Home straight?

Arriving at the house on Friday, only M. Waeber was on site: he has finished all the floor tiling, and was in the process of tiling the bathroom.

Sadly, I think I left my thinking head at home! For some reason I admired the beautiful (finished) kitchen floor but left my camera in its case, so you'll have to take my word for it that it looks nice.

But you can admire my loo!

M. Waeber had finished the tiling in there and Schwartz had fitted the sanitary ware and the towel rail.

It looks good enough to use!

The only "fly in the ointment" is the delay connecting it up to the main drains.

With luck, we will get M. Luparello to start work early April, so that may be resolved next time we visit.

Fingers crossed!

Not much to report elsewhere: still finding things Schwartz have forgotten to do, so that's an ongoing "snagging" list, and the things that M. Huguenot's men didn't finish (I feel that they would have finished their jobs if they'd been on site a week longer).

We're going back to have the "reception" meeting on Good Friday (oddly, that's a bank holiday that we have and the French miss out on!) - it promises to be a long day, but I'm looking forward to taking back possession of the house...

And cleaning up!

Friday the 13th...

Was it unlucky?

Well, to celebrate one week of having been in pain from the sinus infection/TMJ problem/teethache [it was all the teeth, bar one on the right hand side, so I'm not going to settle for just "toothache"!] I woke up with a raging sore throat, and the feeling that I might get a migraine (nausea, photophobia, feeling of everything being too loud/bright)...

But that was the worst that happened, so no, I don't count it as an unlucky day.

And I woke up on Saturday feeling even worse (succumbed to an attack of the "green lurgy", with laryngitis to top it off)!

So that's definite proof to me that Friday the 13th was actually slightly less unlucky than a normal day. ;-)

We didn't even hit any wildlife on the way home.

Arriving at the house early we managed to have a good look around.

The most obvious thing to see was M. Waeber in the kitchen laying the base for the last two rows of floor tiles.

It looks gorgeous! [IMHO ;-)]

Looking from the entrance hall, the tiles don't really seem to form a pattern, but looking in at the "other" front door, you can see the repeat.

It does draw the eye "into" the room (and rest of the house), rather than leading into a blind corner, so reversing the direction was definitely the right call.

M. Waeber had clearly been busy: the loo and bedroom were tiled.

I think it's Schwartz holding up the process [again] that prevented him from doing the bathroom and laundry/boiler room: the shower tray needs to be fitted before he can do the bathroom, and there's still masses of piping in the laundry that needs to be tidied.

I was a bit worried that by ordering the sink as late as we did, we'd be holding up progress... Hah! Fat chance. At least we picked it up this visit (another 70 mile round trip to Troyes; we'll both be glad when we can give the d-i-y superstores & builders' merchants a miss!), so any delays in fitting it won't be down to us!

M. Waeber had also tiled the space under the stairs, so here's the promised photo of David standing in the stairwell (well, several, as I found it amusing!).

He said it was actually quite nice in there, so that's put the kibosh on that variant of the "naughty step"...


Whilst we were there, M. Luparello arrived - he is a builder M. Boyer has lined up to complete the work...

HOPEFULLY!

We will probably have the base done for a terrace to the rear of the house at this stage; it's more expense (when we don't need it!), but I'm keen to avoid having diggers come back in a year or two's time and have to roll over the drains. I have this idea that any work over piping in the ground is a bad thing.

M. Luparello seemed OK...

But what do we know about builders?!!

I'm still letting M. Boyer worry about that, and not getting too involved...

Where I am getting involved is changing things that don't look right, because of decisions taken in our absence!

Sadly, I want the door in the bedroom replaced where it was (and where we wanted it), rather than in the entrance hall.

One of the main reasons for keeping the woodwork unchanged was to keep what remaining bits of character the house had originally.

So, the bedroom had the original paintwork (we think) on the cupboard, which matched the inside of the door. The outside (hall side) of the bedroom door was a particularly nasty shade of brown, but this matches the other original door in the entrance hall.

Because the housing to the small cellar doorway had become much bigger, there wasn't room to fit the bedroom door in the bedroom, so M. Boyer thought it would be OK to fit in on the other side of the opening, in the entrance hall.

It's not OK!

It means when the door is closed, the brown side is in the bedroom.

