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!