Day 18, continued

The plasterers finished putting up the plasterboard for the bedroom ceiling, and have started sealing the joints. Insulation in the partition wall has just started...

They have also done most of the bathroom/sauna/dressing room ceiling [we won't be dividing that space until we can afford to do out the bathroom; at the moment we are just having the loo fitted], and are only waiting for the lintel to be finished above the window.

We're having lovely coloured ceilings: "Imperial Mauve" in the bedroom [when we had the bedroom at Leander Road the same purple colour it was called that, so let's go with it!]; green in the bathroom area. In the rest of the house we have: 'greige' [grey/beige], green and pink!

"Imperial Mauve" = phonique - sound insulating
Green = water resistant
'Greige' = bog standard
Pink = heat resistant [round the woodburner flue]

One day we will be able to write a cheque and all ceilings will be a creamy/off-white; till then I'm going to enjoy!

Happy Birthday Chez-le-Baron on Blogspot!

I can't believe it's been four years that I've been posting about our house...

[Let's not go into how many years it's been doing a 3-4 month building project!]

The way I feel about this blog it that it's a kind of diary crossed with therapy; if anyone reads it and enjoys my posts or gets updates from us, that's a bonus, but I do it for me.

Selfish?

Probably.

Do I care?

NO! I love the possibilities brought about by the Internet, and even invest some of my time using a few of the tools [blogging, photo posting, email] as well as laughing at cats.

Have a great weekend!

Day 18

Yes, day 18!

Poor M. Jalel & his colleagues get to spend (at least some of) their Saturday working. He sounded OK about it yesterday [I think having all work finished, and whatever bonuses might be forthcoming, before the August break makes them happier], but it's not the work ethic we've come to know an 'love'!

35 hours weeks aren't popular among most of the people we've chatted with; sounds great in principle, but very often translates as "no overtime pay" for the workers, and everyone else has huge delays as work falls behind.

Anyway, speaking of work falling behind, M. Jalel says the bathroom ceiling can go up, and they will just unscrew a panel of plasterboard next Friday for M. Torelli to add in the extra waste pipes that got forgotten.

Fingers crossed.

Pics/forgot to say

Some pics of our newly-'ensmallened' room! [Sorry, sometimes I like the new (made up) words; sounds so much better than diminished.]

I forgot to say, that after we'd finished wrangling with Jean-Marie about the menuiserie element of the bill, we raised the charpenterie element. We were fully prepared to go into battle about that later, but felt it only fair to mention it yesterday.

That was fine - J-M said there wouldn't be any additional charge as it wasn't our error. He blamed Laurent [which I didn't think was fair, given the sketch he sent out], but as I know they do a lot of work together I'm not getting involved; they probably each make enough profit from the other to be able to lose an additional length of joist & two days' worth of labour, or J-M can give them more work.

Who knows? Who cares!

Obviously, we feel massively relieved this is over. I'm still concerned about how the work is being managed, but it should be over within three weeks apart from M. Baty & M. Waeber, and I trust them implicitly, so if/when I go back to England I know I can stop worrying.

I'm massively impressed with David [can't remember if I mentioned that in the last post]; he's shown bravery and determination beyond my wildest dreams, and has been awarded "knight in shining armour" status, and may even get spoilt rotten [a bit!].

HUGE, huge thanks, David!

Day 17/Friday meeting

Today was a day I've not been looking forward to for the last week or so: we needed to discuss J-M's bill/our objections to paying for the menuiserie work.

Come to that later...

I'd been for my cycle ride [curtailed when it started spotting with rain; couldn't risk catching a chill, so I came home], done my kettlebell DVD and was just finishing my third yoga set when I was startled [that's my job!] by men walking past the open door/window.

Given that it wasn't quite 7.30 am, and the builders had never arrived before 7.55 I thought I was safe in my "gym kit", which is too embarrassing even for me to mention, suffice to say I wear the least possible, and as fitted as possible because that works best for me.

I think the asana I was doing is called "pose of an eagle" - a very fetching attempt to turn myself into a human corkscrew, standing on one leg, whilst sticking out my ample (scantily clad) posterior. Which was, of course, facing the doorway!

I'm sure they saw me, including the Albanian whose sense of personal space seems so tiny that it makes me more English than ever; I only met him yesterday, but I've had a lot of personal comments/advice for the space of two (mercifully) very short conversations.

