Last visit of 2008

We've just returned from our last visit of the year to the house; one of David's colleagues has booked a fortnight's holiday that coincides with when we would have next visited, so that takes priority.

Quite rightly!

Half of me is relieved that we don't have to fit in another trip before Christmas, but half of me will miss seeing the changes that will have occured in the next fortnight.

It's really great to see progress each and every time we visit (very different from the dark "Dominique" days!).

The only downside, of course, is having to find time to update my blog!!

M. Huguenot's team has made great strides in applying the hemp/lime insulation (I'm not sure what the terminology is: "sticking" pretty much sums it up, but doesn't quite feel right to me as building terminology...?!) in the kitchen and has made a start in the bedroom/study.

It's amazing-looking stuff; I almost feel that we're turning our house into the first little pig's house!!

We are having one wall in the entrance hall done, but that contains a door and window, so I'm guessing they will leave that till just before Christmas so the entrance isn't all messy whilst it's drying out.

Speaking of drying out, there is so much moisture in the mix that it may be 6 months before the walls are fully dry...

M. Boyer is chasing a dehumidifyer, but it may delay the plasterboarding in the back hall and the stair case being fitted; both would suffer if fitted in too damp an environment.

Still, as I said in the last post, we're quite sanguine about delays.

We have also changed the plans slightly, and are now having the wall in the back hall to the side of the stair well (and around the back door) done in the hemp/lime mix (instead of plasterboard)...

Work was nearly completed yesterday morning altering joists and enlarging the stairwell opening (I know the word in French [trémie] but don't know it in English), and would have been finished by the time M. Mazij jnr & colleague knocked off for lunch.

The scaredy part of me worries about health & safety, but the fun-loving part adores seeing a guy with no safety gear (goggles/mask, ear defenders, gloves, yada, yada, yada) up a wobbly step ladder waving a chain-saw above his head!!

They know what they are doing, so it was more entertaining (do you remember "Archaos"?) than frightening.

I think the housing for the staircase (we want to completely separate upstairs from downstairs - primarily for warmth-retention, but also for added security) needs to be completed before that part of the house can be insulated...

Judging my what we saw yesterday, that isn't far off!

David had emailed M. Boyer (and spoken with Joëlle to catch Nicholas before his meeting on site on the 18th) about our worries over the electrics...

I'm guessing my memory hadn't played tricks, as we received an email thanking us for our "judicious" enquiry...

And when we got to the house there was new wiring in several locations!

There were various points where we had to decide exactly where to position switches/power points (and one place where we've had to compromise - one set of switches set into the stone wall has had to be above should height and set further away from the door than I would have liked), but I think everything's back on track with the electrics.

It also sounds as though the later model VMC is also now planned, so that's another good result.

We discussed the grille for the back door with M. Baty, and he's changed the design slightly - I think it's all going to look lovely.

We also decided on the balusters and newel post: nice, but fairly simple in style.

I would have loved some of the really twiddly items from the catalogue (the was a newel post with about half a dozen different types of decoration!), but it's not a belle époque mansion, so sometimes the sensible decision has to be the right choice!

After all, I wouldn't fit in in "Footballers' Wives", would I?!

A minor hiccup (the hinges on the door frame suffered some kind of communication failure and ended up on the side of the door that was briefly considered, but then rejected - I don't think M. Baty was at that meeting), but M. Baty was very kind about that and they can be made good easily enough.

A bonus we weren't expecting: the cupboard under the stairs will be full depth under the turn (so a lot deeper than we were expecting, and taller at the 'back') - lot's more storage!

Hurrah!

You can never have too much storage.

Sorry, I sould probably rephrase that: if you have any females in the house, you can never have too much storage!!

On the 8th of December M. Monnier is putting up the tubing for the poêle and is lending us an old stove to act as a "workmen's stove".

This should help with drying out the insulation, and prevent the workmen from freezing solid!!

The new joists are in place in the back hall, and much thicker board has been laid upstairs, so that's no longer delaying the creation of the rooms in that part of the house...

Finally, on a lighter note, here's a photo of a French workman's lunchbox ;-)!

It's not often I get to post something like that!

Latest...

We went to the house again for the bi-weekly Friday meeting, and a sleepover!

It's really good to see work progressing on reassembling the house: for a long time it seemed as though all that was happening was undoing Dominique's work, and taking the rest of the house (where he hadn't done anything) back to square one as well.

Taking off/out doors & doorframes, cupboards, stairs & raking out all the joints where we were going to have exposed stone walls, pulling down the redundant chimney, ripping out the floor/joists - it's been quite a while where all progress has seemed to be of the "gutting" variety...

And now we are getting to see "putting back together" progress!

The stone plinths are now in place under the oak uprights in the kitchen; all wrapped in cling film so they don't suffer during the process of applying the hemp-lime insulation.

