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Masons! :)

August 21, 2021 by Chantal Chaney

Monday

Big day today, the new masons are coming over. Of course I was still in bed, apparently Matt woke me up half an hour later than he’d expected, but a good 10mins more than I was prepared for (8:40am – 7:40 my time as I still work on UK working time).

Unfortunately, as the vans roll in Matt rushes up to pull me out of bed. So I emerge in my PJs, just pulling the sleepy mask off my messy hair as I fumble a few words in French. [Morning is not my time to shine.]

Matt and I were predictably forced into the garden/veranda to get away from the noise. Cutting into 50cm solid stone blocks was bound to make quite a racket. Wasn’t easy to hear what was going on during my calls when we had tipping trucks dropping off stones for the cement and then the mixer going, but was nice to see signs of progress.

It seems that having 4 guys that know what they are doing gets things done surprisingly quickly, once you can finally find someone to come and do it of course. Naturally I’m still on calls when they’re finishing up so have to duck off quickly to speak to them. The upshot of it was that they need to leave the casing and struts in place to let the concrete set and they’ll be back to remove them tomorrow.

The plasterer popped round unexpectedly, he’s not due until tomorrow. Seems that something has come up and he’s not going to be able to start until Friday. It’s a bit of a shame really but we’ve been holding him off for about 3 months now waiting for the masons to widen the doorway so seems only fair and at least he’s been round which has to be a good sign right.

Had a check around the veg garden, there’s definitely action on the tomatoes. The plum ones are looking a little bigger than expected already and all of them are still very green but hopefully the oncoming good weather will start ripening them up. Matt’s also helped watering the pots on the front porch, they’re a bit rubbish to be honest but we keep trying.

Chilli day 2 – this time with bread. It was a bit disappointing to be honest and the bread was a bit rubbish, apparently it was the last baguette in the shop (and I can see why).

A bit more work in the evening, it’s important to work when it’s a bit cooler so that we can take the time to swim when it’s hot.

[9 August 2021]

Tuesday

The guys were back this morning to take off the casing for the new widened doorway. It might not look like much but a) we have waited months to get this done, and b) the house hasn’t fallen down. It will make such a difference to the room to have both doors opening into the lovely new kitchen. Can you imagine if there were clearly two doors and only one of them could actually be opened?! It’s hurts my brain just thinking about it – why make the opening that big and put two doors in if you can’t ever open one of them???

Anyway it’s a busy day for work, with intermediary breaks for a dip in the pool, it’s too hot to work straight through but we’ve got a system that allows any 10 min break to take a quick dip. Of course, while I was working on the lounger [between calls] getting a bit of sun to my top half [if you get my drift] the mason boss guy turned up. Matt starts shouting for me not realising that we had already ‘met’ outside. I tried to play it French cool but not sure how well that really came across..

In the evening Matt was seeking out the woodpecker, we could definitely hear it but apparently so could Meow who probably frightened it off and distracted Matt in the process.

Cheese and biscuits appetiser. Well dinner for me as it turned out as I ate too much cheese, but then who’s too say how much cheese is too much cheese and when you have Carrs water biscuits the world is your oyster [the French really need to learn about water biscuits.] Matt still managed some more chilli though.

Time to relax and unwind.

[10 August 2021]

Wednesday

Working. Tried to call mum, no answer.

Rang Tonia. Showed her the garden – I’d randomly counted 25 tomatoes on one plant. Assuming that is the average for all of them then we will have at least 1,250 tomatoes. At the shop rate, each tomato is about 10c so that’s quite the saving and pays for one of the water butts, which of course is paying for itself over time anyway in saved water [and environmental sustainability, naturally].

Quick walk around the rest of the garden. Not sure what happened to that bird.. There aren’t many wildflowers this late but this white one is beautiful, maybe one of you can tell me what it is?

There was one plum tree that has only produced one plum, I think the others were lost in the winds and to the deer. According to Matt it was by far the best as the skin was sweet, the others were a little tart (I preferred the others, I’m not into sweet fruit). Some more garden photos.

Sunset was beautiful and the picture doesn’t do it anywhere near justice. You don’t get the colour of the Pic du Gar or depth. Looking through the window from the outside when the lights are on, something I’ve never noticed before, does make the place look rather grand. In the words of Lloyd Grossman, ‘Who lives, in a house like this?’ – Me, me, I do! ?

We then sat outside watching the storm roll round the other side of the mountain just to the south of us. It was very cool. It’s rolled on by now though so time to go inside and get a bit more work done before tomorrow, and update the blog.

[11 August 2021]

Thursday

More work and further preparations for the plasterer to come over. This time Matt is prepping the hatch so that we can access the services running up the old chimney.

It’s pretty warm today so time for a quick dip after work before sitting on the lounger to dry off and get a few more bits done. The cat however seems to have decided that under the lounger is a good shady spot. However I think this one is a bit broken.

Early evening and it’s time to translate the new leg wax that we got in Spain. I know that Matt’s learnt a lot of new skills since he got here but I’m not sure he was expecting to have to get involved in this. He’s done a pretty good job though and made me giggle when Sade’s Smooth Operator starting playing unexpectedly.