Normally I go and offer the workmen a coffee as soon as they arrive, but this morning, I felt "sprung upon", desperately snatched up my dressing gown & scuttled off to have a shower. Aside from my attire, I had "bien transpirée" - in fact I was "glowing buckets".

I was all nice & clean when the phone went: J-M saying he couldn't make the meeting which was arranged for 9 am, but he would be there at 10 am. I had guessed that it would be a 9 o'clock start, but that was only confirmed at 9.15 when we got the email announcing order of business!

So what's happened today?

• We've got a partition wall, and part of a ceiling: the rails & membrane are done in the bedroom part waiting for the plasterboard;
• There's now a lintel over the bathroom window, and the sides of the embrasure are nearly done (small matter of evening them out, obviously);
• We do have missing plumbing for upstairs - J-M & M. Torelli can slug that one out among themselves, but given the lack of care with everything else, I'm fairly sure I know whom I blame!
• Nobody (apart from me; sometimes that's a lonely place) had thought about how to keep the insulation in/rats out from under the floor upstairs/above the bedroom ceiling, so that's another bombshell I managed to fling into the mix! Not sure how happy I am at additional costs that should have been foreseen...
• AND we sorted out the bill with Jean-Marie!

It involved a lot of accusations, arm waving, telling it like it wasn't (from him), but we didn't back down - I even did some arm waving and got over-excited and voluble: it's a useful trick I'm learning - if I can sound as though I'm about to explode, coupled with behaving like a windmill that's trying to take off, I come across as a cross French person, so French people can understand I'm cross.

Another useful trick is emphatically answering in English so that David can translate - gives him chance to gather his breath, and he's only passing on my words. Also, it gives me free rein in what I want to say. I will admit to going on for far longer than seemed remotely reasonable, but I was determined to continue until J-M got our point/seemed to take us seriously.

Turns out there has been a miscommunication: they meant they wouldn't do the work in October for the joinery, but because they only said to David that they wouldn't do the work we thought they'd stopped, and were cross when we found out they are still bothering the Batys.

Long and short of it: we got 20% knocked off the bill after a LOT of haggling. This still leaves T+B with a large wodge of cash for a few emails/a telephone call. Face was saved on both sides, and we paid the bill after the 20% had been deducted. That was another saga - "why can't you pay the bill and we'll give you a credit note?" vs "why don't you get the bill right and we'll pay it?" Thankfully, the man with the chequebook prevailed. Maybe I could trust him to play poker?

If it sounds as though we've ripped them off, in fairness it seems that I've done more than the lion's share of managing the project, so I ought to get half of their fee, and the months of delays aren't helping (coupled with the bits we have to find funds for because they weren't listed in the spec), and nobody was twisting his arm!

We're still not happy with them, but at least we are still talking.

We are probably [because of the delays] not going to knock through to the house till September, and even then I might stretch that till M. Baty has fitted the windows. Although at this stage I think we've given them enough to think about, so I'll save that for later, when everyone is calmer again.

Speaking of delays: M. Torelli said the absence of plasterboard rails was delaying him installing pipework for the shower; the plaquiste says the missing shower pipes are delaying him; the missing plumbing is delaying the plaquiste, who can't do anything on the bathroom ceiling till the upstairs waste pipes are sorted. Oh, well, that's one I am leaving to J-M!

Given its size, it's absurd that the bedroom feels so small...

I'm sure when we've got furniture in there it will feel bigger [if you don't believe me, ask Sarah Beany!].

Not on my computer, so photos another time.

Had a bit of a wobble yesterday

I thought I was totally over the whole builders-are-here-working-on-my-dream-home-and-it's-not-my-dad thing. In the past it has made me sad to see work I'd always hoped [if the dream of owning a house in France came true] would be done by my dad: working holidays where I could help, and spoil him rotten. I know that's no longer a possibility, and I've done my grieving, but just occasionally his absence comes up and mugs me.

I was fine yesterday, and the thought that he'd be mad at me for accepting substandard work just because I didn't want to make yet another complaint gave me enough backbone to psych myself up for the difficult conversation of "Stop! I want you to re-do the brickwork". OK, that wasn't needed, but the thought of my dad gave me the strength to know I could do it.