Apparently the lime gets everywhere, and sticks like glue!

The workmen are in the process of covering the woodwork as well.

I'm a bit concerned that not all the wiring is in place before the builder starts the insulation; I don't want a beautifully finished wall then to need channelling out to add wiring later.

David is trying to speak with the Project Managers to ask them to check all the wiring is in place before work starts on applying the hemp-lime mix.

I'm getting better at letting T+B do the worrying, but then something happens (without any comment from M. Boyer) that makes me worry again!

The wall in the back hall where all the switches for the lights in the back hall and entrance hall (and a power socket) has been pointed, without the wiring in place for any of the electrics.

And the wall to the left of the chimney is pointed, again missing wiring for a wall light...

I'm not so concerned about that: it's a shame to rake out brand new pointing, but it's possible, and it won't leave any obvious "making good", unlike having the insulation channelled & filled.

We intend to leave this finish bare; it looks nice enough that I don't want to paint it!

The niche in the bedroom that we found on our last visit has been unblocked, and pointed around to be left exposed; that looks great.

And I'm sure we'll find something to display there!

A lot of lightweight block work has appeared: the piping for the VMC has been encased in the bedroom; the small cellar has "disappeared" from the bedroom; the chimney breast has been completed, enclosing the hood.

M. Smail showed us the "clapet" - something we really needed- it closes the flue when the fireplace is not in use.

Having really enjoyed the fire at the Bouzenards' gîte, we coveted an open fire of our own, but there's no way we wanted all that cold air dropping down the chimney when there's not a fire lit.

Now we'll have the best of both worlds!

M. Smail was in the process of rebuilding the flue to the bread oven (everyone assumes we will use it for making pizzas - we probably will!), and by the time we left, that was finished.

We'd had lunch (see below) with M. & Mme. Huguenot and had left our car at the house & travelled to Verpillers with M. Boyer.

We needed to collect our car, and had a couple of things that M. Boyer wanted to check, so we went back into the house...

I'd assumed that the workmen would be waiting for us to leave so they could go home early on Friday, but I was obviously wrong!

Between us leaving at midday, and returning to collect the cars the flue to the bread oven was finished, the pipe for the cooker extractor hood had been put through the wall and the space in the stair well had been concreted in the newly enlarged opening.

The carpentry is running late, so we are now looking for a completion date sometime late in January...

Good job we never believed that the 15th of December would see work finished - we might have been rearranging our Christmas plans now!!

If we get to spend Valentine's Day there, great, but otherwise I'll just be happy whenever it's finished!

We had a fantastic lunch chez Huguenots; sadly I wasn't expecting to eat a whole day's food in one setting, so had had breakfast!

Big mistake!

Wonderful hospitality, lovely food, and David said the wine was brilliant.

About five hours later they wheeled us out the door!

The only downside to that was feeling unable to do justice to the meal that Mme. Boyer had toiled over...

Both ladies had made much-appreciated efforts on the vegetarian food front...

Thankfully David made a good showing for the Brits in the meat-eating stakes.

Although even he chose the vegetarian options on Saturday, so perhaps it is possible to have too much of a good thing?

;-)

I loved the bedroom where we stayed chez Boyers: it confirms for me that I'm doing exactly the right thing in planning to wallpaper my doors in the back hall...

Eventually, we hope to afford the planned (nice) doors, but in the meantime wallpaper in panels will feel suitably "French"!

Women Are So Fickle!

This visit I was left thinking: "Wouldn't this make good television; what a shame Kevin isn't here!"...

But I'm getting ahead of myself AGAIN!

We will both be very glad when Phase 1 is finished: the fortnightly trips down to the house seem disproportionately disruptive.

We drive down on a Thursday, getting to the hotel (if we're lucky!) between 11.30pm and 1am on Friday.

Then we have an early (enough) start on Friday, before driving back to Calais. We're having to allow a bit of "contingency" time in case of meeting over-runs at the house, so are booked on the 10.20pm shuttle...

Nice to be able to have the occasional unhurried meal in Calais, but getting home at midnight or later on Friday (plus all the travelling) writes off most of Saturday morning!

This time, we arrived at the house about 8.10am, and M. Boyer was already there, so straight into the meeting.

It was lovely to see the rest of the beam in the kitchen, and all the joists in place for the return of the floor in the grenier.

The joint in the beam is a "tré de Jupiter" - a lightning bolt, which obviously led onto a discussion of what Jupiter was the god.

[Chief Roman god; god of the sky and thunder, if you're interested.]

Apparently the joint is very complicated; we guess it's like one of those wooden puzzles where you try to take it apart.