And obviously the greeny-grey side is in the entrance hall. Coupled with the newly-fitted door to the kitchen (faded green + "patching"), that means every door in the entrance hall is a different colour: 2 different shades of green, brown, and greeny-grey.

At least by replacing the bedroom door in the "right" location, we will bring the colour clash down to 2 shades of green plus brown.

I didn't want to paint the old front doors, but I really don't like repairs; I am going to see if I can "live" with the alterations, but if they still irritate me I will have to paint the doors to match the new woodwork; something I desperately didn't want to do.

I honestly believed that by telling everyone involved: "Do not TOUCH the woodwork [apart from fixing up the cupboard over the bread oven]!" I would manage to keep the doors looking exactly how they were.

Maybe from a "technical" point of view they are better now, but it's one more instance of diminishing the original character, and they don't work any better than they did (they all worked perfectly, anyway), so what was the point?

[I wasn't "allowed" to keep the old stairs (yes, the new ones look much better and are wider, so that was a good decision); I wasn't allowed to retain the step up to the back hall (I like small changes in level: makes a place more interesting); most of my original stone slabs have 'vanished'; you may have read an earlier post about the destruction of my beloved floor upstairs (yes, again, the new one is lovely, but that's not the point). If we can ever afford any more work, I'm going to live on site and get in everyone's way on a daily basis!]

I know it seems a small and petty point, but I'm now pretty tired, and deeply fed up of having workmen alter things in my home that were perfectly alright.

AND charging us for the privilege!!

Phew, rant over!

Another decision that M. Boyer made (and that's going to be reversed) is to place the heated towel rails in the loo and bathroom at eye-height.

We're not the kind of people that want radiators as a "feature" [I know we chose quite a fancy finish for the ones at the front of the house, but that was so they blended in better, not "stuck out".], and by having them mounted so high on the walls it prevents me from being able to put a cupboard above them (if we were to find a nice one somewhere).

There is the argument for having them in that position that we can adjust the controls easily (i.e. without bending down), but thankfully David and I are both flexible enough that we can bend down still (!), and I'm not sure that is a valid reason - what about all the other radiators in the house (where the controls as just above the floor)?

Anyway, they are going to be altered, and the wall tiling will hide all the changes (ironically, you can see where the bathroom one had been changed from the original, lower position).

I'm not overjoyed that the place hasn't been fully plastered; I specified [repeatedly!] that I wanted it plastering as I wanted to paint. I feel a bit cross that only the joints have been done - we now have to pay more money to get what I asked for in the first place! I understand that that is how things happen in France [you might want to carpet your ceiling, and then it doesn't need to be "properly" plastered!], but I emphasised that I wanted it fully plastering, so feel aggrieved that this wasn't quoted for [and done].

Hmmm!

Part of the floor upstairs has been fixed (around the landing to the stairs), but we are still waiting for one very small section of floorboard!

Just to balance out my crankiness [please forgive me for that, I think my ill-ness is making me much worse than usual!], we are really pleased with how the vast majority of the work has been done; it really is bringing out the best in the house, and realising the dream!

A big THANK YOU to everyone who has helped achieve this!

Moving our belongings...

...Yet again!!

We're hopeful that this time will be the last time we have to move all our "stuff" [furniture, bedding, clothes, crockery/kitchenwares, books, gardening/d-i-y tools, ornaments, etc., etc.] to permit workmen to carry out their jobs without hindrance (and to keep our possessions as clean as possible).

I know we have to move everything at least one more time [we do plan on using it once this phase of the renovation is finished!], but that will be at our leisure, and will be 'setting up home'.

I'm busy trying not to think about when we can fit a kitchen!!

I suspect that by the time that happens, all the 'removals' will be just a distant memory! And I will be happy to do it if I can put my things into kitchen cupboards.

We stayed at the motel for an extra 2 nights; we had to find a sink on Friday, and thought we'd have the rest of the afternoon off, and planned to do as much as we could [hopefully all of it] on Saturday and then go for a lovely soak in the bath in the evening before setting out for home on Sunday...

Or going back to the house, getting mucky again and finishing it off before travelling home in dusty clothes (let's call that "Plan B").

