New shutters

I've had such problems with *bleep* Microsoft, that I'm just going to load these photos [if that works; I can't face yet another crash & massive loss of my work], and trust that it's obvious what's going on.

Plumber done (nearly) all he can without tiler doing his bit

He's fitted the bath (but not connected the waste, oddly), and done more of the laundry room plumbing, but now he's being held up by the tiler...

David is going to speak to M. Waeber tomorrow to see when he can come; I don't want him working when I'm not here, as left unsupervised he puts some of the joints in *ahem* "interesting" places with regard to mid-lines!

I'd rather be present to make a decision as to whether the tile join should be offset to the middle of the taps etc.

I can foresee that the 2 basin/shower combination could be tricky, so would rather we made the decision that blindly putting our trust in M. Waeber, and I most definitely do want the bath taps to 'straddle' a join even if it means a sliver in the corner [like we have in the shower room!], unless a whole tile spanning the tap would be better.

But that's only a decision that can be made when the tiles are here.

I think arranging for him to work here when we are next here can be done nicely/without hurting his feelings a bit more easily now that the whole house is connected together; he would have to have a key to the whole bit, and he's been giving the key to whoever needs it in our absence, so we could say that now we'd prefer to be here when work is happening.

I hope it will work out that way, anyway!

May flowers and skylarks

I went for a walk just before 7pm - letting the heat of the day dissipate a little now that it doesn't feel like thunder.

I'm still having "issues" with my energy levels: my 15-minute walk is taking half an hour, and my 25-minute walk took an hour. BUT, looking on the positive side, I did go so I feel that that's progress (of a sort).

I enjoyed myself, as I tend to do, and really appreciated seeing the countryside bursting into life, and the wildlife.

The same valley I walked along yesterday in full sun, was today in still shade and the smell of the may flowers [hawthorn] was overpowering; they really are aromatic. The flowers here are very white [almost as brilliant white as the blackthorn], whereas I remember them as being a more creamy shade.

Either I'm misremembering, or they are a slightly different variety here? I'm sure the sloes are different: I've picked kilos of them without getting pricked, and I don't recall that as an 'option' with English sloes!

Along with the may, there was a bush or two of late-flowering blackthorn, and a carpet of wild strawberries; very 'wedding bouquet'.

As well as the flora making my walk a richer experience, the fauna were also putting on a spectacle for me...

A buzzard was lazily riding the thermals close to the ground above a hay meadow, with the occasional drop to the ground; I never saw him catch anything, but I loved watching him try.

A pair of partridge took off at my approach, as did a skylark, who sang his way out of sight.

"Couples" is very much a theme at the moment: the lizards outside the kitchen door have been flirting shamelessly, and I even saw a pair of flies dancing round each other [but that thought I didn't enjoy!]. Lizard 'kiss chase' is fun to watch, as is the tail-shaking 'come and get me' signal that precedes it, with them covering a surprising amount of ground at speed.

The swallows, redstarts and spuggies are all looking for nest materials/sites so I'm valiantly fending off advances from the birds who think this house would make a nice home; it does, chaps, but just not for you!

I'm slightly delaying my "nesting" until the workmen have finished!

Plumbers working overtime?

The plumbers are only just leaving at 5.35pm.

The bath still isn't fitted, but there's a valid reason for that, so I don't mind: there are some sound-deadening panels attached that had come adrift, and M. Torelli wants to make sure the glue he's used to re-attach them will hold before plumbing in the waste.

I totally agree that it's better to wait a day than have them fall off again!

They are coming back tomorrow to fit the bath, and continue with the plumbing for the central heating supply in the laundry, and then we will be waiting for M. Waeber.

Plumber has just arrived

So that's saved David phoning him up to ask where he is!

I'm busy with some other blog stuff, so I'll post more later...

Sparks is here

Another one!

We seem to be meeting the whole of the electrical side of the Schwartz workforce, I think.

I told him that the plumber had pointed out the light/power switch wasn't vertical, but he said that's OK, as part of the making good process for the hole below it (where it was moved up), that will fix that problem.