We'll never know how easy it is to "solve", as the bits are too heavy to try! ;-)

M. Boyer has asked for a price for forged iron 'esses' (M. Baty recommended someone who may be able to copy the one [nice] end we have for the ties), but in the meantime we have new metal ties attached to the old 'exes'.

We have decided to go with the (included in the estimate) poplar floor boards above the kitchen; these will be laid after the ceiling has been installed in the kitchen, and loose cellulose fibre insulation is put between the joists.

All the other ceilings are going to be put up and then the insulation blown between the joists.

The boards are overlapping, but not tongue-and-groove, and will be nailed in the lower piece of board as well as obvious nails in the boards themselves.

Sorry, I'm not explaining that very well! It means the boards are secured in many more places than are visible, so hopefully that will prevent them warping.

Most of the pointing on the exposed stone walls has been done; very lovely it looks!

The opening is ready for the back door; just waiting on the door...

M. Baty was due to attend the meeting to show us some grills for the windows, but he was a no show, so that will have to wait.

The stone plinths are on site, just awaiting installation...

And then the moment of drama!

Despite repeated requests, M. Huguenot (let's name & shame! But not the M. Huguenot who's our builder; he's great!) went ahead with laying the piping to & from the WC/shower room/laundry without providing the detailed drawings M. Boyer wanted.

Well, you can probably guess what that means: we had gained an extra 35cm of space when the laundry/boiler room wall was replaced with the breeze block wall, but the plumbing had been laid according to the original plan!

We've got copies of M. Boyer's (very detailed) amended plans showing the extra space in the boiler room, and everyone at the meeting was given the same plans...

M. Martry (also from Schwartz) had those plans & had asked us questions relating to the electrics... [Thank goodness M. Martry is good at his job; a couple of questions he's asked us have resulted in either less work (so less cost) or a better result.]

I never have trusted people who chew gum in a professional environment!!

Anyway, it comes up in conversation about the placing of the pipes, following by a lot of measuring; sure enough all the plumbing in the back hall is in the wrong place for the amended plans...

Part of me is p***ed off - the extra space in the laundry/boiler room would have allowed us to leave a drying rack full of damp clothes in the room (rather than having to have the rack in the hall or bedroom) - but part of me thinks: "Oh, well, more space by the back door will look better, and how stressed do I want to get?"

I'm very reluctant to have plumbing relaid in concrete, so we are just going to accept that the extra space will look better at the bottom of the stairs, and move on.

Oh, and use the experience as a bargaining tool on the upgrade M. Boyer is trying for on the VMC (extraction system)...

M. Boyer was behaving how I would have done if all my hard work making use of the "bonus" space had been wasted: ranting, raving, waving arms - a true televisual extravaganza of "Frenchness" in action.

I felt so sorry for him (coupled with irritation at M. Huguenot that our space had been compromised), but also it was so comic at times ["enter, Frenchman, striding around, waving arms & raving"] that I couldn't make eye contact with the other M. Huguenot, who seems to have a fairly dry sense of humour!

The little demon on my shoulder was supplying Kevin's commentary, which didn't help!!

There's no chance that Schwartz's M. Huguenot will be allowed to work on any subsequent phases! But that brings into focus how happy we are with all the rest of the "team".

We would happily (at this stage; don't hold me to it) have all the other firms work with us on later phases.

Nice Little Earner?

We were told on Wednesday that the insurance company was not going to repair our car and they would pay us out the book value (less the excess).

They deemed it an economic write-off - not irreparable, but not worth the cost of fixing.

David tried to appeal this on Thursday - we would have happily paid the difference between the book value and the actual cost of repair.

Given that the cheque we received is about 2/3 of the replacement cost, it would have made sense to top up the repair, but the insurance company said they couldn't do this.

So, we went out on Saturday and bought another car; we'd done some searching on Autotrader and found a car that sounded OK, and it seemed potty to hire cars for our needs when we'd got to buy a replacement anyway.

Apparently our type of car is holding it's value well; I don't think that was just spiel from the dealer, as all the other similar cars on Autotrader were around that price, so no bargains for us...

If we'd wanted a similar age Laguna, he'd just sold one for £1700!

But we like economical cars that double-up as vans!

;-)

The only fly in the ointment was the road tax: you cannot tax the car online without the V5, which the dealer (like a law-abiding citizen) had not given to us, but was going to send to the DVLA. You can tax cars at the Post Office without the V5 (if you have proof of purchase), but not on a cover note from the insurers; you need to produce the original document.

I bet you can guess where this is going...

Yup, insurance certificate showed up today (oh we love getting second class postal service even for first class prices!! Blenheim Gardens is pretty much notorious...), around the same time that the car got clamped for not being taxed!!

What a brilliant system...

For the Revenue!

The "system" wouldn't let us tax the vehicle until today, but I'm guessing it's not against the law to sell a vehicle that's not taxed?

