Enjoying another glorious day, but sad...

The day started much warmer: 14°c at 8am, 22° at midday, and 28° by 2pm. Oddly, it still only reached 34° in the sun out front.

We saw M. Waeber yesterday; he came to drop off the bill [with his nice new computer, that seems to take a lot less time than the old handwritten ones!], and he mentioned that Sunday night into Monday had dropped to 8°, so we really haven't had a lot of heat this summer.

The lizard who lives by the kitchen door was busy sunning him/herself this afternoon, and quite frankly I don't blame him/her!

The sad part of my day was waving David off just before 4pm, as he's going back to the UK; once again we will have missed the Route du Champagne en Fête.

Next year, we won't be having to plan around workmen and we will be aiming to do some of the more interesting tourist things on offer.

One thing I need to watch out for as I'm staying here: David saw a (baby?) red squirrel in our cour anglaise by the bathroom window, so I want to keep an eye out for him/her.

A minor (major?) niggle has just landed in my inbox: the check in report for our flat notes that there is some food on the oven racks, and crumbs to the grill tray - I'm seriously NOT happy about that. The whole flat was very clean, but not clean to a letting standard [I hadn't buffed the taps/bath/basin, and the oven just needed a final going over as we'd used it a couple of times after I cleaned it a week or so before moving out, but the kitchen units I'd left, knowing that we had to pay for cleaning]. We've been charged £250 for a "professional" cleaning, and if they haven't even wiped in the oven will they have cleaned the windows/carpets bathroom, and kitchen cabinets?

I doubt it. Not looking forward to a battle, but seriously if the very minor level of mess I left behind hasn't been dealt with, I want a refund!

Of course, the check in report might have been done before the cleaning, but in that case why are there photos of furniture and the date was two days after the cleaners had done their bit?

Seriously pissed off that Maidstone and now Ormonde Court have been "professionally" cleaned, but left not clean!

As soon as I find out who the cleaners were, I will be naming names!

August now, so progress over (for the time being)

M. Torelli and Jimmy have worked their last day for a while, as the whole of the country goes into "screensaver" mode for the month of August. We were pretty astonished that they even intended to come, but weren't going to say 'non'.

They've managed to connect up the bath, as promised, which I really appreciate; soaking away the kinks after a long day's gardening works so much better than taking a shower, especially when I can barely stand up straight!

The loo is also fitted and working, but the shower screens will have to wait, so M. Torelli has tried the taps to check they work, but then cut off the water [sensible man]. Sadly, another thing installed to the exact specification of the project manager is the totally-unsuitable-for-us water filtration system...

The immersion heater is full of limescale, apparently, and the pipes to it choked enough that it's making an alarming noise when it fills. M. Torelli is going to run through better options when he returns [hopefully the last two days of August]. More expense, and given that I've been here about eight months out of the last 24, and David has been here less than two months that seems a pretty bad example of matching what is needed by your clients!

As an aside, an interesting snippet we've picked up regarding progress on the Salle Polyvalente (the equivalent of a Village Hall): there was a note from the Mairie in our letter box when we arrived saying that the meal to celebrate Bastille Day had been cancelled as work on the Salle had progressed more slowly that expected.

Half of me is sad [not that we would have made this year's festivities] that the commune is being let down by Jean-Marie and his team, but the other (much meaner) half is glad that even a government body is being given the same delayed treatment that we experienced from T+B!

Another thing to be glad about that we didn't recommend them.

From M. Waeber we've learned that none of the companies that have done work here are working for the Mairie, and he also reckons that none of those companies will work for Jean-Marie again. I don't know if that's the case [I certainly know of at least one that turned him down flat for a major job] or hyperbole, but it wouldn't surprise me; even the 'devoted followers' (as I think of them) among the artisans seemed pretty disgruntled at his behaviour by the time they'd left our house.

We're just heartily glad he's gone, and that progress has been made.

Just wish perhaps a bit more of it had been achieved before the country shuts down for a month!

Finally feels like summer!

Today started like a proper summer's day, albeit being 10°c at 8am.

