Change of plan

M. Torelli was very apologetic that he couldn't make it here on Friday - there is a lady whose boiler had stopped working, and he went there to try to fix it. As it is, she's going to be without hot water until Wednesday. I hope I sufficiently conveyed to him that he took the right course of action, and I hope anyone's emergency would trump planned works that are already delayed.

I did manage to sneak into the conversation that I was able to profit from his absence then by asking him to make a minor change to the plumbing for upstairs. He was very gracious about it - I've added roughly 1.5m to the length of his drain run, done away with a future [putative] doorway, and moved a corridor.

And gained a box room!

We've got various things that we need to store [sun umbrellas & their bases, spare chairs etc] that we really miss having a cellar. Our cellars here are not dry enough to put anything down there that would be affected by the damp, and the barn is completely open on one side. So having a little room/glorified cupboard will be a *win*!

The plumbing is being held up by the absence of a plaquiste, but M. Torelli says he will do what he can tomorrow and then it will have to wait.

M. Alain is getting on with finishing around the window opening [and didn't turn his nose up at my bricks; hurrah!].

M. Mazij snr came and measured the height under the beams in the corridor upstairs: (when the panel-board is down) it will be 2.06m under one and 1.96m under the other. With the planned floorboards [to come later], that will reduce it by another 3cm or so.

Now I'm torn - I really don't like making a fuss, and don't want M. Mazij jnr to hate me forever [he's fun to talk with, and his face makes me smile!], but neither beam clearance is the promised 2.15m with floorboard. My brother at 6'4" is 1.93m, and other friends are equally tall, I think.

I don't know how much of this is being pissed off at the changes made by T+B without our consent/because they don't listen, and how much really is wanting the corridor to be nicer...

If there was no issues, I would go for the corridor without a step up [especially now we will have a box room at the end of it], but as the joists are already in place, should we just accept that some people will have to duck?

I really do need some advice on this!

Hah!

My turn to change the plans without telling anyone!

Had a brainwave about 5.20 this morning [just before deciding to roll over and get more sleep instead of cycling at 5.30], and M. Torelli the plumber says it is possible...

So sorry, guests in the eventual third bedroom, but you get a smaller shower room, and we get a junk room [although "space" would be closer to the mark].

I will post more when I'm sure everyone is happy and I can draw the plan a little better.

JDK, I might be in touch if you're not careful!

Creatures: latest

Now time for something I do enjoy writing about!

Interfering human story #1:

Stage beetle saved from drowning!
I was going to empty out a large plant saucer, when I noticed a stag beetle in there. Apologies for the picture, I was in a rush to get the critter out!

I'd heard a really loud noise the night before, and wondered if it could be a stag beetle - it sounded a lot like a Lancaster Bomber, but I knew it wouldn't be that! Just kept my head down and went back indoors.

[A cousin had got a stag beetle tangled in her hair when we stayed with them in France as children, and I still remember her hysterics!]

So obviously I rescued her, and put her on a piece of wood to dry. I didn't know if she would survive, but she was certainly clinging on to my fingers.

Their feet seem to be made out of a particularly sharp form of Velcro; I'd forgotten that from a previous rescue until I was trying to disentangle myself without bloodshed!

I know the advice is to not interfere, but I find it very difficult to imagine letting anything die without trying to help.

Anyway, David saw her fly off not too much later, so I think my conscience is clear!

Interfering human story #2:

Grasshopper rescued from tangled web!
I noticed a noise one evening: not a have-we-got-burglars noise, nor a are-there-swallows-trying-to-be-stealthy sound either, but enough of a difference to how an old house sounds to go and investigate.

I found this poor grasshopper tangled up and unable to move - trust me, they don't let you pick them up if they are able to escape under their own steam!

I took him [her?] outside and spent a long few minutes with a couple of pairs of tweezers gently prising the cobweb away from the legs.

I also managed to free up the antennae by holding the threads and waiting for the grasshopper to wriggle free.

I was so nervous about hurting it, but if it couldn't move it was certainly going to die, so I had to do something. Whilst I was debating whether to have one last attempt [to remove a rather fetching "leg warmer"] it boinged off.

OK, so that answered that question! Better than without human intervention. And nowhere to be seen after I'd put the tweezers away, so I'm hoping it goes on to have a full grasshopper-length life.

