You know that old Chinese curse…?

..."May you live in interesting times!"

Have had an interesting day... Got a call at 8am this morning: the Operations Manager at a motorway services; my mum was in a lot of pain, they had called an ambulance & the paramedics were taking her off to hospital... Apparently mum thought she had really bad wind (as well as the pain, she had a distended abdomen)! I called mum's mobile (in case the ambulance people hadn't switched it off), and spoke to a lady paramedic who said she was already off her head (she didn't put it quite that way!) on morphine with a suspected kidney infection, and they were just arriving at the hospital. I waited about 10 minutes & called A&E who hadn't heard of her, but hearing that she was likely to be going to urology, transferred me to a lady who dealt with ward admissions. She didn't have any record of her either, but said she'd call me next time she was in A&E, and took my name & number. About half an hour later, she called me back to say mum had been in A&E for about 35 minutes (must have not been registered straight away?). I spoke with an A&E sister who said her obs were fine, and that she’d been given painkillers & was waiting for blood tests and X-rays.

By this time, John & Rich were on there way to the hospital (Rich to collect mum’s car from the services, if necessary), so I called them to let them know I’d tracked her down (when I spoke to them before they left the house, I didn’t know where she was), and could they call me when they got there. I didn’t want to try and travel up to Sutton Coldfield if she was going to be released fairly soon (I reckon it would probably take me about four hours to get to the hospital, if I got really lucky with train times, and knowing that they’ve changed the way they charge for travel I would have had to pay full fares – could be a couple of hundred pounds?), so all I could do was sit near the phone & wait. Normally in a circumstance like this I’d be straight on the phone to David getting some moral support… But guess who’s in Germany with his phone inaudible owing to motorcycle noise! I couldn’t even chat to Rich for long, as his batteries were low on his mobile.

A little later, Rich called; they had been in to see mum (who was understandably woozy – the morphine still clearly working), but got kicked out almost immediately as they were going to give her another painkiller that should reduce the abdominal bloating, but French style! I can still remember that from having bronchitis as a five-year old!

Thankfully Rich called back fairly soon to tell me that mum had got four enormous kidney stones (about 3/8”), and that kidney stones are often very hard to spot on X-ray, but these were obvious! They were talking about keeping her in hospital overnight, so I’d written off her visit to us (and she was due to come to France for a flying visit, as well). I went from really worried to ecstatically relieved and then to really disappointed that she’d miss her visit. Because there was some blood in her urine, she had to see a surgeon – not for surgery, but apparently he’s the person you see for kidney stones! As the stones had already left her kidney, she couldn’t have ultrasound, so it was “wait & see”, oh, and “drink lots of fluids”.

The surgeon said she needed a scan, so more waiting. After about 4 hours I called Rich again, but she still hadn’t appeared, so he went in to check what was happening. A few minutes later I got a call to say she’d been discharged 40 minutes earlier, but he couldn’t find her anywhere! Massive relief that she’d been discharged (they wouldn’t have let her go if she wasn’t on the mend), but no surprise that she’d gone AWOL! Something about ‘leopards’ and ‘spots’ sprang to mind…!
Just got a call – she’s on her way to collect her car from the motorway services, have something to eat (her first meal all day), and then she’s coming down. That’s the spirit that survived the Blitz!!

I’ve sat at home, doing nothing (other than a load of laundry – house is tidy, & didn’t want to leave the phone to do shopping) for over 8 ½ hours, but it’s been one of the more exhausting days of my life!

Mum: glad you’re going to be OK!! And is that enough excitement for you?

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A Big Thank You to Computer Aided Draughting Services

I need to say a massive thanks (long overdue; apologies!) to John D Knighton of Computer Aided Draughting Services. It's seemed a long old haul to get to this point: we can nearly see some of the proposed changes to the layout becoming reality. Apart from a fertile imagination, the main thing that has kept us positive is the help we've received from John - he has been producing plans and virtual rendered images (I think that's the term; if not please let me know & I will change it!) that have made it all seem real.