At 12.30pm, it's now just above 18°c in the shade, and I'm wearing a dress [rather than track pants, socks, cardigan, etc], and we have all the doors and windows open. In the courtyard at the front of the house (and so in full sun) it's 34°c; perfect weather for being a lizard!

Oops, spoke too soon!

M. Torelli called us in to have a look at the basins: despite being "identical", one pedestal is higher than the other, and obviously so!

So, I did get to see the bathroom before it's finished [more on that, below]. It was a tricky question of whether to risk trying to take a centimetre off the too-high column, or just take it as they are. The other side of the coin, of course, is that the basins are not flat; a difference in height of 1cm at the front is less than half that at the back. In fact, against the dark tiles you hardly see the discrepancy.

We've decided to just accept what is, and have a laugh about it. We have so many 'faults' that are down to bad decision-making on the behalf of Jean-Marie, that we can cope with a manufacturing "tolerance".

I think a special mention, though, should go to Sarreguemines who in the 21st Century with all the technological advances in equipment and processes can still manage to produce two of the same item so different in size and shape! Cheap clothes from the Third World, I expect that, but France with all its logistical prowess should be able to manage better, no?

I think the French have a word for people like me: naïve!

Things that aren't great:

• M. Torelli and Jimmy have a day off tomorrow;
  
• Because M. Waeber took longer than expected, M. Torelli won't be able to finish our work before his holiday, so we will have to wait till late August to have that remaining day's work done;
• I can't start my cleaning and re-assembling this week if I want all workman-related mess to be finished before I get my pinny on;
• M. Torelli thinks we have much too small an immersion heater, and we could have had one that runs off the central heating as a secondary source of hot water;
• The cold pressure is likely to be insufficient to cope with the shower.

That last point in particular pisses me off: I repeatedly asked Jean-Marie & M. Petitpas whether the cold pressure was adequate, and one of the much-delayed "sondages" was to check that the water pressure was OK. Turns out it's half what it should be...

Hmmm!

At least we have a positive: M. Torelli says that we can fit some sort of tank/pump in the cellar and that will be half a day's work and would completely rectify the problem.

Coming from Leander Road with no hot pressure [combi boiler at the same level as the shower] and then Ormonde Court with no cold pressure [whatever pump the block has isn't up to the challenge of a decent flow rate/volume on the fourth floor] I was used to fairly feeble showering, but here it seemed in a different [lower] division...

You know when someone convinces you that you're imagining something? Well, turns out that low pressure wasn't all in my head!

Perhaps the investigation was another thing we got charged for that never happened...

Anyway, I want to end on a positive note, so please enjoy the photos of our oh-so-nearly-finished bathroom, and then I'm off for an apéro!

I've gone all superstitious!

M. Waeber finished the tiling yesterday whilst we were at Dijon Prenois for the second of two Track Days, and came this morning to clean off any overspill, and now we have plumbers in action fitting sanitary ware.

We seem so close to the finish, that it's making me nervous: we have seemed to be within sight of the end and then it's got delayed so many times, that I'm frightened to jinx the process by going and watching them at work.

Too much time spent watching cricket/living with a cricket fan? Probably, but I feel that my absence might help it all go smoothly, and if it doesn't, well at least I can't blame myself!

Having said that, I persuaded David [who, I'm sure, thinks I'm weird] to go and take some photos...

Luckily, I have cast iron willpower, so there won't be any peeking!

Which sadly means there won't be any posting, either.

M. Waeber is back, and tiling around the window embrasure. He hopes to have finished by tomorrow...

I must say that he's been putting in the hours, so he may even manage that!

Then all we need is the intervention of M. Torelli.

And he's started with the radiators in the bedroom, and fitted [and then removed so the tiling can be done behind] the towel rail in the bathroom, so fingers crossed.

David saw our neighbour Mme K this morning; apparently she's stubbornly refusing to switch on the heating... That probably tells you what kind of weather we are having on our holiday!

Halfway there with the tiling

M. Waeber has tiled the walls around the bath and loo, and this morning is starting on the other wall of the shower working his way towards the window.