If I worked for Walt Disney, I'd be assuming that this is the same creature back to say thank you!

I don't subscribe to that philosophy ['saccharine-with-everything-is-good'], so suspect this was just another random insect that hasn't yet learnt to keep out of my house! At least it was a lot easier to get rid of: persuaded it onto a handy card & carried it out.

Unusually, it was obliging enough to pose for photos before the obligatory bound off into the distance

Front step denizens:

I've been having the keep-still-and-quiet challenge just lately - there are several lizards that come out of hiding to sun themselves outside the kitchen front door.

I wish I could sign up to this one's yoga class!

I can see them from where I sit at the table if I've got the door open. The possibility of getting a decent picture draws me back to crouching just inside the doorway each time. All I have to do is make like a statue [and preferably become invisible, but can't manage that yet!]...

I'm fairly sure "stumpy" is pregnant, but don't know how to find out - do lizards eat a great big meal like snakes and end up with huge bulges?

Sitting quietly and watching is great practise for meditation, so I'll keep observing. If you are still long enough, they do come out of hiding fairly happily [eventually], even if the tail often stays hidden!

I have seen one lizard shaking another one by the tail without the "victim" losing its tail; I'm guessing some sort of mating ritual? I know they do abandon their tails if that will save their lives...

The tail-shaker wasn't much bigger (if at all) than the "shakee", so I don't think it was looking for dinner!

This handsome chap is known as a "gendarme", according to my Flammarion. But I am learning that words I pick up from reading reference books mystify my neighbours or workmen, so that may not be a common usage of the word!

[Let's not get into mistakes-you-can-make-with-French, shall we - the "baisser/baiser incident" with the carpenter has got that firmly sorted out in my mind! I'm hoping they think I meant kiss...]

Gratuitous pictures of pretty insects:

I seem to have a "thing" for violet carpenter bees!

They are very loud, but sound much less threatening than a hornet [and the 'Lancaster Bomber'], so I love hearing them. Sadly, they rarely keep still long enough for me to get a good photo.

I don't know why they are called "violet", as they are definitely black and the wings are blue/turquoise.

They are enormous, but I'm pretty sure they don't sting. [If they do, I hope I never find that out!]

I think this is our old friend the marbled white butterfly. They are much more showy when they sit with their wings open, but sadly seem to be much more sensitive to human presence when opened out, so I rarely get a photo of them like that.

I haven't seen as many butterflies this year, but the verbena bonariensis is only just flowering and the perovskia (their favourite) isn't even in bud yet, so there's plenty of time yet.

Happy Independence Day to U.S. citizens; happy sunny Sunday to the rest of us!

Not-Pollyanna

I feel so rotten having a stream of negative posts - it seems to me that I'm moaning all the time.

BUT this is currently a diary of how the building works are progressing, and as much as I love the posts where I get to rave excitedly about all the changes and the occasional lovely surprise, I want to present the process as it is, not some sanitised version.

Would I do this again? Maybe. But I'd think long and hard, and if we were rash enough, I'd become such a total control freak and not trust anybody to do anything without me being there to supervise.

Would I recommend T+B? No. If you are going to spend this amount of time and money supervising the project managers, I suspect it would be just as easy [and much, MUCH cheaper, and quicker] to supervise the builders themselves. I've certainly never had even a fraction of this trouble in the past with asking workmen directly to do what we want. And I've never had the kind of miserable compromises we've had foisted upon us - compromises, sure, but reasonable ones!

Could I recommend any tradesmen? Yes: if you're ever in the south-east of the Aube and need a carpenter, joiner or tiler, get in touch!

Are we going to use Polish builders next time? That's a definite maybe.

Would I advise a friend to do a renovation in France? I don't think I'd give advice - I'd remind them that in the (nearly) six years we've owned this house we've spent more than enough to buy a fully finished house [not including the purchase price!], and had almost six months without builders/being in the process of trying to get work done. I'd hate to think that someone might sign up for this on the back of anything I'd said to encourage them! [Would that make me guilty if they ended up in the loony-bin?!]

I threatened long ago to decide whether I preferred the French system or the English one...

Well, got to go with the English system; it's not perfect, but if your plumber blows you out, that's the builder's problem not yours. He probably knows of several chaps who can step in if he doesn't have one in-house. And as you are paying the builder (who pays any subcontractors), he knows any defects will cost him money, so at least someone is supervising the workmen.

