Becoming un-stuck?

I've been feeling pretty bogged down; the 'progress' [or more specifically, the lack of it] in France coupled with waiting in all day for six out of seven days during the months I was out there left me feeling as though I was wading through treacle...

So, I never got around to uploading any photos to Flickr.

Hm! Now that I'm hopeful that we are going to do more than inch forward when work recommences, it's given me the impetus I have needed to get on top of the photos!

I'm working my way though nearly three thousand pics in Picasa, and uploading hundreds to Flickr; having a date fixed on the calender has given me the incentive I needed!

[Note: I've still got all the hard copies of the previous phase of work to put into albums, and because WHSmith no longer sells its slip-in huge albums, I'm making space, so that's still something to look forward to!! Or as it sounds in my head, "OUCH!"]

Hint of progress?

David has made contact with M. Torelli, and [hopefully!] we have a meeting arranged in early February... He [M. Torelli] just needs to confirm with another client before firming up the date with us, and then David will try to fit M. Mekki in on the same day.

Fingers crossed that this time M. Torelli is serious!

Shutters...

David spoke with M. Baty; we've got several questions outstanding with him, and the best time to actually speak with him (as opposed to passing messages backward and forward through Mme. Baty) is the evening, so they had a very productive chat on Tuesday night.

He's made the shutters, but because of the cold weather (and I suspect how damp it is), the paint is absolutely refusing to dry.

That's the downside of the linseed oil paint; as it's not full of VOCs there's nothing to dry it out artificially quickly, so it takes its own sweet time.

Not that that matters to us, but it does mean the shutters are clogging up M. Baty's painting/drying room. Hopefully that will make him really keen to get rid of them when the paint finally does dry!

As we're not likely to use the room before April or May there's plenty of time for him to fit them; we might even get the doorway broken through!

He's also going to fit us some temporary internal doors - the one we really need is to close off the unheated bedroom from the rest of the house, but it will be nice to have ones in the other two frames, too.

The thought of losing all that heat from the house is the main reason that we haven't had M. Hamid come and take down the block wall ourselves.

[Of course it's interesting to watch J-M not doing his job/not noticing we can't access the bedroom from the house!]

There's a minor problem with the lock plate (which M. Baty will see for himself when he goes to fit the shutters), and he's farmed out the repair to the back of the buffet to a retired friend of his; I think the 18 month delay on that means he might jog his friend's memory.

We can still use the buffet, but it would be nice to have it back on its columns as it would give us another kitchen surface on which to put things!

I got a mail from Jean-Marie

Let's rephrase that:

I got a mail from Jean-Marie

See how much clearer that looks?!

David responded to the last email, saying he was very busy, have you done those plans yet? And please include Maria in your emails.

Well, it's the first communication I've had from T+B in months, and needless to say it's a request for money, with an excuse for why they can't do our plans just yet...

Apparently, they need to do plans for people who are paying for them!

I need David's help to phrase a reply saying "what about people who paid for plans years ago, and have found out [six months ago] that they are wrong?"; he's at the dentist at the moment, and I'm not feeling much sense of urgency [perhaps T+B's lack of impetus is catching?].

Again, torn between feeling petty and thinking that someone needs to point out some stuff to these people VERY strongly.

AND I'm way past caring whether they have to cease trading; in a way I think it might be better if we didn't pay (yet) and their business failed, if this is the way they think that clients/projects should be handled.

On a positive note, I am managing to be less affected by this - feeling less stressed - but it's still leaving me feeling very shaky/jittery; I don't like confrontation, but the need to not let ourselves be walked all over might just prove stronger in this instance?

Response from Jean-Marie

Finally we have received a reply to David's mail from last week; it's all M. Mekki's fault, as his workmen were sent a sketch in September of how the plasterboard should be [obviously it's not J-M's fault that he didn't do his job and make sure that the plaquistes followed the sketch/notice they hadn't!], and he [M. Mekki] is now the one delaying the work...

My understanding of his email [not always 100% accurate, admittedly!], is that he wants to get the work finished as he's desperately in need of funds...

