Well, It Had To Happen

Editor's note: I am extremely pleased to hand over the blog to my good friend and expert wielder of every manly power tool now residing in the, erm, joinery shop! Mr Beast, aka Paul, has risen to the invitation to pen a blog spot and moreover, if he gets some favourable comments, has intimated he will pen his continuing story of life here at Le Clos de Rose for your further enjoyment. LC  

 

Well it had to happen; the job is now officially a load of old Pauls.

Paul 1 (aka Mr Beast) has been joined by Paul 2 (the sparky) and thanks to Sparky, we at least now have all our dangly bits in the right places!

Wires of course, what did you think I meant!

We returned from the UK last week (Monday) complete with a new engine for the Volks Wagon, lining paper (you wouldn’t believe the price of it here in France) and some paint which is equally expensive and not such good quality we are led to believe.

So first thing Tuesday we delivered the engine to Monsieur Le Garage who after much studying of the cooling system conveyed to us that something was wrong, He and his mechanic were offering up the old water pump with the one fitted to the replacement engine, there ensued much arm waving and cries of ‘impossible’, then Monsieur Le Garage asked if the engine was from another pickup to which Bill replied “Non, a camper”. “Ah” he replied, shaking his head. Then a few moments later, cries of ‘Eureka’ as Monsieur Le Garage saw the answer to the conundrum and all would be OK and we wouldn’t need his spare Subaru engine after all, the VW could stay just a VW and not a VW ‘s’.

Apparently the cooling system is different from the pickup to a camper we now await the delivery of said pickup, as we are in desperate need of some plasterboard.

The week has seen some ups and downs; the main up of course was getting Sparky on site to start getting the wiring sorted,  another up was seeing the beautiful roof structure.

On the down side, was me falling off the steps and twisting my ankle but worst of all was our plan to insert the shower for bedroom 2 in the cupboard which use to be in bedroom 1. I had blocked off the doorway to the cupboard in bed 1 making it into a recessed book shelf.

Recessed surprise bookshelf

Then to our surprise when we broke out the false clay pot wall lining we found a tie bar right in the way. It might have been ok, other than the floor in the cupboard, in keeping with the front side of the house, is about 100mm higher which in turn meant that you would have to be a dwarf to get in the shower.

So the landlord and I had to come up with plan ‘B’ which is, the recessed bookshelf will become a recessed bookshelf come secret door, while the bedroom 2 side will be boxed out at the bottom, the toilet pan will now sit there, said tie bar will be hidden and some recessed glass shelves will be fitted with some LED down lights to show off the cleaned up stonework and the glass. Nice!

On the whole, progress has been good this week. All the walls are now in place for bedroom 2 and I can now run the pipe work and get it tested prior to finishing the plaster boarding to all the walls. Then it’s just a matter of decoration, simples!

I wish!

Paul.

                                                                                                                                                

Beware Of The Dreaded . . .

We were doing ever so well after the bride left us to fend for ourselves and returned to the UK to do some work. We did the shopping, cleaned the house, did the clothes washing, built things, yet for all this goodness, still managed to both get the lurgi. Now as all you blokes know, we chaps suffer much more than the ladies in the flu department, hence the sometimes grossly misunderstood and simply devastating ‘man flu’, but a case of the lurgy, well it’s pretty serious stuff is that! Beast and I performed a feat of synchronised rushing to the only toilet in the house all night long and we never once clashed on the stairs, or had to queue (perish the thought) for this only room. We reckon we could represent the UK in the 2012 Olympics if only this sport of champions could be recognised in time!

Monday was therefore an unscheduled rest day as we both fell into recovery and sleep mode and by tea time, after risking some agreeable beans on toast, had an early night, thankful for being cured.

We must have been spotted the next morning driving through he village in Paul’s white van, as Monsieur la Garage patron put his head round the gates as soon as we were back to give us the news that the engine was now an ex-engine, dead, deceased, defunct and no amount of nailing it back on it’s perch would ever make it talk to us again. He was impressed with my new stainless steel exhaust system though and was most emphatic that the truck was not in his way taking up too much space in his workshop and I set off in pursuit of a replacement motor, having politely declined his offer of a 2.0 litre flat 4 Subaru engine he had, which would fit in ‘no problem’. I found a replacement engine inside 5 minutes of looking on the web and spoke to Stuart in Winchester, just 7 miles from our UK base and a deal was struck and a ferry booked to collect the new unit next week. 

