Concrete Day

Timeline: Friday 11 October, 07h00: I couldn’t sleep. My back was telling me to get up, so I made coffee. The scalding liquid is getting the caffeine into my system, needed to get going with the day and I can feel the benefit straight away as my brain opens to the idea of conscious thought and hands control back to the day shift.

07h20 and I’m processing the tasks to be accomplished before lunch, as between 13h30 and 14h00, our biggest yet and certainly the heaviest truck is paying us a visit. So big and butch it is, that it will park outside of the gates in the road and deliver its slippery load via a big bore pump and 50 metres of hose. Yes, it’s Concrete Day!

Kevin and Daniel arrive and start clearing the ground floor of plasterboard stock, the staff canteen and the rubbish heap from the upstairs work and a bonfire is soon reducing the rubbish in the rear garden. An hour is sufficient for clearance and someone remarks how big the room is again. Well, we aim to entertain many people, so just as well!

Service pipes and cables are arranged and secured to be concreted in optimum positions and I lay a cable duct to the kitchen island unit and anchor it down with concrete paving stones.

Preparation complete, the men go back to plastering upstairs and I to acid cleaning the bathroom floor in Le Grenier and at 12h40, the little concrete pump truck turns and sets up outside the barn, rapidly told to get back on the road outside, as I’m not risking 15 tonnes of big concrete truck slowly trundling over the cellars!

With all hands to the pump, repositioning is rapidly executed and the pipeline snakes along the courtyard and through the kitchen doors and as I go and help Paul the electrician with a tall radiator in Le Grenier, the big boy truck rocks up and miraculously doesn’t block the road, which would have caused great consternation with the large tractor/tailor units trundling about the village with the fruit of the grape harvest, still in full swing. 

 

 

The rest of the operation went as smooth as silk and the plant delivered a steady viscous stream of fibre reinforced self levelling concrete directly to where it was needed. It hardly required any assistance to steer it into place and just 20 minute after the start button was pressed on the remote control channel zapper, our carefully measured 15cm of slab was in place and with a perfectly smooth top surface, ready to receive damp proof membrane, insulation, screed, heating element and tile in due course.

All that remained to do was a clean-up, pay the big truck man and since we couldn't walk on the liquid slab to get upstairs until Monday, adjourn to the village bar for some well earned refreshment!

A bientôt,

LC

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Catchup

I’m up early today, Sunday, to see off a lovely couple of clients at 07h00 and have just looked at my email to see a note from the bride commenting the I’ve been so busy with the barn, that my last blog entry was three months ago! It’s true then. Time really does fly when you’re having fun!

The rental season is drawing to a close as our last guests are still sleeping soundly in the Maison d’Amis and we will be pushing even harder getting the barn habitable by the end of the year. 2014 will be very different for us, as we all finally become whole again, living under one beautifully restored roof after living much of the last two years apart. Anyhow, probably more of the sentimental stuff nearer the time, but for now, it’s time to bring the story up to date as far as life in France is concerned.

July 2013: Wow, the hot weather has been with us for a few weeks now and it’s being precisely what it would say on its the tin, if you could can it, hot !!!

Low 30s in the shade to 40ish in direct sunlight would normally cause havoc for physical labour, but now that practically all work is inside the barn, with its thick stone walls, well insulated new roof and the windows open, the interior remains pleasantly cooler. So while gîte guests enjoy the heat, we chaps set about the transformation of our 200 year old barn into our new home. All the team know of our commitment to sensitive restoration and they appreciate how we feel about the graceful inspiring space which we are working with. In consequence, the barn is also working with us in as design solutions and details emerge with the barn’s help and as each day passes, the feeling of this wonderful old building being our home grows stronger.

While we wait for deliveries of hardcore and concrete for the ground floor, up above, we’ve cut a huge stair well to give views of both floors from wherever you are and there’s a new floor and timber studwork to the perimeter walls, while the first of four roof trusses has been cleaned of centuries of grime and a soft red hued timber has been revealed beneath. This will be further sanded, treated for long lasting protection and receive a final finish of linseed oil for a fine natural lustre.

