible so I had to sit outside when I could. Afterwards we had a quick trip over to Isosol to go see what they had, nothing for today. We also of course popped into Action and Noz while we were there and got a couple of things.

Since we are up this way we thought we’d also check in on Tim and Elvina and see how they are doing. It seems however that they are too gracious to say no to a visit as they had other guests arriving soon for dinner, and clearly are much fancier than us but we enjoyed seeing them briefly and getting a quick tour of their lovely Gîte [so if you ever need somewhere to stay on the outskirts of St Go their’s is lovely and has an incredible view].

Back home and time to relax and get dinner ready.

[21 April 2023]

Saturday

First job of the day is to go to the dechetterie. Oooh! Lookie, look, look… pretty!

What I definitely need are some old cart wheels. We need those for the wedding. I’m not sure why or how yet but we definitely need them. Matt is on board without complaint or argument so we must need these. There’s also a few terracotta plant pots he immediately grabbed out for me – I definitely know why I am going to marry this man!

After putting them up against the tree the first thing I do is send a pic to the girls [Cress and Rane], I’m sure they are going to be very impressed. [My mum tends to be less impressed by my dump finds].

I went off to work in the garden and move all the babies through the nursery, cold frames etc while Matt went off to the Bricos.

It’s only just after midday but time to crack on. We need to get the external plumbing done. Having done the first part, we now need to get the pool house toilets plumbed into the mains drains. This is vital not only for getting toilets ready for the wedding – which seems to be driving almost everything right now – but in this case also for having a long term outside toilet so kids [and me] don’t go flying with wet feet across the marble floor in the hallway. I have already tested this in Kenya with the ‘kids’ and it was pretty frightening as I skidded down the hallway towards the bathroom.

Quick move of a few plants and I’m back to painting. Rain is on and off so when we get a chance we take it.

Sun down so time to move into the house. There’s hardly enough time to breath right now as we have so many things to do. But we love it. So the next stop is Room 7. Matt is working on the tape and joining before coming to help me with the wild garlic butter. We have made ‘a lot’. Quite a few have been put into the freezer and marked for the wedding weekend.

Time for bed.

[22 April 2023]

Sunday

Lunch outside today while there’s a break in the weather. Then it’s up the scaffolding to go and see what else needs doing. Seems that one of the things that wasn’t on the list was the guttering – of course it’s not actually part of the walls but would be a shame if everything else is done and they look shabby so I make a start on that while Matt heads inside to do more taping and joining in Room 7.

About 16:30 it starts to rain again. Turns out that the reason the builders don’t come when it rains is that the paint is water soluble until it has dried so all the work I have done is just starting to drip off..! At least I also cleaned the gutters while I was there.. Being such a high house however I have do say that I was very plesantly surprised buy how few leaves and little other detritus there was in there.

While rain has called an end to play outside there is still plenty to be done inside. Work on Room 2 and cleaning the house, starting with the salon. Finally though it’s time for dinner, a bit of well deserved rest and kitty cuddles.

[23 April 2023]

Monday

Yet another trip up to the hospital but this time without the frog chorus, or maybe that was just where we parked. Anyway it all went well so nothing much to report and then back to work.

[24 April 2023]

Tuesday

More work. Being so busy we raided the freezer and found some lovely lasagne that mum made for us on one of her last visits. Thanks mum! 🙂

[25 April 23]

Wednesday

Big things happening today, the team is going to look at the very large section of missing masonry at the top of the house. We’ve always noticed and hated this bit, I’m very excitied about this getting done. First step apparently is doing a filler so that they can bulk it out before they then add the render and finish. Yyyay!

For all the reasons we are doing the external works and what needs to be done this is way up there and possibly the most exciting thing that I’ve wanted to do for the house since we got it. It’s going to need to settle and there isn’t much more to be done today but I’m very excited about this small [ft long, 30 cm?] progress.

Flower and veg garden is starting to look pretty overgrown and going to need quite a bit of attention and the cat is investigating the speakers that Matt has been testing out in the garden. They are certainly very loud but he assures me that it is sufficiently directional and won’t upset all the neighbours.

As we retire the cat tests out the boxes for size. I think they’re a bit big for her but she must try them all before she is satisfied.

[26 April 2023]

Thursday

Further work happening on the large sections of masonry that were missing and so far it’s looking really good.

Meanwhile the cat is playing with Matt’s very smelly slippers and Matt and I look at the various options for exactly which height we should mount the future wainscoting in Room 2.

It’s pretty warm today so looks as though we might finally open the pool for the first time this season.

[27 April 2023]

Friday

Pretty miserable start to the day again today so no workmen here. There have been quite a few unexpected delays so while the scaffolding was planned to come down today it is definitely going to be up for the weekend which gives us a chance to finish off a few more final jobs that we hadn’t got done. Which is a great relief.

It cleared up somewhat in the afternoon though and since the compost chap isn’t there at the weekends we need to go down to the dechetterie today to make a deal with him. Thankfully we managed to find him and strike a deal per tonne – much cheaper than buying it from the Brico and far more realistic with the amounts I need to finish filling my planters and use on the rest of garden.

While we had hoped that they might just be able to dump a load into the trailer we were mistaken so I stayed with the trailer while Matt went and grabbed some shovels. A tonne later and we were on our way back home. The next stage is to then fill the remainder of the planters and start to get some flowers in. I only had the time and energy to do one today though and a few pots.

Weather held out for the evening so we had dinner outside, and one final pot made up. I am determined that the garden will be blooming beautiful by the time the wedding comes around – although would have been better if it was somewhat more established so it may be a bit of a wing and a prayer but the more I plant the more chance I have right?! As the sun drops it’s time to head in and rest – a message the cat got loud and clear.

[28 April 2023]

Saturday

Tonia left the UK at the crack of dawn and was booked on the 8:20 crossing to France. Looks like we should have some visitors again late this evening.

I still need to do a second coat on the kitchen and salon windows. They are so fiddly and intricate to paint but it needs to be done and at least they are recessed. Matt heads up to the top of the house to investigate what might be done with the weather vane but it is still a long way out of reach and weather isn’t amazing so he goes to help me take down the old bell.

After lunch we’re off to the dechetterie to go collect the second load of soil we paid for yesterday. It’s hard work moving literal tonnes of earth in and out of the trailer and then around the garden but needs must and we’ve created quite the pile here now.

Burgers for dinner but back to being miserable and wet so we’re back inside. Tonia should be joining us later so we have some ready for her arrival too… when she does we start to fear that she’s not just bought stuff for the wedding but will be moving in until it’s over.

Late night walk and the dog appears to have found something interesting so we go to investigate. Looks like she’s found Frank, or Toby?!

[29 April 2023]

Sunday

Even though it is rather expensive I do quite love having scaffolding on the house, it makes so many more things accessible. Work continues and Matt is reflashing the base of the chimney to ensure that it is fully weatherproofed for as long as possible.

Tonia is glad to get to go up the scaffolding and Anya also know what’s so exciting – she is not allowed on the scaffolding however!

I had a look at the window frames from the second floor but unfortunately they can’t be reached from the scaffold, and hardly too from the window. Instead Tonia and I had a go at cleaning the bell. Frankly it wasn’t a great success but it was a bit shinier. After a bit of messing about we moved on to starting the potager. The first bit anyway, making the paths accessible. Then BBQ for dinner.

[30 April 2023]