And still I was OK, it was a rational sort of thing. I think what primed me for the wobble was chatting with M. Mazij jnr & M. Dorian; we were just doing that sort of bantering conversation that means nothing, taking the mickey out of each other & lightly teasing. I miss that sort of thing so much. Don't get me wrong, David is lovely to talk to & we do tease each other [some of us are more merciless than others...], but there was something about yesterday that made me realise I'm missing something and hadn't even noticed it was gone.

Still fine, until I came across a photo of my dad & his elder brother, Trev - they were working on a lintel on an old stone building [what's happening in my life right now], and suddenly waves of pain washed over me. I'm fine [plenty of 'fine' going on today; not so much 'brilliant' happening]. I know it's just tiredness, and the various stresses of the building work/language difficulties/being apart from David, coupled with a little bit of unresolved grief, but it's making me miss dad like nobody's business.

I think what might have made it worse is M. Mazij - fairly small chap, losing his hair, not immediately attractive on the outside, but a honey on the inside, a real leg-puller. Well [if you don't mind the omission of "bears a vague resemblance to David Jason"], that's pretty much an accurate description of my dad. I'm forgetting: loves old houses, good at woodworking. Again, thinking about it today, it's opened up a dad-shaped hole in my life, and I'm not sure how to fill it...

Thankfully no-one can see the tears streaming down my face, and by the next time I see someone, I will have got the smile back in place.

I'm posting the photo [dad on L] - but you can't tell from it how wonderful he was; you're just going to have to trust me on that...

[At his funeral, the village church's largest-ever congregation & collection would seem to indicate I'm not alone in feeling that way.]

If you've got a lovely dad, go and hug him now, and if you can't, phone & tell him how much you love him [yes, even if you're bloke!]; I wish I could join you.

Day 16; the rescue party arrives

M. Alain and another builder have shown up, so now I can stop worrying about M. Franck.

The concerns [he was going to die of dehydration/heat exhaustion] were NOT helped by M. Mekki talking about blood, & M. Franck being hit on the head by falling rocks! His safety helmet is apparently at home. He's happy to carry on, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed - don't want to find out how much fun claiming for a brained builder is on the French insurance policy...

Or clearing away the blood!

Day 16

I had another night where sleep escaped just after three, and I was out of bed and doing by 5.20. I know David gets up that early, but he gets into the office by 7.20-7.30, and I don't need to get up quite so early.

Still, I was able to get my cycle ride done - I was getting to the top of my hill about the same time as the sun was reaching the top of his hill, and today I'd worn a sweatshirt - coming downhill in the shade when it's 14 degrees out is nippy. [Well, for me at least.]

I'd done a ten-minute yoga warm-up before going and then did my kettlebell DVD when I got back. By the time I'd vacuumed out the car [I'd moved it so the builders didn't block me in and I could go shopping later; completely forgetting that we hadn't had time to clear our the brick/mortar dust], and washed down the windows [messy, messy carpenters with their masonry saw] I realised that we'd got a builder on site, but only one & no van.

Quick chat to M. Franck, saying the brick pillar to the right of the window was OK [the other one is great/fine/perfect], but please watch the levels and I finally made it into the shower was accosted by M. Waeber, who thinks he won't be able to do the tiling before the August break because of the delays.

I [rightly or wrongly] did sound off about the project management, the second time M. Waeber was complaining about it. I asked him not to say anything... Who knows? Shouldn't have said anything, but at least by chatting to him I know there are at least two artisans/ouvriers who are pissed off at J-M [and you should hear him on the hurried sketches]... Oh well, the worst we can be accused of is telling the truth!

He was still chatting [a very chatty man, to steal someone else's description] when David phoned, so he scuttled off & I did finally make it into the shower!

Today's new word is "transpire" which, when you think about it, is obvious; although I've only ever heard it used about plants giving off moisture from their pores. I had transpired buckets & needed to smell better! Not sure how I'm going to shoehorn that into polite conversation, but as I prefer the jokey chats, I'm up for the challenge.

Got back from my shopping trip, to find M. Franck desperate for water; he didn't know if the outside tap water was safe to drink [it is, but it was M. Alain & M. Gerard I'd told that to], and had been abandoned by his colleagues [taking the water with them] who are off finding scaffolding. Thankfully the bottle of water I put in the fridge the other day was still half full, and I'd got a box of ice cubes. At least they'd left him his lunch!

[It was M. Franck who was talking about "transpirer", not me, but it supplied a missing piece in the jigsaw.]