The other thing the plumber said was that there wasn't sufficient depth for the tiles to go...

I asked the new electrician about that, and he said that the tiler will bring the sockets out when he does the tiling, so that's OK then.

I'm guessing this chap will be long gone by the time that the plumber gets here!

Rumblings of thunder...

A.k.a. "discretion is the better part of valour"!

Having seen the thunder and lightning storms of the two previous days, and having been struck by lightning twice (albeit only down a telephone line both times), I've put on hold my plans to go for a walk.

Yes, it is much cooler, with a refreshing breeze, but if it starts to thunder-and-lightning in earnest [and it sounds as if it's revving up to do that], I really don't want to be out in the open/near any tall trees!

Day off!

Thinking in French all week has left me quite drained; by Friday, I don't think I was making any sense, and I certainly wasn't understanding very much that was said to me until it had been repeated at least once and s l o w l y !

I want to post some photos of M. Baty and his elves' handiwork, but I'd rather do it another day and put some enthusiasm into it.

I have been out and about, foraging, and will post about that as & when.

Sufficient to say, I have a colander full of nettles waiting, ready for my dinner!

Sad now

M. Torelli & Jimmy came and went; I see they've moved the bath, but I'm not convinced that it's fitted [given that it's not butting up against the wall and the waste is not connected]!

They're coming back on Tuesday.

On the contrary, the lovely menuisiers have finished and are not coming back; which is making me sad, as I've enjoyed talking with them [and it never hurts when guys are cute, does it?] even if it makes me feel old that I've only heard of The Prodigy and not The Bloody Beetroots.

But then again, I'm not 19, am I?

Jean-Baptiste & Marc back

Yum!

They are so sweet, and they're fixing up our shutters, what's not to like?!

Joiners nearly done for the day

Apparently, Jean-Baptiste has to come back tomorrow to do some finishing touches and fit a different kind of shutter fastener. The one they brought won't fit neatly into the fold of the shutter, so stops them fully opening. There is a flat version, which I can't really imagine but I don't have to for long as one will appear tomorrow.

The issue with the hinges seems to have been resolved, and all the bits of stone they broke drilling holes have been repaired virtually invisibly.

We've now got internal doors, and têtes bergère on all of the shutters, apart from the bathroom one which has a lever to hold it open and M. Baty has installed a new cylinder in the lock, one that can be locked & unlocked from the inside; the old one only locked from the outside, which was fine while that door was being used for access and had no shutters, but not so great now that we've had the passageway unblocked.

David emailed M. Mekki about the stones sticking out where the shutter should go, but that's already been overtaken by events: where we did have sticky-out stones, we now have holes in the wall; but at least the shutter opens properly!

There is a lot of last-minute tidying/little jobs going on, and I'm debating whether it's too early to offer the guys a beer before they head off home. They were here at 8am and that must mean leaving the atelier before 7am, I'm sure, so they've given us a good day's work. Plus, I like having a chat with them when they've finished.

A minor issue

The new shutters look lovely - and are going to be great for privacy/keeping out light/keeping warmth in/out - but there's a problem with folding them back: I think that when they are closed the hinges are in the right place, but completely open the middle hinge is stressing the shutter outwards.

I was starting to wonder how they were going to fix it (or whether it's just one of those things that you have to live with), but M. Baty reckons there's nothing to worry about, and I'm reminding myself that the reason we are paying him so much money is for his skill and expertise; he will fix it somehow and I don't have to try and work out how that will be done.

Everyone has stopped for lunch now, so I'm just relaxing in the warmth [did I mention it was a beautiful day, again?], and as for the proud stonework by the chassis David said he wanted to be more in charge of things, so I'm letting him!

Bathroom window

Having taken five attempts to get the bathroom window right, and having asked Jean-Marie whether there was enough room for the shutter to open and being assured there was, I now need to call M. Hamid back to take out some stones so that the bathroom shutter can open fully without fouling!

Oh, well, I'm sure M. Mekki will understand...

