Latest "progress"

It seems to be a case of 'two steps forward, one step back' at the moment.

David spoke with M. Torelli (the plumber) yesterday, who sounded as hacked off with Jean-Marie/T+B as we are; they have agreed between themselves that David will call with our next planned trip several weeks in advance, and M. Torelli will schedule in two days [the second day for "just in case" purposes] to finish the work here.

David did have an email from J-M last week, but it just sounded like the catalogue of excuses that he's come to expect, with no real information.

I, of course, don't know what's in the mail, as T+B [did I post that they lectured David on "politeness" in one mail?] do not have the courtesy to include me on any of their correspondence! David reckoned it was insufficiently important to reply to, so I missed out on seeing it as he cc's me on his response.

The thing that has got me going "that bloody man" today, is the housing for the loo - it was supposed to have a gap between the side and where the shower screen will go - it's all clearly marked on a sketch dated 23 September in J-M's handwriting...

So why is there no gap?!

We were just finished cleaning up the water from the snow that's melted in [NOT too impressed with a watertight structure that's NOT!], when I noticed that.

So we have to delay M. Waeber from coming on Monday to finish the shower tiling, contact M. Mekki to get M. Kadir to come and undo/redo more of his work, and as David says, this might be the thing that finally has us telling T+B to f*** off!

If we have to manage everything ourselves, at least we wouldn't be trusting someone to do his job who seems incapable of getting anything right.

AND we'd save ourselves a shedload of money & hassle!

Sightings

We've just been for a bimble in the snowy countryside, with a main aim of trying to spot some more wild boar.

I think I was spoilt after last Christmas's back-to-back sightings: we saw a huge gang of them just outside the village on Boxing Day, and a family with four or five piglets the next day.

Sadly, no porcine spottings today. but we did see some pheasants, partridge, buzzards and a deer.

AND a coypu!

That I was NOT expecting; thankfully, David didn't mind turning the car around for a second glance [and then again to head back in the right direction], so I saw him three times.

Too shy for a photo-op, though.

Day whatever!

I really have lost count of what day we are in terms of the building work; given that we're five months overdue, the number isn't as high as you would expect!!

M. Kadir showed up this morning - that is the plastering finished, but guess what?

Yup, we're still waiting for a plumber!

Merry Christmas!

I hope you are having a wonderful time, (either peaceful and quiet or activity packed, depending on your preference).

I'm just profiting from David's lie-in to update my blog and then it's time to start cooking our meal or clearing snow from the gateway...

Hm! Let me guess which: warm, cooking smells, maybe a glass of "cook's nips" or cold [-5°C, same as it was over three hours ago when I got up], no reason to get the car out for over a week, might thaw/snow again before we need to...

That's going to be one tough choice, isn't it?

Well, I'm off to enjoy being at liberty in a big kitchen and temporarily off the wagon, so I wish you all a very merry Christmas!

Things I'm going to gloss over...

...As it's Christmas day, I'm not going to focus on:

• The continuing inability of the project manager and plumber to finish a very straightforward two-month conversion project in less than a year [!]
• Our journey down: delays leaving the office added to delays leaving London and then we came up against delays on the Shuttle service, and then further delays on the service. We arrived at the house at 6am; not quite how I'd planned starting my birthday, but at least we are here!
• Tiredness: I managed two and a half hours sleep yesterday morning; David had a two hour nap late yesterday afternoon. It's just not enough when you get to our ages!

I am going to focus on:

• Enjoying our poêle
• Enjoying the divine voice of Jessye Norman singing Christmas carols
• Enjoying the candles I managed to find [too much snow upstairs to want to disinter all of our Christmas decorations]
• Enjoying the company of my lovely husband, and the peace and quiet

And that's enough for now!

Christmas cake

I watched a video of Kirstie & Phil's Perfect Christmas last Thursday, and was inspired to make their 'Last Minute Christmas Cake' which Kirstie said could be made up to Christmas Eve - sounded perfect!

I went out and bought the missing ingredients [some blackstrap molasses, glacé cherries, string and a skewer] on Friday.

I was so tempted to make it then, but wanted it to be a surprise for David [hence why I am only posting about it now], so had to wait till Monday.

It took me so long to actually assemble the ingredients into a finished (pre-baked) cake, that I followed another piece of advice from the TV program: 'you can leave it in the tin for a few hours or even overnight before baking it'...

There's nothing like a red-hot cake cooling on a rack and the smell of baking to give the game away!

I was so glad that I did; the cake, instead of taking the three hours on the programme, took five and a half hours to bake!

I still wasn't convinced at the end that it was done, but was terrified to leave it any longer; despite covering the tin with brown paper, the top was getting very dark, and the outer parts of the cake had been cooked for over two hours, according to the 'skewer test'.

But the middle still wasn't producing a "clean" skewer.

However the bit adhering to the skewer were looking like cake, rather than cake mix, so I called it a day.

I think the bit I enjoyed most was pouring the calvados [couldn't find apple brandy, and it's virtually the same thing] over a cake fresh from the oven; it made a satisfying sizzling sound and smelled delicious!

I wasn't convinced it was fully cooled by the time David got home, so hid it on the cooling rack on a cleared shelf in my wardrobe [standard hiding place, but the first time I've had food secreted there!].

So that brings us up to Wednesday morning, and I couldn't resist adding another three tablespoons of calvados [in case any of the previous six had evaporated] before wrapping it up in greaseproof paper and foil and putting it in the tin [which I then hid in a box to bring with us].

The only alterations I made to the recipe were:

1) I used molasses as I couldn't buy any black treacle

2) I added a teaspoon of ground ginger, and half a teaspoon of ground cinnamon and two teaspoons of vanilla extract as 1 teaspoon of mixed spice and half a teaspoon of ground nutmeg really did not seem enough spice

3) I added an extra three tablespoons of calvados when the cake was cooled, and the calvados was in substitute for apple brandy

By yesterday evening I couldn't hold out any longer, so we had a piece each [think of it as an alternative birthday cake, and that sounds better!], and it was gorgeous: really moist, cooked but not overcooked and not too dark.

The only change I would make [I think criticism is too strong a word] would be to add more spice the next time: it was barely-spiced rather than nicely-spiced, if you can imagine what I mean.

Oh, and I might try harder to remember to bring the sherry...

You don't seem to be able to find it here in France.

Altogether, though, a roaring success, and although time-consuming, not difficult enough to put me off making one much earlier next year!

Latest...

M. Torelli is supposed to finish off the plumbing today...

But the region [like much of the UK] is having SNOW!

We've had a mail from Jean-Marie saying that M. Waeber was unable to get up the road to open up the gate, so I'm not 100% convinced that M. Torelli (who has six months of excuses to his credit) will manage better.

BREAKING NEWS: M. Torelli can't get his van up our road, and intends to fit the drain for the shower and the housing for the loo today, but then he has to leave in case he gets stuck in the snow.

That I can completely understand: having been caught out in a blizzard trying to get home from school [don't know why the headmistress let everyone else (who lived out of town) home an hour earlier than she let me leave, but after she broke her ankle she got a lot more reasonable about letting me travel the ten miles home before the roads got blocked!], I wouldn't wish that on anyone.

But what is p***ing me off is that he's had six months in which to get this finished, and waits until the last possible moment (before we carry out our threat to close the house up for four months) before scheduling us in.

And I'm equally un-chuffed to find out by email this morning that he's got no intention of finishing the "nourisse" [a kind of 'distribution board' for water/central heating pipes] in the laundry; the one in the dressing room, yes, but the one that is needed so that the loo will work, no.

He's not going to bill us, so that's OK, right?

Well, no, wrong!

If you are charging to supply and fit a loo [the rest of the bathroom has to wait for more funds], you can't expect the client to be happy that it's there (and connected to the sewer) but that there's no water!!

David has emailed T+B and pointed out that until we can use the loo, the job will not be considered finished, so we won't be issuing a cheque.

