Robin's antics

I knew the robin in the garden was reasonably smart - he hangs around when I am moving the pots on the patio, waiting to grab any bugs exposed.

The fact that he doesn't get more I think might be owing to poor eyesight & quick grubs!

But I wasn't expecting prima-donna behaviour, but I'm sure that's what happened...

I was drying up the glasses in the kitchen, when I heard incredibly loud cheeping from the garden. Thinking it might be the wren, I was scanning the garden to see where it was...

Then I saw the robin on a pot - he was the one making the racket, and I felt he was looking directly at me.

I looked around to see what was disturbing him (I have never heard him make a row like that before), but couldn't see anything. He kept on making the noise and looking at me.

I was starting to think I was imagining this [weird, right?], and then I remembered the bird-feeder (now know as "robin feeder" because of the critter's aggressive teritorialness with the other birds!).

OK, I'll admit to talking to the robin (I don't have any cats!), so I was asking him if he was hungry & wanted me to fill up the seed hopper.

The response I got was he flew onto the kitchen windowsill & looked directly at me & carried on yelling!

So, feeling I was getting the message, I went outside to fill up the feeder. The robin flew into a viburnum (about 4' from the feeder - the garden's only 12' long so nothing is far from anything else!).

At this point he'd stopped chirping. I moved away from the feeder & he hopped to a pot nearer to it, so I went back indoors.

I'd just got back to the kitchen window when he flew onto the feeder - no noise, no giving me a beady eye, he just grabbed a few grains & went.

I used to have a squirrel that had got me trained to take out food when she banged on the window, but was the robin really calling for me?

I think so...

But who knows?

Letterbox!

It has now become clear why M. Lorin was so keen to arrange for M. Quinot to fit our letterbox - all our post has been going to him when we are not there.

There was no need for him to have a letterbox at the house when he owned it; the postlady just delivered anything to his other house (where he was living whilst doing up chez le Baron).

Simple!

The postlady has still been delivering any post to his house, but obviously if he's sold it that can't continue!

We don't know if he has sold the house (that bit of gossip had to wait as we were busy when he visited), but still we need our own letterbox.

And now we have one!

Yay!

Some sad news...

Well, it's sad for us!

We saw M. Lorin when we were at the house in December (we didn't see him on our February visit), we thought he looked a lot happier...

We wondered whether he might have found a girlfriend!

We couldn't see what else would have changed...

He appeared on Thursday morning (he came to apologise because his friend hadn't fitted the letterbox, and arrange for him to fit in whilst we were there), and dropped a bombshell!

He no longer lives in the village - he moved out in mid-December, and has moved to a village near to Troyes.

Apparently the damp at his house was being caused by a wall his neighbour had built (without proper damp-proofing) that was drawing moisture into M. Lorin's house.

The damp was exacerbating his arthritis, and giving him asthma attacks.

He looks so much happier & healthier, so we're really happy for him.

But not so happy for us! :-(

I really hope that we will manage to keep in touch and stay friends...

Tile-hunting...

By the time we'd finished with our meetings on Thursday afternoon, despite having enough time to fit in a quick visit to a tile showroom, we decided against trying to finalise our choice of tiles for the bathroom.

We were all set for an early start on Friday morning, just waiting for David to get the croissant-munching out of the way, when Mme. Bouzenard collared him with a message that M. Boyer was trying to get hold of us because a carpenter was coming to visit at 11 o'clock.

David eventually managed to speak with M. Petipas, and found out that the carpenter was coming after visiting their office (probably about 11.30, by this time), so we decided to wait for him rather than heading off to the one showroom that's not near Troyes.

We were waiting at the house (in the car, with the engine running - not warm), when Mme. Bouzenard appeared at the gate.

Another message (bad mobile coverage because of the fog? Normally at our house [rather than the gîte] the signal is pretty good); the carpenter would be about an hour late.

So we went back to the gîte and had an early lunch, and went back to the house to find the carpenter waiting (fortunately, he had only just arrived).

He didn't take too long (half an hour?) and then we were on our way to another tiring day...

How difficult could it be to choose some tiles?

Very!

We wanted something fairly neutral, in a large size, that will go with the floor tiles...

After over six months of trying to get a sample of the floor tiles we have chosen (we said that if the manufacturer wouldn't supply a free sample, we would buy a box), the sample had finally arrived at the builders' merchant...

Only it was the wrong colour! :-(

The lady was pointing out that that was the colour on the display, and we explained that we wanted the other colour - could she please check that the warmer shade was still available, and order one of those please?

I think the action of looking it up in the catalogue must have jogged her memory (we had asked those questions when originally ordering the sample in July [or was it June?]).

We then got a sincere-sounding apology, and she said the other sample should be there in a couple of weeks.

Fingers crossed!

We really could have done with the lost morning - we ran out of time to visit the showroom that was not near Troyes (but fortunately the "sister" showroom told us that they didn't open on Saturday - that really would have been a waste of time).

Had we known that the carpenter wasn't going to arrive till after 12, and the showroom in Mussy wouldn't open on Saturday, we would have headed off on a quick trip before our Friday meeting at the house, but perhaps the rest did us more good?

We still ended up going back to Troyes on Saturday, but we'd really narrowed it down by then, so it was quicker and less "painful" (OK, that's an exageration; it's not painful, but our heads hurt by this point!).

