I know - I'm late - I keep getting hassled by everyone but I have been waiting for more exciting news. But I finally have some. We have moved out of the caravan - woo hoo - I could not stand one more night in the extremely dodgy bed made out of the van 'lounge' cushions - it was crampy for me and I am only 5 foot nothing - not sure how Paul has coped for the past 5 months or so! But wait - don't get too excited for us as we have only moved a few feet or so - out the door. We have bought a mattress and have put it on the floor of the barn for the past two nights. Luckily it is not too chilly here at the moment so it has been fine. I had been hoping that I could report that we had moved into our lovely attic in the house but that is still another couple of weeks away I would think. The past two weeks haved seemed a bit like groundhog days but we are getting there slowly. The plasterer left after the ten days he had alloted to the job but unfortunately him and Paul had not been able to have the couple of walls up and installed by then, which meant Paul has taken on the job of plasterer since then. A solid week or two of rainy days has meant plaster that just refuses to dry out and so it is taking much longer to get it done. But hopefully today was the last day of actual plastering and now we can finalise the painting etc. We have done a lot - sanding - painting - wiring etc. Here is some shots of the attic - probably not much different to last week!
 |
| Yes - I do work sometimes - I just usually have to take the pictures - here I am sanding the beams.. |
We have done some other stuff other then being stuck in the attic. I have experienced one of the local delicacies that I was determined not too! We had dinner a couple of weeks ago at our new friends Yves and Kathleens house and her little pre dinner snacks looked like yummy little pastries - as I am naturally a bit of a pig I dived in as they looked like spinach and cheese. After a couple I started to wonder about the meaty chunk at the bottom of the pastry so stopped eating them. Yes - they were escargot!! They were definately edible but I wouldn't rush back for more.. We had a great night though - good food and great company - they are Belgian and bought their house from the same people who sold us our house. Theirs is a different kettle of fish though as it is HUGE and for the most part renovated. It also has a couple of 'gites' or self contained accomodation - they now have also bought a run down house right next door to theirs and are going to renovate it for a bed and breakfast.
We also have been doing some long runs in our old van. In the past two weeks we have driven it to Brive, Cahors and yesterday drove to Figeac. It hasn't missed a beat but it has a problem with the alternator so the couple of times we ended up driving in the dark Paul was concerned we could end up cooking the battery and have no lights etc. But we made it. We went to Brive to get the bathroom bits and pieces - Cahors on Friday to buy a mattress and yesterday to Figeac to buy a lovely table that I had found on Leboncoin - a French website I am mildly addicted to - the table was only 70 euro (included 4 chairs) so was worth the hour and a half drive! Good for me to practise my French too as it is very easy to get away with only speaking it rarely - and then only the basics for buying the shopping etc. I actually wonder if I am getting worse as I have not been learning or practising at all lately. I am meant to be getting some lessons from a local soon so hopefully that will eventuate.
This week we hope to finish most of the painting, plasterering and sanding in the attic - although Paul has to down tools a bit as we have had someone come and give us a 'devis' to do the concreting on the bottom floor and he thinks he can do it next Monday - this means Paul needs to finish off his plumbing in the kitchen and also dig out the cellar to the same level as the living room. The cellar still has the old wine barrels etc in it at this stage. Talk about a sucker for punishment!! It will be great to have no more dirt floors though and we don't want to wait until it gets really cold as this can mean bad things for the concrete apparently.
 |
| The most amazing colour of autumn ivy - Catus - on route to Cahors |
 |
| Cemetry at Catus - decorated with Crysanthemums for All Saints day |
 |
| Lovely little walled garden in the middle of Cahors |
Ok well I am off to go trawl on Leboncoin - currently emailing someone with a nice 1920's bedroom suite consisting of double bed - armoire (wardrobe) and bedside table for the grand sum of 150 euros!!
No comments:
Post a Comment