We did try (twice) to tax the car before today, but fell foul of the enthusiasm of the local clampers (who have a reputation rather like that of the local sorting office!).

What a shame the "system" doesn't take off the road all those millions of uninsured vehicles that we keep hearing about...

Mind you, the money raised from insurance doesn't go to the government, does it?

Top Tip...

Update Flickr more often than once every four months when taking hundreds of photos of house & holidays in those months!

Getting to know the house...

Seems bizarre, but every time I go to the house, it feels as though I'm getting to know it better.

Probably helps that we've seen so much of it "deconstructed"!

I was looking at some photos of the vaults in the cellars; once, I would have had to puzzle which cellar the picture was taken in, but now I recognise them instantly!

I am thinking of treating myself to some really good quality paint brushes - I've used my (very) motley collection of cheap/second-hand ones for many a decorating job, and I just feel like a touch of luxury!

That seems a non-sequitur, but I was painting in the kitchen (at home), and thought: "Soon, I'll be getting even more familiar with the house as soon as I start painting!"

I seriously hope, though, that the hemp/lime coating on the walls doesn't need painting:

a) We've seen the "nude" coating, and we really like the finish as it is, and

b) I don't want to do any more painting than I strictly have to!

I'm going to have to paint the temporary doors (until we can afford the [planned] oak doors), as they are a mix of hardboard/fibreboard, with one 70's style "glazed" door.

I say "glazed" because by the time I've finished with it I will have somehow filled the rectangular space for the glass and made good.

I want to panel them in the same style as the original ones and find some proper French "door" wallpaper to put inside the panels.

Despite David's helpful suggestion, I am NOT going to wallpaper the ceilings, but that gives you an idea of what sort of wallpaper I am looking for!

Got to be extremely floral, and suitable for (a French person to paper): walls, ceilings and doors.

We both turned our noses up at narrow tongue-and-groove pine cladding to the walls, and carpeting the walls (or ceiling!), but I do want the house to retain some "French" feeling.

And having rejected a brown kitchen (brown sink, brown taps, brown oven, brown hob, brown tiles, brown cupboard doors, etc. etc) and brown light switches/sockets, I'm happy that wallpapered doors is a compromise I'm happy to make.

Plus, the doors will be changed as soon as I can afford to!

I've calmed down, now!

We went to France on Thursday, for our meeting on Friday morning.

It was a massive relief to get to our hotel and stay there on Thursday night; it really was third time lucky!

The carpenters were in the process of installing the beam in the kitchen (and the supporting pillars), so the kitchen was still open to the rafters.

So odd how small the room seemed.

I suppose a 27-35' ceiling would make most rooms appear smaller...

Sorry, can't remember exactly how high the roof pitch is, but it's a long way up.

It really did feel poky, when we know it's not!

It was a real privilege to see M. Mazij Jnr and his colleague at work; we'd seen people on Grand Designs have oak framed buildings constructed and thought "Wow!" and there we were seeing our very own green oak beams going in.

As I say, a massive treat.

I'm now sanguine about the loss of our floor [it's gone there's nothing we can do about it; get on with life], so we really did manage to enjoy seeing the progress that's been made in the house.

I love the shields carved on the uprights (not so sure about our initials carved into them!); it's why I love Victorian houses - totally unnecessary ornamentation that just gives character.

The fireplace is installed, and the new stone tiles laid in the entrance hall.

It all looks fabulous, but really emphasises how out-of-true the house is!

It's like when the windows were fitted; a lot of what I could see was the non-horizontal/vertical parts of the house.

Now I'm used to it, so I guess I soon won't notice the difference between the right angles in the floor and every other angle in the house!

Our very sad floor...

We are thinking of going with the suggestion of a new poplar floor laid in the old style.

Apparently, that was included in the estimate (I had my suspicion that they had no intention of saving my floor!), so it would save money [and masses of time] compared to sourcing another floor...

I did put my foot down very firmly about the other remaining floor upstairs!

Our touch of excitement: missing "Bambi" by a whisker on our journey home.

David just managed to brake and swerve in time to avoid a young deer that leapt onto the motorway in front of us coming back.

I'm so glad not to have had another accident!

Our car is being written off, sadly, owing to the economics of repair.

:-(

Why I'm Glad I Never Got To Meet Kevin McCloud

Many moons ago, when we started this project, lots of our friends and family asked whether we were going to go on television with our story.

I know you have to approach the TV companies, and they then have to select which projects to feature, but that long ago it seemed as though everyone with a renovation project was the subject of at least one telly programme!

[Probably on Channel 4]

I said at the time "No!", and "one day I will be there in tears/'throwing my toys out of my pram' [delete as appropriate], and I do not want my distress/hissy-fit [delete as appropriate] providing entertainment for millions of strangers".