I’m trying to be completely optimistic with this, hoping that the new motor is okay and grateful that Paul has a van big enough to get the job done. It will be good to see the bride and the two pussy cats and we can have a little splurge at Screwfix and Waitrose and bring a few more home comforts back to the Loire.

Progress this week might have been slow to start, but we finished on a high and now have a kitchen / diner seemingly twice its previous useful size and two huge bedrooms and one and a half bathrooms upstairs. I’ve moved my bed downstairs into the salon to make room for the work and we will soon, new drainage connection permitting, have three bedrooms and bathrooms available. Just as well too, as my sister and bro’ in law are coming with the bride for Easter, so we’ll have a wonderfully full, happy and noisy household of five for some festive holiday fun ;~)

All the best and TTFN

LC

A very  rare image captured for ever, Mr Beast actually reading the instructions! Whatever next?

The dwarf wall was as high as the fridge and went past the fireplace

No more dust!

Room for singin' and dancin' too ;~)

Of Trucks and Salle des Bains

I used to enjoy snow when I was a kid who knew nothing of how much harder the stuff can make daily living, but now that I’m more adult than kid on most days, I’ve learned the reality of how much harder this cold white stuff makes daily working as well. This particularly applies to building work when one’s extremities tend to be much closer to nature.

One of this week’s missions was to find a stone mason who would understand what we now think we want to do to the main house’s sad neglected facades and since e-mail seems to be treated with suspicion even by those claiming to have it, we wrote carefully worded invitations to a number of local masons inviting them to come and see our project and were in the process of delivering them when the truck started to make some strange creaking noises.

Having found and fixed a leaking coolant hose and topped up the level, we set off to mason number two and by a magnificent feat of navigation, managed to break down in spectacular fashion right outside his workshop door. The right hand head gasket had blown, enveloping the truck in a cloud of steam and as I walked through the mist to the rear of the truck (where the engine is), it was behaving like a living breathing truculent steam locomotive just made to halt to let a herd of cattle cross the track.

The bride thinks I’m a bit crazy liking the truck so much, but he’s handled absolutely everything that’s been thrown at him so far and with ease and despite the heavy fuel consumption, is a joy to drive. Bertie is now practising his French in our local garage and the owner has given us the diagnosis and estimate of time and cost to remove the engine and put it to rights again. It’s a very realistic proposal and if I really can get truck back into service by the end of next week, then I’ll be a very happy man.

I’ve also learned a bit more of the local classic car fraternity and been told of the garage patron’s annual rallye to Mangy Cours in May when he gets to drive his BMW track car around the F1 circuit. I’m thinking Beast and moi may possibly see if we might tag along in the TR and have a bit of fun.

By the time I had truck recovered and got home, we had an e-mail response from mason number 2, giving his phone number and asking us to ring to make an appointment. The power of e-mail kind of works and Monsieur D arrived promptly the next day, understood what we wished to achieve without breaking the bank and promised his devis would arrive soon.

Meanwhile, the work is coming along a treat. Too cold o work outside, plan B is working a treat and inside the last 24 hours, an en-suite bathroom has been created in Paul’s bedroom. We’ll shop for a shower tray tomorrow or Friday and pick up a toilet and basin and see if we can and get some plumbing hooked up.

If we can keep up this rate of progress of a room a day, then the gites will be open for business in no time! I’m happy that things are progressing well, but realise that we have a lot of hard work to get through yet. The gites are the relatively easy parts of the project and as Paul and I know one another so well, we are finding it easy to develop construction details and achieve some good features as a result. 

Today’s morning tea delivery to me in the ‘hay loft’ resulted in the bride and me changing our thinking completely about the barn kitchen and we are now moving to the whole of the ground floor being one large kitchen diner with all ancillary functions relocated to adjoining spaces. This will give us the sort of kitchen we’ve always dreamed of and will become the working centre of the house, with direct access to the courtyard and our public spaces.

Saturday recap: an eventful week seeing the end of the snow, a sad temporary demise of truck, an even sadder parting with the bride, as she returned to the UK for business meetings, a window quotation from Lapeyre with half the windows and all the roof lights missing, a new upstairs room and purchase of all the fittings and plumbing supplies for the two new en-suite bathrooms to the big gite, all the 30 year plus old hay removed from the hayloft and barn dig now at 90%. Beast and I are dinning out tonight in Doue la Fontaine and we have a rest day tomorrow.