I think it's the first time that he's talked about finishing the job!

And (again if I'm not mistaken) the first time he's implied that he might finish the work before submitting another bill!

No mention of the plans we paid for four and a half years ago and that he's known are wrong for nearly six months...

Hm! Not sure what David's response is going to be, but I've run out of pity; I hope we can just receive the plan, get him off the job and out of our lives. I can't help feeling that if he is desperate for funds, and he really has been working 60 hour weeks, it must mean that he's left an awful lot of other clients unhappy/with half-finished projects.

Perhaps it's better to finish one or two jobs well, and in good time, than to take on so many projects that you cannot get anything right on one of them?

And we only know about our extension; so there could be lots of builds out there where he is showing the same level of diligence/attention to detail.

Still, if he is replying to our email after ten days, it shows there's no urgency, right?

Just got an email from David

He's had M. Mekki on the phone this morning; apparently Jean-Marie has been calling M. Mekki and been quite aggressive wanting to know when they will correct the errors to the plaster boarding [that J-M never noticed till David emailed him].

M. Mekki just wanted reassuring, I think, that we were still good-to-go with Plan A [the plumber, plaquiste and David & I getting together, when the weather's better, to sort this out].

I feel quite sorry for him that he's taken the flack; we are still waiting for a response from J-M to David's mail [to see what he's got to say for himself] before 'officially' stating that we want him to stop causing us any more problems.

M. Mekki asked how I was, so I've just pinged a quick mail wishing him a Happy New Year, and saying I was looking forward to working with him later in the spring when we finish this bit off. I hope I've managed to reassure him that I'm happy with SMS!

Part of me feels a bit petty that we haven't just emailed J-M direct to say: 'butt out; stop causing us problems', but the other part is so fed up of the lack of communication (and being the only person to spot problems) and wants him to have a 'taste of his own medicine' and find out what it feels like to be messed around. Not great to feel like that, but we both think that to give J-M a chance to take better action is what we need to do...

He's blown it already, of course, but he'd have found that out if he had the courtesy to respond to an email sent over a week ago!

Not sure if I should post this, but someone (who shall remain nameless) said our project manager was behaving "chien" - the dictionary translates it as bloody-minded or nasty, so it's not as bad as it sounds in English - that's really strong coming from someone I've never heard say a bad word about him before [although there have been a few 'looks']!

I'm not expecting any action, but will post when I next have anything to report...

Happy New Year!

Sadly, we're back in England now; no more fires in the woodburning stove, or showering in water from our well, or keeping an eye out for wild boar when we're out in the car...

Seriously, we're not (too) unhappy, and a decent break like that really does make us appreciate our lovely house, AND how easy it is to get to [normally!].

Our journey back last night was pretty good: we were worried about being late in case the Shuttle was experiencing delays like they had on the way out, so David drove at the speed limit [rather than our normal, more economical speed] and we made it in time for the train half an hour earlier...

Only, of course, we didn't - the Shuttle was having some sort of trouble, but we did end up leaving about five minutes before our booked journey. The queueing for the best part of an hour was not-so-much fun; as David remarks it doesn't seem to take much increase in passenger volume for the system to cope not very well; at least yesterday they had all the passport booths open - queueing for over an hour because they only have four windows open, and then shut the one we are aiming for has happened more often than it should have done!

Coming back to London was also problem-free; we think [we never remember to look at the clock to see when we arrive; we get caught up in unloading the car & putting things away] that it took about seven and a quarter hours - far enough that you know you've been away, not too far to put us off going for a long weekend.

We were reading French Property News, and were astonished at the times from ports being quoted: there was one place 45 minutes from Cahors [where you leave the motorway] that the owners said you could get to from Calais in eight hours. We drove from Paris to Cahors and it took over ten hours, and Mick who fitted our windows says he regularly drives to a friend's place in the Lot valley and it takes him 13 or 13½ hours and he does the journey at night, non-stop and going full pelt! I'm guessing that the people who do the journey in five hours fewer must get an awful lot of speeding tickets?! [Can't remember if Mick said he broke the speed limit, but I think it might be likely that he does bend it a bit!]