There have been plenty of times when I've been frustrated/bewildered/tired and every single time I've been glad that no cameras are following our progress.

Or "progress", if I'm remembering back to the times when Dominique Drouot was "working" for us!

Yesterday, though was the moment I knew would be televisual magic: woman whose house is in the process of being ruined dissolving into tears like a five year old.

So glad Kevin wasn't there!

But, again, I'm starting the story near the end!

When we were meeting up with the various trades (back in March) to decide which companies we could work with, the carpenter we chose suggested taking the floor down between the kitchen/lounge/dining room and the grain-loft upstairs.

Why?

Well, apparently the joists are too far apart, and they were worried about our plan to use the grenier for a summer sitting room [at some distant future time].

My view was (and is) that if people in the "olden days" could store corn up there, it could cope with a couple of sofas and 20 or so friends!

That's assuming I could rustle up that many! ;-)

So I vehemently fought against the plan: if we really needed more joists, they could be "retro-fitted" from underneath.

We were already changing the beams (from steel to wood) in the kitchen, so it was only the end of the joist meeting the walls to consider, and they have joist hangers in France (sabots)!

The project manager and carpenter said it would be much quicker and only a bit more expensive to take the floor down and replace it...

I really wasn't keen as I think the less structural "messing" you do to an old house the better...

Especially if it is unnecessary!

And I really didn't want to lose my lovely old floor upstairs.

They told me we would gain about 6" in ceiling height in the kitchen (which would give me space for curtain poles above the windows, and having experienced the cold over there, any barrier to cold is welcome), and that they would re-use as many of my original floorboards as they could & just make up the numbers with some old timber, to recreate the floor as closely as they could to the original.

Yes, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but that floor is wonky, patched (with old tin cans!), put up roughly to serve an agricultural purpose (as opposed to being a 'living' room floor), and spattered with paint.

But that's the point!

We bought the house because of its character, not because it had been renovated to within an inch of its life, and we wanted to keep the character. Not unreasonable?

David had a phone call on Saturday: they are only likely to be able to raise the ceiling by about 3", and they "can't" use any of our floorboards.

[Personally, I'm suspicious that "can't" means "don't want to; it's too much effort" or "can't be bothered"...]

David didn't tell me about the call till we were going through paperwork relating to the house on Sunday afternoon.

At 1am on Monday I woke David up to say: "Tell them not to ruin my floor, the gain in ceiling height is not worth losing the character that we love about the house".

[They've already broken too many of our stone slabs to be able to put them back in the entrance hall, so we are having to have "new" there as they can't find enough reclaimed ones to match ours.]

After speaking to David I managed to relax; I felt we had made the right decision - a pathetically small gain in ceiling height is no trade-off for having a new floor.

Especially a horrid one!

They are planning a really nasty-sounding fake 'old' floor (new, made-to-look-old boards in differing widths, all mixed up & laid without overlapping the joints).

If we need a new floor, I would rather it was 'honest' - obviously new & laid "properly", rather than preteneding to be old.

So David's phone call to me yesterday morning to say they had already ripped out the floor (& couldn't re-use any of the boards) left me feeling filletted!

[I did write to a friend that I was 'floored', but I'm really in no mood for bad puns :-( ]

I'm so angry with myself for not insisting in the first place that they leave the floor alone, and I'm furious with the project managers/carpenter for making such a major change to our plans/costs without at least checking with us that it was OK.

They must have known by the time they'd taken up a few boards that they would damage them all irreparably if they continued... It's not as if I didn't make it plain I wanted to keep the floor!

And I'm angry at myself for trusting them!

We don't yet know how much it will add to the cost, but that will be something to rub salt in the wounds at our meeting on Friday.

I'm tempted to insist (foot-stampingly, if necessary) that they put a temporary covering over the joists whilst I try to source reclaimed timber.

I don't know how difficult that will be, but a reclaimed floor will be better than what T+B are proposing.

Thankfully David spoke to me before I looked at my email yesterday - seeing the photo montage without notive would have sent me over the edge!

At least Kevin didn't get to see my blubbing last night!

More Chaos! ;-)

Seeing as life isn't stressful enough, what with doing a (fairly) major renovation project, (in another country, in a different language!), we are in the process of decorating at home.

[Belovèd, if you are reading this, that is the irony you have such trouble spotting!]

I was planning to put it off a while, after the accident. What with the flat containing too much stuff that I wanted to put into storage before starting, coupled with not getting an excuse that good very often, postponement seemed like a great idea!

[Let's not call it procrastination!]

Not injured, but a bit sore feeling, and not really in the mood for all the contorting that 'cutting in' would entail.

That was before the phone call from Chris whilst we were trying to get from Paris to London - tiler on standby, would be here Friday (today).

So that put the decorating back at the top of the agenda!