All quiet, now

The three joiners have each put down their noise-making machines drills, routers and planers, and we are currently waiting for the glue/mastic that is holding in the gonds to go off. Not sure what they are in English, but it's an upright bolt that a hinge sits on.

There are three on each of the large shutters, and two on the small one.

Different smells, too, from earlier: this morning I was taken back to my childhood with the aroma of newly-planed wood [Dad was a general builder, so did some woodworking, and my grandfather had a joinery shop behind his hardware store (I used to love seeing the coffins!), and later got into wood carving and turning as a hobby]; now there is the smell of chemicals everywhere.

I think they are using the kind of stuff that's sets like a rock and so will hold the gonds in place; something needs to as the stone was incredibly difficult to drill, and the holes are not as neat as in the bricks.

Just heard from M. Torelli: he's had another incident of health trouble, so will either be coming this afternoon or tomorrow morning. To be honest, it's probably best that he's NOT currently here as I think they might be tripping up over each other a bit if he was!

Thursday, 11.20

Messrs Hamid and Jamel have gone; they finished the joints on the plasterboard that Hamid had replaced/installed yesterday, and that's the builder & plaquiste "lots" finished.

The joiners are all still hard at work fitting shutters and internal doors.

I had a message from the electrician who is stuck on a job at Belfort (195 miles away), so he can't come until next week, but (says he) will call Tuesday to let me know whether he's expected Tuesday or Wednesday.

No news from the plumber, but it's not late yet given that we've still got all afternoon.

Just had a call from M. Mekki, checking that everything's OK, which it is, so all I had to do was thank him for sending Hamid and Jamel and wish him a Happy Easter. Hopefully he will come and look at the work for himself next week, so we can say a proper 'thank you' for all his hard work and willingness to fit in around our difficult schedule.

Aaahh!

8am and the joiners arrive: M. Baty, M. Jean-Baptiste and M. Marc. I feel tired but happy!

It took me a long time to settle last night, but now that we will have shutters [and so be totally covered as far as insurance questions are concerned], I think I can take the rest 'as it comes'.

The shutters also mean that when the other work is finished, we can sleep in the bedroom [curtains are so far in the future, I'm pretty much reconciled to their absence], and pad naked to the bathroom should we so wish!

Of course we could do that now, but you never know when someone is going to be working in the vineyards at back (or walking across your field), do you?

I will post photos later, but for the moment want to go and watch the joiners in action (and take more photos, obviously).

Back hall now completed!

M. Hamid pointed the slabs he laid this morning before leaving.

He also replaced the too-close plasterboard by the bathroom window, and put some plasterboard over the rough edges where he knocked through yesterday.

He doesn't know whether it will be he or M. Kadir who comes and finishes the edges/banding, but I suspect it will be Kadir.

I'm going to miss him; I like talking to him and I like his "I will do what the client wants" attitude.

M. Waeber's been and gone

Pointing done, so nothing to stop M. Torelli fitting the bath tomorrow...

If he shows (M. Waeber's words, not mine).

Stone slabs going down...

The argument for having the small (troublesome) pink stone in the middle has been negated; the first joint as you come to the dégagement from the corridor is NOT dead centre, so there is no longer a need to feel we should keep the joints symmetrical.

Accordingly, we are going with our first instinct which is to herd the pinky stones off to the left!

[Of course, that would be the right on the photos: the corridor will be where the wall is, and I just couldn't get a decent shot standing in that space on my tip-toes.]

And, obviously, we are ignoring all the expert advice this end [M. Waeber just showed up, so I asked him, too].

We are the ones who are going to have to look at it, and the small 'pink' stone is definitely less eye-catching when grouped with the others to the side.

Handily, I was able to tell them that "David says so", and I think they are happy with that!

Bods have gone now...

And left me with a new problem: the slabs are all cut to size/shape - so far, so good - BUT when I pressure-washed then, half are grey and half are pink!