Not a total non-sequitur talking about properties in the Lot department: we had fallen in love with the area when we visited in 2003, but the immense journeys we experienced persuaded us that unless you fly [and put yourselves at the mercy of the airlines & BAA], there's no way you could enjoy a property for weekends.

Our place is close enough that we can do the nightmare meeting trips that we did (nearly) every fortnight for a year: leave London between 1-2pm, arrive at the hotel just off the motorway [NOW we could stay at our house!] by midnight, get up & have a leisurely breakfast before arriving at the house for a 9am meeting, leave again at midday [when everything grinds to a halt in France], and get home again usually before midnight!

Boy, do we NOT miss those meetings!

Regarding the house: David is waiting for a response to his mail to Jean-Marie pointing out the errors made around where the loo should be. He hasn't yet pointed out that the job is NOT finished - I've posted a photo of the "loo"; we know the French don't seem terribly concerned about where their waste goes after it leaves the toilet pan, but they normally do at least have it connected.

Also posting a picture of the "doorway" to the bedroom; we could use the bedroom, but unlocking a door, putting on a coat/wellies, walking around to unlock another door to get into the rest of the house doesn't seem 'finished' to us!

[If you can't see the "doorway" it's because it is blocked up & plastered over - at the end of the corridor behind the stacks of chairs - not terribly useful just yet!]

Ending on a positive note: both the plumber and the builder are totally happy to work with us to finish this incredibly tiny bit off, and I think are happy that Jean-Marie is being cut out of the loop - it sounded as though they both think he's caused most of the problems/delays and prefer not to work with him - and Mme. Roussey says she is glad that we've confirmed to her not to give out the spare keys; apparently J-M had asked for the keys one day [we knew nothing about that, and hadn't told him he could], so hopefully no-one else can go and do any work wrong!

If all work happens when we are there, we've got a chance of getting it done right.

For a job that should have taken two months, and we kicked off the process in late 2009, it seems that the overrun will probably take us up to a year after work should have been finished. But I feel as though the nightmarish quality will end; David really has had enough of the inefficiency and delays, and I'm getting another opportunity to practise becoming more Zen about things, so it's not all bad!

Have a happy and peaceful new year.

Latest "progress"

It seems to be a case of 'two steps forward, one step back' at the moment.

David spoke with M. Torelli (the plumber) yesterday, who sounded as hacked off with Jean-Marie/T+B as we are; they have agreed between themselves that David will call with our next planned trip several weeks in advance, and M. Torelli will schedule in two days [the second day for "just in case" purposes] to finish the work here.

David did have an email from J-M last week, but it just sounded like the catalogue of excuses that he's come to expect, with no real information.

I, of course, don't know what's in the mail, as T+B [did I post that they lectured David on "politeness" in one mail?] do not have the courtesy to include me on any of their correspondence! David reckoned it was insufficiently important to reply to, so I missed out on seeing it as he cc's me on his response.

The thing that has got me going "that bloody man" today, is the housing for the loo - it was supposed to have a gap between the side and where the shower screen will go - it's all clearly marked on a sketch dated 23 September in J-M's handwriting...

So why is there no gap?!

We were just finished cleaning up the water from the snow that's melted in [NOT too impressed with a watertight structure that's NOT!], when I noticed that.

So we have to delay M. Waeber from coming on Monday to finish the shower tiling, contact M. Mekki to get M. Kadir to come and undo/redo more of his work, and as David says, this might be the thing that finally has us telling T+B to f*** off!

If we have to manage everything ourselves, at least we wouldn't be trusting someone to do his job who seems incapable of getting anything right.

AND we'd save ourselves a shedload of money & hassle!

Sightings

We've just been for a bimble in the snowy countryside, with a main aim of trying to spot some more wild boar.

I think I was spoilt after last Christmas's back-to-back sightings: we saw a huge gang of them just outside the village on Boxing Day, and a family with four or five piglets the next day.

Sadly, no porcine spottings today. but we did see some pheasants, partridge, buzzards and a deer.

AND a coypu!

