Wednesday

Still under the weather but battling onwards as have lots of work to be cracking on with. Matt has already been up working for ages, he does like a morning. I’ve checked my emails and am taking the cat for a walk, it’s important bonding time for us to take a breath and enjoy the scenery.

Phone call from the delivery guy, he’s going to be here in 5 mins, I have no idea what it is. Despite my misgivings I had to give it to Matt as it was one of his birthday presents. I’d usually be a stickler for him not to have it until his birthday but since he’s going to be away apparently I had to let him play with his new toy.

Back to work. Then time to relax and make the most of it with some nice Cremant and a bit of romance to celebrate our second housiversay – we have to keep testing which ones might be good for the wedding after all. 2 years already and still not one thing in the house fully completed. But we’ll get there one day.

Dinner finished and we’re ready to go. Now I’m stuffed. Time for some relaxation, blog update and then bed.

[16 November 2022]

Thursday

Ooh, delivery man is on his way again and this time I have a good idea what he’s brining and it’s very exciting.

I can see that none of you are anywhere near as impressed by my new toy as I am, but trust me, you’ll be very grateful when you come and visit and don’t break your ankle and it will be good to prep parts of the garden ready for the wedding. It also has a good resale value once we’re done with it.

Matt is off to go make more holes in the ground floor bathroom so that we can move the sink and add the riser and then moved on to clearing some more ground of nettles and brambles ready for me. Buoyed by new toy it’s also time for me to crack on with a bit more garden work and show Matt that I deserve this lovely shiny new toy. Job one of course is to pull a bunch more rocks out of the future games lawn.

Finishing this whole thing is going to take forever so I’m over that for now and decided that I’d start to clear the front area out by the pool. This whole area also needs to be de-rocked, weeded and reseeded. It will also be in a lot of the pictures so is actually a higher priority, if the games lawn isn’t finished it won’t be the end of the world, but hopefully we’ll get something done with it at least! For the time being I will have to settle with the progress made here. It’s going to take at least two more days to do it but it will be worth it when it’s done.

Matt had ‘popped’ out to Luchon to get some pellets as the boiler was basically dry and then to pick up some other bits and pieces while I cracked on with making dinner, it’s chilli and I still argue that I make it better than he does. I did however manage to throw the onion all over the floor however so maybe even I’m not perfect, just don’t let Matt know. Definitely don’t let Matt know as it turns out that he came back with some amazing presents. A new backpack for travelling – mine has holes in – roses, profiteroles, baguette, wine and beer.

Dinner done and it seems as though the cat is trying to steal the radiator away from us.

Friday

Having been out in the garden making the most of the weather yesterday, today is not so good and we have a lot of work to catch up on. The only excitement of the day was another birthday delivery from Matt, it’s from his mum! It might not look like much to you or me but it’s what he wanted. Some sort of fancy new wallet, the one that my mum gave him years ago is now rather exhausted and needed to be replaced before his trip. Apparently it has a fancy RFID blocker etc and is some sort of special swanky. We also picked up some fancy cheeses to test for the wedding. I swear that our cholesterol will be through the roof by the time this wedding rocks around!

Oh wait, I nearly forgot, Matt also managed to finish moving the sink in the ground floor bathroom so that’s also a result.

[18 November 2022]

Saturday

Matt’s been busy on electrics this morning and is working on ensuring that the lighting in rooms 3 and 4 are done. It’s slow going though. I’m still not entirely recovered, poor voice and haven’t had enough time in bed sleeping.

Up and at it though. I was hoping to continue cracking on with preparing the lawn, however it seems that the weather is against me today. It’s clearly been raining quite a bit and so the soil is just going to be claggy. So, what else needs doing?

Meow and I had a good look around the garden and it seems that there are a number of things that need to be put away. Problem is that we need to get the pool room ready before we start packing it full of stuff. As with any job however it’s not overly simple. Job 1 – cutting back the honeysuckle and rose of Sharon so that we can get to the Pool House. [Pool house may sound glamorous for what you see now but believe me, it will look indistinguishable once it’s finished.]

Inside it seems that Matt is fighting a largely losing battle so far with the external shutter in Room 1 but he’s persevering and working out what it is that he needs to do to fix it, even if he doesn’t actually have all the bits he needs.

After a short, and late, lunch break it was back to the chicken coop for me and to start removing the vines from the inside so that I can take off the old chicken wire ready to replace the external walls. It wasn’t an easy job and it definitely fought back, I just hope that it’s as resilient as I’ve always found honeysuckle in the UK to be. I’d be hugely disappointed for it not to start flourishing in the spring. The upper bits of wire are off though so we’re pushing closer.

Matt has been cracking on with more electrics upstairs and it seems that we now have lights again in Rooms 3 and 4 which is result. He’s also then made dinner which is nice so as the light fades I’m beckoned back inside. Katsu curry and a Cremant, come on! This is good news after a hard day’s work.

[19 November 2022]

Sunday

Up earlier than usual. Matt has been doing more work on the electrics. Now I’m up however and the sun is shining it is time that we get back to the chicken coop. I need some help from Matt at this stage to get the final bits of wood and chicken wire off.

With a short break due to rain and Matt having some lunch I decided to busy myself tidying up Tonia’s room. If we’re going to bring some plasterboard up to do the roof then it needs to be clean. Before I could finish however the sun was back out and it was back to the chicken coop.

