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!