I'm just wanting to get the place cleaned up, and a hole in the wall with a load of water pipes sticking is NOT what we were led to expect would be a 'finished' job. The wall, being stone, leaves the kind of mortar/masonry dust that never stops, and if rodents were to get in behind the insulation they have free access to the rest of the house.

We still have the upper hand [cheque book] in the negotiating stakes, but this just drags the sodding process out even longer; after Christmas we'll be into the second year of a two-month project...

Ooh, I'm spitting feathers!

Progress?

Well, maybe...

Jean-Marie says that M. Torelli is going to come and finish the plumbing on the 16th, and has allowed the 17th in case of 'vagary'. [I think it means the equivalent of "rains stops play", but why we need a contingency for vagaries of weather in a room that is watertight, I'm not sure; I am prepared to accept it in the sense I would use it - you've been promising to do this job since mid-July and haven't yet managed to schedule in half a day's work. I think that qualifies as vagary!]

J-M's also promised that the electrics will be finished, as will the plaster-boarding. He hasn't mentioned the breaking-through from the rest of the house, but as we're in contact with M. Mekki fairly often, I'm quite happy for that to happen as & when.

Speaking of M. Mekki: David talked to him yesterday, and gained the impression that he was pretty cheesed off with T+B.

Know how he feels!

It MAY be a coincidence, but since David copied Nicholas on the emails, it seems as though the emphasis has shifted away from arguing about why they should be paid [without any noticeable progress] to actually achieving some progress.

Hopefully, he will also be working on the plans; I can't wait to get this phase finished & wave goodbye to T+B [forever]!

On a nice note, M. Mekki sounded fairly positive that they might visit us over Christmas/New Year; if the work on the house is finally finished we really will have something to celebrate.

And because I want to end on a good note...

Here's a gratuitous photo of the meadow as seen through the kitchen window!

David kindly tasted some of my fruit liqueurs, and the verdict ranged from very favourable to 'needs more time', but overall nothing was horrible, just needing a bit more patience...

So that's the motto of my life at the moment: be a bit more patient.

Enjoy the snow, and stay safe!

And bad news...

Despite waiting patiently [although that patience is now wearing a "bit" thin] since mid-July, we are still being held up by the absence of the plumber.

M. Torelli is now the only thing stopping the work from being finished; M. Baty fitted the french windows sometime in late October, and M. Waeber has done all the tiling he can do without M. Torelli installing the drain for the shower.

Lately, we seem to have many more emails asking for payment than we have ones telling us of progress!

In fact, the only progress report we've received since (I think) July is the one we had on Monday morning replying to David's mail asking whether T+B and the plumber wished to continue with our job.

Jean-Marie argues that he has been working, but we'll have to take his word for that: the complete absence of progress reports, or indeed any visible progress that we haven't instigated ourselves [i.e. the joiner and tiler, whom we arranged to visit and gave them a key to let themselves in] leaves us somewhat sceptical.

J-M has done a bit of name-calling and cc'ing unrelated people on his emails, but we are trying to retain the moral high ground, and are only copying people at T+B on OUR mails. [OK, posting a blog isn't exactly subtle, but I feel almost like a journalist - I can't just report the "kittens & flowers" type stuff - and it's not as though anyone related to the project reads this!]

Pointing out the timeline for our "two-month" job might have helped [and saying we really did want it finished before the one-year anniversary, coming up later this month], because we have received a mail since saying he will get onto it.

Thankfully David seems to have developed a much tougher spine, and I can out-stubborn for England, so no money will be changing hands until the work is done.

David also emphasised that we paid, in good faith, for a complete set of plans to be drawn up over three years ago, and that we will not be mailing a cheque until we have a copy of the missing page (and the electronic file).

I refuse to accept a hand-drawn plan when we paid handsomely AND provided John Knighton's excellent CAD files. Privately, I think they just copied John's plans and never verified the dimensions in the only place David & I didn't measure...

We've had to apologise to Laurent Mazij for the three month delay in paying his last bill, but did explain that we only received it on Monday morning! J-M had signed it & dated it 'good to pay' 29 Nov right next to Laurent's signature dated 30 Aug. A copy of this has gone to Montieramey along with the cheque!

Hmmm! Hopefully Laurent is as OK about it as David thinks he sounded; we do want him to come and do further work at the house, even if we no longer care about keeping a good relationship with T+B.

It does seem that the only part of our job Jean-Marie is on top of is his invoices to us!

Worryingly, M. Waeber reckons it may be too cold to make good the concrete in the shower area [it was minus 6°C on Tuesday]...

That's another thing we are going to have to watch out for: having asked (repeatedly) whether there was sufficient depth for the drain to the shower and being assured there was, to hear from M. Waeber that M. Torelli had insisted the builder come to site to dig out the concrete [and now return to make good again] we are worried that another item will appear on our bill.

Given that every other trade can knock up a couple of trowelfulls of cement to make good, two visits by M. Hamid when the pipes should have been laid by M. Torelli in June will not be paid for out of our pocket: we'll pay SMS, but then argue with T+B & M. Torelli about who gets to bear that cost!

Good news...

Beautiful, beautiful french windows!

A HUGE thanks to M. Baty and his crew.

And massive thanks to M. Waeber for the tiling; another lovely job.

Don't know what David's looking at the ceiling for, the change is all below/behind him!

Sad news

We've just heard from Lydie that her father passed away on Tuesday.

He'd been in hospital for a heart bypass and contracted an infection and never regained consciousness. He was in poor health and depressed following Denise's death, but it's never a good time, is it?

Here's a photo of him in happier times, with Maria's mum, Dot & David.

Adieu Michel, you will be sadly missed!

We've got a door!

Just had an email from Mme Baty saying her husband had been there Tuesday and yesterday to fit the door.

Part of me is sad to have missed seeing that [it's the largest piece of joinery we have/will have], but I couldn't have stayed an extra week [am just starting to unwind/sleep now], so at least it wasn't fitted last Thursday.

Now, back to that fishing...

BRB

I'll next update when there's something to update about...

We may have a french window, we may have some flooring, the plumbing may have been fixed, we just don't know!

If Jean-Marie was doing his job, we could expect a weekly update letting us know what's happened, but given that we've received three progress reports since the beginning of June, I'm not holding out much hope.

On the up-side, I'm back in London and no longer have to worry about it.

I'm also heartened by David's continuing determination to withhold the final payment until the work is all finished; I really don't care if it takes another six months, now it's no longer inconveniencing me!

Phew!

We had an incredibly good journey back, and got to London and unpacked before midnight.

I'm massively relieved.

I think I'm going to just unwind and try to get a bit more exercise and a lot more sleep!

Brilliant news!

David just called from Bar-sur-Aube, and he's managed to fill up with diesel!

So, I'm off to pack...

[Didn't want to do it before in case it jinxed our escape attempts.]

Apologies to the French government

I wrote yesterday that they seemed to have their heads in the sand. But later I came across an English news article that said they are shooting rubber bullets at students.

Somehow in my minds eye that's the action I expect from them when dealing with any form of civil unrest, so I'm glad to see they're doing something!

[/irony]

On a serious note, there have been some fuel deliveries today, and our nearest supermarket is expecting one tomorrow, so fingers crossed we'll be on the move shortly.

The best laid plans...

Instead of being on the motorway approaching Calais, we are starting to prepare dinner.

NOT what we had planned!

I didn't realise that there was a fuel blockade on, and David didn't realise I'd used so much diesel...

And a change in plans for his train: bus replacement from Troyes, meant I went there to fetch him, and a good job too - we left the station at just before 10pm [having waited for the 'crowd' to vanish first], and the bus was still sitting there.

So obviously no way he would have done the half-hour journey and got to Vendeuvre by 9.59pm!

It did mean that we'd done an extra 70 miles or so in the car and the "red light" for fuel came on, and not realising there were strikes, I didn't spend a few minutes driving round to find a petrol station.