David was planning to go out after work Wednesday and Thursday evenings, so we unplugged the washing machine and dishwasher and parked them (with all the other clutter we haven't yet been able to take to the storage depot; no car) in the dining room.

Together with the door, and all the kick-plates I could remove from the kitchen.

It was Wednesday before I felt up to starting in earnest - Chris recommended getting the glossing done before tiling - so I needed to paint the ceiling, paint a coat of white on the walls as undercoat, stain-stop the skirting, undercoat the skirting, cut in the wall colour, and gloss the skirting & door frame.

And preferably get a second coat on the ceiling so I could reattach the light fittings!

Oh, and it all needed a good clean for starters...

Needless to say, I didn't manage half the things on my list, so Chris had to start - with a promise from me to 'cut-in' the gloss with great care.

Anyway, to cut a long story short [what you are waiting for, dear reader?], mess everywhere, nearly all the whole tiles laid, and Chris gingerly treading on them as he cut the surrounding tiles.

I'd got no more packing done - Chris is entertaining enough to chat to, I seized the opportunity to escape packing away stuff (Karen, forgive me!) - and it was lovely to watch someone else working.

He was going great guns, with the likelihood that he would finish today, and manage to seal round the bath for me before leaving.

I had spent hours yesterday removing the old silicone sealant, so was pleased as punch when Chris said he couldn't have done a better job himself.

Sadly, all the banter came to an end with a phone call from his wife: they'd had a visit from the burglars.

Despite me trying to push him straight out the door, he stopped to use up the bucket of adhesive and glue down most of the cut tiles.

Very kind of him; the floor is much less likely to sustain damage over the weekend.

I wonder if I'm some sort of jinx?

At least Zoë wasn't at home when the bastards broke in, and thankfully it was now (rather than in a couple of months time - she'd have been there with a new baby, then), but looking on the positive side seems to be becoming a bit of a habit!

I was far less worried than Chris about when he will come back (you get a good craftsman, you hang on to them!), but it does mean that our visitors will find an even bigger mess than I'd warned them about!

Looks nice, so far!

I do hope Chris gets everything sorted out quickly, and that the burglars meet with their karma in a fitting way.

Interesting Times...

I'm sure I've used that title before...?

We were heading off to the house for a 9am meeting on Friday, and successfully got over the channel (Yay! After our last trip that felt like a result) on Thursday evening, had dinner at the first motorway services and were heading towards our hotel.

And then it all went wrong!

Firemen, police, SANEF (the guys who run the motorway) trucks littering the motorway, and there we were sitting in an ambulance...

The fear seeing two guys pulling out the portable stretcher was only eclipsed by the horror of seeing four men struggling back under the weight of the body bag on the stretcher a few minutes later.

But I'm jumping the gun.

Let's start at the beginning: We saw a (huge) lump in the road...

Just about had time to think: "What the ....?"

(I don't think I managed to get to the missing word; it all happened so quickly - lucky, it probably wouldn't have been a word I could print!)

And then we'd entered an army obstacle course: the car was up & over, and we think we took off, then skidded on landing.

Which morphed into a fairground ride - we spun round & round, before hitting the armco and bouncing back to face the way we'd come, straddling both lanes of the motorway.

I always hated fairground rides - that feeling of being out of control, spinning & waiting for death - and I've not been converted!!

We were in shock, but thankfully fear of getting caught by the flics for not showing our warning triangle overcame the wobbling .

We got the triangle out, and the high-viz gîlet (irony of ironies: I'd suggested buying another one when we were on holiday, but we didn't!). David put on the waistcoat, and pushed the car to the side of the road whilst I was walking to put the triangle out to warn other drivers of the accident.

How far away do you put them?

Thankfully the A26 is a really quiet motorway, and by the time we were aware of what was going on, there were two trucks blocking both carriageways & holding back the traffic from us.

On a busy road, we could have been hit whilst spinning out of control; it could have been so much worse, in so many ways - I'm really thankful to be just left a bit achey!

I spoke with the lead lorry driver, and asked him to telephone for help (David was walking to the nearest emergency phone, but we weren't thinking really clearly at this point).

Either that lorry driver or another chap told me we'd hit a wild boar, and that someone else had hit one as well.

I was terrified that someone else would have an accident if they hit it too (we were doing 65-70 - well less than the speed limit of just over 80mph, so it could have been much worse), so I was walking back to see if I could move it (I told you we weren't thinking properly!).

Someone pointed it out to me - just a hint of buttock & tail poking through under the armco by the side of the motorway - and some kind souls had moved it out of the way.

Thanks unknown guys!

What surprised me was how much it was steaming, but thinking about it, of course it would! They just don't show that on TV...

By the time I got back to the car, we had a SANEF van by the car, he'd picked up & brought back our triangle & I was just explaining to him what happened as David got back.

