Getting closer...

I'm having problems with computers [again!], and am now having to use David's work laptop - and obviously I don't want to install any new software, so finding pictures to use has been a lot more work than usual!

The first thing that happened, of course, was that I lost the connection to Blogger - I had inadvertantly just obliterated all that I'd written & was desperately trying to navigate away from the page so it didn't autosave... Too late!

I hate it when that happens; I'm almost always more fluent if I don't spend too long altering what I'm writing, and I can never remember what I put!

Here goes [again]:

It was lovely to walk into a warm entrance hall - I know it was a lot warmer this visit, but still, it was hotter in there than we've ever known other than in the height of summer.

Mmmmm! :-)

Since moving down South, I seem to have turned into a nesh southener, and have become a cross between a cat and a lizard!

[I would have added "heat-seeking missile" (to cat & lizard), but that would have implied a turn of speed way beyond me! ;-) ]

Clearly M. Francis ain't daft; he was diligently brushing the stonework/pointing between the cheminée and the bread oven... He was lucky I didn't muscle in!
;-)

The main thing that was noticeable was ceilings - plasterboard in the kitchen, entrance hall & bedroom.

Complete with light "points" (I'm not sure what to call them, they're not a light fitting, but neither are they just wires sticking through a hole: they have a "socket" that the light fitting just plugs into - currently with bayonet fittings plugged in) - now that's a change from what Dominique had managed!

The back hall is still a "work in progress" with regard to the VMC ducting, wiring & plumbing, but I think it's close now.

Sadly "her indoors" had a late brainwave, and there will also be a small delay whilst a beam is fitted where the ceiling level changes. [Should that be "she who must be obeyed"?!]

Yes, I know, it's more expense, but when all the work is finished, it will look so much better; I'm guessing that in a year or so we will have forgotten it wasn't always there. So, we bit the bullet...

That leads me to the major surprise of this visit: M. Boyer has been through the accounts, and we have gone over budget, but by about €1200 (and that's including my new beam). M. Boyer must have worked miracles!

I know we've not finished yet, but I'm hopeful... If we don't overspend any more, we can go with Plan A and use the contingency fund to buy the poêle in the kitchen!

Back to the matter in hand!

M. Patrique (our sole worker [again!] from Schwartz) was busy making all the "spaghetti" vanish - I know, I know, that's normally a task I'd assign to David, but in this instance I mean tidying up the wiring!

The electrical cupboard is starting to look as though it will be big enough; for a while I was almost convinced that there was way too much cabling for it ever to fit!

We've also got the stone slabs laid in the corridor in the back hall; another communication failure has meant that the stones are not laid to the middle of where the doors will be...

I think I understood that we will be getting a sliver of stone in each doorway - I'm not kean, but that will be the sort of boo-boo that I'm sure I will learn to live with!

We've had very few weird things foisted upon us, so a minor thing like that will just make me think of the Taj Mahal! [Shah Jahan allegedly ordered the workmen to make a minor mistake in its construction, as only God could create perfection.]

Sadly, we have to have the big insulated pipe to the poêle sticking down through the ceiling...

Apparently, there is a kind of housing that will hide this, and no, we weren't allowed an asbestos board (the good kind, obviously, not the bad stuff!) instead of the plasterboard, with the big pipe joining the less-insulated flue just above the ceiling. I did try!

We've got a radiator on site... A confirmation (had we needed it) that the Zehnder radiators are a better choice than the Arbonia ones. Bizarrely, the better-made product was also cheaper!

Anyway, our next visit is not yet fixed - M. Boyer wants it to be the "pre-reception" visit, so is not quite sure whether we will need to allow an extra week.

The "reception" visit is where we check that everything has been done correctly before handing over the final payment cheques. So it all feels very imminent!!

I'm a bit nervous, now, and excited [at last] - we might be finished in a month...

In case you are wondering, the photo of David is there so that you can see the difference compared to our next visit... When I will meanly make him stand in the same spot!!

Watch this space...