TTFN

LC

Before you ask why is Paul doing all the work, remember that someone has to take the pictures!

Life In The Deep Freeze

The snow came, stopped, stayed and then came back again. Temperatures sometimes venture into that heady region just above freezing for a few hours before settling right down again and today, six days after it came, the snow is glistening quite majestically under a furiously bright sunny sky at 2 degrees below. Indoors however, Eric Clapton is cheering us on, as we three adventurers prepare to eat the chicken casserole that’s being slow cooking for three hours causing gastric juices to flow with rising anticipation of the hearty glow soon to be within us, while we lay the table and pull corks from bottles.

My friend Paul arrived from Malta last weekend in his white van laden with tools and the bride finally made it late on Tuesday. However, this was after circling the airport at Poitiers while her pilot searched unsuccessfully to find a runway and then spent the next 2 hours being bussed back from Limoges while I slowly turned to ice in a deserted terminal building dreaming up equally strength sapping discomfitures for its architect for deciding that a heating system would have been an extravagance!

We are now three and enjoying the companionship of a bigger family and as suspected, within 48 hours of his arrival, Beast (old nickname with history, fortunately not all bad), has claimed my workshop as his own, installed racking for his tools and built a 3.8 metre long work bench, soon to be the envy of all who gaze upon it. He now only refers to the workshop as, ‘the joinery shop’, and I can see it may take a monumental force of personality ever to put it to my intended use as a home and workshop for my beloved classic cars!  

Having Paul here is a real bonus, as his professional skills are already boosting progress in leaps and bounds. 

The sub zero temperature however has made it impossible to work in the barn, so plan B has been put into place in the main house. The partition between Paul’s and the adjoining bedroom came down in a morning and sadly, the motor bike wallpaper in one room and the Spanish galleons in the other are now history as well. Miraculously, a beautiful limestone block wall was hiding under the wallpaper, this being glued directly to the dressed stonework, which is adding an unexpected additional touch of sophistication to the gites’ décor.

We’re going to investigate hot and cold water plumbing options tomorrow. Copper has ruled itself out due to its prohibitive price here, so it’s between two plastic systems, one of which comes with three entirely different jointing options. Why? Because it’s French!

Keep warm and more soon.

TTFN

LC

Letting the kids choose the wallpaper seemed a good idea at the time

Phil often remembers his day’s as a drummer with Genesis with a warm appreciation. 

I May Have Spoken Too Soon !

It’s been a good week so far. After four phone calls, I’ve got a window guy coming round on Friday to quote, plus my good buddy Paul aka Mr Beast is arriving in a few days to add his expertise and practical building skills to the project. Also I think I’ve found a local electrician who is willing to work with us and seems to understand what we want to create and more importantly, how to design the electrical distribution system to do it.

This is a large project he told me. Fortunately, that’s not the way I look at it. It’s actually a series of much smaller projects, joined together to achieve a pleasing whole. Small chunks of clearly defined work are much easier to control from the time, quality and cost perspective. Anyway, I just don’t fancy managing a large electrical sub-contract, so we’re both going to have to see it my way, haha!

Actually getting this important specialist part of the project underway is a blessing, as I’ve known for a while that we need to increase the power supply capacity. If this wasn’t pretty obvious from our need to supply power to many additional buildings, then the fact that the power currently trips out whenever I’m cooking with the washing machine or tumble dryer going really gives the game away! For the technically minded (Roger, hello chum) the total power supplied to the house is 20 amps, where it really should be four times that amount for modern living.

Call that snow?

Another good friend woke me early on Monday morning with a text message to tell me it was snowing in Hampshire, so feeling smug while enjoying this mild janvier, I was responding with suitable sarcasm, not to mention rudeness at being aroused from my sleep, when snatching a glance through the window to inspect my clear sky, what should I see but, well, snow! My post last week had me speaking too soon and the electrician was even saying how unusually mild it was, as there was often a frost and even snow was not unknown!! My head is hung in shame, but what a difference a day of snow makes. The village and surrounding vineyards have turned into a Christmas cake tin picture.

Now that's more like it

Note to self: buy more soup, we may be stuck here for a while!

The snow started really gently and I thought it would fizzle out like a damp firework, but it continued and grew in heaviness and by lunchtime, I had to admit defeat and all plans for finishing off the barn dig were abandoned. I did however dress up and took a walk to the Mairie to post my notice of actually starting the building work through their letterbox and took my camera with me. I even received an invite to a snowball fight, but my precious camera stopped me from decimating the trio of yoofs with an intensive neigeblitz, so they lived to tell the tale of how they drove the anglais away!

