OPR

We stayed at the house an extra day (to do a bit of weeding), and then it was Easter, and before you know it, I've forgotten to update my blog till today!

The meeting on Friday was for the Opération Préalable à la Réception (OPR), which is a fortnight before the Réception - that meeting is for agreeing that the work has been completed to an acceptable standard, and officially handing it over to the client [us].

We don't have either (as far as I know) in England, so it's a bit hard to understand the difference between the OPR and a normal meeting (same set of "Yes, that's fine", "No, that's not what you said you'd do" comments and "Oh, yes, I remember" responses), but it had a bit more preamble than usually!

When we have the Réception this is when the guarantees start, but the ten year guarantee only applies to "major" work, such as walls, so won't really affect us: we don't get a guarantee from M. Huguenot (because he went bust before the work was finished), and if other work doesn't last a year, I'll be on the phone to the firm responsible pretty sharply (and probably with some fairly sharp words, too!).

Anyway, that's how it works.

Interesting to see that the work that isn't finished somehow manages to be excluded from the handover, but I'm not sure how that will be included later...

We shall see.

Only minor changes to report:

• All the tiling has been finished (it looks lovely, but I would have put some of the joints in different places had we been there - still, gives it an authentic "French" feel!)
• The boiler has been installed, and the immersion heater (no gas yet; waiting for the builder to dig the trenches necessary)
• The laundry/boiler room sink has been fitted, and the laundry taps were fitted (but have been taken away again as they were the wrong ones, installed too low; the pipework has already been raised)

We have got a start date for M. Luparello: 22 or 23 April, with work likely to finish at the end of May.

Fingers crossed it will be third time lucky for building works!

Sorry if this feels a bit lacklustre: I'm struggling to maintain enthusiasm - we're just over nine months into a four month build - and I'm saving up all my energy to hope that it won't last a year!!

Seriously, can't wait to occupy the house (and be able to flush the loo again!).