41°C in the front yard, and the wind's dropped; even the lizards are in hiding.

Another surprise visit: Messrs Mekki & Luparello showed up, and M. Mekki asked how it was going - I said the left pillar was 'perfect' [it's not, but it's so close], but that I'd asked M. Franck to watch the right one as it was coming in a bit...

Later, M. Mekki thanks me for telling them - "grazie mille", and thankfully I remembered to answer with "prego"; M. Luparello confirmed that was OK, so at least I'm being understood in three languages now. [I'm fairly sure M. Mekki has better English that he's let on...].

I asked M. Mekki, and emphasised I wasn't trying to hassle them, whether it would be finished by August break. I think I understood that they will be done - he & M. Luparello are both off on their hols as soon as July is finished. I said, I didn't mind what the answer was, but I needed to know about unblocking the doorway, [Paul, my dentist reckons I can leave the broken tooth (as long as it remains symptom-free) a couple of weeks, but I can't leave it for three months] - I explained I'd spoken to the dentist, and wanted to get back to England, but didn't want to leave the house unsecured...

I said it was just a heads up, and we could talk about it tomorrow, but I preferred that the work is done properly, and there is a delay, that we rush to finish for the end of July deadline. Basically: "have a think and let us know tomorrow"...

Just time to wish them a "buon apetito" and "a domani" before they were off.

Forgot to say...

We now know the beam-clearance is sufficient, because M. Mazij measured it - it is hand-held-up-above-head height.

That's OK, because he's a standard-sized Frenchman!

Day 15

The builders have made a MUCH better job of the brickwork for the bathroom window today - here's hoping that nothing sags in the night! I don't think it's perfect, but as it now looks OK, I'm not going to stress. A nice thing about reclaimed bricks: the lines are much more forgiving.

The carpenters have finished the corridor joists above the bathroom, and are just finishing filling in the holes they have made. Today, it seems, they have been in competition with the builders: first they really upped their noise-making game [the compressor and nail gun helped massively with that, not to mention the masonry saw], and then M. Mazij mixed mortar to fill in holes in the stonework.

No intervention from T+B, and we seem to be getting on just fine; my mood remains as sunny as the day.

Happy lovely afternoon!

Or if you prefer "Bon fin de journée".

Much happier today

As I just posted, starting the day off right is a good start.

I was thinking about the decision/non-decision regarding the corridor joists when I woke up - not saying we didn't want them to re-do the work, was definitely the right choice. My 'angst' about it had already gone before the carpenters started work; a huge clue, I think. Any last concerns melted away when the corners of Laurent Mazij's lips started turning up!

Whilst I was trying to find my other spirit level [I know I've got four, but think I might have a fifth? But the clean ones are in London], I noticed the redstart's nest looked different. I know I shouldn't have, but reckoned the chicks aren't going to "rat" me out, so I took a photo - a way of seeing what's going on in there without getting very close.

What's happening in there is two beaks and a jumble of feathers, with "bald" patches showing through. I daren't investigate further, so don't know if there are five hatchlings or fewer.

Slightly sad note: last night I broke another tooth; thankfully, this one doesn't hurt at all, and is only a corner come off. The filling next to it seems intact, so I will probably wait till I get back to London and see Paul. I've asked David to find some of the "emergency" filling that you can buy for travel, but may not even need that if I can persuade my tongue to leave the hole alone.

I suspect the cause is what I suspected the last time: clenching my teeth in impotent rage at being ignored/having problems with building works & project managers that having a project manager is supposed to prevent.

Very strongly believing that if I have to manage the project and the project managers we could save on fees & hassle by saying "goodbye" to T+B. We shall see if the discussion on Friday blows up into a huge row - if it does and J-M flounces off, well I won't be unhappy! I would hope he could be professional about a disagreement, but the lack of professionalism this time around makes me doubt that...

I don't know he was talking about us, but I overheard him say to M. Mekki that 'someone' hasn't paid his bill, they said they'd send a cheque and they haven't. Either it was a thinly-veiled dig [I don't respond well to passive-aggressive tactics, at all], or he's got another client he's really pissed off!

Gotta go, M. Mekki here...

These are the posts I like!

It's nearly 8.15, I've been for a cycle ride [2 deer, 1 heron], done my exercise DVD [another huge "thanks" to Angie Miller], and had a problem resolved!

What's not to like?

I never have a problem with problems, only people who refuse to acknowledge them/make efforts to fix them.