New sub-floor

Lounge and library end

Multi-layered foil and bubble insulation

Perimeter studwork

We’ll continue with the two main intermediate stud partitions next week to form the bedroom and its bathroom, so by the following week, all will be ready for the electrician and plumber to start.

July can’t be allowed to slip past without a mention of my favourite village event of the year, this being 17^th Grand Prix Retro, held over the weekend of the 27 and 28^th July. The weather was hot and sunny and the carnival atmosphere gave everyone happy smiles, well that and the inexpensive temporary bars!

One of the most popular vehicles this year was a handy little pre-war Peugeot pick-up truck, containing a couple of keyboards, a PA system and a man happy to belt out a selection of music most of the day. He parked up next to one of the bars and had the place jumping when he started into his blues and rock repertoire. Absolute unexpected magic!

The spectacle of the ‘nocturne’, or night racing, returns for 2014. This is similar to the Singapore GP, but without so much lighting and is much more friendly and we already have a gîte booking for the weeks either side of the event.

Would love to have one of these!

Play it Sam!

 

August 2013: The hot weather continues and I’m watering the plants every day as there has been no rain to speak of since early last month. It’s great for the gîte clients though and we are full for all month.

We continue work almost exclusively on the barn, but take some time on the garden with the long overdue removal of the big pine and a dead cherry tree. The pine, a Christmas tree which must have been planted one January as quite a good idea at the time some 30 years ago, is taller than the barn and completely dominates the view from the two new first floor gable windows.

Plasterboard Paul arrives with a trailer containing a ladder, three chain saws (bonus points on the manly power tools front), lots of rope, assorted hand tools, one of the anchor chains from the Queen Mary and a helper named Anthony who plays guitar.

Just some trimming to the hedge

Progress is rapid and 30 years of slow growth is disappeared from the landscape in 30 minutes. The rest of the day is spent in reducing the tree to handy lengths to fit in the oversized trailer and following several trips to the tip, a garden is revealed appearing at least twice the size it was pre-tree. The additional usable space is remarkable and makes a valuable contribution to how we can better enjoy the garden. 

Meanwhile, a large Tonka toy was skilfully reversed through the gates and delivered 15 tonnes of crushed stone outside the barn and Dan and I set to in moving it inside and then compact it with a neat little vibrating plate, called a whacker. Yep, it does exactly what its name suggests and woe betide anyone who runs their toes over with it!

Half the stone fill left to get inside

Getting there

Whacked!!!

Concrete next . . . well soonish!

The fill all in and compacted means that we can finally plan getting the concrete floor slab laid and as this entails almost 8 cubic metres of concrete, we’ll be using ready mix. With the best will in the world, I cannot bring myself to believe that our gîte guests would see the visit of a huge ready mix truck with a 50 metre hose snaking along the courtyard pumping concrete, as a worthy holiday attraction, so we wait for the height of the season to pass before we can pump the concrete floor, so back up to the first floor. 

September 2013: Upstairs, albeit no actual staircase yet, progress has been spectacular, thanks not only to the great team, but also the lack of any need to chase the walls for pipes and cables. This was achieved by our desire to have to put as little heating effort into the building in winter as possible and so all perimeter walls have been faced with insulated plasterboard on a timber framework. This has saved a good 2 weeks of programme and by the end of the month, we’ll be ready for 2nd fix electrics and then decorating! 

Insulated plasterboard is then plastered

Meanwhile, I’ve begun decorating the upstairs suite of our little gîte, in readiness for baby sister's big birthday bash in October and we’ve begun the planning stage of the rear gardens with loads of great ideas from a nearby garden centre open day, not to mention a few more plants! 

So more soon as I try to post more regularly, despite the workload!

Wow, I clean forgot to mention my recent experience of the French Health Service, following a little mishap (absolutely no manly power tools were involved!) and am pleased to report that outstanding service and treatment was obtained, so bye for now and thank you for reading.