Piecing together what we were told/heard, after we'd got to the hotel: we think that a lorry had hit the boar & killed/stunned it, and he'd pulled off at the next junction to call SANEF/the police (wild boar are a protected species). Probably also CB radioed other drivers on the A26, which could be why the lorry drivers knew more about what had happened than we did...?

That would also explain why the SANEF vehicle got there so soon after David calling for help.

The absence of a second corpse (if our vehicle was the only one needing to be towed, and the driver of the tow-truck had to take the beast to the fire station so that they could start the process of reporting the death & autopsy [to see what the state of the health of the boar was before it died], it seems odd they didn't give him the second body, if there had been one), coupled with the fact the boar was lying stationary when we hit it, makes us think there was only one boar, but 2 accidents!

Wish driver number one had dragged the body off the road!

We're very thankful, for lots of reasons:

• we're both fine;
• no other person/vehicle was involved;
• it was all so quick, we didn't really have time to be frightened!;
• I wasn't driving (so won't get any new complexes about driving - I'd nearly suggested it; glad I didn't!);
• I was awake (so got thrown around less than if I'd been asleep);
• the boar was probably dead before we hit it (not too much guilt);
• we had emergency contact numbers for T+B (I left a message apologising that we wouldn't make the meeting);
• we had the number for the hotel (who, for the second time in 3 weeks, were good about us cancelling at short notice!);
• the car was virtually empty (I could have been taking a huge load down to the house);
• we'd been doing at least 10mph below the speed limit (dread to think what effect that extra 10mph would have had on our trajectory)

Apparently the boar was a whopper - 90-100kgs, according to the various estimates. Sadly, he won't end up as steaks & sausages (the paper work to certify him 'fit-for-consumption' would make it too expensive).

And I still haven't seen a whole wild boar! Seeing a body bag in operation was pretty horrible; would much rather have seen the animal itself.

The tow-truck driver kindly phoned around & (eventually; all the hotels in Laon were full) found us a hotel, and took us there. We got to our room about 12.50am, and decided to phone the recovery services (I've seen on TV/in the press, in the past, too many cases where people's insurance claims were turned down because they didn't follow to-the-letter the claims process).

All the people at the breakdown and insurance call centres we spoke with were very helpful - we were taxied to Paris (much) later that same day, and booked on a flight at 9.55pm. Another irony: we probably got home earlier than we would have done if we hadn't crashed!

We're hoping that continues - we really want our car to be fixed (and French prices are lower/it is a French car), and not written off.

Fingers crossed!

Needless to say, we didn't make our meeting!

M. Boyer must have heard my answermachine message by the time he phoned David back after the meeting - he was very concerned. [I try my best with French, but stress/tiredness can make it much more interesting! And I'm sure I sounded a bit more random than usual.]

We believe progress is being made, but will have to wait till we get an update/see it in a couple of weeks before I can tell you what...

I'm personally hoping my philosophy ("Third time lucky") trumps that of my mum ("Bad things come in threes")!

;-)

Oops!

I (clearly!) forgot to post about our meeting on the 12th of September.

And now we're off for our next meeting, so better late than never...!?

I'm just going to post photos randomly - apologies if that seems odd.

I know that July 18th to September 12th seems like a really long gap, but you have to remember that most of Europe shuts down for August; personally I think that's a great system, but what do I know?

So, a quick reminder: work had started just in time to finish for the August lay-off, but that meant that by the time we went for our meeting in September progress was obvious - everyone was back from holiday and into work mode.

Hurrah!

A brief word about our journey: we left the flat about 2.45pm, and got to just before the sign announcing "tolls in 300m" at 4.20pm.

Thankfully, a kind colleague of David's had phoned to say breaking news was saying there was a fire in the tunnel. By the time we got Tony's call, we were already so close we thought we'd go to the Tunnel; we didn't know what else to do.

We limped the 320-odd metres to get to a kiosk in an hour (thankfully Eurotunnel were diverting staff from their call centre to man [person?] the kiosks; how easy would that be if the call centre was in India?).

The lady gave us the option of catching the next available ferry or having a refund - if we hadn't been going for a week's holiday straight after the meeting, I think we'd have gone for the refund option.

Not having an emergency contact phone number for the project manager also influenced us a little...

Well, we got to the tunnel kiosk at 5.20pm, and got to the ferry kiosk at 10.20pm; according to the AA routefinder that journey is 10 miles & takes 21 minutes.

Not sure about that: we saw signs for Dover being over 20 miles away...?

We'd cancelled the French hotel long before getting to Dover! Most of the time we sat there, with the engine turned off. I think the highlight of the trip might have been the broken down Lamborghini - immense top speeds didn't get him there any faster ;-)

Anyway, finally got on a ferry about 12.20 am (00.20), and left England at 12.50am. The delay boarding was great - meant we got a yummy, nutritious meal of crisps and biscuits (all food shops long since shut! Thankfully we'd [uncharacteristically] stopped at the services on the way to the tunnel and had a sandwich).