Oops!

Until the French government accept there's a problem, they aren't going to do anything about it, and their current line is that "there's plenty of fuel out there". Everyone we've spoken to tells us different, and the two towns we've tried haven't had any diesel at any of the service stations, so we're pretty sure the government is adopting the 'head-in-sand' position on this. The complete emptiness of the roads seems to back this up.

The longer it goes on, the worse it will be to put right, is our guess.

In the meantime, we're hoping for a speedy resolution and warning people that our plans to see them in England later this month may change.

As M. Baty was saying: strikes are the French speciality; at least SNCF didn't go on strike until after I'd fetched David, so once again we are lucky to be together at the house.

Off to warm my toes in front of the poêle, so it's not all bad!

"Reception" meeting

We had a "reception" meeting this morning - to agree that everything has been satisfactorily finished.

I'm leaving it up to David whether he wants to sign the paper or not: nothing has been finished, so we can amend to say "except X, Y & Z" or we can just hold off signing till all is finished; so much easier to do that from another country!

Jean-Marie did the measuring this morning, so hopefully the plans won't be too far away.

He seemed a bit quiet this morning but I'm not sure if he was just mirroring my mood...

M. Mekki, I'm going to miss. He kindly informed me that I'm not their most difficult client, and that they do have one; hopefully he will tell me all about her later!

It's odd trying to think of the job as "finished" when we still have to arrange for the tiler, plaquistes, plumber, electrician, and builder to come back to complete their bits...

The joiner is going to let himself back in, and the carpenter's last task is being held over for the next phase.

So, all-in-all, nothing is actually finished. Perhaps this is why the French are a nation of philosophers: they can sign legally binding documents agreeing nothing needs to be done well before the stage where nothing remains to be done?

The nice mustachioed man from Milesi unloaded our pallets of stone this morning, so that's another thing off the "to-do" list, but as it was never really on there in the first place it's a moot point!

Very kind of him, and MUCH appreciated.

Day 47

M. Hamid arrived after M. Baty had already told me that he couldn't fit the french window today - that will be either Thursday or Friday next week, because the paint isn't drying any faster than that - and when I told him, he just nodded knowingly and said that we'd been right to hold off breaking through the doorway yesterday!

Messrs Hamid & Jamel left fairly quickly after taking down the shuttering from the "chapeau" on top of the wall; there was nothing else they could do.

I'm going to miss them, particularly M. Hamid...

M. Baty, M, Philippe & M. Jean-Baptiste worked like Trojans [OK, so they didn't hack into my computer, but you know what I mean!] today and we now have windows front & back and door frames in the stable, shutters on the small windows in the back hall & shower room, new windowsills everywhere that they'd warped because of the chaux-chanvre drying out so slowly, a shutter back upstairs, a window embrasure re-lined, and the doors rehung in the small cellar and on the stairs.

Phew!

They deserved a beer [not least for putting up with my "tired" French, which is worse than my "normal" French!], and I was quite sad to see them go.

I wish I could watch the french window being fitted [and the shutters, which sound as if they will follow not too long after], but I'm more than ready to go home.

Just need to get through tomorrow morning's meeting...

Hopefully it won't be too bad, but I have a feeling that I may have to fend off reminders about the project manager's latest bill: David is of the opinion that things we've been waiting for since August mean that a bill sent in late September can wait for our queries to be answered, and I think he's right!

Either way, as he has control of the cheque book, there's no chance of them getting any money before the 15th October.

We're both pretty keen that the plans we paid for over four years ago should be corrected before any more cash is handed over; they knew they were wrong in July, so have had enough time to correct them...

Apparently, J-M is taking the measurements tomorrow, so looks like that cheque is staying put for a while longer!

Day 46

David had a mail from Mme Baty this morning saying that her husband would be coming here tomorrow!

Cue huge levels of excitement; I find him the most chilled of the artisans, and love watching beautiful woodwork taking shape, and it means that the stable will become a usable room within the next couple of days.

I had a visit from M. Mekki: he wanted M. Hamid to break through the doorway to the house today, whereas I wasn't keen [until M. Baty has actually fitted the door/windows I'm suspending belief; I trust him, but experience has taught me that not everything happens according to plan, and I really don't want an unsecured house days before we leave the country!], so we were about to start negotiations.

Turns out that M. Hamid had more work than M. Mekki was expecting, so he will need to come back tomorrow anyway, so the doorway can be unblocked then. Everyone happy!

The cour anglaise looks fine; I'm not 100% sure about the sloping wall, but think that once we have plants growing along there, the slant mirroring the angle of the potager will look right, and we won't have additional wall hiding the view of the hay meadow.

I love having visits from Messrs Mekki and Luparello, and apparently they like coming here, too. M. Mekki says they always have a laugh; I think that's what raises my spirits so much.

That, and the 'can do' attitude; most refreshing.

My mission for this afternoon was to beg a favour from the guys at Milesi [yes, the chaps with the Manitou!]. I was hoping to see the very amiable guy with the proper Asterix moustache, as he always seems very smiley and friendly, but I decided it was better to get it over and done with...

The young chap I spoke too was, I think, trying to pluck up courage to come and see me: would I let them store their mini-digger here overnight?

Yes, no problem... Could you help me out with your Manitou on Friday for a delivery?

Yes, no problem... Once again, everyone happy!

It's one of the things I really love about this area: the folks are happy to put themselves out a bit to help you, and don't grimace at the idea - just the way we like to be, and the way life should be, but isn't always.

Nice interactions have given me a bit of a 'lift', so you get a post today.

*Grin*

End of tether...

My energy levels have bottomed out, and I've pretty much hit rock bottom; there might be a bit further to fall, but if so it's measured in fractions of a millimetre rather than inches.

The rare bursts of feeling half-normal I'm using to get as much weeding done in the garden as I can before winter sets in.

I'm hoping that M. Baty shows up tomorrow or Thursday, but really have got to the point where I no longer care.

M. Mekki thanked me on Friday for being very 'zen'; their most zen client ever. I don't think that tells you how relaxed I've been, rather it indicates how excitable the average French customer is!

I am feeling pretty zen at the moment: what is, is; what will be, will be, and I've no strong feelings either way...

But I'm fairly sure that's just exhaustion from lack of sleep and prolonged stress!

So if I don't post for a while, you'll know it's owing to microscopic amounts of enthusiasm...

[Either that or I've discovered how humans hibernate; something I've been mulling over since I heard about Pyrenean shepherds avoiding the worst of the weather on QI.]

Friday meeting/Day 44/Day 45/Meeting with M. Torelli

Friday Meeting:

We had a meeting on Friday - basically, we're still waiting for plumbing action!

Messrs Mekki & Luparello were confident that the non-plaquiste work could be finished this week; the plaquiste is being held up by the absence of a plumber.

M. Waeber talked us through the "tapis" idea for the tiling, and really didn't seem happy with the number of cuts there would be if we went with the original idea. He proposed coming and showing us a variety of layouts (as he'd done for the kitchen), which he did yesterday.

The Friday meeting ended with us not really knowing when the work will finish because of pipework issues.

Day 44:

M. Waeber showed us diagonal (his preferred choice) tiling in the bedroom, and basket-weave as well as how we'd got the kitchen tiles; we've ended up choosing the same as the kitchen, hoping the cut edges will not be too noticeable!

M. Hamid came and did the sealing around the top of the room: he's filled the spaces between the lambourdes with lime mortar and small pieces of stone, to keep the rodents out.

He started work on the cour anglaise, too.

Day 45:

M. Hamid finished the cour anglaise, and re-did the rejingot for the front window, which had cracked.

I nabbed him whilst he had a board full of lime mortar and had him make good a missing piece of pointing in the back hall, and fill in the joints under the front door; looks so much better already, and once it's dried I think it will be perfect.

He's fairly sure he will be finished tomorrow; I'm quite sad, I will miss chatting to him.