A bientôt,

LC

It’s Just One Of Those Days !

Timeline: 2 July 2013: The weather has finally decided to stick to summer settings and it’s been lovely and warm recently, which has coincided happily with both gites being occupied. Our guests in the Maison du Vigneron arrived early in the day after an overnight ferry and by tea time were all ready to hit the showers in readiness for a stroll up to one of our local village restaurants. Tim politely mentioned that his shower tray wasn’t emptying very well and I thought I may need to clean out the trap when I noticed outside, a small and expanding lake spreading under the gates from the manhole on the other side and realised in a flash that the challenge had become much bigger!

The drain was obviously blocked after the manhole, which meant that someone sometime very soon was going to be in deep merde. On emptying the blocked manhole with a small bucket into an adjacent functioning one (we thankfully have two separate drainage systems) the confirmation that the problem was with the water board's pipe outside our property didn't really help me feel any better. Matters only got worse as when telephoned, they were found to be closed for breakdowns today! I just hope the fire brigade don’t work that system!

Anyway, my friend Robert next door came round to have a look and we ended up digging down to the offending pipe and found a cleaning access point buried half a metre underground and soon enough, problem solved! We also extended the access point to ground level, so not to have to excavate another big hole if the brown stuff ever decides to aim for the fan again . . . so we’ can continue to come up smelling of roses. Well, after all, we are called Le Clos de la Rose :)

The day has ended happily and there is a night rain gently falling which has saved me 20 minutes of watering the plants, so I’m off to make a cuppa and am looking forward to the bride arriving tomorrow for two glorious weeks.

A bientôt,

LC

Five Parts Sand To One Of Lime

Timeline: Late May 2013. The start of our letting season was almost upon us, we turned over the gardens once more and sowed grass seed in glorious sunshine, which turned into a week or scorched heat in the high 30s to low 40s. I finally bought a 40 metre hose and gave it a good soaking and true to form, it rained all through the night. Typical! However, we had a truly wonderful time when our great friends Alistair and June stayed with us a while en-route to their lovely town house in Provence and enjoyed several vineyard tastings as well as a special evening enjoying the organically produced wines of Chateau de Passavant. The evening was hosted in the magnificent grounds of the chateau, by owner and vigneron Francois, who speaks perfect English and is an entertaining host and passionate about his production methods.

We were removing the scaffolding from our small gîte, the Maison d’Amis, just an hour before our friends arrived, after two weeks of preparing and applying new lime rendering. The recipe of one part lime to five of local sand gives the typical colour seen on houses here and also lets the structure breath and move in a natural way that should be good for another 60 years or so. As the end of May reached us, our good friends wandered south and the bride and I returned to the UK to keep a couple of appointments although I was back a couple of days later with just 6 days before the arrival of our guests.

The cottage was just about there, but the courtyard still needed numerous doors and shutters to various outbuildings, some serious moving of builder’s rubbish, gravel spreading and a couple of pages of small but important jobs carrying out. Very long days were worked and our good friend Sarah, wife of our electrician came over on the Thursday and Friday afternoons and cleaned the gîte and utility room to the highest standard and it looked simply beautiful. She also told me that the bed sheets needed ironing and after showing me how to iron (something I hadn’t attempted for well over 30 years), I ironed the new cotton sheets and pillow cases. Wow, me domesticated, or what?!!! The made bed did look as good as any I’ve seen in an hotel though.

Saturday morning left me with just a smallish list of jobs to do, which I set about in strict priority. After fixing our new sign to the gates, I realised with surprise, that we’d now reached a waypoint here; the stage where we were ready to share our space with others and welcome guests into our home. I desperately wished the bride was with me, as she deserved to share this pivotal moment, so I phoned her, screwdriver still in hand and told her how proud I was that our long held vision had finally become reality.

Our guests were driving up from the south coast and were not expected until late, but I was aiming to be substantially complete by 16h00. Just as well mind you, since they arrived at 16h15 as I was still pottering about in dirty jeans and tee shirt. Oops!