[Not to mention the problems of trying to remember to lock the door to the bedroom (previously nothing really to take, so I was just closing it), and going to the room along the back hall! Since February 2009 (and we only broke through in January), we've only been able to access that part of the house by going outside; it seems that hasn't yet worn off!]

They are drying less obviously different, but I need to talk to David to see what he wants to do...

The half of me that likes everything to be "right" is thinking about all the hassle it would take to find another few slabs to cut down, and the half of me that is trying to be more Zen thinks we should just go with the flow, again.

It seems like the wanting-it-to-be-right half is in the minority, given that that's also the tired-out-by-it-all half! Exhaustion with the whole process, I think, will carry the day and we get a pink & grey mix floor and hope that as I'm not planning on washing it too often that it will fade down with a few scuff marks.

Unless David thinks otherwise, of course...

Decisions, decisions

Deciding how the stone slabs should be laid in the dégagement between the back hall and the master bedroom has felt like a challenge too far: I've known that I want them to look 'right', without having any clear idea of what looking right would look like!

M. Hamid is being a complete sweetie, as usual, and saying that whatever the client wants is what he will do; I had a complete moment [though thankfully without any blubbing] of needing my dad - he would do what his clients wanted, but could also suggest how it might be done!

In the absence of dad, I phoned David and we decided that the lines of the joints between the stones should run parallel to those of the corridor [any easy decision; how could I have struggled with that?], and any small triangles of stone in the doorway will not really matter [we made a very similar decision about the tiles in the bedroom, and that looks fine; you only notice the odd slivers in the doorway when you look for them, the rest of the time you notice that the tiles follow the only square wall in the place].

And thankfully, we have two largish slabs that can be laid side-by-side with the joint dead centre, then a big piece that can go in the middle of the next row (flanked by smaller stones laid 'vertically' rather than 'horizontally') and I think we're going to wing it with the final row (which is going to be a half-row at best).

M. Hamid also kindly agreed to me pressure-washing the slabs before he lays them, which will save me a massive amount of in situ scrubbing, and I'm grateful and dressed ready for the moment they have finished trimming the slabs down to size.

Forgot the photos from Monday

Gosh, is that only yesterday?

M. Waeber filled in the gap in the floor where the bath is to go with some sort of mortar, and laid the tiles directly on top of it, as far as I could tell. [We'd had it left unfinished in case we did choose the freestanding bath.]

It needs two days to go off, and then he's coming back tomorrow to do the pointing.

M. Torelli is now added to my list of people coming Thursday!

I don't think the various workmen are likely to trip up over each other; they're all working in different places apart from when M. Baty will fit the bathroom door...

I might ask him to do that first, as I'm pretty sure he's going to get here at least an hour before M. Torelli (based on previous arrival times).

I'm sure that even if they do all arrive at once, they can slug it out amongst themselves!

I'm just sitting here enjoying the gentle sound of M. Hamid knocking off chunks from the underside of the stone slabs to make them shallow enough to fit in the "dégagement" between the back hall and the new bedroom.

He's pretty sure that we have enough slabs, so fingers crossed it all works out nicely.

I've never been so pleased to see M. Hamid!

Literally and figuratively.

Admiring the "view" along our hallway, and realising that our house just got bigger: priceless!

Also interested to hear a bit of gossip; I was saying that we are finding out bits that the project manager told us couldn't be done how we wanted them to be done, and then hearing from the artisans later that they had recommended doing exactly what we'd asked for, but were told by M. Boyer that the client insisted it was done his way. So we ended up not happy, the artisans presumably think we're difficult/stupid and the only person who's been getting what they want is the project manager!

Apparently, M. Waeber wasn't happy that the drain for the shower was laid by the builder; M. Hamid said he was ordered here on a rush job to fit it, and we were told that the plumber/tiler insisted that it was done by the builder... Hmm!

Also on another couple of jobs where M. Hamid worked, he'd done what the client asked for and was told by J-M that it was wrong [chaux-chanvre in one house, and a spiral staircase up from a vaulted cellar in a barn] only to have the client insist that they wanted what M. Hamid had done. In one instance, so I'm told, J-M just shut up, and the client in the other case asked how much money he owed J-M and was going to pay him off to stop him interfering!