Visiting a house that's a fair way away (at least 5 hours travelling each way) makes it more difficult to visualise how each room could/will look - and we can't just 'pop round' to check we've made the right decision. When we are there, we can lay out bits of wood on the floor to show where we are planning kitchen units or partition walls or doors etc, but trying to remember that when we're back at home is tricky to say the least. John has uncomplainingly made massive changes to our plans, and numerous 'fine-tuning' adjustments as we have thought through the implications of each of our decisions, and his rendered images have helped (David particularly) to "see" how it's going to be.

All I can say is: Massive thanks to you, John. And if you are reading this and need drawings or 'visualisations' for a project, John has been (almost scarily) efficient & at times has had to badger the clients (rather than the other way round)! Also, the plans he has drawn up for later phases of our renovation are suitable to give to a French architect (when we appoint one), so that will save us a considerable amount of money… So, if you would like to contact him, (or to have a look at another of his projects) please click on this link to his website: Computer Aided Draughting Services

Garden

We were planning to think about the garden after getting the apartment in the house liveable/finished… That now seems still quite a way off, so this year we decided to start on the garden.

There is a front yard that had been used to store old machinery and equipment, so even if it ever was a garden it hasn’t been one recently. The house faces South and the view is over Champagne vineyards in the gently sloping valley, so the (planned!) patio in front of the kitchen would have an even better view if there was a garden in front of it rather than… Well, soil & weeds & bits of builders’ rubble! Oh, and more bones & teeth than I was expecting; a reminder that it used to be a fermette!

Last summer we had cleared most of the space of weeds (and pile of stones!), but when we got back there in November it didn’t look as though we had done anything. Great fun in April, then, when we had bought a load of plants (nearly 150) to plant on a long weekend!

But now we do have a (fledgling) garden. Visiting in May meant another weeding marathon, but most of the plants had survived, and many were flowering, so we were really pleased!

When I’m there this trip, I plan to spend the cool part of the early morning (i.e. before about 9 am!) doing weeding/hoeing, and maybe a bit more in the evenings, so hopefully I should get on top of it – fingers crossed! When we were at the neighbours gîte in June I went round several mornings while David was able to have a lie-in & was happily bashing away at the weeds before 7.30 (one day before 5 – very productive!). The only worry I had was if anyone saw me carrying my huge mug of green tea round there they might think I’m weird! But I was consoled when I remembered they probably think I’m weird anyway because I’m English!

I never thought I'd see the day when my wish-list contains a piochet (I don't know what it is in English, it's not in my dictionary or on Babel Fish; I think it's a type of mattock?) - never have been a Jimmy Choo type of girl, but seem to be getting less girly as I get older! Scarily, that seems to run in the family (Hi, Karen!)...

Apologies to Flickr™

I store a lot of my digital photos on Flickr™, and have tried to post a photo here by clicking on the 'Blog This' button - it worked fine, but the text saying where it came from was so tiny that it just looked like a broken line. I don't know if that was because I edited the text in Blogger™ after posting it or if I did something else wrong? I also tried to do one of their groovy 'dynamic badge' things, and that just came up blank...

I'm a bit concerned that by uploading my photos from the computer I might be infringing the Community Guidelines as it says "However, pages on other websites that display images hosted on flickr.com must provide a link back to Flickr from each photo to its photo page on Flickr." I don't know if that includes images stored on Flickr™, but not posted to the blog from Flickr™... I can't believe that I lose control of my images that easily, but working with lawyers a lot over the years makes me worry about inadvertantly doing the wrong thing!

Hmmm!? I'm hoping that giving them a mention in this post might make up for the lack of links...? Apart from this (minor) problem I love Flickr™ - great to mail to friends who can view the latest photos as a slideshow (and flick through them as quickly as they like!), and just browsing other people's photos is fun.

Might give it another go, another day & if I still can't get it to post a legible/visible link to Flickr™ I guess I'm going to have to contact the Support Team...

Home Alone

David is off to Germany, to do a Motorrad course at the Nürburgring (Nordschleife), and a half-day's riding first, so I'm home alone! He was deciding yesterday what colour gaffer tape (Duck® tape) would best go with the bike for reattaching a loose bit of fairing... For those of you interested in the selection process, apparently black is more stylish!