Now complete with satellite TV and a new door upstairs

The little cottage had received numerous finishing touches and was looking and smelling rather splendid (thanks to good ol’ Yankee Candle Co and their ‘cut roses’). Fortunately our clients share those thoughts as they provided that final essence to finally put the living breath back into the little cottage. 

 

I had the camera ready to take interior shots, but due to early guest arrival, they’ll have to wait until the weekend!

A well timed bonus was the arrival of the new oak door and frame to the loft suite at the top of the cottage. Our skilled artisan carpenter created a handcrafted piece of art that represents what the tired 200 year old door would have originally looked like and also provides a secure and completely weathtight entry to Le Grenier. We still have the old door and will find a suitable resting place for it to live on as part of the heritage of Le Clos de la Rose.

We have a planning meeting next week as we work up to start on the interior of the barn. Concrete kitchen floor and temporary staircase first, but many decisions to take of where we put things first and I’m getting excited with the prospect of working on our own home at last.

I better go and do some work, so catch you next time. Be good and have fun.

A bientôt,

LC

The Return Of The Honoured Guest

The bride et moi are very much looking forward with great anticipation to the return of our ‘honoured guest’ (see 17th May 2012 blog post, our most viewed) and his beautiful and talented wife in a couple of weeks time for a few days of frivolity. I’m therefore working particularly hard to get the place looking as good as it can. Having just completed the barn roof a week ahead of schedule, we’re due to start the external rendering to the gites next week and I pray that all goes well and the scaffolding will be down by the time Alistair and June arrive! I’m also looking forward to finally being able to take some really attractive photographs for the website, as the courtyard will then be looking at its best since we started this adventure.

The weather continues to head from spring to summer with some splendid hot days over the last two weeks, often in the early 30s and it's only just May! My favourite sister and brother in law were here for the start of the good weather and Maggie gave me the shortest hair I’ve sported for over two years and Roger did so many electrical jobs, I lost count! I’m liking the new hair style mind you and it’s much cooler in this heat!

The front garden, bordering the street has now being planted with a mixture of carefully selected plants, including Paleine grass, from which we think our street name may well be derived. The bride carried out research on the street name and found out about the grass which turned out to be sufficiently interesting to the village historical society, that she was directly quoted regarding her discovery, in the president’s blog.

Molina Caerulea Moorhexe

We are now, unsurprisingly, on good terms with several local wine domains and have discovered that we can sell direct to our clients and have been offered supplies from one of our favourites (they all are really). We also want to provide accompanied vineyard and dégustation visits for those guests who speak little French, or may be daunted by the prospect of turning up at a vineyard expecting to be entertained . . . something we enjoy doing on a regular basis! I also intend to make good use of our Traction (as soon as it's French registered) in this capacity, to add a little nostalgic flavour to a vineyard visit.

All aboard for the wine tour, beep, beep !

Staying on the wine front, we are fortunate to be able to have a rare private dégustation, organised by some close friends, at the nearby Chateau de Passavant, where owner and wine maker Francois, who speaks perfect English, will be able to talk at length about organic wine, the terroir and also the local history behind ‘Fulk Nerra’, the Black Falcon. It sounds both intriguing and interesting and I’ve been looking for an opportunity to meet Francois for a long time now. We may have to buy a few bottles, such a hardship!

May has seen a rise in the number of gîte enquiries and we've just taken a booking for early June, so I now have even more incentive to make our little slice of village life and tranquillity truly memorable for our visitors.

Tonight's dinner

More soon, including the newly rendered gites and lush grass in the orchard and gardens and the move into the depths of the barn  . . . watch this space . . .

A bientôt,

LC

Another Year Older

Timeline: April 2013. April is always a happy time, as the bride and moi celebrate another fabulous year together and this year, we're 36 years old. Not bad considering we married in our early 20s, teehe.