Meeting with M. Torelli:

I think we've got it agreed that the upstairs wastes will go out through the [planned all along] piping in the laundry, thus minimising the noise heard in our bedroom, and removing the need for the extra sticky-out-bit to hide the soil pipe.

The proposed vent sounds ideal, but I've yet to see the technical sheet, so only have the haziest idea of how it will work. M. Torelli says he's had one for seven years, and has had no problems (or, more importantly, odour!) with it.

He suggested having another one at the top of the stack in the roof space - will be worth a go, as we sometimes get "continental plumbing" smells as my lovely uncle called them.

Thanks, Trev, I knew exactly what you meant!

Obviously M. Torelli can't come and finish the work before we leave for England...

Freudian slips

Oh, dear, I've boobed...

And I'm hoping the BT-Broadband-freezing-up-thing has saved me from an even worse one!

After a few days of ignoring all communication from T+B in my inbox, I've been going through them this morning whilst waiting for M. Torelli to show up [who isn't going to, at least not this week; an email just before lunch says he's coming next week], and I was doing them in reverse order.

So I saw the one saying that at the meeting on Saturday M. Torelli said he couldn't alter the plumbing and therefore we would have to go with re-doing the wall by the shower, before I saw the one they sent on Thursday [i.e. two days before Jean-Marie saw M. Torelli], showing the proposed new layout of the wall by the shower...

Hm! I was wondering how much effort they'd put into trying to pursuade M. Torelli to do what he should have done in the first place, and that J-M is getting paid to make sure he does.

Dashed a quick mail off to David saying:

Interesting to note that this was sent two days BEFORE his meeting with M. Torelli, at which point he decides to go with the attached...!

I don't suppose he even mentioned it to M. Torelli!

I think this needs a reply pointing out that he really can't have made any kind of effort to talk M. Torelli into doing what he should have done in the first place and we really are NOT impressed. What do you reckon?

Only I didn't send it to David, I hit reply instead! I've since sent one saying I'd sent it as a mistake, and David would respond to the original mail earlier, but I'm not impressed with myself. I hope they're not curious enough to ask Nathalie (their daughter) what it says...

But even more I'm hoping that the cracker of a response to their mail asking for us to give them a recommendation didn't go [again, I intended to forward the mail to David, so it's all in English]:

Having just got up to speed with all the other emails [this was the last one I read], I would be DELIGHTED for them to give our name as reference, so that we could prevent some other poor English people having to go through what we have!!

When he linked to their email, I nearly dashed one straight off saying "DO NOT TOUCH THIS COMPANY WITH A BARGEPOLE".

I think it may be more politic to say we are insufficiently happy with how work has been carried out to give them a reference? That doesn't mean we can't email V***** separately!

Can't believe he thinks we'd want to recommend them?!??!

[Am going to put the exclamation marks to bed now].

OK, nothing I'm not thinking, and nothing I won't be prepared to put my hand up to if they received it, but as I say I'd REALLY rather that the occasional mail-fail that seemed to happen actually did happen.

[It's not showing up in my 'sent items' box, but that doesn't always mean a thing hasn't gone].

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it really did jam, but I don't want you to keep yours crossed for me; I don't deserve that. But I do hope that when we finally get around to telling them a few 'home truths' we can do so in a less offensive manner.

[When I want to be offensive, I put effort into that! But when I'm just "venting", I don't want people to 'hear' - I'd rather formulate my ideas into an ice-cold quietly-voiced speech than have someone catching me in full rant.]

*Now chastened*

Beautiful day

I started off making the infusions I didn't get around to yesterday [which are going to remain secret; I'm looking forward to having fun with the planned blind tasting!], and was debating pulling some weeds but it was so gorgeous that it seemed a crime not to go for a walk.

So I did.

As suspected, it's been a perfect autumn for fungi [wet and not too cold with the odd glorious day] and I saw quite a few while I was out; usually I only see them in the woods.

Which makes me think that if we get another nice day, I'll head into one of the forests.

Sadly, the forecast is for more rain.

We may have a plumber tomorrow...

And of course we may not.

Oh noes!

I'm the opposite of Mother Hubbard; my cupboard is full.

Does that mean I will have to stop making infusions?

No, it means I will either have to find another storage place [hm, laundry/boiler room, now there's an idea?], or start stacking them.

The bottles do stack really easily, but I'm still at the stage of turning them quite often, so until I'm content to just let them sit there, I might have to find a temporary place for any new ones and then stack them up when everything is all mixed satisfactorily.

I varied the pace a bit by collecting walnuts, but that's back-breaking work in comparison; how come David always manages to be in England at this time of year?

Chimney sweeps!

Had a surprise visit from the chimney sweeps this morning; not a surprise that they were coming, but certainly a surprise that they were coming today.

Yesterday I had the intention of doing my fruit liqueurs, then having a dose of Night Nurse and getting an early night. With the intention of lying-in till midday, should I be so fortunate!

Well, best-laid plans of mice and men, and all that...

M. Waeber showed up about 6-6.30pm, just as I was squishing the defrosted sloes, so I stopped doing that whilst we chatted. Next thing I know, it's gone 8pm and I still have a pile of fruit that shouldn't go back in the freezer. Neither was I happy with the idea of just leaving it in a warm kitchen.

So, I squished away, and filled jars with sugar and gin, and shook them, and wrote labels [before I could forget what I'd done; the sleeplessness is really causing memory issues!], and put the results in the (newly-branded) "fruit-liqueur-cupboard" [sounds so much better than "secret-gin-cupboard", don't you think?].

By which time is was nearly 11pm, so after a snatched supper and calling David and reading a bit in front of the woodburning stove to relax, it was 12.30am by the time I was starting to doze off.

Luckily I hadn't had something to make me sleep, for I woke up just after 9am feeling like a human being and was opening up the shutters [whilst ignoring the gate; pouring rain can do that to a person] thinking "Mmm, I'll light the fire, and finish the liqueurs I put off last night, and then laze on the sofa reading".

I was just about to find a waterproof coat to go and get some more logs/kindling and do just that, when M. Roussey showed up. His first question: "have you lit the fire yet?" should have alerted me to the fact that the ramoneur was due today.

Apparently, the other guy had just messed him around too long, and after waiting for the chimney sweep for over a month, he'd called someone else last week. Who got back to him at 8pm last night to say they'd be here today between 10 and 12!

Given how much mess there was last time we had the chimney swept, I didn't start with the "quarante quatre" just put some dust sheets on the sofas and made access to both of the fires.

Quick, painless, and very reasonable!

Johnnie said the reason the open fire smokes is that there isn't enough air flow; hmmm, given the hassle from J-M about that, there should be sufficient. There should also be an elbow on the outside to enoucarge air to pass into the pipes that flow to the fireplace; another thing that needs fixing...

Also, the zinc flashing around the chimney has lifted, so we need to get that fixed. I took their business card, but as we've used Charpenterie Auboise twice before (and want them to come and work here again next time we've saved up some money), I think we might contact M. Mazij first.

Obviously if he really is booked up till Christmas we'll give Angelo & Johnnie a call, but we believe that here it's best to continue professional relationships that work.

It's now turned nice (so I should be pulling out those weeds), but I think I'm going to resume my alcohol-transforming activities, and maybe will weed later if the soil dries out a bit.

One thing I did notice: I tried a small jar of non-squished sloes to see what happens, as several people had said freezing the fruit causes it to break open and thus avoids the tedious business of pricking each one with a pin. Well, I know it's only been just over twelve hours, but there's no sign of that happening yet, so I may be decanting that batch sooner than expected to flatten the fruit!

Just off to get some logs for this evening, then I'm going to get all domestic.

Oh, and the soot? About a third of a dustpan full, no mess and Johnnie vacuumed out the stove; tall, dark, handsome, uses a vacuum cleaner - I'm guessing he'd make a fantastic husband for someone!