And we got a free sample of number one choice there and then! Also ordered a sample of the number 2 choice.

Having seen the (bluey) grey marbled tiles that we think will work, we are just waiting to check they don't look horrible against the more beige tones of the floor...

But there's also the (dove/elephant) grey tile that either needs ruling out or reconsidering!

Until the tiles are bought, we still have time to change our minds! ;-)

Meetings with builders, carpenters, plumbers, etc., etc.

We had an action-packed day last Thursday: M. Petipas had set up morning and afternoon meetings with the various trades he had invited to quote for the work on our house...

They had got 2 firms representing each trade to agree to come and give us a quote, and had split them into morning and afternoon visits.

We had a list of all the people we were expecting to see - needless to say there were a few last minute substitutions/cancellations.

I, for one, was quite worn out at the end of the day; trying to talk to 20 or 30 people about different aspects of the project (never really got to grips with who was who; just working out what trade they represented by the questions they were asking!), and listening in French for 2/3 hours at a stretch was quite a challenge.

I can remember at school (and later at poly/college) being told that humans have an attention span/can concentrate well for about 40 minutes (which is why most classes/lectures last less than an hour), but after that you might as well be talking in a foreign language!

Well, it was a challenge, but we both feel much more positive; it actually seems possible that work might one day start again...

Which would mean that one day it would be finished!

Flying visit!

Earlier this month we went on a "flying visit" to the house to meet with a builder and a chap who was a cross between structural engineer & carpenter.

We left Brixton mid-afternoon on the Wednesday, arriving at the hotel just off the motorway about 11.30pm; by mid evening Thursday we were back home & unpacked - a glorified day trip!

At 8.30 on Thursday morning we arrived at the house to find the two builders waiting! That's got to be a good sign.

Once we'd apologised for not being there before them (we weren't late), we started opening up the house to let in some warmth & light.

My thermometers (I've got a small collection of minimum-maximum ones) showed that outside & upstairs it had dipped to -8°C, but downstairs it had only dropped to 2½°C - that's got to show that the insulation & new windows/doors/shutters are making a difference, surely?

I'm hoping that when it's been properly insulated (including under the floors; see below), and the gaps under the doors are blocked, the difference will be even more marked.

M. Petipas had the builders drill through the cover of the well (took 2 goes, as they hit a reinforcing bar the first time - the only one that day that would inconvenience them!), and they dropped a line to try and gauge how far below the water is and how deep.

The well seems to be 22.6m deep, with (I'm not sure I'm remembering this?) about 10m of water - everyone agreed this will be plenty for us to connect to for flushing the loos/watering the garden.

If we want to use the water we will need a filter - one level for loo-flushing/garden watering, a higher level if we intend to use the water in the shower/washing machine (which we do hope to do), and an even more rigorous one if we intend to drink the water.

We will need an analysis by a laboratory before thinking about using the water for drinking - and the well will have to be pumped out for a long time (to clear the standing water & re-establish the flow) before that can be done, so we might put that on hold till later; it will depend whether that is possible.

We will have to be guided by the plumbers when we have the forthcoming meeting with all the firms that the project managers have lined up to give us quotes...

So we started the day on a bit of good news.

Lucky, really, because everything M. Huguenot looked at after that just reconfirmed our suspicions about the corners Dominique had cut!

M. Petipas had the builders dig holes in the concrete in the kitchen (no damp-proof membrane, no insulation), the bedroom (damp-proof membrane that was thinner than the supermarket bags they put out for fruit & veg - NOT adequate! - no insulation).

We'd already seen from the hole that appeared by itself in the back hall that that floor was like the bedroom one.

No floor was laid correctly: dug out; hardcore compacted to form a stable base; sand to provide a smooth surface that wouldn't puncture the damp-proof membrane; thick damp-proof membrane; non-compressible insulation (of adequate thickness); at least 10mm of reinforced concrete.

Oh, well, next time!

Pretty much what we expected behind the plasterboard that the builders removed - not enough insulation, inadequately fixed in position (one piece in the bedroom had crumpled up & slid down the wall because the gap wasn't narrow enough to hold it in place).

One interesting development that we hadn't expected: one of the joists in the back hall ceiling didn't quite meet the wall!

Instead of the joist supporting the floor boards upstairs, the floor boards were holding up the ceiling joist!

It happens!

The ends of joists do rot/get eaten away, especially in older buildings that were constructed before wood-treatment became widely available.

But that doesn't change the fact that no reputable builder would leave a joist like that and attach plasterboard below it!

A joist hanger would cost less than £10 & would cure the problem in less than half an hour; the rest of the beam looked completely solid.

At least we've found out at this stage!

But it does make us wonder what else is waiting to be discovered...

The carpenter/structural engineer took a look at the roof timbers, and pronounced that the mezzanine will be OK being supported on the truss beams (not sure if that's the correct term - got it from a French/English translation of carpentry terms).

Great news that we don't need a steel cage constructing within the house to support the mezzanine - in terms of cost and time.

So, we ended the morning on a high!

Quick look around the garden - quite a few bulbs coming through, and primroses popping up; with the sunshine it felt quite spring-like - and then back to the motorway.

We were at Troyes having lunch at the service station in good time.

Our next visit will be to meet with various trades who are coming in two parties to quote for the work.

Please keep your fingers crossed that this means we will get work started sometime soon!