Yesterday at the second meeting, I was looking at the bricks either side of the window opening, and they didn't look vertical. I was half a room away, in the middle of a meeting and tired, so I got out the spirit level and left it on my hairbrush [first thing I see after getting dressed] to remind me to look this morning.

Didn't sleep so well, so by 5.20am I'd given up and went out for a cycle ride.

[Today it was hard work, but conversely I also enjoyed parts of it a lot more, and there were even two (fairly shallow) hills that I freewheeled down without braking, so that's got to be progress, right? Even though it was painful, it was my fastest time yet for that route.]

Given that we are in a valley, the sun wasn't up when I set out at 5.30, so little point trying to take photos of the brickwork, should that be necessary. By the time I got back it was light, so I went off with my spirit level and camera.

I would love to say I had seen it wrong, but sadly, close to the vertical & horizontal lines looked worse. Spirit level confirmed my suspicions, so by 6.50 I'd emailed Messrs Mekki & Luparello.

Nothing to do then but wait, so I did my exercise DVD. Then as it was only 7.50, I dashed into the shower to de-stinkify before the builders arrived; nearly made it too!

In the shower I spent my time practicing what to say, and the best I could come up with was "I won't accept that" - my dad was a builder, for heaven's sake, he'd have gone mad if I accepted workmanship like that!

I went out as soon as I was decent [carrying my level, in case - it did seem a bit as though the builders haven't got one; the level around the room they are working to isn't (level)], only to see M. Alain & M. Franck taking down yesterdays courses. I said "I guess you've spoken with M. Mekki?" and M. Alain said they'd had a message from him.

I said thank you for re-doing it, and he said it's normal; the bricks must have moved when they back filled. Stupidly, I said that our experience is that it isn't always normal to re-do bad work! That's my problem, not his.

[Thankfully, I didn't have to put into practice the other phrase I'd rehearsed: "if necessary I will re-do it myself"! I could, but would prefer not to, and obviously it would be much quicker if I didn't.]

I will admit to watching J-M look at the bricks yesterday to see if he would comment/notice - if he did spot the error [and I could see it from half a room away; he was right next to them looking at them at one point!]. Anyway, he said nothing if he did notice. Either way I'm not impressed: if he didn't notice, what's he doing being a project manager; if he did notice why didn't he say anything? We'd got Messrs Mekki & Luparello there; they could have seen for themselves.

[I will, of course, eat my words (and mentally apologise) if he has said something to M. Mekki.]

So, the carpenters are not even here yet [not that I'm implying they are late], and we've got an issue resolved before it becomes an "issue". That's how project management should work!

I just realised

That focusing on the partition walls and the rest of the meeting had nudged my mind away from contemplating guys in Utilikilts.

Sadly, I don't think I will ever see the man in my life in one.

Lucky I've got a great imagination, then!

I came across a post by Twisty Faster [this is after I was already hankering after my own Utilikilt] who says:

"I knew that I must possess one. I wanted to wear a skirt while simultaneously crossdressing. I will have my little sartorial joke."

I like the way that maiden aunt thinks!

Day 14/ Tuesday meeting

Bonus meeting!

Somehow the window is in slightly the wrong place, but there is sufficient room for that to not matter. We are hopefully getting the most-possible beam showing.

Jean-Marie asked if my worries were over - now M. Mazij jnr has undone all his hard work on the corridor joists, and M. Alain has lowered the sill of the window - I nodded and said "yes".

I don't think it would be helpful to say that I wasn't worried, I was incandescent with rage at being ignored again!

They asked if David is OK with it, so I tried to explain that if I'm happy with it, David is happy with it. [To steal a phrase from a lovely friend (hi MJM), I am a nitpicker pursuivant when it comes to projects!] They understand that he trusts me, and should know my now that I am the fussier one!

Now I am calm; I like working with M. Mekki and M. Luparello, M. Mazij, and M. Torelli, and I think all those guys have a can-do attitude. M. Jalel seems to have grasped that seeing as much of the beam as possible [never forget to emphasise something like that] is more important than a flat ceiling, but I will be here to watch him anyway...

Now all I need to do is cross my fingers.

Utilikilts

I think if you've got nice legs [both carpenters have; I've checked!], you should wear a Utilikilt to work.

[Oops! Sexist, I'm sure!]