That I was NOT expecting; thankfully, David didn't mind turning the car around for a second glance [and then again to head back in the right direction], so I saw him three times.

Too shy for a photo-op, though.

Day whatever!

I really have lost count of what day we are in terms of the building work; given that we're five months overdue, the number isn't as high as you would expect!!

M. Kadir showed up this morning - that is the plastering finished, but guess what?

Yup, we're still waiting for a plumber!

Merry Christmas!

I hope you are having a wonderful time, (either peaceful and quiet or activity packed, depending on your preference).

I'm just profiting from David's lie-in to update my blog and then it's time to start cooking our meal or clearing snow from the gateway...

Hm! Let me guess which: warm, cooking smells, maybe a glass of "cook's nips" or cold [-5°C, same as it was over three hours ago when I got up], no reason to get the car out for over a week, might thaw/snow again before we need to...

That's going to be one tough choice, isn't it?

Well, I'm off to enjoy being at liberty in a big kitchen and temporarily off the wagon, so I wish you all a very merry Christmas!

Things I'm going to gloss over...

...As it's Christmas day, I'm not going to focus on:

• The continuing inability of the project manager and plumber to finish a very straightforward two-month conversion project in less than a year [!]
• Our journey down: delays leaving the office added to delays leaving London and then we came up against delays on the Shuttle service, and then further delays on the service. We arrived at the house at 6am; not quite how I'd planned starting my birthday, but at least we are here!
• Tiredness: I managed two and a half hours sleep yesterday morning; David had a two hour nap late yesterday afternoon. It's just not enough when you get to our ages!

I am going to focus on:

• Enjoying our poêle
• Enjoying the divine voice of Jessye Norman singing Christmas carols
• Enjoying the candles I managed to find [too much snow upstairs to want to disinter all of our Christmas decorations]
• Enjoying the company of my lovely husband, and the peace and quiet

And that's enough for now!

Christmas cake

I watched a video of Kirstie & Phil's Perfect Christmas last Thursday, and was inspired to make their 'Last Minute Christmas Cake' which Kirstie said could be made up to Christmas Eve - sounded perfect!

I went out and bought the missing ingredients [some blackstrap molasses, glacé cherries, string and a skewer] on Friday.

I was so tempted to make it then, but wanted it to be a surprise for David [hence why I am only posting about it now], so had to wait till Monday.

It took me so long to actually assemble the ingredients into a finished (pre-baked) cake, that I followed another piece of advice from the TV program: 'you can leave it in the tin for a few hours or even overnight before baking it'...

There's nothing like a red-hot cake cooling on a rack and the smell of baking to give the game away!

I was so glad that I did; the cake, instead of taking the three hours on the programme, took five and a half hours to bake!

I still wasn't convinced at the end that it was done, but was terrified to leave it any longer; despite covering the tin with brown paper, the top was getting very dark, and the outer parts of the cake had been cooked for over two hours, according to the 'skewer test'.

But the middle still wasn't producing a "clean" skewer.

However the bit adhering to the skewer were looking like cake, rather than cake mix, so I called it a day.

I think the bit I enjoyed most was pouring the calvados [couldn't find apple brandy, and it's virtually the same thing] over a cake fresh from the oven; it made a satisfying sizzling sound and smelled delicious!

I wasn't convinced it was fully cooled by the time David got home, so hid it on the cooling rack on a cleared shelf in my wardrobe [standard hiding place, but the first time I've had food secreted there!].

So that brings us up to Wednesday morning, and I couldn't resist adding another three tablespoons of calvados [in case any of the previous six had evaporated] before wrapping it up in greaseproof paper and foil and putting it in the tin [which I then hid in a box to bring with us].

The only alterations I made to the recipe were:

1) I used molasses as I couldn't buy any black treacle

2) I added a teaspoon of ground ginger, and half a teaspoon of ground cinnamon and two teaspoons of vanilla extract as 1 teaspoon of mixed spice and half a teaspoon of ground nutmeg really did not seem enough spice

3) I added an extra three tablespoons of calvados when the cake was cooled, and the calvados was in substitute for apple brandy

By yesterday evening I couldn't hold out any longer, so we had a piece each [think of it as an alternative birthday cake, and that sounds better!], and it was gorgeous: really moist, cooked but not overcooked and not too dark.