For all the lauded guarantees/trade references the French have in place, they make no difference to whether someone does good work or not, and if you get into trouble before a job is finished the guarantees don't exist!

Now the only question left is whether to tell the maire about the problems we're having with T+B - part of me wants to give him the "heads up" and warn him to be hyper-vigilant, but part of me knows that saying anything would have an element of revenge in there [and that's not a motive I like to act from].

Luckily, it's my lovely husband who chats with him the most, so that's one decision I don't have to make!

OK, so can I get back to posting about startling fauna [today's total: 2 hares & a fox cub], and making fruit liqueurs now?

Finally a response to OUR query

What we've got:What we agreed at the meeting that we wanted:
It seems just another wasted opportunity to choose an elegant solution, and we end up with a bodge instead!

Apparently this was what Jean-Marie communicated to the carpenter. What a shame he didn't have the courtesy to let us know - as you can tell, it took me less than a minute to correct his drawing, and we would have got what we wanted at no extra cost/hassle to anyone.

Now we will have a step up in the middle of the corridor.

They seem sh!t at listening! [Sorry, that's out of order, but we feel so sidelined - I hate when someone pretends to listen to your point of view and then completely ignores it; ESPECIALLY when you are paying that person to provide what you with what you ASKED for.]

Apologies for the *SHOUTING* but I'm pretty cross...

In the two days it's taken to receive a response about their mistake [and it IS a mistake when someone promises to do one thing and does something else and tries to justify it as being "ok"] we have now had four reminders about their bill.

Thankfully David has said that he will discuss that with Jean-Marie when he's here next Friday.

I'm still seriously tempted to ask M. Mazij to re-do the joists, and we will knock off any additional cost from what we are planning on paying the project manager!

Day 13 postponed...

Got an email saying that M. Torelli won't be coming tomorrow (and I'd already guessed he wasn't coming today) but will be there on Monday.

Oh, and have you paid the bill yet?

Answer: there appears to be some sort of delay [like the one where T+B went on holiday for nearly a month] which is having a knock-on effect...

Seriously, I'd be happier sorting out how much of the disputed 26% we need to pay before making any further payments; paying now reduces the need to get that discussion under way, and if we don't pay any of the amount for the joiner what we pay now would take us way over the sum owing!

And still no response to our queries/concerns/information.

Ooh, I forgot to say...

We had been talking with M. Philippe who bought the menuiserie next door, and we mentioned that we were going to finish doing Phase 1 this spring [hah!], and that we were using T+B as the project managers.

He said he has heard of them from various people and knows several firms that will refuse to even quote for a job if they are project managing. Apparently, they have either worked for them before or are good friends with someone who has and they don't want the hassle.

I'm glad I remembered that, as I was starting to wonder whether we are unreasonable clients.

I don't think so, but when you are on your third builder, second plasterer and can't wait for the next few weeks to end so you can say goodbye to your project manager, it does make you wonder...

In mitigation: the first builder vanished on us, the second builder went into planned receivership [which T+B would have known about if they'd done those checks they charged us for], and the first plasterer would have done Phase 1b for us, but by the time T+B had finished their faffing he had booked another job.

And the joiner is happy to work for us, again, but not deal with T+B!

It will be interesting to see how the village gets on with them doing the salle des fêtes...

T+B latest

David sent an email reminding T+B of the (pretty expensive) "étude thermique" they commissioned [which they now seem happy to ignore], querying the height of the corridor, and letting them know that we had now found enough bricks for the facing to the bathroom window. As well as asking them if they'd made a mistake on their last bill.

As they have washed their hands of dealing with the joiner and asked us to do this, we are assuming that they weren't going to charge for doing the work. Well, we are assuming we're not going to pay for them not doing the work!

Apparently, the bill was correct, because they have sent a few emails to M. Baty. By not overseeing the work, we reckon that's put their commission up to over 25%.

It's a bit galling that all other points on the email have been ignored!

Really not impressed with their performance this time around.

If they hadn't sat on the estimates for 7 weeks, we could have had all the work finished by the end of May and just be waiting for the windows now. As it is, M. Baty thinks he can fit the woodwork at the end of September...

Allowing for even a slight delay means I will be staying in a house with no proper closing to one end, when temperatures are dropping into low single figures... Hmmm! I've done that before, and it's never great.