The plumber even showed up!

M. Jimmy has been adding to the collection of cardboard boxes they had started, so there will be no delays once M. Torelli starts taking things out of boxes & attaching them to walls.

Apart from the mirrors, obviously; he was supposed to email us a copy of his preferred supplier's catalogue back in the Spring, but we all forgot about it until yesterday when I was hoping that the lights would be different than the ones in the shower room and realised that we hadn't chosen any!

I have a print-out and am going to look on the website now...

Progress!

I feel like writing that in shouty all caps, and the hugest font I can find, but I'm going to spare you that.

What I'm not going to spare you are the details!

The mystery of the plumber was solved: he didn't come Monday because the delivery of the radiators which was scheduled for today had been rearranged for yesterday. That did happen, so when we got home from shopping there are piles of radiators/towel rail/shower screens and other miscellaneous stuff dotted about the bedroom. He's coming on Thursday to fit the towel rail, then take it off again so that M. Waeber can tile behind it.

He'll then re-fit it some time next week when M. Waeber has finished.

Unfortunately, the plasterboarding is leaving something to be desired: the base of the niche is too low, but M. Waeber has made that up with a chunk of Ciporex, but it's the wonkiness of the walls that is causing him the greatest headache.

He's having to use extra tile cement to level out the walls.

Obviously we never realised that the way SMS had stored the plasterboard would cause problems, but it is doing. We said to M. Waeber that next time we would get M. Roncari to do it, but apparently he's ditched the plastering side of the business and only does painting and decorating now. Apparently, there is a good chap in the Haute Marne, so I must remember to ask for his details for my book.

It's lovely to see tiles going up [and hear the thump of tiles being manoeuvred into place, although David is fearful when he sees them being whacked with a mallet!], and the fact that the plumbing/heating supplies are nearly all here makes me very hopeful that it will be finished within a couple of weeks.

Apart from my bit [cleaning & rearranging furniture, belongings etc], of course!

Couldn't resist posting this photo

Tiler here; working as I type!

I thought we'd got a false start this morning when M. Waeber showed up...

To tell David that he couldn't come till this afternoon.

But he did show up, and is now working. We hope that we're going to have better spaced joints in the bathroom; the middle of the bath and shower taps are going to be mid-tile (rather than at the joints), but that should remove the need for slivers of tiles in any corners...

We solved the mystery of why he'd done the other tiles the way he had: he was making sure the borders matched perfectly! A very French thing to do, it seems to us: a four inch wide [very "busy" looking pattern] looks 'right', but sadly the less-than-an-inch sliver in the corner of the shower for the remaining eight foot height of wall looks [to us] 'wrong'.

So, in the bathroom, we are going to [hopefully] have 'wrong' borders, but 'right' rest of the walls...

Fingers crossed!

I'm just so happy that he hadn't started without us all being able to talk it through, but I'm going to be even happier if he manages to make it look [to my eyes] 'right'.

After the weekend [did I mention my 23 hour 40 minute day as we moved house on Saturday/Sunday before driving down to France], I'm now ready for a holiday!

So I may or may not post about progress...

[Needless to say, the expected plumber has not materialised!]

Phone call last night from M. Waeber

Apparently, he's held up on another job and wants to come earlier to start work at our place.

I really do NOT want that! BUT, David promises he's only going to move the tiles to our house and do preparatory work, and won't start the actual tiling until Monday.

That better be the case!

My main worry is that we've been lied to told things that turn out not to be true too many times to believe any French workmen without seeing proof that what they're telling us is true!

So, once again, I'm focusing on being more zen; letting go of worrying and trusting that the right thing will happen.

[And keeping everything crossed, obviously!]

Tiler

M. Waeber says he's coming on the 18th of July...

Almost believe him, but am waiting for proof!

On the upside, if he blows us out again, my cousin has a colleague/employee [can't remember which] who apparently is a brilliant tiler, is willing to travel and Grant [cousin] reckons he could do the work in one day!!!

Haven't mentioned that fact to M. Waeber, but it's up my sleeve for a "rainy day"; we do NOT want to be like the Bogés who have waited two years for him.

