Bonus meeting!

Not "Day 24", obviously!

We did have a plaquiste on site, but he was only visiting to get his step-ladders. He was just leaving as Jean-Marie was arriving...

Not that I was expecting him, but David had sent a bit of a bombshell email yesterday: we can't decide what bath we definitively want before Wednesday morning [David working and we two being in different countries makes it just that little bit more challenging], so we have called a halt to the bathroom floor/supply to the bath. This can be decided at our convenience, and then the plumbing is in no danger!

M. Torelli had put the fear of burst pipes into me: if we don't decide the exact model now, we risk piercing supply/waste later if we go with a roll-top bath, as the feet are screwed into the floor.

So, I anticipated a phone call, and probably David getting involved, but a site visit (in retrospect) seems the best way of clearing it up.

J-M had come to see if he could come back later; which gave me time to compose myself, and look up a few choice phrases, should they be necessary...

He showed up late, but that wasn't a problem, as I'd already factored that in to my plans. He had an idea which involves just leaving about 2 sq. metres of bathroom floor in the unfinished state, so that we can run the waste as necessary when we have chosen the bath, and the supply pipes to run in the central axis of whatever bath we have [so the axis won't move, but the bath may stick out a little further or less far each side], and go up to the wall, but not into it.

He hasn't yet spoken with M. Torelli, but he convinced me, and I suspect that given our stated choice, M. Torelli could see this as a good compromise? He promised to speak to him before the plumber is due to come here on Wednesday.

Yes, I was right about the lights above the bath (and the shower) being wrong, and we found another bonus wrong wall light, but that is all easily remedied.

J-M spent a long time working on the window embrasure sketches, but as long as M. Baty is happy with that, I'm not going to concern myself with it too much...

I was just psyching myself up to ask if there was any way we could possibly move the VMC pipe, and the plasterboard housing, when he dropped a bombshell: the loo in the shower room for bedroom 3 upstairs was just about OK under the beam...

What?! We moved that to the other side of the room...

Except: the plans are apparently wrong!

[Actually, I think that calls for an excess of exclamation marks, so here's another couple: !!]

We decided that as there is no floor upstairs at the moment, and I am a grade A coward about falling [two people have already been through the ceiling, so it's not that unlikely!], and clearly all the measurements need to be taken again, he will ask M. Mazij jnr to put down the composite board along the corridor, and at the front of the space, and we will have a think about it then.

I emailed him to say, obviously if all the plans are wrong, please ask the carpenter not to do the step(s), as that/they could need to be changed.

I'm doing brilliantly at not stressing, even managed several giggles as I was telling David about it. I'm just thanking the gods that look after beautiful old buildings that this time around we get to have more elegant solutions.

Thank You!

Whether we end up with two or three bedrooms upstairs, who knows? At the moment I am just focusing on being calm. So to that end I probably need to give a big thank you to Solara An-Ra for her excellent meditation CD, which clearly got me in the right frame of mind for the meeting.

Thank You!

And the VMC pipe? J-M says that should be fiddly, but not impossible to move, and he can quite see why we wouldn't want it there, so he'll ask Schwartz to move it.

Result!