If I understood correctly, the artisans pay the project manager as well as the clients paying him, but I'm not sure if I've got that right... But if I have, that's a nice little earner given what we've been charged!

It might not look much...

...But to us this hole is HUGE!

The bedroom is finally being joined to the rest of the house!

Must go and watch progress now.

Perhaps I'm getting braver?

I need to leave the house to go and find some other blog supplies, but obviously don't want anyone to have the excuse of "I showed up, but you weren't there, so I can't come again for a month/whatever", so I telephoned M. Mekki...

Now that might not sound like a lot, but it's a biggie for me: when I speak to people face-to-face I can normally tell whether they have understood me or not, I can use my hands as a communication tool and they (assuming they have the minutest level of observation skills) can tell if I'm looking completely mystified myself. This all aids understanding and being understood.

I forgot to add: I do a pretty mean diagram, for when there are no words!

Obviously, given that no-one I need to call has a videophone and nor do we, a phone conversation cuts out all my favourite coping mechanisms. I don't know if it's true (or an "urban myth") that 93% of communication is non-verbal, but I know that if I avoid the telephone we get far fewer misunderstandings!

So, to have spoken with M. Mekki feels like an achievement.

I think I'm safe to leave the house, given:

• Plumber: waiting for tiles to be pointed so he can fit the bath
  
• Tiler: coming Wednesday to grout the floor tiles, and then who-knows-when for the faïence
  
• Electrician: returning Thursday to finish making good and fit the extra socket in the kitchen
  
• Joiner: scheduled Thursday to fit the shutters
  
• Plaquiste: expected tomorrow
  
• Builder: ditto

Now that feels like we've got everyone covered, so I'm safe to leave the house. Lovely day for it, again, so I'm off to enjoy the sunshine!

Life saves me from more dithering; thanks!

David had asked M. Huguenot to link the spot in the "niche" to the centre light, but this morning I countermanded that and asked the electrician to link it to the shower spots.

Then I started having second thoughts [my first thoughts were that if we wanted the bathroom lit up for loveliness-of-display we would have all the spots lit, and otherwise I didn't want the niche lit every time we put the main light on as those spot bulbs are expensive!], and dithered and emailed David to see if he was OK with that.

I was just trying to persuade myself that I hadn't made the wrong decision [and, let's face it, in the grand scheme of things it's really NOT important!], when the electrician came to say that he'd wired it to the shower spots (I'd said I prefer that, but please do whatever was easiest!), as there was a beam in the way and he couldn't connect it (easily) to the centre light.

Phew!

I like it when the decision is taken out of my hands; reduces guilt immensely.

It's like buses...

You wait ages for one, then three come along all at once!

OK, so the second one is a promise (rather than actual), but the electrician's arrival definitely makes it a triple of good news; all feels like progress.

Actually, that needs to be written:

PROGRESS!

Sorry for being 'shouty', but after so long when it seemed as though we couldn't get things to re-start, two men in our bathroom working is wonderful.

Ooo! Shutters are coming!

I just checked my email, and there is one sitting there from David with the heading "pose des nouveaux volets", and as I've seen a few of these (chasing a date from the Batys) I thought he was on the case again.

But, it was one from him replying to Mme Baty letting us know that M. Baty is coming on Thursday.

How excited am I?!

That means we will be able to sleep in the bedroom; oo!

I was going to say "the tiler is here!"

But now I have to change that to "the tiler was here, but he's gone off to find some sand".

A big white van pulled up in front of the bedroom, and as I was expecting M. Antoni I thought it was him. I got the key to open up the door [still no access from the house, but hopefully that will be happening this week!?] and went round there and was surprised to see M. Waeber.

He's only doing the floor tiles; so that M. Torelli can install the bath and seal around it so when the wall tiling is done there are no leaks.

I don't know when he's coming back to do the wall tiling; I am summoning up the "braves" to ask. We need that done before M. Torelli can fit the basins/taps/shower/shower screen/sèche-serviette...