After a happy week in the UK, I returned to prepare for my sister and brother in law and the bride's return, just a few days later, the car loaded with yet more gite paraphernalia and curry sauces. Roger and I also had birthdays during the week, so we set about working during the day and socialising after the sun started to dip. The sun however was working overtime and daily temperature soared into the 30s, a fact recorded photographically on sis's Facebook page.

The barn roof was completed this week and we had a BBQ to mark the occasion with nine of us around the big outdoor table and six smaller people playing hide and seek around the grounds, but they were all found when the ice cream was brought out.

Roger fitted two new outside lights for the occasion and I got a new lawn mower in the pre-summer sales in readiness for our swiftly approaching new lawns. I'm under strict instructions from our head gardener, not to use it without her express permission and in the meantime, I'm figuring out how to make it go faster.

Emma and Andre, two new stable mates at La Clos de la Rose

We also took a drive up to Normandy one day to collect our old Citroen, following a thorough going over by a friend of ours, who is also a specialist on these cars. It was good not to be the oldest of our group any more, as Andre Citroen has a few years on me. The three hour return trip was a joy, as I hadn't driven the Traction since July 2011 and had almost forgotten how delightful this 63 year slice of history was to live with. It was the bride who insisted we buy it 15 years ago when she first saw it one cold December afternoon near Oxford, despite the owner not being able to start the engine, not even on the second visit, but he was an excellent purchase and has brought us more new friends and happy times in France than we could have ever imagined all those years ago.

One of many excellent front doors in La Rochelle

At the end of the week we took ourselves off to the coast and to visit beautiful La Rochelle, a first for me and the bride, but an old haunt of Roger's who knew his way around and we soon parked up and were walking through fine architectural streetscapes down to the old port and the many fish restaurants. After lunch, I concerned myself with the naval heritage and marvelled at the state of preservation of the port and defences to keep out  mainly the English. We will return!

The old port

That's all for now, but I'll be posting an update very soon, so don't be a stranger.

A bientôt,

LC

Just Like the Seaside . . . Plenty of Sun and Sand ;~)

Timeline: 20 mars: Since starting the barn roof last week, the weather decided to have a game with us and see just how much rain and hail it could get through the roof while it was uncovered. We decided that we could win this game by making sure everything was sheeted up every night, which proved such a good ploy that the weather lost interest in playing and it’s been mild and sunny ever since. The roof necessitated scaffolding out the entire front façade, so ever keen to save a euro or three, I decided to ask my friend Eric, if he could utilise the scaffold and sand blast and re-point the stonework.

Kev and I popped out to Bricoman very first thing for more timber and on our return, the blasting process was well underway, with a willing volunteer from the maçons crew, suited up and leaning into the task of putting the whole site through a sandstorm!

The result of just three hours sand blasting is amazing. Two hundred years of dirt has disappeared, making the stonework looking newly built and the maçons immediately set to work with traditional lime mortar in the rather longer and skilful process of re-pointing.

At the other end of the courtyard, another highly skilled artisan is restoring the stone support wall to the external staircase of our beautiful pre-revolutionary cottage. The tools he uses are exactly the same as his predecessors who originally build the house and the heavily weathered soft tuffeau has been scrapped back to a uniform flat surface, salvaged stones from alteration works incorporated as necessary, including the blocking up of a redundant opening. The only concession to modernity in the process is the use of a chain saw for cutting the larger blocks to shape.

Up on the roof, Kev has fitted the zinc gutters and will be ready to start putting the new slates in place tomorrow morning. He’ll have a roofer’s mate to start carrying several thousand slates up onto the scaffold, to keep Kev going non-stop with laying and no, my feet are stating firmly on the ground for that particular task!

With many hands on site, progress is rapid, so more soon.

A bientôt,

LC

All clean, battened and ready for pointing and slates

Well on the way

Four Seasons in One Day !

