Happy New Year

Timeline: Christmas Eve 2013, Hampshire, England: The man flu I got when last in the UK in November, returned the day after I got back and I was in bed feeling only as bad as sick men can, when the door bell got me up to croak a greeting to Sylvia from next door, who was asking if we also had problems with our drains. Just what I need thought I, but rather than wait for the bride to get back, I realised that she wouldn’t really be thrilled with the prospect of looking into manholes, so at death’s door and sporting a dressing gown and slippers, I was lifting manhole covers on the rear terrace on a dark drizzly evening with a torch clenched between my teeth to confirm that, blissfully unaware ten minutes before, we had a drain problem!

Now the only person I was actually looking forward to seeing more than Santa that evening was the ‘Drain Doctor’, but his first words brought no cheer to myself, the bride, or our two sets of neighbours. ‘You didn’t say you was on a shared sewer’ said the doc, ‘Yes I did’ said Dave, ‘I told your office it was shared with three houses when I called you out’ he confirmed. ‘Well we don’t do shared sewers, so you should’ve called the Water Board’ replied the doc. ‘This is getting silly’ someone said, ’so why don’t you just give it a try and we’ll get you a cuppa’ A clever ploy to which he replied, ‘Have you got any mince pies?’ We had him and the bride made the tea and gave the doc some of my mince pies! Fortunately the great big squelchy noisy whirly sucky thing on wheels did the trick and we could all uncross our legs and enjoy Christmas with not having to go the pub to use the toilet.

It was very cold and frosty every single morning with rain most of the time, but I revelled in the company of the bride and our pussy cats and we enjoyed seeing a number of really good friends.

Timeline: January 2014, Le Clos de la Rose, France: By contrast, the Loire valley and our lovely village is blessed with no frost, little rain, some sun, blue skies and a high of 22 deg in the sun outside the door today, as Koko the plaster’s dog sunbathes on the doormat.

This first week of work has everyone fully energised after the holiday and we’ve made a great start to the year. The electrician completed all first fix items between Christmas and the New Year, so started on the upstairs second fix and has all light fittings and the two ceiling fans in the living room and library fitted. We still need to buy the bathroom lights and all switches, sockets, etc. The bathroom is practically complete with just the heated towel rail and bath panel cladding to finish. 

Meanwhile the plasterboard between the ceiling beams is complete and the plastering has begun with the back kitchen wall and the first ceiling panels completed in a single day.

Timeline: 20 January 2014: Today was as busy as usual, but was notable for being one of those days where things looked to advance remarkably. I spent two days last week scraping and rubbing at the stone walls getting ready for pointing, which was all wrapped up today with sections of internal lime rendering and careful, yet efficient work by Kev and Dan had us all smiling as we swept up and realised that the room was now looking rather splendid. 

Finishing touches

I’ll clear the room tomorrow, after a little final plastering, as the tiller is coming the next day to start the floor. I’m also looking forward to a local artisan coming to carefully take site dimensions before starting to make the staircases and balustrades in spider resisting chestnut, which should be ready to install in March.

A bientôt,

LC

IKEA Bad Timing

Timeline, December 2013: I had set myself the task of getting to grips with three important elements on the barn before returning to spend our last Christmas in the UK. The plan was to have the kitchen, installation of wood burning stove and the staircases on order, but France was in no hurry to rush into these things. The kitchen had been progressing through our in-house design processes, while the wood burning stove company decided they simply didn’t want to come out and play, even after we visited their offices to arrange a site visit. This left a minor success in having received two indicative prices and drawings for the staircases, so there was at least hope of getting one, or possible two out of three targets into play. 

After much looking at websites, brochures, showrooms and other peoples kitchens, we finally decided on IKEA for ours and after using their rather nifty internet design tool, followed by much discussion and revision, the bride et moi finally sat down together with a laptop just before Christmas to order our kitchen on-line.

Calling up the website, we were met with the proud announcement that IKEA were pleased to announce their first all new kitchen design for decades, together with the discontinuation of the kitchen we were just about to order. Customers are still able to buy the discontinued line and still have the benefit of the 25 year warranty. Yeah right, so what happens if we want to change something round in a year or two? Or how about actually getting every piece of a new kitchen from a discontinued range where the units will be in the winter sale to get rid of them! Hmmm and to cap it all, the new range is not compatible with the old one and cannot even be seen on the web until February and even later in store. Brilliant! All that time wasted and a delay in being able to poach some eggs. Cheers IKEA, the new one better be exceedingly fab and groovy and have the same feel and finish we were after!

Actually, I found the new Metod range brochure on-line on IKEA’s Egyptian website and while still short on detail, there is still hope, so, we’re looking forward to the new IKEA kitchen range launch over here and getting stuck back in.

A bientôt,

LC

Technology du Vin

Timeline: Saturday 3 November 2013: La maman de Marcel passed from this life a couple of months ago and my friend, saddened enough by this event, has been sifting through the lifetime of memories and emotions in the household, as he and his wife make preparations to sell the old house and move on with life to the more happy times ahead.

We were in our kitchen sharing some local bubbles with Marcel and Brigitte when the bride and I were invited to visit the old house by the church which we reverently did. The house wore the patina of age graciously and we were soon discovering plenty of treasures holding an abundance of social and family history. Our friends insisted we were helping to clear the house and were pleased that numerous items were going to an appreciative new home, rather than to a house clearance company.

In consequence, we have wonderful top and bowler hats in their original purpose made boxes, both bearing matching maker’s names; kitchen balance scales with a set of brass weights; a bedroom nightstand wash set; a pair of forged iron fire dogs made by Marcel’s brother (now residing on the Maison d’Amis’s hearth, but not the brother!) and a multitude of wine glasses. We continued through the outbuildings finding other gems and came across a huge antique wine press of the type you used to see all over France many decades ago and whilst lusting over such an iconic piece of rural French heritage, we realised it really wouldn’t fit anywhere, unfortunately : (

A couple of weeks later, Marcel e-mails me asking me to bring two friends along to help with the delivery of the wine press. Well did you really think we could possibly pass up the opportunity to look after such a relic, particularly a fully serviceable example?

Despite Marcel’s tractor and trailer, it still took nine of us 30 minutes to extricate the remarkably heavy oak and iron contraption out of its old home and onto the trailer and after driving it the short distance to its new home, another 45 minutes getting it into one of the larger outbuildings, where its now feeling quite at home amongst a profusion of wine barrels.

Just thinking!

 

. . . and discussing

Bon installation!

The exercise particularly reminded me of the Year in Provence story from Peter Mayle when the delivery and positioning of a similarly large and heavy stone table was only affected by the equally robust application of French manpower. Much advice, heaving, lifting, pushing, pulling, levering and grunting ensued after which there was the traditional celebratory vin d’honneur to seal the deed.

A bientôt,

LC