We got to France about 3.30am local time, drove through the night, stopping only for a quick loo/biccie stop, and then a very quick wash/breakfast at Troyes.

We rolled up to the house at 9.00am exactly, but the brains weren't of the first order during the meeting!

The meeting:

It was lovely seeing all the builders' supplies spread over the front yard! And they'd kept them all off the garden; result!

The downside of writing about a meeting nearly 2 weeks after it happened when you have a memory like a goldfish? I suspect you can guess!

The doorway into the stable (which we are going to have blocked up - the rise in prices in France, coupled with the weakening of sterling against the euro means that part will have to wait; probably until the credit crisis eases...) is nearly finished, and the wall next to it is almost up to joist height.

All the digging out is complete for the floors, and the insulation/damp-proof membranes/reinforcing mesh in place; Schwartz were in the process of laying pipes & cables before the concrete was poured when we left.

The staircase is gone - makes getting upstairs more interesting! ;-)

The holes between inside and outside that had been blocked in the small cellar are back...

Various places look particularly naked - door frames missing, cupboard missing, fireplace missing, plaster missing in the kitchen - you can work out where this is going!

The kitchen wall is gorgeous, but sadly we will lose that to hemp-lime insulation; it would be madness to have an exposed stone exterior wall. When the heating chap was talking us out of the air-source heat exchanger (reliable down to -15°C) he said in 1986 it got down to -35°C; we want all the insulation we can get!

Minor boo-boos: we've got an air inlet pipe in the wrong place, and my niche under the sink has been blocked. Easily fixed, we hope!

Also we don't like the radiators the heating people want to use - they showed us a sample, and the grinding-off was really (REALLY) messy. If a manufacturer can't be bothered to make a neat job on a sample to be sent for approval, what kind of mess would the 'off-the-shelf' article be?

We revisited the original radiators we'd liked (just clear-coated steel), and they were as neat as we remembered: all the grinding was in the same direction, the same width and very smoothly done - no obvious gouges in the metal. So I think we're going to insist on Zehnder rather than settling for Arbonia!

We went from visiting radiators (after a quick supermarket café lunch) following the meeting to the start of our holiday. We'd planned to go to Lake Constance, but hadn't booked (until we'd had final confirmation of the meeting date, we didn't want to pay for accomodation we wouldn't use) until we tried to on the Wednesday.

On Tuesday evening, the Bodensee website showed over 200 flats as being available for the following week; on Wednesday evening it showed 24!! And we knew at least 4 of those weren't available (David had made calls during the day)!

It all seemed too much hassle; if all the accomodation was booked, there must have been something going on - and we just wanted a quiet break, so we gave up and booked a gîte in the Vosges - semi-detached (vs apartment) with fireplace, for the same price!

We were especially glad not to have to travel the extra few hundred miles after our journey to the house!

Lovely break, far too short, a bit worried about getting back into the country... [Thanks to the lovely MJM for searching Eurotunnel website for advice; we subsequently got a mail from Eurotunnel, but it was good to know earlier in our holiday that we would get home! ;-)]

It all worked out well - we came north a day early & got on the first train on Sunday morning - home before lunch.

And time for David to do his ironing!

"Before"

We had to clear the "salon d'été" as the floor is going to be replaced; apparently the joists are just too far apart to hold the weight of the floor above, safely

I had wanted to leave it as it is, as I loved the old, uneven, much patched look, but the project manager and carpenter won this argument!

All our belongings needed to be out of the way, so we had a couple of tiring days getting everything away from the "larch lap" wall, and then putting it back again.

Neatly!
The floor above the shower room and laundry needed to be replaced...

I'm looking forward to that; I'm hoping it will be rodent-proof!

It's going to be a bit weird...

Not having a shower cabinet in the kitchen!

Mind you, I suppose we could get used to that ;-)


The fireplace has already been stripped of its tiles...

And the fireback is in the stable, waiting to be re-installed.

Whilst we were there the bricks above the mantel went - looking to see how deep the recess is; we were hoping for a prefabricated metal hood (rather than a brick one).

Already the door from the bedroom (and its frame) have gone.

But we don't yet have the hole into the cellar "restored"!



I'm looking forward to the new stairs...

And having the really strong old front door on the landing to close off the grenier.

I don't feel very nervous staying at the house on my own, but know that a strong door will help with that!



M. Huguenot's workmen managed to remove all the fittings without mishap.

Although we have got another cracked stone slab.

Still, that's nothing compared to the damage Dominique's workmen managed!

Watch this space for some "during" photos!