Timeline: 14 mars: February last year was really cold, just a look back in this blog will show you what I mean. It’s been reassuring to know that last year’s extremely cold winter was not the norm and late February 2013 saw me sunbathing on the terrace in just a pair of shorts. It was 15 deg in the shade but a barmy 25 deg in direct sunshine and we had temperatures in the mid-teens for a whole week, followed by rain, hail and general cold and dampness, then snow, although only very little and now it’s fortunately warming up again. The weather forecast however, varies depending which website you look at, but the consensus indicates a steady rise now and I’ve today declared official springtime in the village. Just as well, as we started taking the roof off the barn this week and I don’t want it full of snow or people sliding down a slippery slope.

Work is proceeding on several fronts, with the Maison d’Amis  really looking lovely inside now with its new paint scheme and just some wall panelling and skirting boards to finish. Besides the work to the barn roof and chimney, as soon as the ground is a little softer, we’ll start preparing he gardens for sowing grass seed and put in some roses and a few other plants and look to create some peaceful rest areas.

After looking at several letting websites, we registered with Owners Direct a couple of weeks ago and have received a steady stream of enquiries and have just taken our first new booking of the year. Our maçon and friend, Eric, called in yesterday to look at some more work for us and told me about his own gites being fully booked from May until September, mainly from repeat clients. I like the sound of repeat clients, as it makes the marketing tariff so much lower!

I hope to bring our old Citroen here next month, it having received a full medical and some minor procedures from a specialist recently and I’ll then have the challenge of the notorious French system of red tape to negotiate in getting Andre (all our cars have always had names) registered here. It will be grand to see him wearing a French 49 registration again after 20 plus years under the DVLA.

I’ve just noticed that more than a trace of the maison d’amis colour scheme is still decorating my hands, so I’d better give them a scrub a’dub when I go and get my overalls out of the wash, ready for tomorrows exciting exploits.

Enjoys yourselves everyone, a bientôt,

LC

Oh, how could I forget that great big truck which was reversed skilfully into the courtyard yesterday to discharge some goodies:

Just a couple of photos of Le Grenier, our large upstairs suite above the Maison d'Amis, nearing completion.More photos to follow.

 

Much sanding of beams !

Paint coming soon

 

New Year Winter Blues

Our latest guests departed on the 2^nd day of the year and sadly took the bride with them back to the UK. Since then, this past month has given various troubles to cope with including snow, man flu, truculent work force and a failure of electrical power. Obviously the man flu was the hardest to cope with !

I’ll be much happier when we’re all here together as a family unit for good (me, the bride and our cats), but in the meantime our house in the UK continues to be de-cluttered and the bride pays frequent visits to check up on the building works.

Our little gîte, the Maison d’Amis, proved to be a warm and cosy nest for its first use guest and although we had insufficient time to fully decorate it, Sally felt comfortable enough to risk coming back again with her daughter in May. In order to ensure it measures up to our own expectations, I’m currently staying here myself and am working my way through a list of additions and refinements to make staying here even more of a joy.

I’ve also been working in the Grenier above and besides sanding and oiling the exposed roof timbers, I’ve been exercising my new found woodworking skills, as I finish off some unfinished joinery work started by our departed help. I’m confidently planning to install some timber wall panelling, a built in wardrobe, shelving and cabinets, so watch this space.

Last week’s gusts of wind reminded me to do something about the roof on our open hangar. This structure is destined to be covered guest parking and the corrugated iron roof will be quite in keeping with the enhanced rustic charm we are striving to achieve. Kevin our roofer called in the other day to look at the hangar and besides attending to this, reckons he can start the barn roof, weather permitting by mid February. That’s one of the major tasks on the barn and brings our moving in date forward at least in our minds. 

Still needs paint !

Loving the new hob !

I’m getting used to the new Maison d’Ami's kitchen and fortunately, that ‘new cooker smell’ when you fire up the oven for the first few times has gratefully gone and I’m also now a firm believer in the benefits of ceramic hobs, as they heat up almost as fast as gas and are so easy to clean and even provide an occasional extra work surface!

As I’ve finished my cup of ‘builders’, I have little excuse not to get back to work, so it's a cheery ttfn from moi as we are looking forward to the new life of spring and the warmer weather.

A bientôt,

LC