I'm now starting to worry that having told us to deal with the Batys [which we and they (M. & Mme Baty) were perfectly happy with - we make a saving, and they don't have to deal with Jean-Marie], T+B may have pissed them off with contacting them without our knowledge.

I'll happily lose T+B [and we're planning to do future phases without their help; we are not seeing much benefit at all, & are having our budget squeezed - especially when they want 25% of it!], but would really regret it if Menuiserie Baty put us on a blacklist.

The email from Joëlle ended with a suggestion that maybe they could see their way to a slight reduction. I think, though, that David has had enough of feeling ripped off and we might get to a stalemate, especially if our concerns continue to be ignored.

I don't think the workmen will miss Jean-Marie (and enough things have been re-done, and that usually means they weren't adequately communicated in the first place), given the looks on their faces at various meetings.

As I say: hmmm!

Another miscommunication?

I think we've got one of those difference-of-culture misunderstandings going on: I had a look at the joists for the corridor above the bathroom yesterday evening [and again this morning, when I could stand on the concrete of the bathroom "floor"], and it looks as though they are NOT lower; in fact when the floorboards are eventually put on top of the particle board, the floor will be slightly higher than it was.

What we didn't expect [because it wasn't mentioned?] was that the floor in the two bedrooms above is going to be higher.

Now I'm worrying that by "lower" they meant "only slightly higher" than it is now but lower than it could have been/the bedrooms will be...

So we still have the same problem we discussed - a step up under a low beam; just what we were trying to avoid, and no better head height under either of the beams crossing the corridor. It seems an awful waste of an opportunity; by lowering the joists six inches we could have done away with a step up in the corridor, and made it much safer! There is sufficient headspace in the bathroom to do this, as the ceiling is going to be lower anyway to accommodate pipes/cables/VMC tubing.

It's taken the edge off my enthusiasm. And definitely put a damper on my spirits.

Day 12

Still expecting builders, (and knew we were going to get carpenters), just not at 8am! I was lying in bed ignoring the postponed alarm on the phone; I got to sleep some time after 1.30 - waiting for David to tell me he'd got home safely & then reading a bit - and then had that waking-up-for-2-hours thing, before debating whether to get up at 5.30, so I wasn't happy when the phone was so insistent.

With the benefit of hindsight, I should have got up & gone for a walk; at that time of day it is lovely, and I can startle all sorts of wildlife!

Today the builders are finishing off laying the concrete slab, now that the wastes are in place in the bathroom area. The carpenters are intending to complete the joists above the corridor...

Only one small problem as far as I can see: the ladder holding up the planks M. Mazij was standing on has been moved by the builders to put down their hard core. And the concrete they lay will then be wet...

I'm not going to be concerned until someone tells me to, and then I'm going to pass on the details to Jean-Marie, should somebody decide worrying needs to be done!

Day 11

Was expecting carpenters, and got them, and builders, and didn't.

We did get a concrete mixer, though! So I'm confident that they will show tomorrow. David obviously didn't hear them arrive [they pulled it into the yard by hand], or me talking to them, so his reaction on going to the car to drive to the station was "where did that come from?" on seeing a bright yellow alien.

Sadly, he has to go back to the office, leaving me to wrangle builders & plasterers. I don't think M. Alain is too keen on using the reclaimed bricks [not sure, but that's my feeling], but as we now have more than enough, tant pis.

David & I spent most of yesterday afternoon and evening cleaning up the bricks we've found around the place, but I didn't think we'd got enough; we certainly don't have enough whole ones, but could use the shaped ones we've found. I had seen, though, a pile of bricks when I've been coming past the dump, so David asked the maire if we could take them. He seemed delighted that anyone would want to use them, and said they were probably made at the local brickworks [every village used to have its own, and a quarry]. He's very proud of the village and appreciates, I think, that we want to do the renovation without adding too much obviously "new".

M. Mazij and his helper have added in some more woodwork under the lambourdes, and have finished off the second big beam so that they can do the corridor work tomorrow. Their efforts don't really show up on the photos, so I'm not going to post one.

David is now on his way to Paris, and then London; it's been good having him here, and not just for his brick moving prowess!

Hay

Jean-Luc's assistant came and cut the hay on Tuesday, and yesterday he baled it [it made six bales], and today it's gone.

