Back in Blighty!

David came out to France to collect me and the car, and for a meeting with M. Boyer on 22nd October.

We were putting all the things in the house (beds, fridge, tables, clothes, crockery, etc.) upstairs so that when the various new artisans come to give estimates they can see the house (rather than our clutter).

We're also hoping that before next summer work will have started again, so everything needs to be out of the way for that...

Fingers crossed!

I really wasn't ready to come home, even the week David was coming out, until the Friday I was collecting him from the station.

We'd had 2 cold days up to that point, and Friday was another cold miserable day (13°C in the house, and 13½°C outside!).

With the damp I wasn't managing to get any weeding done outside, and there's nothing inside I can really do (cleaned a lot of woodwork, but that will be an ongoing task; removing decades of grease & grime).

So, by Friday evening I was about ready to pack up & come back home.

Which is a good thing - I get terribly grouchy when confined back into a 1-bed flat before I'm ready!

Thankfully, the weather really turned colder whilst we were packing the house away - one night it got down to -1°C in the house, and -1½°C! OK, so that was upstairs, it only dropped to 7 or 8°C dowstairs.

Still, cold enough that staying there had become endurance rather than enjoyment.

Time to retreat!

We stayed in a hotel (heating, bath, bliss!) on the Monday evening, and awoke to a world white over on Tuesday morning.

Not snow, just an incredibly heavy frost.

Yup, definitely time to go!

I'm readjusting to life with light switches.
Catching up with 2 months laundry was fun!

Good job I have so much stuff - 18 loads doesn't average out too badly, when you factor in the several machine-fulls of washing that David had generated for me.

Now we have to go through the dossier that M. Boyer has prepared to check that it includes everything we want doing...

Still concerned about whether we need RSJs to support the mezzanine level, though...

Apparently, French architects are trained to perform structural calculations, so Nicholas should be able to tell us whether steels are needed.

But I'm still worried.

Do I call an English Structural Engineer?