As it happened, we were incredibly lucky with the weather [Saturday was very sunny, sandwiched between two colder, overcast days], which helped massively: I'd taken the kettle & some mugs so that we could sit in the car (with the engine running, obviously!) with a cup of tea to warm up...

Not necessary!

We even sat outside to have lunch (and I was thankful for the sun-umbrella; David got lightly singed), and it felt as though we might have a summer this year!

Some bulbs in the garden were also glad of the heat from the sun - we'd got a lovely display of crocus "Romance" in the wreckage of my garden (another thing I can't wait to 'attack').

We had a late start, but the fact that the house was warm meant that we managed to work uninterrupted apart from lunch, and finally finished at 7.15.

It felt impossible when David went off to "hunt & gather" for lunch; I'd been vacuuming for over two hours, and hadn't finished, and we hadn't moved a single thing (apart from a few rocks!).

Back to the room for a much-needed soak, and then we tried a new pizza place before completely crashing out!

I'm glad we'd allowed the time on Sunday: we didn't need it for tidying the house, but having a "safety net" eased the pressure, and having a good rest before setting out for home made the journey much more pleasant.

I'm posting a few photos to show the relocated things (not that you can tell what they are; tarpaulins are great for keeping off bird droppings!), and so you can see the housing for the staircase.

My [current] two favourite people...

...Are M. Suarez and M. Hyvernand (I hope I've got that right!).

We arrived at the house for the Friday meeting, to be greeted by the sight of light falling on our new stairs from the newly-fitted window in the back door.

A few steps closer, and I could see M. Suarez skimming the joints on the stud-partition walls ("cloisons" is so much easier to type!) that have appeared in the back hall.

We now have a bathroom, loo, laundry and cupboards in the space I was beginning to think would never lose its resemblance to that "pipes" screensaver that used to be so popular.

[You might remember the one: different-size tubes with a variety of 'elbows', in several colours, reassembling themselves into new displays whilst you watched... Without ever 'making' anything.]

All the "innards" are now where they belong (inside!), and with access reinstated to the "grenier", the house resembles a house for the first time in ages.

I don't miss that "building site" look!

Don't get me wrong, I loved it for what it meant [work transforming the place into a lovely home], but we've lived with grit & mess for over four years, and that is tiring.

Enough of the past...

M. Baty's assistant, M. Hyvernand was busy in the bedroom (ooh, it's so difficult resisting the temptation to make smutty comments!), re-fitting the front of the cupboard.

There were various assorted bits of wood around the house awaiting fitting: sills; window seats; vaults (is that the right word? For the top of the window embrasures); the old front doors (to be hung as internal doors); hand rail for the stairs.

I love the stairs (just not too sure about the rust on the straight bits of the balusters), and the size of the "tambour" means they feel open enough as well. although it's taken a big chunk out of the space upstairs!

Even with the tarpaulin still covering some of the back door, the new glazed pane lets in a surprising amount of light - definitely the right decision; whatever we do, the back hall will always be quite dark, but having another source of light instead of a solid door will help.

Our small window is back too, and "facing" the right way; much better.

As usual, everyone got in M. Suarez's way and he remained cheerful. He's obviously been busy!

We still haven't resolved the 'missing mason' problem, but, as I said in an earlier post, I am going to let M. Boyer worry about that one...

I could get stressed about that, but it would have to join the queue!

[In fact I am feeling stressed at the moment: we've got too many things going on at the moment, I'm struggling to finish the decorating at home, Windows Vista (if you're a "victim" of this, you'll know what I mean!), etc, etc, but I won't bore you with that. Let's just say that I can't wait for the very nice men to leave my house alone and let me get in there and clean it up!]

We discussed the 'pattern' for the tiles in the kitchen with M. Waeber; we'd wanted just the "ordinary" square layout (like a grid), but both M. Boyer and M. Waeber pointed out that with the non-square room, the regularity of the joints would emphasise the irregularity of room.

And where do you start? Front of the house? Under the beam? Wall by the "poêle"? Whichever choice we made would have made the rest of the kitchen look "wonky"... [It is wonky, but there's no need to draw people's eyes to that fact!]

So, reluctantly, we ruled that option out. The same arguments applied to basket/stretcher bond, so that was out too.

We didn't like the diagonal layout (and we plan that when we can get around to the master bedroom, which is much closer to square).