The only change I would make [I think criticism is too strong a word] would be to add more spice the next time: it was barely-spiced rather than nicely-spiced, if you can imagine what I mean.

Oh, and I might try harder to remember to bring the sherry...

You don't seem to be able to find it here in France.

Altogether, though, a roaring success, and although time-consuming, not difficult enough to put me off making one much earlier next year!

Latest...

M. Torelli is supposed to finish off the plumbing today...

But the region [like much of the UK] is having SNOW!

We've had a mail from Jean-Marie saying that M. Waeber was unable to get up the road to open up the gate, so I'm not 100% convinced that M. Torelli (who has six months of excuses to his credit) will manage better.

BREAKING NEWS: M. Torelli can't get his van up our road, and intends to fit the drain for the shower and the housing for the loo today, but then he has to leave in case he gets stuck in the snow.

That I can completely understand: having been caught out in a blizzard trying to get home from school [don't know why the headmistress let everyone else (who lived out of town) home an hour earlier than she let me leave, but after she broke her ankle she got a lot more reasonable about letting me travel the ten miles home before the roads got blocked!], I wouldn't wish that on anyone.

But what is p***ing me off is that he's had six months in which to get this finished, and waits until the last possible moment (before we carry out our threat to close the house up for four months) before scheduling us in.

And I'm equally un-chuffed to find out by email this morning that he's got no intention of finishing the "nourisse" [a kind of 'distribution board' for water/central heating pipes] in the laundry; the one in the dressing room, yes, but the one that is needed so that the loo will work, no.

He's not going to bill us, so that's OK, right?

Well, no, wrong!

If you are charging to supply and fit a loo [the rest of the bathroom has to wait for more funds], you can't expect the client to be happy that it's there (and connected to the sewer) but that there's no water!!

David has emailed T+B and pointed out that until we can use the loo, the job will not be considered finished, so we won't be issuing a cheque.

I'm just wanting to get the place cleaned up, and a hole in the wall with a load of water pipes sticking is NOT what we were led to expect would be a 'finished' job. The wall, being stone, leaves the kind of mortar/masonry dust that never stops, and if rodents were to get in behind the insulation they have free access to the rest of the house.

We still have the upper hand [cheque book] in the negotiating stakes, but this just drags the sodding process out even longer; after Christmas we'll be into the second year of a two-month project...

Ooh, I'm spitting feathers!

Progress?

Well, maybe...

Jean-Marie says that M. Torelli is going to come and finish the plumbing on the 16th, and has allowed the 17th in case of 'vagary'. [I think it means the equivalent of "rains stops play", but why we need a contingency for vagaries of weather in a room that is watertight, I'm not sure; I am prepared to accept it in the sense I would use it - you've been promising to do this job since mid-July and haven't yet managed to schedule in half a day's work. I think that qualifies as vagary!]

J-M's also promised that the electrics will be finished, as will the plaster-boarding. He hasn't mentioned the breaking-through from the rest of the house, but as we're in contact with M. Mekki fairly often, I'm quite happy for that to happen as & when.

Speaking of M. Mekki: David talked to him yesterday, and gained the impression that he was pretty cheesed off with T+B.

Know how he feels!

It MAY be a coincidence, but since David copied Nicholas on the emails, it seems as though the emphasis has shifted away from arguing about why they should be paid [without any noticeable progress] to actually achieving some progress.

Hopefully, he will also be working on the plans; I can't wait to get this phase finished & wave goodbye to T+B [forever]!

On a nice note, M. Mekki sounded fairly positive that they might visit us over Christmas/New Year; if the work on the house is finally finished we really will have something to celebrate.

And because I want to end on a good note...

Here's a gratuitous photo of the meadow as seen through the kitchen window!

David kindly tasted some of my fruit liqueurs, and the verdict ranged from very favourable to 'needs more time', but overall nothing was horrible, just needing a bit more patience...