"Secret-gin-cupboard" change-of-location

My "secret-gin-cupboard" is no longer a secret; since David has now tasted all of last year's output, and the elderflower from this year, I don't have to keep it hidden.

But I did have to move this year's efforts: M. Waeber needed to stock the tiles somewhere, and the entrance hall seemed the logical place, so I pushed the blue cupboard [future project making it not-blue] up against the enormous Basque dresser, having removed the Le Parfait jars first!

The cupboard in the study still seems [to me at least; David thinks it's OK] damp, so I put them in there.

Just been adding to my collection, and I think I won't say any more until I post the results of the "blind tasting" I'm plotting for if we come here at Christmas!

Warm, sunny autumn day

I don't know whether it's seeing the sun, or getting more sleep last night [I racked up a mighty six hours!], but today my mood feels a lot lighter.

Obviously we have no workmen on site, but there was a flurry of emails yesterday afternoon whilst J-M and I were in that meeting, so maybe something's happening?

I'm currently in full-on denial mode; David said he'd handle it, and I'm letting him!

Meeting

Jean-Marie showed up for a (very brief) meeting today.

The long and the short of it is that we need the plumber to finish his bit.

He's ill again, and I don't know how quickly he's going to get better this time...

There is a meeting due to happen tomorrow or Saturday, which will hopefully iron things out, but at the moment the disturbed sleep is giving me "energy issues", so I haven't got it within me to get too worked up either way.

Either work is finished when I go back to London, or it isn't.

Either way, we won't/can't use the bedroom till it warms up next year, so I'm past caring just at the moment; dull, murky weather doesn't make me dash about achieving things at the best of times, and just now we are NOT in the best of times.

This, too, shall pass.

So I'll just play the waiting game, and pretend I'm being zen!

HR: read this first!

I did occur to me just that if I was applying for jobs and anyone looked at this blog, I might not get an interview...

All that tells you is the people making the decisions who to interview/deciding the selection criteria would have got it wrong.

An ability to focus on the minutiae as long as necessary (before stepping back to look at the bigger picture) coupled with an eye for spotting something slightly out of the usual (with a view to investigating), separating things out into their component parts [however unnatural that may seem to system users], taking each step as it comes and changing tack as necessary, credible documentation of events (both planned-for and unexpected), together with a highly-developed (if at times slightly left of mainstream) sense of humour, I believe perfectly describes who you'd want working with/for you on your project.

[Forgot to add: can work alone or as part of a team!!! *wink*]

On paper: no chance. In real life: I'm getting stuff done where other people sometimes fail!

Slightly OCD lunch

I've decided to profit from the absence of workmen, and have a lazy afternoon hunkered down with a good book [an Agatha Christie, in case you were wondering] in front of the poêle, and am just having a late lunch first.

I blame tiredness/head full of other things, but I've ended up with:

• tomatoes on a chopping board
• avocado on a big plate
• cheese on a small plate
• crisps in a bowl
• dried tomato paste in a jar

I do know why it happened that way [I wanted salt & pepper on the fresh tomatoes, but not on the avocado, and the chopping board is covered in tomato juice, the cheese I'd already sliced and it was taking up all of a small plate, the crisps were all that I was going to have (as a snack) until I realised it was lunchtime, so decided to have the cheese. There was some tomato paste (like tapenade) that needed using up, so no point decanting it (and it goes beautifully with creamy-textured Caprice des Dieux). I don't like slicing food on plates as we prefer having sharp knives, and I've seen the damage that they can do even to the toughest crockery. By the time I added the avocado to the 'mix' (at which point, if there hadn't been a plate of sliced-up brie-type cheese already there, I would have gone for insalata tricolore; yes all on one plate!) I had to get another plate, but somehow the "picnic" look stopped me piling everything onto the bigger plate. Simples!], but I'm not sure the world at large will see what I'm seeing [a delightful repast with a couple of my five-a-day (up to seven today)], and might just look too deeply into something quite random. No, I'm not posting a picture as I'd no longer have the hope that you might think I'm kidding.

Before you think my formatting's got lost, I deliberately ran that paragraph together in the hope that it's TL;DR for most people, and I can sneak it under the radar!

Reminds me of an episode of Monk: Monk was eating at Sharona's house, and she'd put all the vegetables on the plate, touching!! Monk was desperately uncomfortable, till the son [whose name I've forgotten] got another plate to separate them out. It was at that point it became immensely clear to me that neither the director nor Tony Shalhoub has obsessive tendencies, as Monk was then happy, but some of the vegetables were still in the wrong place and touching!

Oh, I do miss that programme.

Together with Monica Geller from friends, Adrian Monk makes me feel so completely normal that I should be the poster-girl for normal!

Anyway, back to my segregated food...

Forgot to say

I do have enough time left 'on the clock' to be able to spend Christmas/New Year here, if we so choose, but I am NOT [sorry, couldn't find the HTML for "underline like crazy people do"!] sacrificing that time to be here for builders.

The room won't be finished in time for us to use it this winter: no central heating, yet...

[We're at the point where I'm playing the waiting game.

I'm coping with just the output from the poêle in the evenings, but it's only a matter of time...]

Today is warmer [13°C], but we've had several nights where it's been 5°C, and as the insulation for the bedroom is planned to be in the form of external cladding at some future unspecified date, it will be a stone-walled room with no heating.

Hmm, I've done that one, and am not doing it again unless/until we're on our uppers!

As an aside, apparently T+B are having a nightmare with the job in Cirfontaine...

From what we've heard [building trades grapevine is usually pretty accurate, even if I don't have any sources; sadly M. Hamid is not indiscreet!], plenty is going wrong there too.

Ahh, so much nicer to know you're not alone!

*end bitchiness*

Oops!

M. Hamid finished the pointing yesterday, and I missed it!

The brick pillar looks much better; not quite as convinced with the bottom of the wall, but most of that will be hidden by the layer under the tiling and the tiles themselves. Will probably have a bit of a ponder/measure and visualise...

David is calling Jean-Marie in response to an email; saves him drafting his own email saying that I need to go back to England, and that we are planning to leave on Monday 18 October.

If I stay, I risk getting tangled up in French tax issues.

Ordinarily, I wouldn't see that as a problem: no income = no tax to pay, you'd think.

But, and it's a big BUT, if I'm here long enough to attract liability, the French authorities count that as David also being liable for French tax, regardless of whether he's even visited the country...

NOT something we want; unless you have four or more children, the tax regime here can be pretty punitive, according to what we've read.

We might not end up worse off, but it's not a discussion we want to have to start having.

And the thought of trying to find a French tax accountant (and having to pay said adviser) is enough to have me heading for the hills!

By the time I'd finished this, David has spoken to J-M who is seeing M. Torelli at his office on Friday, so that at least seems to be moving.

David emphasised again the various issues with the plumbing, and said that we are unwilling to have workmen on site unless one of us is here [because of last time's mess and breakages, and this time's errors], so basically put T+B on warning.

I don't think he mentioned that fact that any work not finished will have to wait for next spring [I really do want a break from it all, and once I go, I'm not getting back into it again till the nights start to get lighter!], but we can keep that as an ace up the sleeve, should we need to.

All the trades agreed, with the exception of M. Baty (who is not yet holding up anything), that this job was totally "do-able" in two months: start early April, finish late May.

We didn't start till early June, but even so, to have the end of September tomorrow with no end in sight is a bit much. Even allowing for August being a month off, that's still three months and counting...

I hate feeling that we're being hard-line about things, but we're actually not; we're just finally putting down a foot that ought to have been stomped a long time ago!

No rain today, so we ventured out...

I walked back into the kitchen after taking M. Hamid a cup of coffee, and caught a glimpse of a tractor out of the corner of my eye.

"That's a bit close to the house" popped into my head, so I took a close look; Claude was taking away the twiggy bits from when we cleared out under the two walnut trees by the road.

The tractor looked like one of those cartoon illustrations to show the destruction/devastation wreaked by deforestation, tearing off with a mouthful of vegetation!

