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!