M. Waeber explained that he has to do the Bogé's terrace when the sun is shining, so I told him I was praying for rain!

At least he has come for this bit, so that's a positive sign, surely?

One swallow does not a summer make...

Nor one fine day.

So, I think we can agree with Aristotle that to assume summer was starting would be counting our chickens... [Why am I feeling guilty? Mixing my maxims to the max; ouch!]

But, as we've had more than one swallow, and today seems to be the start of the shouting-at-them-to-make-them-leave-the-house season, I'm guessing that they are preparing to nest. Which tells me they think there will be enough insects to feed a brood, and that it will be warm enough to produce sufficient insects for the duration of filling those hungry little mouths.

The redstart the other day was only foiled in his (her?) attempts to come in and make himself at home by the fact that I'd left the rear window to the kitchen closed; it may be 30°C in the courtyard, but the air is still decidedly "fresh".

Bees also investigating crevices for breeding purposes.

Either way, I really am off this time to enjoy the warmth!

Beautiful weather

The weather is being absolutely glorious at the moment - it's only 15°C in the shade, but as I'm not in the shade I'm there with the lizards absorbing the warmth.

The upside of a south-facing yard in front of the house is that it's like a giant radiator: at the moment, when the sun is shining, the temperature rises to just over 30°C in the sun, and the heating can stay off even though the night time temps are dropping to around freezing.

[Of course, the downside of a south-facing yard in front of the house is that it's like a giant radiator: when it's 30°C in the shade, the thermometer only goes up to 53°C, so I can't tell how hot it is out there; once the mercury has risen above the scale how does one tell the temperature?

But that is something to worry about later in the season/next year/whenever, as it's still a case of 'let's-open-the-windows-and-let-the-warmth-in' warm rather than 'don't-open-the-windows-or-even-the-shutters-in-case-it-lets-in-the-heat' hot.]

We were talking to Mme Koza and Olivier, and he said that he'd woken up in the early hours of Wednesday morning and seen the heaters out in the vineyards. I think when Mme Koza was woken up to see this she was less than delighted; I'm guessing in the twenty-or-so years that she's lived in the house she has witnessed that a few times!

I wish I'd seen it though: apparently there is a layer of black smog that blankets where the chaufferettes are located; it would have contrasted beautifully with the layer of white frost that covered the ground when I woke up at 6.30. I'm not sure they are legal; the pollution is clearly visible, and they are always tucked out of sight however early I wake up.

I think they only do it when the new leaves are starting; from what I understood of Olivier's explanation, the vines only break into growth once, so if checked by frost that's your season ruined in one night. It's quite odd having days that feel like an English summer's day with almost all the greenery in full new leaf (or well on the way), and the vines are still barren-looking.

Our horse chestnut tree is fully out and about to burst into flower, but the walnuts are still completely naked of leaves; perhaps they follow the same calendar as the vines?

Anyway, I'm off to bask with my lacertilian friends [although to keep up the conventions, I will call it "weeding"]; hope you can enjoy some lovely weather, too, wherever you are.

I'm back in France now, and work has re-started!!!

I didn't want to post about it until it had actually happened, as I was having trouble believing the project would ever get going again.

But it has, and I'm so grateful.

We have the "niche" above the loo [designed to make it look as though this was intended, rather than just another of the errors Jean-Marie created for us], and the wall between the bathroom and the dressing room. This is pretty cunning: it looks like a wall, but is in fact half wall, half temporary-wall that can be taken down later!

The reason for this was that we want to get the radiator installed, so need a wall [the solidly-fixed part], but want to leave our options open so that if the budget eventually stretches to my sauna we can remove the only-fixed-at-the-top-and-sides bit and slot the sauna in there (making the dressing room smaller, but I'll be brave if it comes to that!).

We are going to end up with an odd-looking half-tiled half-not-tiled wall, but that we can live with!

What is much more important is that we are getting the bath/basins/shower and rest of the tiling done at this stage; if "Plan A" had come off, we would have waited a couple of years before doing that, it has only been the absence of the loo that made us (well, David, really) think about doing more work now.