When he came back for seconds, I took the photo, and here I think it looks like one of those deep-ocean eels: all teeth and no eyes.

Either way, it saved us masses of trouble, so I hope Claude likes the freshly-picked walnuts!
They are a pale creamy colour - very impressive, and much softer textured and sweeter than they will be in a few weeks time.

Not impressive was my "haul" of elderberries; so few that I'm embarrassed to post a picture. I'm going to make a 'micro' bottle of schnapps to see if it's any good, and if so I will get my act together next year!

I'm currently freezing all my fruit before making liqueurs; one post I read asked why anyone would do that if they didn't have to...

The answer is that in the 'blind' tasting, the frozen fruit performed best for flavour. Pricked fruit was the most colourful, so this year I'm freezing my damsons etc and then pricking them - hopefully the best of both worlds.

Not going to prick my elderberries [obviously], but someone recommended freezing them for at least a week, so they may break open of their own accord.

The early-harvest sloes got squished!

Day 43

M. Hamid... pointing... fill in the blanks!

Seriously, he has finished the walls (with a possible minor adjustment to the base - the line is supposed to be 1m above the finished floor, but it's not - either way, easily remedied should that be necessary), and has started on the brick pillar by the entrance.

It will all be ready for M. Baty next week...

[Although, as previously mentioned, I'm not sure M. Baty will be ready next week!]

Day 42

M. Hamid back, making great progress on the remaining wall; the ugly grey plastic pipe and cement mortar have gone to be replaced with stones & lime mortar - beautiful!

M. Huguenot showed up to see what progress has occurred since his last visit, but I don't think that M. Antony will be able to come and do anything until the plaquistes have been again...

With M. Kadir's mum being ill, we don't know when that will be.

Equally, after our visit to M. Baty's atelier on Friday, I'm not convinced that he will be coming next week to fit windows or door frames.

As always, I am trying [with greater or lesser success] to not stress about it all.

Happy 8th Wedding Anniversary!

Day 41

It started to absolutely throw it down last night, accompanied by thunder and lightning, so I did finally unplug the router and phones.

Still raining when I got up after a lie-in, and hadn't given up by lunchtime.

It did finally stop just before I took Messrs Hamid and Jamel a coffee, but they'd vanished, so David got two coffees after his lunch!

M. Hamid has done the rejingot and lisse [sorry, don't know the English] for the small window at the front, and some more pointing.

Calm before the storm...

It's gone suddenly, eerily, still.

That hasn't stopped us feeling a big one might be brewing.

Happy vernal equinox!

Blowing up a storm

I never really thought that that phrase applied to weather [more to people working up to blowing up their tops!], but it really has started to get incredibly windy, and the wind is bringing in the darkest clouds I've seen in a while!

Another gorgeous day [Maria, lizards & hummingbird hawk moths all basking again] had got us thinking the météo had got it wrong, but apparently not.

Ooh, rumbles of thunder; I'm off to unplug the internet before the lightning comes.

Day 40/Meeting

A day when we repeatedly heard that other peoples' work is finished [the vendangeurs drive round the village hooting their horns to celebrate having completed their harvest (and probably to rub it in with other workers left in the vineyards) before heading off for a well-earned beer], ours finally seems to be taking shape.

With the walls being pointed, it's really starting to look like a room, rather than a stable with a nice new floor! We're on track for M. Baty to be able to come the week after next to complete that transformation (although the "finishing touches" [like tiles on the floor] will be mid-late October).

Just M. Hamid today; I asked him if more or less work got done without M. Jamel, and he said just the same amount! M. Jamel is unfailingly cheerful, though, and he fetches stuff, so that's a help.

Continuing with the pointing of the walls, which will last at least another couple of days, I think.

Jean-Marie had called yesterday whilst we were out, and Joëlle called this morning to see if he could visit after his first appointment - so we had the meeting today.

It felt a bit more productive than several we have had: he apologised for taking a snap/wrong decision over the panels of "agglo" which has effectively prevented us adding to the insulation above the bedroom. He assured us that there was a good depth of ouate de cellulose, so that it should be well insulated, but I'm not 100% convinced; being English seeing half the amount that we would use, and in a much colder country, makes me doubtful.

Hmmm, we shall see; if it's not a noticeably different temperature than outside we'll get Laurent Mazij back to take up his beautifully fitted boards...

I really don't want to piss M. Mazij off, as we're hoping he will come and do the carpentry when we can afford the next phase!

Our doubts about the absence of plumbing to the second [future] bedroom upstairs, coupled (I believe) with emphasising [repeatedly!] that we'd paid for a waste pipe in the laundry, and now we're having to pay for a second [unwanted, and planned-not-to-have - see pipe in laundry] one in the bedroom, and then having to pay a third time when we will actually get the plumbing done, has made J-M have a think.

The fact that the second [planned against] pipe will make an ugly, unnecessary corner in the bathroom, and doesn't vent produced a "what was I thinking of to allow this to happen?", and a promise to speak with M. Torelli; nearly an apology, but certainly an intention to do something about it...

So let's see: we could either hook up to the existing (vented) soil pipe [our preferred option], or we are considering bringing the wall alongside the shower flush with the pipe, and losing a bit of width in the shower. If we could also push the shower screen towards the wash basin/move the basin right a bit, we might only lose a centimetre or two from the shower, which would still make it bigger than the 80cm standard ones we see.

Jean-Marie said it was an error, and I compromised by saying [what seems to be my favourite phrase!] that it was an opportunity missed to choose the most elegant solution.

Please keep your fingers crossed that we can come up with a better result than is currently likely!

Day 39

It's another beautiful day - 35°C in the sun - but the weather forecast says tomorrow will be cold & rainy, so we're off for a last trundle in the countryside to enjoy it while it lasts!

Not great for the vendangeurs, who will have to continue with the grape harvest come rain or shine.

Messrs Hamid & Jamel are back today: M. Hamid is continuing pointing the wall, whilst M. Jamel is raking out the joints.

It's all starting to come together [at long last!], which is heartening.

We had a visit from M. Mekki, and the plaquistes are likely to be delayed as M. Kadir has had to rush back to Turkey as his mother is ill. Hope she gets better soon.

We'd been asking him all the sorts of questions the project manager should be dealing with, and said that we still had received no response to our email dating back to 25 August/6 September, so we had no clue what was going on, and we didn't know whether tomorrow's meeting would go ahead, and if so what time [last week's meeting didn't materialise, we think - we didn't actually wait in all day just in case!], etc, etc, etc. So basically we are just trying to liaise with the trades directly so that work still keeps progressing...

I'm not sure if is was a coincidence that about five minutes after M. Mekki leaving we received a very brief email from Jean-Marie stating that he will respond to our questions this evening, and that tomorrow's meeting may be on Friday morning or Tuesday...

I firmly believe in coincidences, but I also have strong faith that not everything that looks like a coincidence is one. Perhaps I'm being super paranoid, but I do know that M. Mekki is sensible enough to gather "brownie-points" when he can for later redemption when he needs to "get out of jail free"...

He doesn't throw it in your face that he's done you a favour when he wants to be allowed to change the scheduling, and it may only be a coincidence that stuff gets mentioned, but it may also be a "coincidence", if you see what I mean!

Anyway, he does a lot of work for Jean-Marie, so the mail from T+B may be a "coincidence", but either way if it gets a finger out, we'll be very happy.

The hummingbird hawk moths are out enjoying the warmth of the sun, as are the lizards, so we shall take our cue from them and go and bask in the countryside.

Happy glorious early autumn day!

Day 38

We left the house at 5.15am for Dijon-Prenois circuit yesterday [gorgeous weather for a Track Day, and no tumbles from the Chez le Baron camp (until I got home, but that was from tiredness & not life-endangering, so doesn't count) - may post about it later], and didn't return till 9.30, so never saw what the builders were doing, but this morning we could see that the bathroom window is finished, and the joints were pointed on another part of the wall in the bedroom.