Like so many of the phrases I don't know the French for, this one will remain unsaid.

Probably for the best.

Last week's discussion with David was about M. Dorian, the younger carpenter: he has the physique of a [male] ballet dancer; I think that's an enormous compliment, David is fairly sure it's an insult. My reasoning: male dancers have just the most perfectly-toned bodies I've ever seen - not too bulky, with long lean muscles; my idea of perfection. David's reasoning: even post-Billy Elliot, you're implying a certain 'lack of masculinity' [I think].

Luckily [again] my French isn't up to the challenge of complimenting/insulting this poor workman, so he will continue unaware of my admiration...

Sidenote: women are much better at ogling [not that that's what I was doing!] than men, apparently; something about our eyes not popping out on stalks? Alan and Barbara Pease mention that we can "eye" someone up out of the corners of our eyes [part of the gathering skills women developed long, long ago], whereas men have more of a 'tunnel vision' for their atavistic hunting activities. This means they tend to look directly at what they are looking at [if that makes sense]. Sounds convincing to me!

Anyway, back to men in skirts kilts: they're not skirts, and they are attractive [if you have the legs for it, which is where we came in], in my opinion.

Now for a gratuitous link to a pic of a man in a Utilikilt!

[Ooh, the research I had to do for that]

Day 14/"Friday" meeting

OK, so it's Tuesday, but we had Friday's meeting today! Oh, goody, one more this afternoon, and then another one on Friday.

The day started really well: I asked M. Mazij jnr if he hated me, he said he did. But thankfully he didn't manage to hold the straight face long enough for me to be completely convinced! He was smiling as though he's OK with it, and the young lad I think just happily gets on with what he's told.

The carpenters are therefore being inconvenienced by everyone else, getting in everyone's way and getting on with it. I do like working with these guys!

Jean-Marie & M. Petipas were "upstairs" looking at the joists when I noticed the builders were laying down too many courses of stone at the bottom of the bathroom window. They'd laid three courses of biggish stones, and the brick were still to come.

I went and fetched the back view architect's drawing and spoke with M. Alain. He said they were doing what Jean-Marie had said to do in a drawing of his. I "remember" this drawing - it's one I never saw, and J-M was asking me if I had it because someone had got it and he didn't have a copy. I said I'd not seen it, but wanted to.

I didn't realise that I should have pushed harder as it showed the window sill being 315mm above the finished floor level - far too high for a step. We had a discussion: I insisted that I hadn't been told that we could no longer have what we wanted, and that I hadn't seen any changed drawings; the builders haven't seen the original drawings so didn't realise that J-M's sketch was wrong.

He said we'd been there when he did it - maybe, but I never watch over his shoulder; perhaps I should! Either way, with that raised sill it was not possible to have the correct height window with the outside lintel being in line with the other openings in the back wall. We agreed to lower the stonework and have a single step in the bathroom [at the point where I'm reminding J-M of the conversation where we asked to have a floor tile on the base of the window embrasure so we could use it like a door I think it all came flooding back to him], with a floor tile, and the outside will be one brick depth above the gravel.

I'm so glad I'm here - if we were coming for fortnightly meetings, we'd have ended up with a much less usable window, as well as a not-lowered corridor.

M. Torelli and M. Jimmy are finishing off placing the waste pipes for upstairs [I know it's a long way off, but so much cheaper/easier to prepare for it now than do that when we are ready].

The missing plaquiste is causing a hold-up now, but quite honestly I don't think there's any room for him to fit in the stable even were he here! He's coming this afternoon [well, M. Jalel is coming; M. Kadir is on holiday], but I think that's just for a discussion of where the partition wall is going.

Apparently the carpenters don't hate me...

Hurrah!

More later if I find out they're lying...

It's amazing what tiredness can do to your brain

And stress, probably, if we're honest.

For a couple of days I've been wondering where David had put the bike...

It's a 600 Bandit, so not huge, but not exactly tiny. I kept thinking "I must go and check in the barn", but every time I went I was doing something else. [Usually involving going up a ladder and trying to pluck up courage to walk on "naked" joists/lambourdes; it ain't happening.]

Well, this morning M. Alain wanted the hose (which I'd left in the barn), so I took him to it and he carted it off, then I had a good look around. Not difficult - it's open and apart from piles of wood/bags of lime/hemp it's not much more than knee height. The bike wasn't even hiding behind the shower!