I'm pretty sure English farmers would be jealous! I would be willing to bet that if my dad were alive he would love it [and be slightly envious].

On a totally unrelated topic, the redstart is sitting on the eggs, so now all I need to do is Google how long they sit for and leave the grenier alone!

Day 10/Friday meeting

I was finishing off my exercise DVD [must remember to rave about Angie Miller's Kettlebell Bootcamp some time] when I heard the first van arrive. Now, when you are following the DVD you feel as though any excuse to stop would be wonderful, but in reality it is so much harder to get going again and those nicely warmed-up muscles start to cool down, so I didn't go and greet the plumbers. [Not to mention the smell... I'm still at the point where I have no trouble 'working up a sweat'!]

Carpenters arrived before I hit the trail on my mountain bike [again I was frantically trying to get my day's exercise over & done with before the day warmed up, and so I could shower before the meeting, and then the rest of the day would be time for David & I to grab lunch/shop/sightsee the area] so I frantically waved "hi & bye" & struggled off to my 'challenge hill'. Can't begin to count how many times I had to stop [I think all those squats mean your quads need a rest before trying to cycle?].

So, I frightened my deer, provided hilarity to a vigneron [he tried politely waiting whilst I went past - NO chance; humiliation one thing, but having someone watch as I have to stop to catch my breath three or four times in 100 metres, no way] and a hare [well, it felt like he was laughing at me; doing that "catch-me-if-you-can" thing of waiting a bit before gently loping off before I got anywhere near], and only a headwind on my usually-lovely downhill bit put the teensiest damper on it.

So I was showered, hair-washed & dressed up 'nice' by 9.50 [and I'd put another "gold" star on my exercise chart - I'm 'saving up' for a saddle stool], just in time to wait around for 40 minutes till Jean-Marie showed up!

The meeting [apart from antsy attendees, who'd been around since the stated start time of 10am and also had other things to do] seemed to go OK: there were minor adjustments to the plumbing, and during the part where Laurent Mazij couldn't make any noise he very kindly smoothed out the boo-boo that the digger had made in the beam; it's virtually invisible now, and will age down beautifully, I'm sure.

We've got an action-packed couple of weeks coming up with plasterboard, more plumbing & electrickery going in, and the carpenters are back to finish the corridor joists; they've done all the reinforcements, and we've got a load of [totally unexpected] cross timbers.

I think I was right to be concerned about the plasterboard, but I can watch M. Kadir like that hawk, and I have M. Mekki's mobile number if needed...

The only slight downside was David having to work later than we'd both hoped so our outing has been postponed till today.

Day 9

So you may be noticing that in all my (over) excitement at having carpenters & plumbers on site I overlooked telling you what they did.

The carpenters installed heavier, new timbers to reinforce the existing joists. [I suspect that the original woodwork is now redundant, apart from attaching the plasterboard's metal rails to; not that I'd get M. Mazij to admit that, I'm sure.] There will be five on each side of the big beam that's to remain visible, but it must be all new timbers under the corridor at the back.

Sidenote: either JDK [sorry John if I'm stealing your concept; it's so long ago I have forgotten] or I had (what I thought was) a brilliant idea - why don't we lower the corridor at the back of upstairs & have a step (or two) up into the two bedrooms over the stable. This would give us adequate head room below the beams in the roof, and as the walls of the rooms follow the beams [planned so that no-one could brain themselves & sue us!], there would be no problem as long as the mezzanine floor above is high enough. Nobody dies from head injuries, we don't have to have padded beams with 'amusing' "duck or grouse" signs, bedroom ceilings will be high enough so that it doesn't feel like living in a cellar.

It was proving so difficult to get the idea through to T+B that I gave up in the end, reasoning that the corridor will only be used to access summer guest bedrooms, and no-one need wander round [outside their bedroom] in the night as there will be en-suite bath/shower rooms attached.

Well, then somebody at T+B [my money's on Nicholas; he's the only person to whom I hadn't tried to explain how it could work] had a brainwave: why don't we lower the corridor at the back of upstairs, so nobody needs to brain themselves on the beams and we can have a step or two up into the bedrooms which won't cause a problem as no-one need wander round the rest of the house in the night, as there are en-suite 'facilities'!