So, we're going with a 'staggered' design (I don't know what to call it - look at the photo to see what I mean) where the tiles are offset by a third in each row.

Another round of talking about which way it should "go"; at first I felt it was leading you into a corner, but by changing which side the tile stepped out by a third, I no longer noticed my eye being drawn by the joints. And if we do see them when the floor is completed, they will "lead" into the house, rather than to a dead-end by the kitchen.

Sorry if I didn't explain that very well - it's much easier looking at tiles and going "yes", "no", "maybe" or "yuk!" than it is to describe how they look!

Before leaving, we went to see progress in the small cellar: they haven't made much of a mess of the air hole, and the concrete base where the well-water cistern will stand is as out-of-the-way as could be managed.

There are still holes, but they will have to wait for a new builder. [Another new builder!]

That part is causing less concern than the trench at the back: until that is completed we will have no gas supply (and so no heating), and no drains (let's not go into what that means!)...

Oh, well, could be good thing: with the return of some more light & some sunshine I'm hoping to finish the glossing in England & get the flat back to normal (I've also brought the pressure washer back, to clean some of the algae off the garden walls [before we get the hosepipe ban back] and make the outside "green" only where we want it!).

If the French house was liveable, wild horses wouldn't be able to drag me away.

We've hit a snag...

...No, I don't mean a sausage; I'd be happier if that was all that was wrong!

I mentioned that M. Huguenot was proving difficult to contact in an earlier post...

Well, today we found out why: he was declared bankrupt on 17th February! At least that's what the Mairie in Verpillers told M. Boyer off the record. [So it's probably true; the Mairies seem to know everything.]

I feel so sorry for him, but a part of me is cross that he didn't give us any warning. Realistically, I know, that's not likely - if you are in difficulties the last thing you want to do is tell people (who will then chose another firm to do the work).

David thinks we are a little ahead on the deal, which is some consolation: we will have to pay anyone that takes over the work a premium. Not to mention the extra time that M. Boyer will have to spend finding new builders.

I dread to think about what happens with the guarantee - I seem to remember that Dominique Drouot's work was not covered by his insurance because he hadn't finished, and so we hadn't signed the "reception" papers to say it was completed to our satisfaction.

Doesn't matter if you've been paying the bills, the insurers who are covering the company whilst they were doing the work don't want to know!

And any new builders are wary of taking on any responsibility for work they didn't do (as they do not know whether it was done properly, which may adversely affect their insurance)...

I don't envy M. Boyer this week!

A small glimmer of hope: M. Boyer has managed to contact M. Smail, who has started with a new employer today. We are hoping that if M. Smail states that the work was done properly, his new employers would be willing to finish this part of our job...

As far as we can remember, it's only digging (and then filling in when the pipes are in place) a couple of trenches, and a hole for the gas cistern.

Hopefully not too scary!

Please keep your fingers crossed for us.

NOT the second-to-last visit?

After an extra week's grace, we went to the house for our usual site meeting on Friday.

Thankfully, it being the 13th hadn't caused any unusual problems to occur; just the usual sort of "glitches" that you'd expect on any building project, particularly one where the clients aren't on site every day!

We had been expecting it to be the "pre-reception" visit... [Reception being the French way of accepting that the work has been satisfactorily completed and handing over the final cheque.]

But judging by the amount of work left to do in the back hall, we both think that there will be at least 2 more visits (if not more).

There has been lots of progress, of course, but very little was different in the majority of the back hall (no cloisons, no insulation, no tambour - "innards" still spilling out of the ceiling & floor); Schwartz are still holding up work by the paucity of electricians/plumbers on site. I'm fairly sure that fitting the partition walls will take a while...

What did stand out was the activities of woodworkers!

Lovely new beam.

I can't remember if I mentioned that (it's most definitely an "extra", and totally unnecessary, but will be so lovely and once we've forgotten the "ouch-to-pocket" factor [not actually too ouch, but it's all cumulative...] it will have been the right decision)... I might have been trying to sneak it under the radar! HeHeHe.

Our imposte and the door from the entrance hall are back (in a fixed-up state), and the cupboard door to the space above the bread oven has returned (again, made good).