I picked up the phone to call David earlier than normal, my head playing "someone's taken the bike on top of everything else" and was just waiting for the ringing to start when it flashed into my head: the bike is being serviced in Bar-sur-Seine.

Oh, how grateful am I for that?

VERY: thank you gods-of-looking-after-little-black-motorbikes!

Am I going to feel (really) silly when David reads this? Yes, of course; but it's only fair - I laugh at him when he does silly things, so on the extremely rare occasions I do something spectacularly stupid he can *enjoy*!
[Sorry, I don't know an emoticon for tongue-in-cheek, for "rare"!]

Day 13

M. Torelli came and tried to fit a 4" soil pipe, but it had bent out of shape - enough to cause the stays problems, so he's left it out in the sun to bend back into shape!

He's now being held up by the absence of the plasterer...

[Who should have been here today.]

Tomorrow's outcome on the corridor joists may hold up the plasterer...

I'm now officially beyond caring; we're not going to meet our end of May deadline [unless it's next year!], so I'm just focusing on not-stressing.

Builders came & vanished [I was taking them out some cold water; they'd refused another coffee, and they weren't there]. I think they are letting the concrete of the window sill go off and will be back tomorrow.

Apparently, there are two meetings with Jean-Marie tomorrow. As usual, I am feeling a bit aggrieved that I only knew about one of them. Luckily, I suppose, I found out today and not after I got back from shopping to be told about it by M. Alain!

I'm feeling a lot happier; I think the decision-by-default over the (to-be-lowered) woodwork must be the "correct" one - I've stopped mulling it over and it just "feels right". Mostly that's a sign that it is right.

Still totally torn, but leaning towards...

The more elegant solution/what we wanted all along.

As I say, totally torn.

Apparently I have three halves [or three hands, if you prefer!]:

1. Half of me wants to leave the joists as they are - having to duck under beams, for a few tall visitors isn't the worst thing that could happen. [And then the lovely carpenters won't hate me!]
2. Half of me wants to seize the opportunity to "fix" the "problem" - getting Laurent Mazij to re-do the woodwork of the corridor at this stage adds about a day's delay/won't cost too much and we end up with the headroom that Jean-Marie was assuring us that we have now [till Michel Mazij proved otherwise], with the added bonus of no step up in the middle of the corridor
3. Half of me is still so pissed off at T+B's recurrent failure to listen that it wants to "teach them a lesson". This is the "half" of me I don't want to listen to...

If we discount the vindictive "half" [and I think we should; that's never a good motivation], we're left equally between not wanting to upset workmen and to get what we want.

Well, now I'm leaning towards getting what we want... I emphasised to M. Mazij snr that we were very happy with M. Mazij jnr's work, but it's the 6'+ visitors that are the problem. As I see it, we can endure a day [two at max] of delays, and a little extra cost [that we WILL be negotiating about with T+B] now, or have the step remind us every time we go along there that we didn't take the more difficult course of action.

I'm usually pretty good at facing up to doing the difficult things in life, and I know that in six months time most carpenters will have forgiven us, and I will have forgotten about it!

If you remember the superfluous beam - we've never yet regretted that extra cost, and it looks as if it's been there as long as the house. Whereas some of the other "issues" that we noticed when it was too late to fix [the stupid VMC route, for example, or the badly placed flue for the woodburning stove] we are repeatedly reminded of the inconvenience they cause.

With the VMC housing in the middle of the drive: if I won the lottery, that's the first thing I would get rid of - I'd take up the floor upstairs and take the pipes out the back of the house!

So it's seeming as though "bite the bullet" but then forget about the issue once it is resolved is my preferred choice.

David was leaning the other way, but I think when I mentioned that this is one problem we can fix, as it's not too late, he might be having second thoughts.

As we've left it, I'm fairly sure that M. Mazij jnr will be arriving tomorrow morning expecting to start undoing his hard work. If I say nothing, that will continue, so it could be that the hard bit has already been done [by my not saying, "no that's fine, leave it as it is"]?

In 24 hours I will find out what our decision has been!

ETA: I have measured a couple of doorways, and they are 2.01m and 1.91 m, but somehow ducking under a beam catches people out - I think it's because you can see above it, it fools the eye - whereas seeing a solid stone wall above the lintel gives the message "duck or grouse" pretty convincingly? And those doorways already existed, whereas we are having to do the floor upstairs from new.