Obviously, by this time I'd got an eye on the already inadequate budget and said "no, that would be far too complicated/expensive", but it turns out not to cost very much more or be even remotely difficult. Now why couldn't I think of that?! [NB: those who don't know me might not spot the irony (sarcasm?) in my tone!]

/End sidenote.

So anyway, big new beefy joists were hoiked into position by blokes that didn't look big or strong enough for that sort of thing, and bolted into place. Said chaps can't see why we would want to keep the floor following the line of the original timber ["but that would be wonky"], and this is not a 'hill to die on', so we get a lovely new [flat] floor upstairs.

And downstairs I watch like a hawk until I'm sure the plasterer has got the concept of "yes, I DO want the ceiling wonky; I want to see the beam, and you must follow the joists EVEN IF THAT MAKES THE CEILING WONKY; no, we don't want it flat - we want to see as much of the beam as possible."... [Repeat as necessary]

I think that one could run and run. It's not a language discrepancy, it's a respect-for-old-buildings discrepancy. Even now in France old buildings are not seen as part of a cultural heritage that ought to be preserved in an original state, or renovated/restored "sympathetically", but just something you own that's inconvenient to fix & probably better left to rot. We've seen so many properties that are allowed to fall into decay: once the dilapidation process becomes too far advanced and it seems the building MUST fall down [certainly it would no longer be economically viable to repair], then the owner finally decides to let someone else have a chance and puts it up for sale!

Enough of how I wish they would value their buildings as assets before it's too late! [Just being thankful Troyes became a relatively poor town & couldn't afford to "improve" the medieval quarter in the 50s/60s, and now someone in charge is making them do it in the old style.]

Anyway, seven of the ten long timbers went in, and Friday would see the process finished.

Plumbers: lots of discussion; floor waste pipes laid.

All will be hidden and as long as it works, I'm not getting involved. Nothing I saw to worry me, so I'm not going to worry!

My gently perfumed world

I've just been off for another cycle ride; I was feeling quite tired & achy [that does NOT look right, but dictionary says "yes"], so decided just to do the shorter route and come back via the road. Then I got to the road and had been enjoying myself for the downhill bit (albeit slowly) and thought "why not?", if I just got up the hill the other side the cruise back down to the other road into the village is much swoopier, and being a metalled farm track has great surface but I'm not likely to meet any vehicles [different when they're harvesting, but the barley's not quite ready yet].

[ETA: did you notice how well I glossed over how many times I had to stop to get up the other hill? Not admitting anything (lost count at *ahem*), but at least I didn't dismount!]

Great fun!

And then I pulled into the front yard to the smell of freshly sawn timber competing with new-mown hay. It was gorgeous; a beautiful end to a lovely ride.

OK, so the posterior still needs acclimatising, the thighs need WAY more stamina, and I was doing my best to out-stink everything by "glowing" buckets, but who cares?

Enjoy the lovely evening.

Mince

[*Pronounced almost like "manse"*]

I think it equates to "rats" or "drat"; stronger than "oh dear", and not quite as strong as "bugger!".

Maria vigilance: nul points.

I was rummaging in the fridge to find some cheese to go with my squirly pasta [just because it's the hottest day of the year so far is no reason not to go with hot, cheesy stodge for dinner!], and realised there was very little beer in the drawer.

As the door to upstairs was already open, I thought I'd try there first (before going into the cellar), as David moved the booze when he was last here. Then I got into a stream-of-consciousness thing: "ooh, doesn't feel very hot up here?", so I went to the thermometer & a bird flew away.

Well, I'm quite used to birds flying away upstairs [somewhere on my list of priorities is blocking any entrance holes, but it's VERY low], so didn't twig that the "abandoned" nest I'd seen there was now in use!

I knew it was a new one, as the bit of tufa it's on was where I cleaned last year - David & I discussed it a couple of weeks ago. We just thought it had been used and was now finished with.

At least we can keep out of the grenier mostly for a few weeks; it's not like if they nest downstairs - they would be trapped when we've got the place closed up.

I shall sneak up there tomorrow & see if I've put the hen off sitting...

Sorry, should have mentioned it's, of course, a redstart.

[I think I previously posted that they'd stopped looking for nest sites; and now I've found out why! Oh, and it's only 25°C up there.]

Nearly forgot!

Apart from the lovely warmth, the other thing that's making me happy [I'm not counting workmen - that would have happened sooner or later, and was Jean-Marie's problem, not mine!] is that my beloved husband is on his way.

