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.