As pretty as it is, I’m keeping my fingers crossed for no more snow, as I’d like to get some more work done on the barn without dressing up like Nanook of the Loire!

More soon, TTFN 

LC

The pretty courtyard garden

Everyone is staying in today

Blanketed vineyards

Happy New Year

 

Here we are again, as happy as can be in the deep mid-winter of the Loire Valley and I’m very pleased to say that it’s as mild as I was quietly hoping for. We’ve all heard exaggerated claims from people who live somewhere gorgeous in the summer, as they tell you it never snows, freezes, or rains much and the winters are short and mild. Well, it seems to be true here, at least as far as January is concerned and I’ve recorded 11 to 12 degrees C over the past week in mid-afternoon. There has been no frost yet and hardly any rain, although it did blow a bit in December and I noticed a couple of slates have blown off a damaged eaves section of the barn roof.

I’ve dug so much rock out of the barn since I’ve been back this last week, that my hands and particularly the finger joints are rather sore, so anti-inflammatory drugs in hand, I’m taking a couple of admin days and now have a local electrician coming to price some work on Friday and have commented back this morning to the webmasters on the latest draft of our website. It’s looking a bit fab and groovy ;~)

I’ve also taken some pics of the dig only to find I didn’t have the camera to pc cable in my bag when I came to download them, so am unable to post new photos here until the new one arrives from Hong Kong. This is via ebay at a modest $5.00 US delivered to by French letter box. Not only am I more cynical these days, but firmly believe in the words, ‘If it seems too good to be true, it probably is’. But hey, I am desperate and 5 bucks is an easy punt, so fingers crossed (if I was able!) and hopefully the Chinese New Year won’t delay my stringy thingy too long.

Right, I’m off food shopping and also some jolly bloke’s shopping on the way back in the form of a big bad pressure washer. Getting wet is usually fun!!

TTFN  LC

Closing Down for Winter

Lundi le 12 decembre dawned, or at least at 09h00 did when I woke up to a shinning sun is a brightly clear blue sky. Fast forward 8 and half hours to a small village in Normandy and it was so cold I couldn’t feel my hands by the time I’d unloaded my few things needed for a couple of nights at our holiday home before catching a ferry back to blighty. So it seems to be some truth in the stories I’ve heard that winters in the Loire are milder than up north!

Yesterday, I switched from solid digging (and I mean solid, as in the solid rock I’m now excavating) to clearing out assorted stable fittings and the original partly collapsed staircase from the corner of the barn ready for more reducing levels.

The first 2 metre section of steps was long gone, but the basic support structure (newel post, outer string and handrail) was still there. I’d found several dates inscribed in the stone upstairs, the oldest being 1812, so I was reluctant to demolish the steps, so set about dismantling them. To remove the lower structure, I took a hammer and drift to the two oak pegs of the mortise and tenon joints securing the handrail and string to the newel. The tapered pegs popped right out and the tenons slid out of the mortises like they were only assembled a week ago. Craftsmen knew how to build things well 200 years ago and we certainly wont mention the war, well not tonight Josephine ;~)

Digging out at the base of the stairs was relatively easy as there was an infill of sand and clay tile some 450mm deep. Besides salvaging some 30 odd tiles, which is a bonus, as you can find them for sale in depot ventes for several euros each, I uncovered a stoppered liquid filled glass bottle and put it aside for further investigation.

All in all, I’d excavated by hand, just about half of the 50 m2 floor area to a depth of half a metre and created an evolving spoil pattern in the back garden which will require some creative landscaping scheme if I haven’t got to load it all onto the truck and cart it somewhere else.

So here we are, the dig is officially closed for the season and I am writing this in Normandy, preparing to hop across the channel in a couple of days to spend a happy Christmas with the bride and family on the Isle of Wight, while outside the wind is doing it’s best to encourage the roof to fly south for the winter. Hopefully all will be well, but stay tuned for the next instalment and see how things progress!

Anyway, some have asked for more pictures, so here you go . . .

Restored workshop doors and no more ivy covered walls

Lots of shiny new manly tools waiting to be shown a good time

Spoil wars!

The old stable

To become the new kitchen

Napoleonic staircase

Lower section removed to storage

Horse medicine, witch bottle?