I want to go mad with the exclamation marks, but being aware that I already liberally overuse them, I shall refrain...

For a second or two...

David's coming!!!

[Kitchen currently at 24.2°C]

6pm; 27 in the shade

Me [and the geraniums], I'm lovin' it!

AND my crabby mood's completely gone; I wish I could get sunshine on the NHS. Don't get me wrong, I'm completely not sun tolerant, but I love being warm [to the point where I feel warm "in my bones"].

Not sure of the temperature in the kitchen [the room we "live" in] as the hygrometer was in the coolest room (21.9°C), and it takes a while to climb...

Makes me wonder whether it is time to keep the shutters & windows closed during the day; this "super" insulation we have will keep any warmth in the house that we let in. Last summer, I resorted to only opening the shutters after midnight and closing them about 8am; it kept downstairs in the 20s, whereas I stopped working upstairs when it hit 34°C [forget which] - apparently that's my tolerance temperature for scrubbing walls & floors.

33°C; fine. 34°C; limp dish rag!

At least the humidity is dropping: it was 74% a couple of days ago, and is now down to 48% - not that I mind, but it makes working more likely to cause a heat rash.

Something else to think of: do the exercise DVD in the morning, while it's cool; it was fine just, but bordering on more of an effort. [Yes, I know that's the point, but there's a difference between already giving it 100% and struggling.]

I don't think I'm ready for "hot exercise" [or indeed "Bikram™" housework] yet!

Things I am noticing...

Having workmen in vs living alone:

Not an exhaustive list, I'm sure!

• A long forgotten skill re-emerges: I'm learning to make coffee, again
• NOT going to investigate every noise I hear; workmen also keep away nesting swallows!
• Being amazed at people doing messy jobs wearing white [and I mean white] t-shirts. After getting on for thirty years of doing my own (and other people's) laundry, I would not consider working in anything that wasn't already "previously loved". Supermarket t-shirts are so cheap, that I only justify buying mine at the charity shop as preventing landfill/re-using things that aren't yet totally worn out. Reduce, re-use, recycle; although when I've finished with a top it becomes as duster, as that's all it's fit for.
• Mess. Sure, I make my own mess, but I'm "expecting" that, as I was there when it happened!
• I'm also getting better at closing the loo door and locking it; perhaps when you live solo your standards slip? [Seriously doubt that - I'm used to the kind of people that have a pee with the door open so they can continue chatting!]
• Not being able to just lock up the house & leave: if workmen need access, I either need to be here or I need to give them keys. At Ormonde Court I think we're spoilt: Steve & Lee will let anyone in/lock up behind them if they know someone's working at the flat
• Other people's music; when the neighbours decide to have a professional sound system & play REALLY LOUD music not to my taste I'm justified in being irritated... Can't complain when the noise-makers are working for you - not that I mind, but listening to French radio reminds a person why so few French records top the charts outside the country!
• Having something to blog about!

Ooh ooh ooh!

Sorry, [*using grown-up voice*] "Day 9".

I always think being the in bathroom [or in this case the "powder room"] has a hastening effect on that phone call you are waiting for, or the expected visitors; works for me - get in a bath, wet hair, doorbell goes.

Well, today it worked fine! I was just debating how late is late in French etiquette [it's a French word, right, so they must have SOME etiquette about turning up?!], when I needed to dash to the loo...

OK, OK, I'll admit, TMI!

But after a week of waiting, it's lovely to hear a van rolling into the front yard. That's what it sounded like, so I hurried [as soon as I could!] to investigate.

Hurrah! Carpenters!

And I was just going to make them some coffee when another Hurrah! Plumbers!

To add to the excitement, farmers! [But they're more reliable/self-motivated, somehow.] Still, the place was packed out with vehicles.

Obviously that shopping plan needs to be re-thunk!

Car-in-barn; hmmm! I could say it was my cynicism led me to not get the car out & park it somewhere convenient, but in truth it was lack of forethought; oops.

Still, I'd rather have a yard full of vans & not be able to go shopping than no vans & shopping-till-I-drop. [People who know me might know I will happily pay people to do my shopping for me, if they are kind enough! Ocado would still be on my "Favourites" list if they didn't always choose things ON their sell-by date.]

ETA: I'm just off to eat those words!