La onzième semaine

Yep 11 weeks in - sometime is feels like we have been here for longer but then again the weeks are just flying on by! We have had a bit of a strange week weather wise here in the Lot.  Monday was extremely hot - about 40 degrees but by Friday it was absolutely freezing - with a max of 18 and drizzling.  It's good because it keeps everything so green but a little bit too extreme thanks!  Here is a shot I took on Thursday night of the storm clouds brewing behind Jouanicou village.

We have managed to get some beams finally to replace the large one in the living room downstairs which had been hacked by a previous owner to make a new door. We needed to get old oak ones and not new ones so they all kind of match and stay with the theme, so to speak but we have been having trouble getting ones long enough as it is a span of over 5 metres.  Well we found some for sale on "leboncoin" - kind of like Gumtree in Aus - for 50 euro each - which is very reasonable - the problem is they, at the time were still in situ - in a very old cottage lodged in the stone walls.  We went to the place to have a look at them early last week and came away thinking we might not end up getting the lengths we need, due to the sheer amount of effort it was going to take for the couple renovating and selling them to get them out in one piece. We are only going to use two of them in the living room which is lucky as we have now heard from them that they had to cut two of them short. The other two will be used somewhere along the way. We are surprised they managed to not cut them all as they are about 25cm square and weigh roughly 400 kg each. I couldn't work out why they didn't want to keep them but they do look pretty awful now as they have the black soot build up etc from being in a room with an open fire.  But Paul has been playing around with some of the oak beams that we have here and tidying them up to make furniture etc.  They do clean up very nice with a water blast or planing.

Before

After

Paul also found a beam under our 'scrappy' wood pile he sorted out this week that he could use to replace a dodgy one in the attic - so a bit of a clean up and and away he went.  Here is a shot of him putting it in and looking way too cheeky to be up to anything good!

Other reno things achieved this week include the fitting of all the little windows in the attic and Paul got stuck in today and pulled the majority of the floorboards out.  It's my job tomorrow to denail them all. Maybe I should say - my job for the week!

Floorboards coming out - note the dust!!

New little windows mudded in and floor ready for new boards!

In to town tomorrow to get some new floorboards in the van that has finally been over the pits - not quite passed but as long as it's insured apparently you can still use it for a couple of months - it only failed on account of the hand brake not working so it should be fine!  We also need to have a look at a little truck that we can hire to see if it will be sufficient to pick up our beams on Saturday.
Ok well, I am over and out - Chelsea had a big weekend playing in her first hockey games of the season - they had two big wins and she has 5 goals to her name already.  Must take after me hahaha...Go cats!!

ps - whoops, almost forgot to mention - some of you that are more observant will notice that the name of the blog changed this week. Well it had been brought to my attention that I was using the plural feminine form of the word crazy - so thought I better sort that out - good ole Google translate strikes again :) hopefully got it right now but who knows??

Le Dixieme Semaine

Will be quick post this week - we are currently sitting in the barn - the temperature sitting in the high 30's at 8 in the evening with no breeze - having a few drinks and listening to some music just trying to stay a little bit cool.  Now planning to put in a "piscine" (pool) ha.  Had a fairly uneventful week.  Would have like to have got more done towards getting the attic ready but it's a bit difficult as a lot of businesses - ie timber yard are closed down for their summer holidays.  Never mind - I needed a break from the hard labour anyway.  Paul hasn't stopped however - he has started digging out the floor in the living room after we got some more info as to what we need to do to install underfloor water heating.  It means the floor needs dropping by about 30 cm - he now thinks their must have been some animals or something housed in this room as it is extremely hard and I can vouch for that after having some brief turns on the end of the crow bar.  He is probably nearly a quarter of the way through - I keep throwing out the idea of hiring a mini digger but I think sometimes the hard way is the only way for Paulie!

Earlier in the week he got sick of me having the washing hanging in the barn where he was trying to get into so he slapped up this temporary clothesline for me - not sure if it will be patented - I wasn't sure it would even fit one load of washing but it does easily and works a treat.

We have been doing a bit of research for bits we need - I have hopefully located some old oak beams that we need to replace some dodgy ones in our ground floor.  However they have been advertised on a French website and I am having some communication problems with the guy selling them so not sure if we will end up being able to get them or not - we'll see.   We had fun today - we ended up at the big 'Troc' fair in Cazals that we tried to go to last week. 

Cazals - lots of "Troc"

It was pretty cool - we ended up going around about three times as we kept seeing more things of interest.  We got some bargain chairs - 25 Euros for all six - Paul thought he wasn't reading the sign correctly.  They have got some fairly dodgy looking vinyl on them but the wood is all in excellent condition and it will be easy to to recover them down the track if we get the urge.  I also spotted a timber and material room divider which is perfect for hiding off the twahlett from the rest of our living room.  The only other things we got were some lovely old cast iron shutter holders that you embedd in the stone.  We did find a couple of building material reclamation yards earlier in the week but other than an iron frame for the front porch we didn't end up getting anything.  One of the yards had some pretty nice front doors - for 3 thousand euro - maybe not!