I pulled off the last bits of wood while Matt put in the new uprights. Then time to start adding the boards. Thankfully the central post was pretty perfectly placed and we could just nail them straight on which saved a lot of faffing having to cut all the boards.

We’ve been really cracking on and the panels have been going up pretty quickly most of the time. Some of them not so much and there are a few broken one but it’s definitely progressing. Since they are actually internal boards we need to get them painted up with at least the first coat asap.

We didn’t quite manage to finish the top which will need a bit of work to cut the boards to the right shapes and notches to fit but we’re pretty much there. With the weather changeable at the moment I was keen to get a layer of protection on, with thanks to the Huxtables who bought it over for us on their drive back to the UK. It’s looking pretty good if you ask me and much more robust than it was. It’s still going to need a second coat but we’ve just lost the sun and it’s getting cold already.

Back up to finish hoovering Tonia’s room and then off with Matt to get rid of the recycling. The hall has been chock full of cardboard boxes and I’m sick of it. With that done we’re back at the house and it’s time for showers before we go out to dinner at R&Rs. I think we’ve got quite a lot done this weekend!

[20 November 2022]

Monday

After a tough weekend we had to be up early to get the Beast down to Luchon for its CT (French MOT – roadworthiness). We know she’s not in good shape so this isn’t looking good.

It wasn’t good. She kicked out a huge amount of smoke. We now have two months grace to take it to a garage to get it fixed and bring it back. [French garages can either fix cars or do MOTs, but  never the twain shall meet.] It’s a bit of a blow and as we have no idea what is wrong with it, how much it’s going to cost to get repaired and if it’s in fact worth doing at all.

Back home and we’re both back to work. Matt made beef stew for dinner and it’s very cold this evening but the pellet supply for the boiler’s gone down extremely quickly so time to get that fire lit. The chimney is also very cold though so it’s chucked a huge amount of smoke back into the room but once it was cleared it was nice and toasty.

[21 November 2022]

Tuesday

Definitely been some snow up on the high peaks and more due later.

Quick trip down to the local garage to see if we can get an idea of how much this car might be to fix. Unfortunately there wasn’t much that they could do there apart from spend a few hours taking it apart with no promise that it would do anything. Instead they recommended that we take it up to the dealership in St Gaudens who would have specialist equipment to diagnose the problem. Another present has also arrived for Matt’s birthday, a shinny new phone case. Not very exciting but these are the things he wants.

Why does the cat constantly want to go ‘out’ but then just sits in the doorway stopping me from closing the door and letting all the warm air out of the kitchen?!

[22 November 2022]

Wednesday

Matt is super busy and I’m largely sat around waiting for people to sign off the redraft that I did this morning. Keen to try to get something from the day one of the jobs that needs doing is to start to clear out the old skirting boards etc from the woodshed and put them into the s**t shed at the end of the chicken coop. Currently some of them are just sitting out in the rain rotting away which is no good for anyone or anything, the others are in the space that we’re going to need when we get a new wood delivery in early December. Weather is rubbish though and it’s not much fun. I did also manage to get the wood in that we’d pulled off the side of the shed, not sure how much of it we need or will reuse but again no use getting wet and rotting away.

Whoah! What’s this?! As I put one of the pieces on the pile on the wheelbarrow I noticed something we’d clearly not seen before, there’s a letter attached to the back of it. Matt’s on a call so not overly interesting but it’s made my week. Tonight I shall play detective and do some salvage magic – The Repair Shop has got nothing on me, hopefully.

Finally got my work signed off and tender submitted so time to make a clear list of all the things that need to be completed before NY and highlight what Matt needs to do before he goes off to the states. Electrics for Tonia’s room are a high priority – she and Anya are going to need lighting and a plug as a minimum – and I really want the light switch for the 1st floor landing on the ground floor done, it’s driving me insane. I can’t do either of these however so off upstairs to trim off some of the excess expanding foam ready for Matt to put up the last bit of plasterboard in the pink bathroom.

With that done and Matt still working it’s off to the ‘renovation station’ to see what I can make of this letter. It’s clearly been lost behind the skirting board somewhere between 1954-75 but no idea when. Let’s get it cleaned up and see what info we can get.

I’ve cleaned it up as much as possible and it appears that is was to a Mrs Martin and posted from somewhere in the Gers. Unfortunately it’s so degraded that if I try to do anything more it’s just going to disintegrate which also means no hope of getting the letter out either. Time to relax, the cat isn’t being overly helpful though and I’ve been beckoned to the bathroom to help finish off Matt’s haircut. Looking good!

[23 November 2022]

Thursday

Matt is very busy with calls today. My first job is to start getting Room 1 ready for its next guest who’ll be arriving on Friday. Thousands of dead cluster flies and dust all over everything. Wiped the bed down first before stripping it. Apparently you can’t wash tuille with standard bedding as it needs to be on delicate. I beg to differ, possibly to my detriment, time will tell. I haven’t entirely lost my mind though, I’ve put it into a pillow case to hopefully give it enough protection.

My lime seems to have decided that the run into winter is the best time to start making fruits. I just hope that I can keep it alive over winter.

Quick trip down to Luchon to get a couple of bits from the Brico and then to get the electrics wired up so that we can actually turn on the lights in the hallway, it might be useful for our guests to be able to see. Not much I can do to help with electrics so I’m off to make dinner.

After dinner and I’m almost done with my Christmas shopping now – have to say that the family has been pretty good this year, with a couple of exceptions – Chris!

[24 November 2022]