The palier is in place (the small landing halfway up the stairs), but was so well camouflaged with protective plasterboard, wood-pulp "fluff", and dust that I took quite a while to realise it was permanent, not a temporary measure to allow the carpenters access to the grenier!

And, my beautiful grille is fitted on the back door! M. Baty quietly told me that whilst M. Boyer & David were concentrating on something else, so for quite a few minutes I lost track of proceedings whilst admiring the gorgeous metalwork...

[Possibly the proximity of the gorgeous joiner contributed to the enjoyment; who knows?]

I will put my hands up to having chosen a far-too-ornate design (for the house; the building's quite grand, as farms/smallholdings go, but it's not massively "twiddly"), but in my defence (a) it was the only one we found truly acceptable (the next closest choice wasn't very nice, and was twice the price) and, (b) I have allowed myself just the occasional extravagance (did I mention my new beam?!!)...

Don't ask me how it works that cast- (or wrought-) iron is fitted by: builders (fire base & fire back), plasterers (ceiling roses), tilers (fire base for poêle), carpenters (wall ties) and joiners (door security grilles & window bars). The only people we haven't had fit any metal are metalworkers; we [reluctantly] knocked the porch on the head at the estimate "pruning" stage.

Obviously fumistes have installed metal, too, but that's a lined flue... So I can see the logic there! I don't know what the English equivalent of "fumiste" is; do we have fireplace fitting/fixing specialists in the UK? And if so, what are they called? They're nothing to do with chimney sweeps; they come and empty your septic tank, too! [Unless, like us, you are lucky enough to be on mains drainage.]

Sorry, I'm not trying to be pretentious with all the French words, I'm just quite tired (and feel as though my head is about 97½% full!) and we've got more used to using the French term for various things (even when we do know the English one!), so it's so much quicker to insert the word I know, rather than finding the dictionary from its hiding place in the cellar & trying to find out what the English is... Apologies.

Also in the back hall we could see the progress of M. Smail and his colleagues: the remaining new stone tiles were laid, and the gap between them and the back door made-up with some of our old stone slabs and the doorway to the "suite" (still known to us at this stage as the "stable") has been blocked up.

Upstairs, it was all change!

The flue for the poêle had been moved, and M. Monnier's assistant was tying it in to the wall, and Laurent Mazij was cutting the new floor away to keep the wood a safe distance from the metal.

One of M. Mazij's helpers was fitting the last part of the lowered floor by the opening to the road. I was totally torn between accepting it as it was (time/cost/hassle-to-workmen in changing it to how it ought to be), and saying "please, would you align the planks so that they are parallel to the sill [of the opening where a window will eventually be] and the edge to the rest of the floor".

My instinct was screaming "No!", but I decided to say nothing. David was perfectly happy with the floorboards all running in the same direction; I will probably either hide this section with a rug, or fit some very thin laminate running in the "correct" orientation at a later date!

I couldn't face upsetting the carpenters when they only had the last bit of wood to drop into place!

I could feel M. Boyer looking at me. I think he was surprised that nothing was said, but I'm mindful that we want work to stop!! And that will happen all the sooner if I don't get carpenters to re-do work that they've only just done.

Who knows, perhaps no-one else will notice it...? [Sorry, MJM, that's your invite cancelled before it was issued! ;-)]

Several things to mention about the floor:

• The floorboards are incredibly light; I salvaged a bit of the poplar before it ended up on the fire, and several bits of similar-thickness oak - the difference in weight was remarkable!
• We had chosen "clous mariniers", which are lovely, for the visible fixings on the planks. I don't think Laurent was convinced... He wanted to use a more traditional squared nail. We were shown a sample of both styles of nail on a made-up section. I have to admit, Laurent was right! Still, he only has himself to blame - we would have accepted the several kilos of round-headed large nails (that he had already bought; thankfully he can take them back) if he hadn't shown us the alternative... I'm not sure how delighted his apprentice was; he then was assigned the task of turning about 1600 round-headed nails into square-headed ones! [Think: big hammer, hit the side of the head (at least four times) to flatten it to have four sides, put it down, start again! Only 1599 to go...]
• We've lost at least 8" of "ceiling" height. Now I will need the lovely ornate grille-work to stop people falling out of the windows. Hurrah! I can go back to GHM... And it would be most odd to have very simple ones, having got the cardoon-patterned grille on the back door, would't it? ;-)

The most obvious progress was noticeable as soon as we walked into the house: M. Suarez was skimming the joins in the plasterboard on the ceilings. He was working along all the joins in one direction, before moving to the next room and doing the same. Once he'd finished that, he was going to start again at the beginning doing the cross direction...