The photo is here as a reminder of what NOT to do. At the start of the season last year, he came off at Brands Hatch on his first track day, but this year he's been for a few rides to get in practice so that he enjoys the German trip.

When he gets back, we are hiring a van to go to France & take a load of furniture (we keep reading about how cheap/easy it is to buy secondhand furniture at vide-greniers or dépôts-ventes, but so far all we've seen are really expensive [and nasty!] items - I'm keeping an eye on The Evergreen Trust furniture warehouse now!).

I'm hoping the bird survived... Watch this space & keep your fingers crossed that I'm not reporting on a load of tiny corpses! Oh, sorry, didn't do that post yet (we think it's a Redstart that has nested under the beam in the entrance hall)...

Holkham Linseed Paints

As promised, a bit more information about the wonderful paint used on our windows (as before, watch this space for news of the doors & shutters)...

For more of the background, please click on this link to the Holkham Linseed Paints website - it's an interesting story! But the short of it for me was that this sounded like a paint that met all my criteria:
a) Environmentally friendly - made from only linseed oil & natural pigments;
b) Low-odour - no solvents;
c) Long-lasting - only needs repainting after 10-15 years (a coat of warm linseed oil after 5-7 years will refresh the colour in the meantime);
d) Doesn't crack on exposure to the elements - the linseed oil penetrates the wood grain rather than sitting on top, and allows the wood to 'breathe', so preventing rot/decay;
e) Doesn't need sanding back before repainting - my personal favourite;
f) Really pretty soft greeny-grey colour - Wild Sage!

As the website points out, the paint is more expensive than conventional paints, but most of the cost in repainting comes from the labour required to strip back old, peeling/cracked/flaking paint. Also, conventional paint needs replacing/renewing after 3-5 years, so the paint cost itself adds up over the long-term... If you are still reading this blog in 15 years, I'll let you know!!
It all sounded so wonderful, I passed on the details to my cousin (who is having a house built in the Vendée - hi Karen!) in case she would be interested. She bought a tester pot, tried it out & gave it the thumbs up! As we have both done a lot of painting over the years, I trusted her evaluation, so we ordered as much paint (& all the associated bits 'n' bobs) as we needed and took them out to France.

The paint is applied on top of a coat of warmed pure linseed oil, using a different kind of brush, needs special soap to wash the brushes (no white spirit!), uses different filler etc, etc, so we had a box full of stuff that we delivered to the carpenter's workshop. Holkham Linseed Paints are collecting together translations of the instructions (other people have either used non-English speaking workmen or taken the paint abroad), but did not have a French version. As the whole system is so different to standard paints & their application, instructions are vital... So, I did my best translation using schoolgirl French & Babelfish (some interesting choices were made!). Then David worked his magic and turned it into French! Dominique B seemed to think it read OK, so David has emailed the Word document to Holkham to add to their files. [If you haven't read the previous post: the carpenter loved the paint so much he was asking where he could buy it for himself; we had been worried he wouldn't like it, and therefore refuse to use it.]

The finished windows look beautiful, and it's quite odd to walk into a room (bearing in mind the house has been closed up since the windows were installed) and smell putty rather than headache-inducing solvents!

Whew! That was a long post; but it's not so often you come across a product you want to rave about. And when you do, you want to spread the word! Oh, and the people at Holkham were also incredibly friendly and helpful - did I mention that yet? Keep up the good work!

New Windows

Our lovely new windows (a massive thanks to Dominique B & his crew; fantastic work guys!) are an exact copy of the old windows, created in the workshop of a true artisan. The carpenter has done restoration work on the Cathedral and mediæval quarter in Troyes (the knitware capital of France!), and he really knows his stuff.

He kindly agreed to paint our windows with the paint of our choice, which I'd read about in a newspaper article years ago (and saved in case I ever got around to stripping the windows at home; that hasn't happened!) - Holkham Linseed Paints. We were worried that being a strange, foreign (foreign to us, too!) idea the carpenter wouldn't like the paint, but he loved it and was asking us where he could buy it. Sorry, French buyers, Holkham does not ship outside the UK (yet?)! The Wild Sage colour is (to me!) perfect to match the mellow creamy colour of the stone buildings in the Aube.