Bargains...

Yayy - some privacy at last!

Paul and John took the van in on Friday to get it checked ie put over the pits - looks like he just needs to sort out some braking issues and it will be good to go. The wierd thing is his vespa three wheeler doesn't have to be licensed as it's considered a scooter so needs no registration or checking.  Lookout Degagnac! 
We went into Sarlat for lunch yesterday and they had their big market on - lots of the usual 'market stuff' which is not much interest to us - tonnes of people.  We had our usual yummy duck lunch.  As the regional speciality you really need to like duck - lucky we do!

Paul amongst the Sarlat market hordes

We checked out the beautiful church while we were there and got a special treat - three guys that were standing up the front when we went in started to sing - they were practising for a concert that night - the sound in the church was amazing - fantastic accoustics. 

Church in Sarlat

Ok well that's about it for now - was Gabbi's birthday this week - we miss her although could still throttle her from the other side of the world sometimes as she has managed to lose her iphone during her trip to Melbourne.  Oh well c'est la vie as they say....love ya Gabs.....

Semaine Neuf

Yep another week over and another job nearly done! (well technically we have the whole ground floor to do but we aren't doing that until we have got the floor in so won't be for a while thankfully!) We did 6 days straight on the second floor and were only a bucket or so of mix off finishing yesterday.  Paul was going to do another mix today and finish it and all the little bits we have missed or need to be retouched but I demanded we got out and did something else.  My hand is extremely sore now - I have trouble straightening my little finger and can barely make a fist.  This is a problem as Paul keeps telling me to harden up princess and I can no longer punch him with my right haha!  Anyway here is a couple of pics of the walls.

This is the after shot of the wall from last weeks blog that was washed down ready to go.

We have decided that we are probably about the 4th lot of people to renovate this particular house.  Would love to know the date the original building went up but it was most likely several centuries ago.  You can see in the next photo of the last wall we did - there is two distinct marks from where the roof lines have been changed and added too.  Most likely it was a tiny single story house then went to a double before someone decided to add the attic.
You can also see the wall on the far left has been plastered but not 'rubbed back' yet.

Before doing the last wall on the second floor - note the roofline marks on the left.

Sunday evening - so close to finishing - only small piece next to the chimney to do.

So yes another week of long days of slog.  We did have a lovely evening at our friends house on Friday night.  A very Aussie barbie on the deck with them and some other neighbors and their guests at the B&B.  A guitar was even produced so we had entertainment too!  We also had a small win on Thursday when we went to town and managed to buy more mortar mix,  book an appointment for Pauls vans rego check,  and bought two tyres for the van and all in French - amazing!
Today we decided to go to the Brocante fair that we had been told was on in Cazals - unfortunately though it's not on until next week which we discovered once we had driven there. Never mind it's only about 15min drive away.  We did have a wander around a 'vide grenier' in Salviac - this is basically a trash and treasure french style.  I have a shot of one of the streets - we didn't buy anything other than some books from some English people but was interesting.

After that we decided to have a bit of a "Sunday" drive - it is Monday here today but is a public holiday - not sure why and doesn't make much difference to us other than most of the shops including the hardware are shut.  Anyway we went down towards Fumel - through Puy-l'eveque where we had a bit of a wander through the really pretty little town.

Puy-l'Eveque

Fumel, where we thought we would have some lunch, ended up being a bit dodgy or we couldn't find the nice part anyway so we headed for home.  Saw a sign for a 'chateau' or castle on the way so went and had a look.  It can be a bit like seen one castle seen them all but we spent a good hour or so exploring this one and it was pretty interesting.  Had an awesome natural cave that it had been built on top of.  We also had a reasonably nice lunch there which is of particular importance to us ha.

Well tonight we might walk down to Degagnac.  It is the weekend of their 'fete' - so far they have been going for two nights - and there is two more with a fireworks display tonight although it is at 11.30 so might be past our oldies bedtime.  Not really sure what else will be there but I think it is the normal 'fair' type stuff along with some music.  The last two nights have had a dj - we woke up about 2.30am last night and could hear the music - it did stop at 3 - eek - can only imagine what it would be like to live right in the village at this time of the year although I did hear that some of them go away for the weekend and am not surprised ha.
This week we hope to get some flooring sorted for the attic - have finally made contact with the plasterer but he is on holidays at the moment so that will have to wait.  We also have been searching for some old oak beams to replace some of the dodgier ones in the house.  I have found some being advertised but I am not confident at all on the phone - so Aileen is going to help us ring them and see if we can go and have a look.  We also have been having some discussions about windows and shutters and colours etc - I love the French style of pale shutters whereas Paul likes how a lot of the English and Dutch have them - all varnished wood.  Anyway we have come to a sort of compromise - I can have the grey/bluey colour for the shutters and he can have the timber look on the windows and doors.  Here is a photo I took today to compare the colors with painted windows or wood to give you an idea of what I am talking about..