Luckily, the mortar has dried the right colour, so we don't have to ask them to re-do it!

Day 37

Nanoseconds before I got changed into my DVD-following kit [think: unflattering shorts/t-shirt in shades of mud that don't matter getting sweaty], a van rolled into the front yard - PERFECT timing!

M. Hamid & M. Jamel are back at work, and today the sill for the bathroom window is done, as is the rejingot, and they've done a test-patch of the pointing on the bedroom wall.

Lucky I was here to correct the sketch sent out by Jean-Marie, as he'd apparently forgotten the rejingot! What a shame he didn't send it to us as well, as we could have pointed that out! Fortunately, M. Hamid has a [for the French; well, he is Berber, so that could account for it?] weird attitude in thinking that the customer should be happy with the results!

At this rate we should get all the building work finished by the time M. Baty comes and fits our windows.

Speaking of M. Baty...

Avast, me hearties!

The best I can do is wish everyone a [belated]:

Happy International Talk Like A Pirate Day!

Aarrrr!

[OK, he's not a pirate, but a pre-Revolutionary Frenchman will have to do! We were off watching Danton meet his end after his visit to the château in Charmont-sous-Barbuise, and this landlubber is our joiner a nobleman's sedan-chair porter!]

Snippets

Progress:

I was looking over my photos - there's one of me in a white boiler suit cleaning off bricks (not going to post it; despite pretending to be Anneka Rice, it's not an image I want out there!), and another of a pile of bricks that is fit for the Tate...

It seems so long ago!

Well, in the scheme of things, it is.

Obviously, before we'd even started, we'd missed our deadline of end of May, and then finishing-before-everything-grinds-to-a-halt proved not possible, and now I haven't a clue...

Except: M. Mekki mailed today to say that with the end of Ramadan, he should be able to get workmen to our house next Wednesday, and hopefully all the plastering/building will be finished by the end of the month.

Just in time for the lovely M. Baty to come early next month and fit our windows, and the equally lovely (but in a slightly-less-pin-up way) M. Waeber to come and do the tiling.

After that we just need the builders back to break through to the house (which as it's already been done, and just blocked up, should take about 20 minutes + tidying), and lay the stone floor to join up with the back hall.

And then I can "spring clean" the place!

A lot of dust [that came out as "a love of dust"; NOT Freudian, I can promise!], obviously, which is always part of the fun of having builders in your home, and when we thought it was going to be done by end of July I just left the 'edges'... Still am, but I've pushed the vacuum cleaner round a few times and it's a bit less "crunchy", but until the bare mortar/concrete is covered the dust won't stop.

I don't know what's going to happen with the insulation/plumbing/step upstairs, but David seems a bit more hacked off with T+B than he was, so I think I might just retire to a safe distance; he doesn't blow his fuse very often [I've never seen it in 11 years], but I suspect it will be spectacular should we come to that!

Changing seasons:

Our rose by the letterbox is coming to the end of a fabulous display of flowers, considering I cut it right back, having planted it at completely the wrong time!

Thinking back, we were planting that one by moonlight - not following biodynamic principles, just taking longer than we thought to get the other two in the ground - in an attempt to get them to survive: here in July it was definitely NOT the time to be planting anything other than lettuces!

I cut it back so it could concentrate on sending down roots, rather than blooming, but I guess it had other ideas. The rain has obviously helped, and it's been lovely to see the flowers.

Petals on the ground, fog blocking out the Mairie, a last whiff of mown grass/hay, the increasingly frequent smell of woodsmoke - all reminders that autumn is on it's way.

The nice days are still bringing the lizards out of their hiding places, but no longer am I greeted with the sound of rustling every time I open the front door, as one scuttles out of sight. And I'm opening the front door every time it's warm - to let the warmth in - rather than keeping it closed to keep the heat out.

I love being here, seeing the seasons change, watching the leaves develop from the tiniest of buds, to soft green, then stronger/darker adult foliage. Now I'm enjoying the first of the golds in the process of preparing to drop leaf as part of the winter dormancy. No oranges or reds, yet; that will come, with the dropping temperatures and the first of the frosts.

The fogs are going to get more frequent, and soon I will be lighting the poêle out of need, rather than from the luxury of being able to burn stuff [London being a smokeless zone limits any pyromaniac tendencies to candles!] , so for now I am, like the lizards, basking in the last of the hot sun before it becomes pallid and weak (leaving me longing for sunnier climes).

Of course, we have the festival of light to look forward to at winter solstice and year's end: lighting as many candles as I can find holders for, to burn away the darkness and herald the start of growth for a new year. But that's a long time off...

Still, some sloe gin to be made!

White goods:

We've really joined the 20th century!

First, we bought a washing machine - oh, boy, is that wonderful?!

And now we have a brand-new fridge-freezer; it's currently skulking in the corner, waiting for David to arrive so we can decide where to put it. It's going to be a massive improvement on our temporary fridge that the tenants broke/lost all the door shelves in, and is missing another shelf: we will be able to stand bottles upright, and keep jars in easy reach. Waiting for delivery on Saturday gave me time to catch up on so many posts here!

What we want next is a cooker; it's weird how I rarely use the oven at home [biscuits excepted!], but not having one makes me long for a bake of some kind.

At least I can always go out for a pizza!

Welly pros & cons:

Pros:

• Waterproof
• Cheap
• Can act like a big kid at any age [ooh, those puddles are so alluring]
• Stylish & attractive [!]

Cons:

• Thin soles aren't fun on the sharp pebbles of farm tracks
• Not very warm
• HUGE blisters on the soles of my heels

Sadly in this instance the "cons" outweigh the "pros" and I'm confined to base as each step is too painful to go for a walk. I did think "oh, get over it, they're only blisters!", but literally limping home taught me that I may be tough in some ways, but the skin parting company from my soles is not one of them.

Hmm; blisters are the bane of my life [can't wear my MBT boots for too long as they give me blisters on the backs of my heels]!

On that note, I'm going to hobble off...

Not day 37

x 4

1. We had M. Waeber come round on the 3rd to ask if he's still starting on the 13th [like anyone's going to tell us that?!], and where he can stock the tiles. He is worried about the depth of concrete that will cover the pipes: if it isn't sufficient, the changes in temperature could cause the tiles to crack...
2. We had M. Waeber, again, on the 7th to measure up for the tiles - he was taking exact measurements this time, rather that estimated ones - and to say he had gone to T+B's office on the 6th, and he's happy now with the plan for covering the pipes [having now seen Jean-Marie's sketch with it's wrong dimensions (9cm depth is greater than the 7-8cm we actually have!), and received an email saying it was planned that way from the beginning (erm, no, we only did it this way round to continue working whilst M. Torelli was ill; the pipes were supposed to be laid in the first screed of concrete) I'm still a bit jittery, but if M. Waeber's convinced it will be OK I'll just have to hope it will be OK], and to say that he's due on the 20th...
3. M. Mekki came on the 8th [the day the plaquistes were due to resume work], to ask if SMS can delay starting again until the 27th... I said I'd have to ask David, and see whether we could put M. Baty back (which he's fine about); David replied to his email that we'd prefer if they could start on the 20th, as we think there's (at least) two weeks worth of work to do... And we really don't want our lovely new windows splashed with all sorts of crud like the last time [see below]. We're still waiting to hear back...
4. On the 9th the tiles arrived [after getting to sleep about 8am, confident in the knowledge that the tiles were due on the 16th, I woke up about 11.30am to two pallets outside the bedroom window!]. Milesi, who are rebuilding the other part of the church wall had helped M. Waeber put them there with their tractor, and he came back later to help me put them in the house [if they hadn't have been stacked vertically I would have managed; but I was glad of his help]. He's now likely to come back after the windows are in; some time in October... Also, Nicolas came (in J-M's place); he doesn't know why the carpentry work was brought forward from early October to late August, nor does he know the answer to any of our other queries. No quite sure what the point of that visit was...