So that's the motto of my life at the moment: be a bit more patient.

Enjoy the snow, and stay safe!

And bad news...

Despite waiting patiently [although that patience is now wearing a "bit" thin] since mid-July, we are still being held up by the absence of the plumber.

M. Torelli is now the only thing stopping the work from being finished; M. Baty fitted the french windows sometime in late October, and M. Waeber has done all the tiling he can do without M. Torelli installing the drain for the shower.

Lately, we seem to have many more emails asking for payment than we have ones telling us of progress!

In fact, the only progress report we've received since (I think) July is the one we had on Monday morning replying to David's mail asking whether T+B and the plumber wished to continue with our job.

Jean-Marie argues that he has been working, but we'll have to take his word for that: the complete absence of progress reports, or indeed any visible progress that we haven't instigated ourselves [i.e. the joiner and tiler, whom we arranged to visit and gave them a key to let themselves in] leaves us somewhat sceptical.

J-M has done a bit of name-calling and cc'ing unrelated people on his emails, but we are trying to retain the moral high ground, and are only copying people at T+B on OUR mails. [OK, posting a blog isn't exactly subtle, but I feel almost like a journalist - I can't just report the "kittens & flowers" type stuff - and it's not as though anyone related to the project reads this!]

Pointing out the timeline for our "two-month" job might have helped [and saying we really did want it finished before the one-year anniversary, coming up later this month], because we have received a mail since saying he will get onto it.

Thankfully David seems to have developed a much tougher spine, and I can out-stubborn for England, so no money will be changing hands until the work is done.

David also emphasised that we paid, in good faith, for a complete set of plans to be drawn up over three years ago, and that we will not be mailing a cheque until we have a copy of the missing page (and the electronic file).

I refuse to accept a hand-drawn plan when we paid handsomely AND provided John Knighton's excellent CAD files. Privately, I think they just copied John's plans and never verified the dimensions in the only place David & I didn't measure...

We've had to apologise to Laurent Mazij for the three month delay in paying his last bill, but did explain that we only received it on Monday morning! J-M had signed it & dated it 'good to pay' 29 Nov right next to Laurent's signature dated 30 Aug. A copy of this has gone to Montieramey along with the cheque!

Hmmm! Hopefully Laurent is as OK about it as David thinks he sounded; we do want him to come and do further work at the house, even if we no longer care about keeping a good relationship with T+B.

It does seem that the only part of our job Jean-Marie is on top of is his invoices to us!

Worryingly, M. Waeber reckons it may be too cold to make good the concrete in the shower area [it was minus 6°C on Tuesday]...

That's another thing we are going to have to watch out for: having asked (repeatedly) whether there was sufficient depth for the drain to the shower and being assured there was, to hear from M. Waeber that M. Torelli had insisted the builder come to site to dig out the concrete [and now return to make good again] we are worried that another item will appear on our bill.

Given that every other trade can knock up a couple of trowelfulls of cement to make good, two visits by M. Hamid when the pipes should have been laid by M. Torelli in June will not be paid for out of our pocket: we'll pay SMS, but then argue with T+B & M. Torelli about who gets to bear that cost!

Good news...

Beautiful, beautiful french windows!

A HUGE thanks to M. Baty and his crew.

And massive thanks to M. Waeber for the tiling; another lovely job.

Don't know what David's looking at the ceiling for, the change is all below/behind him!

Sad news

We've just heard from Lydie that her father passed away on Tuesday.

He'd been in hospital for a heart bypass and contracted an infection and never regained consciousness. He was in poor health and depressed following Denise's death, but it's never a good time, is it?

Here's a photo of him in happier times, with Maria's mum, Dot & David.

Adieu Michel, you will be sadly missed!

We've got a door!

Just had an email from Mme Baty saying her husband had been there Tuesday and yesterday to fit the door.

Part of me is sad to have missed seeing that [it's the largest piece of joinery we have/will have], but I couldn't have stayed an extra week [am just starting to unwind/sleep now], so at least it wasn't fitted last Thursday.

Now, back to that fishing...