Not gonna happen, and if Grant's colleague/employee [delete as appropriate] is as good as he says, we might even get a better job done?

Now all I need to do is tactfully insist that he does an "English" job [joints sited unobtrusively] rather than finishing to the French standard [joints offset by an inch for emphasis that "we thumb our noses at you English and your fussy ways" or slivers of tiles in corners to draw the eye].

However, having waited since early April (and having a standby lined up), the tactful bit may get left off if he brings any attitude with him.

Please keep your fingers crossed that I can "do fluffy" [Hi, Karen!]...

Bastille Day: a day to celebrate?

David spoke to M. Waeber (with whom I am currently NOT impressed), and he says he can (probably) start our tiling on the 14th of July...

Hmmm!

As I say, I'm severely underwhelmed with him at the moment.

On the positive side, I think I will have no problem persuading David that we should ask someone else to finish off our terrace, when we get around to thinking about it; he's been doing the Bogés' terrace since early April [that we know about], and that's about 50% bigger than ours, so at that rate of progress we'd have two months worth of work ahead of us.

[ETA: After a TWO YEAR DELAY! Apparently, that's how long Caroline and her husband have been waiting.]

I suspect M. Hamid would do it in just over a week?

COMPLETE nightmare

Seriously!

I'm hoping it's just my subconscious worrying about M. Waeber doing our tiling unsupervised, but I had a horrible dream last night: M. Baty had had to alter some of the tiles to accommodate some woodwork, and we were left with chevrons of dull green/red tiles across the floor. He'd also made a "feature" of a blocked up doorway [I think that's an echo of Leander Road; we don't have a blocked up doorway in the bedroom in France, and the one in the study is long since dealt with], building it out, putting architrave around it and there was a full sized professional photograph of me in the middle!

Someone had tiled out the kitchen in two different types of very fancy tiles, and installed one of those elaborate cooker hoods. There were different colours/styles of tiles everywhere.

I'd left my brother in charge, and I was asking him why on earth he'd let them do it.

In the end I was stomping around refusing to accept it, and insisting that it was ALL taken out and they start from scratch again. I was in a right mood, but wasn't going to put up with that mess!

I think the sooner I can get back to France and oversee M. Waeber, the sooner my dreams will be untroubled again...

I don't want to see results like that again in a hurry.

Having stayed in various gîtes over the years, we've formed the impression that there's an unwritten 'law' about French flooring... Never have fewer than five different styles/shapes/patterns/colours of tiles/parquet/whatever!

We've already (despite our best efforts) achieved the "French style" in our home: two different types of tiles [the delay meant the original choice was discontinued by the time we were ready to order more of them], two different types of stone [tiles (that look like slabs) and original slabs, but that would be three types if you include that we used some original slabs and have since bought some more from Burgundy], and there will be a wooden floor in the entrance hall when we can afford it [and there are already wooden fillets in the doorways from the boo-boo about laying the stone tiles].

Not mentioning upstairs where we've got three different patterns of floorboards (so far).

Going French in the flooring department does NOT mean I'm going to have a (two-tone) brown kitchen, though!

Right, I'm back off to hibernate again.

In limbo, AGAIN

We're waiting for M. Waeber to schedule our tiling job...

I'm not terribly impressed with him agreeing to do it last month and then turning around and letting us down, but that's been par for the course!

[As I side note: it really emphasises how wonderful Messrs Mekki/Luparello & Baty have been, so makes us even more thankful for their contributions.]

It's dragged on for too long now [a bit like the constant problems the interminable Microsoft updates keep causing for my computer!!! At least one update a day for the last 17 days, and many more IE crashes]: we were due to start early April, and finish late May...

2010!

Once more, I've lost all enthusiasm, at the moment, so I'm probably going to "hibernate" my blogs for a while; at least until I have something positive to report (or a sudden surge of energy). The return to cold weather (although entirely seasonal) hasn't helped my mood, either.

So, until I have some more progress to report: enjoy my hiatus, and I hope life is running more smoothly for you guys out there!

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...