I think Holkham Linseed Paints deserve more of a mention, so watch this space! But meanwhile back to the windows...

This is a bit of a "Spot-the-difference" moment - one of the old windows fell apart whilst it was being removed, so the removal was probably not before time! Dominique D (the builder) had nagged us for ages to change the windows, but we didn't want new, characterless, replacements. Thankfully he introduced us to Dominique B (the carpenter), and we haven't looked back!

It was fascinating seeing the windows during the fabrication process (particularly so for me; my father used to be a one-man-band builder, and did a lot of woodwork in his own woodworking workshop - he would have loved the set-up in Charmont!). And yes, Dominique D, you were right! His argument had been: "Why are you putting all this insulation in, when you have draughty windows and doors?". Now we have double-glazed windows (with rubber [silicone?] seals on the casements) - so efficient we can barely hear the Angelus !!

Now we are looking forward to new front doors (yes, for some reason we have two!) and shutters (particularly the shutters, as the combination of angle-iron and bolts to open and close them loses a little of the thrill after a few days!).

History...

I thought I should probably put some more details in about the house...

The house is attached to a (single-storey) stable and (two-storey) barn, all under the same roof. The living accomodation was all on the ground floor (to the left of the building), with a grain-loft above it. (Old layout above)

We are currently turning the living area into a self-contained appartment that we can heat in the winter (and close off from the grenier - there's no way we could heat that!), so that we can go and stay at the house all year round. Our estate agent recommended Dominique to us as a builder, so he is doing the building & plumbing work for us. We have already had the bathroom/WC/bedroom/lounge/kitchen knocked through to create one large living space - kitchen/dining/living room, and a steel joist put in to hold up the floor above.

We plan to have the bedroom where the old study was - this room needed very little structural work; keep the hall as an entrance hall & put a loo, shower room/laundry & cupboards in the back hall/logstore area. This was earth floors and... well, not much else!
We now have the metal rails that the insulation fits into & plasterboard is attached to in place. We can really get the feeling of the new layout; we (and visitors) are looking forward to the loo moving - at the moment it is in the middle of the kitchen (using the existing pipe to the mains drainage) in full view of the road if the door/shutters are open! (See previous post for a photo!)

First Step

Not sure quite how to start this; I'm new to blogging and am only doing this to update all our interested family & friends on the progress of our restoration project in France...

For those of you who don't know the story (& assuming, if you're still reading this, that you want to know), we bought a beautiful old fermette in the south of the Champagne region in eastern France. It was love at first sight (or as I'm learning to say: "un coup de cœur"!) and we have not looked back. The house had been empty for nearly 20 years when we bought it, and was not habitable to our way of thinking... There was an earth closet in the garden (I know, very up-to-date and green - except that it was completely derelict), and no indoor plumbing (although we had the original sink in the entrance hall - it looks like a shelf for the builder's radio in the picture!), although water was connected to the house. We were lucky enough to have mains drainage to the edge of the road by the house (for anyone who owns, or dreams of owning, a house in France that will mean a lot to them!) and electricity as well.

It's starting to get boring now, so I'll get to the point:

Latest progress - we have started to create a garden, have partition walls in the old logstore (and concrete floors; better than the earth floor that was there) & beautiful new windows on the ground floor. We do have an indoor toilet now (have had it for nearly a year), but it is still a bit open plan... We are really looking forward to when the partition walls are finished and the loo can move to its permanent position - that should be done before we next visit, but we are running on French builder's time here, so who knows?

All the ceilings (in phase I) have plasterboard (and insulation) and several of the walls have been insulated too; it is noticeable how quickly the house heats up now. The focus on insulation and double glazing is owing to the Continental climate (we are far enough east in Europe to have Continental climate - hot summers; cold winters). I bought a minimum-maximum thermometer last year and left it at the house over the winter: the minimum temperature recorded was -8ºC (indoors!). I know those people who live in places like Northern Canada, Russia etc will think that's quite balmy, but for the nesh Southeners (yes, I have turned into one!) of England that is just too cold for happiness!

Having not known how to start, I don't don't know how to sign-off (I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I get better with practise!), so... 'Bye!