I'm back!

So - Paul has recently spent a month in Australia doing some maintenance on our house there and he found himself getting harassed by everyone he met about the lack of blog entries! And I thought no one cared haha. No - like any long term commitment it gets difficult to stay motivated and find interesting things to say about our life here, which is really very simple and mundane for the most part! But thanks to popular demand I am going to try very hard to regularly update the blog from now on.

Since I last blogged Paul spent many weeks prior to winter getting the heating system plumbed in. I had spent a lot of time researching the best way to keep warm without spending a fortune both on the system itself and then on running it. Most people here spend at least a couple of thousand Euros a year on oil or gas as well as having wood fires. We didn't like the sound of that much! Anyway what we decided on doing was having a thermal store that can take multiple fuel sources which then can run the underfloor heating downstairs and some radiators upstairs. One of the fuel sources can be a wood boiler which is currently the only source we use. It is quite a complicated system with lots of electronic safety valves etc and is a system more common in the UK then here, so we had lots of fun trying to work how to install it. But the final result after lots of work by Paul is a very efficient system that doesn't cost much to run and keeps the house nice and warm. Result! And we are both closet pyromaniacs and like starting and keeping the fire going so it suits us perfectly! Here he is up on the roof installing the flu liner.

We spent four weeks over Xmas with Chels and Hunter in Chicago doing some work with them on their apartment. Poor Paul really can't escape renovation work! We were there during the cold snap North America experienced in Jan - several days of sub minus 20 Celcius. We didn't leave the apartment much to be fair! But we had a great time with them and can't wait to go back again maybe when the weather is a bit kinder!

Our house is looking pretty good - only some fiddly snagging things to do really. Things like curtains, light fittings and some furniture are still to be sourced. But we are in no rush and with the Aussie dollar dropping about 20% against the Euro in the last six months or so I am trying to be as frugal as possible. I also prefer to find something unique and possibly cheaper at one of the second hand places here then just buy something new. Much more fun too I think. The weekend Vide Greniers will be getting going again soon so we will be keeping an eye out for what we need then. Paul has built me a hall way divider with boot box and coat rack which makes the entry and living room more functional and I think looks great too. This is one room that still needs some furniture and some finishing off but it will get there.

Here's the entry wall with boot box.

And our living room with our great wood boiler.

We have had a very mild but wet winter. One of the French guys told Paul when he was at the museum yesterday that it has been the wettest winter for forty years. We only got one lot of snow and that was in November. And the spring has been lovely so far apart from a week or two here and there of rain and wind. My spring bulbs are all out looking lovely and some wild violets that mum and I transplanted from the forest a couple of years ago have really taken off. I am currently loading up the veggie patch with some lovely horse poo mulch which we have a small mountain of thanks to my very productive grass converters.

Paul has happily got himself back into a Landy too although I often have my horse trailer hitched up to it which doesn't impress him much.
Here he is in his "Bordeaux Burgundy" or pink ha little 90.

So at the minute Paul is getting back into building the stone walls in what will be our outdoor kitchen/entertainment area. He started this job about 18 months ago but I decided we needed a kitchen first so I took him away from it. Will be great to have somewhere to sit and eat outside though. I will be getting back to chipping off the crepi or old cement render from the house and uncovering the stonework. This is a big job but will make a massive difference to how the house looks.

You can see from this picture the various stages of the job. The far left is the stone that has been cleaned and pressure washed ready to be jointed out. The wall under the kitchen window is the new one which has been finished. The whole house should look like this eventually!