Nicolas did point out that normally the windows go in before the interior is as finished as we want it; I made a big thing out of pretending-to-be-French (think English woman being loud, volatile, arm waving) and said that no way were we having the kind of mess that we had the last time made on our lovely new woodwork this time.

I emphasised that I'd never seen such a mess after builders had been [totally true, and I pointed out the damaged double glazing units - all four in the main room we use!], and that my cousin in the Vendée said her builders didn't even leave the place untidy; I just can't trust that the site will be left in a fit state, and it's NOT going to happen.

[I didn't add "so there!", but that's probably more down to my lack of knowledge of how to say it in French than anything else!]

I am glad T+B are communicating with some people [although to be fair, it did sound as though M. Waeber just showed up and forced the discussion upon them], it's just a tearing shame we aren't on their list!

It feels as though Jean-Marie has lost all interest; he's certainly dropped all professionalism - the planning calender, weekly updates, sending everyone emails to let everyone know what's going on.

Part of me thinks that's because we've over-run his original estimate of two months work, but we never got a planning calender [it was all hand-written on my wall calender!], only received one weekly update [although I know the companies working here got two], and the only prompt emails we received have been the bill-chasing ones when we were determined to get the issue over the joinery sorted out before we settled the account; our queries about the insulation, plumbing for bedroom 2, and the step up from the corridor remain unanswered [the first email was sent on the 25th of August, a more detailed list of what we needed to know chased it on the 6th of September]...

Jean-Marie happily left for a week's holiday without responding; we are currently planning to factor in similar delays for any future payment we make, bearing in mind that if we need the carpenters back to take up the panels upstairs any cost caused by that WILL be coming out of the remaining fees owing; I'm not paying for any more of J-M's slackness!

So, other than expecting M. Baty at the beginning of October, and M. Waeber after him, I don't know who's due and when, so (as usual) I'm just busy trying not to stress about it all.

On a lighter note: our fridge has arrived, so I'm free to leave the house...

[I feel almost lighter for 'getting that off my chest', so this blog is still working as therapy!]

The little snippets I was going to post can wait for another time.

Obviously, one day it will actually be day 37. And one day it will actually be finished. Just not sure when!

Happy warm-autumn-day from this beautiful region where the already-sweet pinot noir grapes are just waiting for the vendange to begin...

[If I was French, I would be unable to resist the temptation to add "...and begin their journey of magical transformation to become the source of pleasure to millions that is the rich legacy of our region, champagne!" (or something similar).

But I'm not, so just be thankful I'm shutting up now!]

Day 36

You can probably guess: more elastic trickery...

This time we have got the telephone point installed!

[It was forgotten in Phase 1a, and has been a constant focus of Jean-Marie's ever since; why the big stuff gets totally ignored, but he can issue nine reminders about something we told him can wait till all the wires are connected up, we're not sure!

I came across a note in my garden diary from three years ago: "I'm tired; not sleeping well because of worrying about the things M. Boyer seems to be neglecting (steels for mezz., well water, corridor height for phase 2) in favour of the minutiae (taps bath, tiles, etc.)." Hmm, getting déjà vu, yet?!]

No-one needs to know that it doesn't work yet [waiting for it all to be connected; seems logical to do all the extra work at once]; neither M. Antoni nor I will tell J-M, I'm sure!

M. Antoni has got as far as he can for now; he needs other people to do their bits before he is able to do anything else, so he's off site for a while.

But here's the exciting bit: M. Baty came!!

Not just because I've got a bit of a crush on him [he is gorgeous, *swoon*], but it means that he's taken the measurements for our door and windows (and the paint for them), so he can start work now!

[And I could say (if asked, which I haven't been yet), "yes, M. Baty's been; it was worth getting that sill done for the french window".]

We'd made a couple of chasing phone calls, and played telephone tag on the first of September [he said he'd come at the end of August, and Maria is quite literal in her interpretations!], when we got a call back from Mme Baty about 7.30pm to ask if it was OK if her husband came on his way home from another job...

Yes, no problem!

[Quick, finally decide what we want!!! We took the sketches and a tape measure out to the stable, and had just definitively ruled out the three-paned option (glazing bar very close to eye height, so no-go there) when he rolled into the drive, phew!]

We've gone with the four-panes to each window, two opening central windows and a fixed window either side for the porte-fenêtre and plain glass (no glazing bars) for the two smaller windows.

He should be able to fit them at the end of September (although more on that, later), and plans to be here for two days and do various little other things, too (tinkering with sills, adding a sill, replacing a cellar door hinge, putting up our long-awaited back shutters, etc), so we are really pleased.

And once again, a big, HUGE thank you to John Knighton for his CAD skills!

We were able to show his impression of how the window will look to M. Baty (and posted him a copy; my printer is NOT up to the challenge of that without using up all my ink!).

We had a discussion about what style, and he said modern can be good (especially where no precedent exists; 19th century french window, erm, no), but we want something in the same style as the windows, so let's hope we've made the right decision!

Day 35

As above, [or below, as it will appear!].

The thing with electrics is: it seems to take ages for not-much to happen, but if they didn't spend all that time with nothing to show for it, you would be able to see all the fruits of their labours...

Surely I can't be the only person who's gone into a beautifully decorated/restored/kept home & been amazed that in all that perfection people seem happy to have wires stapled to their skirting, or "hidden" behind that trunking that seems to be the alternative?

And don't get me started on 'pipes-as-feature', please.

I will admit that some of the runs can be pretty inventive, but that's admiration for things 'Heath Robinson' rather than things well done!

Day 34

Electrician; doing mystical, electrical, things...

Seems like an age...

...since I last posted...

That would be because it is!

Serious lacks of both energy and enthusiasm combined to produce inertia after David went home from his holiday...

But I'm back now [even though the sleep thing remains elusive], and back to swinging my kettlebells, so here's to the return of normal.

[And, coincidentally, I've got that t-shirt!

No, don't ask me what it's all about; they were cheap (Barnado's in Brixton), new, & I liked the sheep (reminds me of one of my favourite books, "A Wild Sheep Chase").

I prefer to buy from charity shops if I can (reducing, reusing, recycling as I'm sure I've banged on about before).]

OK, let's clear that backlog!

Day 33

Oops, forgot to add that we had a visit from Jean-Marie, Nicolas & M. Petitpas yesterday; I let David deal with that one...

[Perhaps I'm "in denial"? Whatever it is, I'm finding it less stressful than talking with them myself! As a down-side of David being in charge, no awkward questions get asked, such as "what about the insulation?" or "what about the plumbing for bedroom 2?", so I'm not sure it's a 'goer' as a long-term solution. Hmmm, I think when it all returns to ground level I'm going to have to get the gloves back on.]

More electrickery today, but as we were lumberjacking, I'm not sure what!

Will take some photos of upstairs when I've found another iron bar to replace the latest broken rung of my ladder; I can't cope with missing a step and getting off the ladder at the same time.

Day 32

Carpenters finished boarding out above the bedroom.

[Maria still debating whether to create a fuss, or just accept substandard project management in order to get those bloody people out of our lives; instinct says "get the insulation added", and "get the plumbing sorted", but I'm fighting against that as my head is saying "make them go away"!]

Sad to see them go; I've enjoyed chatting with Laurent, and they just get on with their work with no fuss, and minimal discussions, unlike the electrician...

Electrician arrived today!

He and his colleague are finishing off the first fix in the stable, and we had another long, involved discussion about the missing phone point in the kitchen, but I think it will be OK: the bare cable should be able to run in the gap that's opened between the insulation and the beam, and then behind the upright, with minimal channelling in to sit next to the power socket.

I just had a brilliant idea (if I do say so myself!), that if we are gouging out the insulation, we might as well add another socket which will cut out the adaptor plugged into the lightning-protection box (circuit breaker? I think in English we don't have these because all our plugs are fused?) for the internet router.