In between being disrupted by anyone else who wanted to do any work wherever he was standing on his plank!

He seemed very good-natured; a perfect complement to the more "firecracker" nature of M. Roncari (his boss).

There was a trench started from the small cellar towards the well. For the water supply, and also the tube supplying fresh air to the VMC; I think that the air supply is the only really bizarre thing about the renovation [other slightly odd things are as a result of taking the pragmatic course], but it will all be hidden, and we will forget... But it's a bit "Heath Robinson"!

Worryingly, M. Huguenot hasn't been seen for several weeks, and is not responding to telephone calls or emails. Here's another instance of me practising "going with the flow": I'm trusting M. Boyer to do any worrying that needs to be done; until I'm told there's a problem, I will believe that it's all going to be OK!

I didn't find time to look in the cellar, so I hope they haven't wreaked too much havoc with our beautiful stone vaulting!

In other places M. Baty has been active: there are door frames between the kitchen and entrance hall, and halfway up where the stairs will be (awaiting the old front doors' return), and to the bedroom. That was a decision of M. Boyer... We're leaving it as it is (for now), but I suspect that I will change that: the door to the bedroom now opens outwards, and can't be fully opened as it will foul the wall lights in the hall.

Hmmm!

Easily changed, but it will mean a new (slightly narrower) door... So that cost can wait!

We've got new glass in the door to the back hall, and the frame has been extensively repaired. It looks a perfect example of restoration (as opposed to renovation); just what I wanted.

Not as keen on the fixing-up on the bedroom door (and what I can imagine has happened to the absent front doors)...

I'm not sure how to communicate "do not do anything, AT ALL, fullstop! I want the old finish EXACTLY how it is"... I tried saying "do not do anything, AT ALL, fullstop! I want the old finish EXACTLY how it is", but that translated to "take off the old locks and handles, and make good. Also make good any ratty-looking bits of wood. Fit new closing mechanisms".

What I wanted was completely untouched history (including any "interesting" bits; at some point a dog must have scratched to be let in... Some time later someone painted over the scratches without filling them!).

I will get used to the made-good woodwork, but I did want untouched woodwork!

How can you get blokes to listen to the words? And not translate what you ask for into what they think you really mean? I'm pretty good at saying what I really mean...!!

We have most of the radiators fitted; they look great!

I had a laugh at the one in the bedroom - it's been mounted vertically (nothing odd there, you'd think), but it really emphasises how far from vertical the wall behind it is!

Various other small changes have been made & decisions taken:

• We're probably going to have small wooden "fillets" between the stone slabs in the back hall and the floor tiles in the WC/shower room/laundry
• The flue to the bread oven has been remodeled; it does look better. M. Boyer is right: the upper bit is not as much of a success, but it's still an improvement

• We're going to ask M. Monnier about the smoking fire in the entrance hall; he thinks we need to raise the fire. I'm hoping we can add a "hood" inside the stonework, instead...
• M. Waeber is going to fit the other iron plaque under the poêle before tiling
• M. Baty wants the staircase to go in after all the work around it has finished. We totally agree, so the tambour is going to be finished, and the tiling under the stairs done before he will install the two flights of stairs. He's going to oil the wood. I'm hoping we can get him to wax the wood in his workshop before fitting...
• The stone wall in the kitchen above the doorway to the entrance hall has been completed
• I'm not sure about the VMC tubing in the stable, but will worry about that later, if necessary!!
• Sadly, we are still going to have to move all of our stuff... Probably on the next visit. Not looking forward to that! It was little-enough fun when the temperature was above freezing

Finally, we've now got a roof on the "cabanon" [interestingly, that translates to "country cottage" in Dicobat; the French must have odd ideas about how we live in England!], and the hinge has been replaced, so the door hangs properly.

I'm so glad we kept it; I keep thinking of alternative uses - it will either be my kindling store, or a potting shed... But I reserve the right to lock David in there if he's naughty!!

;-)