Needless to say it hasn't all been plain sailing, but the fact that we've had any sailing at all feels like massive progress.

We've got a light switch for the dressing room in the middle of the bathroom wall, but that will be fixed when M. Antoni comes on Monday, and our tiler looks like blowing us out about the tiling...

We're keeping EVERYTHING crossed that he's just letting off some steam, and will come next week otherwise that puts the plumbing back again. Given that this work has been planned for months, I don't think asking the tiler to come when he said he would is an unreasonable request!

Also, we'd scheduled work around M. Torelli [plumber] and M. Waeber [tiler] and hoped that the plaquiste, builder & electrician would fit in around them. Which they have.

We've also got a minor (and according to M. Luparello, eminently fixable) problem with the window embrasure: the tiles will crack if the plasterboard isn't moved a fraction of an inch. David's in contact with M. Mekki to arrange for M. Kadir to come back and do that so it doesn't start impeding M. Waeber...

Overall, it feels as though we are moving forward.

[Obviously we don't yet have water to the bathroom - but we have another "nourisse" connected up (just not to the existing one!) - and there is a delay on the radiators/shower screens, and the basins haven't arrived yet, but it all still feels quite hopeful.

Helped, no doubt, by the fantastic weather we've been having!]

Got the Taxe Foncière sorted/Another huge thanks to JDK!

We've finally got the areas sorted out for the Taxe Foncière on the house, so massive feelings of relief for all concerned, I think!

The problems were caused by David filling out a form incorrectly [with sizes based on T+B's plans!], and our being unable to work out how the original areas were calculated [nothing we could do would come up with their answer, again using Jean-Marie's plans] so that we could make the changes needed.

Thankfully David persevered, and Mme Gaule in the Tax Office seemed willing to get this straightened out, and another huge thank you to our friend John for sending us (massively quickly) a set of drawings with the areas marked on each section.

[A quick break to rave about John's marvellous Computer Aided Draughting Services: seriously, folks, if you need help with house drawings he is absolutely wonderful - give him a call!]

Seeing the "blocks" of our house with areas marked on them, it all became clear - we could come to the same answer for the original area the tax people were using IF we didn't include the garage [or the bits above the stable/bedroom which aren't included in the house; odd, but true, they're outside but under a roof]. Then both "habitable" space and 'other' space matched perfectly [or within tolerances, anyway].

[The whole question of whether we should have been paying for "habitable" space in a building with no water supply or drainage and only one working electrical socket is another kettle of crabs (as the Germans would have it)... I'm taking the view that my life is too short to right all wrongs, and the level of overpayment vs. the stress it would take to get a refund means that I'm willing to 'pay' to let this one go.]

David and Mme Gaule also agreed the figures for next year: ~60m² will be deducted from 'other' space and added on to habitable space, and again all will be correct. I think Mme Gaule couldn't under stand why if we'd added to habitable space we hadn't added to the grenier space, but David explained that we'd converted a rangement [stable is not a word to use, apparently] into an extra bedroom (so had lost some 'other' space), and then that all made sense to her.

This is, of course, assuming that the work will be finished by the end of the year!!!

[Sorry, too many exclamation marks.]

Given the level of communication we are having with M. Torelli now that Jean-Marie is no longer part of the picture, we are hopeful that if the work isn't completed by Easter it will at least be finished within the next couple of months.

There's probably a delay on the radiators: having them in clear-coated bare metal counts as a "special" finish, so they have to be make to order (and the factory waits until they have enough orders to make it worthwhile for them to manufacture a batch), as does the shower screen now that we can't do what we'd originally planned [thanks again, J-M!], but if we can finish the bathroom and knock through to the house, there should be only a day or two worth of work left to finish.

And (unlike Jean-Marie) we think that M. Torelli grasps the concept that you have to finish the job before expecting to receive the final payment, so we are confident that the delays will be kept to a minimum.

Fingers crossed, obviously!