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...