OK think that is about it.  Looking forward to a warm week this week - we have still been getting days here and there of rain - it is so lush and green and the road sides look like English gardens with flowers everywhere.  Will be nice when we have a garden and not a building site at the front door - oh well one day!

One for the 'before' album

Deux mois - enfin presque!

This weeks blog is probably going to be pretty short and even more boring then usual - sorry in advance.  It's just that we really haven't done all that much other than the 'crepi-ing' or repointing or whatever it is that we are doing to the stone walls at the moment.  Other then a couple of quick trips to town to restock the fridge we haven't been anywhere or done anything else!  We went to town on Monday morning only to come home and find the truck delivering the sand and lime had already been - they had said they would come 'apres midi' which is meant to mean after lunch but someone decided to come a bit early - luckily I had given them Aileens number in case they couldn't find us so she got a call and was able to come up and make sure they didn't dump it in the middle of the driveway or somewhere else inappropriate.  It turned out alright as she got them to put it pretty much exactly where Paul wanted it.

Well, before I load on the photos I will describe the process for the walls.  First you need to scrape out as much of the old mortar as possible - yep, did that for the past few weeks! - Then you can either sand blast or pressure wash the stone to clean it.  We have gone the washing option.  This is a cold and extremely messy job.  You end up with mud and water everywhere - including all over the operator.  Consequently I did it for about a minute - copped a couple of mouth and eyefuls of muck then left it to the professional - here he is now post pressure washing;

My poor washing machine is getting hammered at the minute!  Anyway once you have done that the walls look a bit like this;

There was a repair to one of the lintels needed - so this is Paul with his safety gear on making a new one;

Mmmm - yes once the wall is ready then the fun begins.  We are using a mix of four buckets of sand to two buckets of lime based product that is fit for purpose called Renocal - it all goes into the cement mixer - water added until you have a good consistency then we take buckets of the render up the stairs to be applied to the walls.  I am saying we here but probably should say he as I can only carry about half a bucket full so it's not worth the bother.  Anyway we then using either hands or trowels, get the mix into the joints as best we can trying to leave no holes or air bubbles.  We patch the walls with stones along the way where necessary.  It's actually quite fun although one of the most efficient ways of getting the mud to stick is throwing it - unfortunate side effect of this is it often cames back to get you - I have had several incidents of lime mortar in my eyes - trust me this aint pleasant.  I know you are meant to wear eye protection but it is so hard to keep them on as within a few minutes you can't see through them so they just get chucked off.  I haven't taken any shots of the walls after this first process - I will do some this week as we have got a few weeks of this to go, so there will be plenty of chances for it.  But usually we are too dirty to be grabbing the camera at this stage.. Anyway once the mud has had a chance to go off - depends a bit on the weather but usually about three hours later - you come along with a wire brush and clean up the stone exposing the wall.  You then brush with a banister brush to remove some of the harsher wire brush marks.  This can be a bit tricky to get right and we definitely had improved by the time we got to the end of the week.  Here is a some pics of the finished walls.  It's hard to get a shot to look natural as the flash does strange things to the pic but here it is;

Couple of days after being done

We think they look pretty good - especially for our first attempt.  The walls in the attic are also particularly dodgy - as in the rock work was probably never meant to be seen.  The walls in the next floor down which we are starting tomorrow are a bit better.  Paul has spent all day today getting the washing done in preparation for the next few days work.

Tomorrow's job ready to go.

He has also done a bit of pressure washing the stairs and where he has done it they have come up looking great.  Water and wood aren't a great mix though so we aren't sure whether it will end up doing any damage to the timber.  Paul has been very careful to try and keep the stairs as dry as possible during the wall washing process but it has been hard. 

Underside of stairs post being cleaned

Well as I say other than that not much else is going on.  We cleaned out the old style washing stand next to the cistern at the front of the house to make a bit of a herb garden.  I did have some basil in a pot planted out but haven't been using it much lately after seeing Buddy our lovely neighbors dog christen it a couple of weeks ago.  So it has been relocated now to a bit higher spot!  I want to get some mint in there too - it grows wild here but most of ours was where the fosse septic has been put in so has all gone now. 

Herb "garden"

The weather has been very mild again this week which was fine when we were up in the attic as it does tend to get warm in there.  It's meant to be getting up to high twenties by the end of this week and no rain so that will be nice.  Apparently we haven't been experiencing a 'normal' summer at all as I don't think it has been higher then 30 degrees for weeks.  The area has exploded with tourists this week - Monday morning in one of the supermarkets in Gourdon last week reminded me of shopping on the day before Easter in Australia - it was ridiculous - every checkout was open and there was about 4 trolley fulls in each aisle - nightmare.  There are a lot of summer holiday homes here and August is the traditional holiday month in France.  Anyway that's about it - here is a final pic of Will sunning himself tonight on the pile of stone in our courtyard that will one day form our outdoor barbie room/area...