Tree felling and Furniture buying

Our neighbour had complained that one of our trees was overhanging his workshop roof and, in the recent gales, bits of the tree had started to fall down. Steven and Ken decided to become lumberjacks for the day and fell the tree. At it was overhanging the neighbours property, all hands were requried on deck as the tree was roped up and bits of it were cut off with a chainsaw.
Ever the opportunist, Ken seized the chance to pose for a few pictures in preparation for his forthcoming phone call to a "no-win-no-fee" claims company.

Unfortunately, he missed the point that one actually needs to be injured in the accident; and that crawling under the tree whilst posing for a photo doesn't actually count! No doubt we'll be hearing from his lawyers in due course.

"Bah. Humbug!"

Meanwhile, Simon completed the work on the tiling of the bathroom and some minor adjustments to the electrical system. Much more sensible inside tasks whilst the weather was approaching zero degrees outside.

On a recent "expedition" to a local brocante shop, we spied a rather nice dark wood dresser to go with our dining table and chairs. This was purchased at a very reasonable price and delivered straight away. It goes really well in the dining room with the other furniture. We also managed to bag two single beds for the second bedroom into the bargain!

Christmas 2008

It's Christmas day and look who appears to have been warming his toes on our new wood-burner!

And he managed to get all those toys down the chimney too!

Thanks also goes to Rudolph and his chums for all their help in pulling the sleigh from Lapland to Creuse last night. We didn't see that one coming!

Our Chrismas Eve dinner was a enjoyed by all last night. We made use of the dining table we bought at the Brocante in the summer and also came across a set of 6 great dining chairs to go with it in a local Troc store. We were joined by Ken and Jeanette (Barbie). Now we have a gas hob as well as our electric oven in the kitchen it was easy to cook the meal.

The Circus Comes to Town!

It's October half-term in the UK, so Steven and our friend (John) headed down to France for a further week's work on the house.

As winter was fast approaching, one of the key targets was to get some form of heating into the house. A small wood-burner was purchased and was to be fitted in the fire-place we uncovered in the summer .

Another project for the week was to put up the stud-work, fit loft insulation and begin the process of converting the attic room into a third bedroom with ensuite bathroom.

Luckily, John's friends, Keith and Chrissie were returning from Spain and (foolishly) decided to pop in for a visit, they were rapidly enlisted to help with some of the labour, including fitting the flue for the wood burner and also with lifting the sheets of plasterboard up two flights of stairs read to start on the conversion of the attic.

Then, Steven got the hump...

Oh, sorry, silly mistake, the Circus came to town. So a fun time was had by all watching the entertainment.

Mid October Developments

Simon, Janet and Jo headed back to France for a few days to practice their decorating skills. We managed to put some of the finishing touches to the kitchen and finally install the gas cooker, gave a lick of paint to the stairway and decorated one of the bedrooms. 10 litres of paint and 5 litres of wine later, and the bedroom was finished!!







Here is a picture of the local village transport and a view of the village in the autumn:

Some other pictures we'd like to share with you

View from the top of the house looking out onto the road.


The market on Thursday mornings in nearby Boussac


The St Marien "swamp" as discovered by Mark.

View across the road from the front of the house.

With thanks to...

Here are some of the motley crew who helped us over the summer..




Mark - in charge of "inventions", renowned for asking questions at the most inopportune moments and supervisor of all children's channels.


Danni - grouter extraordinaire, remembered for her morning "dashes" to the village toilet before her first ciggie of the day, and champion texter!



Michael - joined at the hip to Danni, expert plasterer. Virtually nocturnal - do not disturb before 10:30.


Simon H - winner of the most annoying ring-tone award and support to Steven; can do most things without complaining.


Steven - fixer of everything and Brico-Depot's best customer 2008




Simon - electrician, slave-driver and organiser/planner of everything.

Liz (not pictured) - fantastic cook, expert painter and decorator, breath of fresh air when we needed it the most!




Ken and Jeanette (aka Barbie) - who provided a regular place of refuge, lots of wine and coffee and use of their shower facilities!

Before and After

The working "holiday" now over, we made out way back to the UK. Simon, Mark, Danni and Liz returned on 11th August and Steven and Michael returned in the van on 14th - making it back to the UK on a wing and a prayer with the clutch on the van about to give out.

Here are some before and after pictures of the house. We have lots more yet to do, but at least we have a sound roof, a functioning bathroom and an almost finished kitchen.

Brocante

We visited a Brocante today and bought a few bits and pieces. We found a fantastic dining table which will go well in the dining room (former shop) when the room is completed. Mark enjoyed himself with the old farm machinery and the french classic cars. It was a really hot day and we all caught a bit of sun.

Getting on with the renovations

We have made some progress with the internal renovations.




Getting to grips with the French wiring systems was challenging as the wire is much tougher and connecting to and fitting the sockets is quite different to any UK wiring we had undertaken before. However, the existing wiring supported only 5 working sockets and initially 5 (later on 3) working light fittings - something HAD to be done. We rewired the house completely, ripped out the old wiring and connected it all to a nice new fuseboard according to french wiring regulations, with 30mA RCD (Residual Current Devices) protecting the two phases to supply the house (the third phase will feed the old forge, when we convert it to living area).







Reassuringly, all the circuits worked perfectly first time. This enabled us to connect the water boiler, which Steven had fitted in the utility room, when he created the bathroom.




Work continued in the kitchen ...

Clearing out, plastering and general renovations with the Motley Crew

Internal renovations started, which involved patching up some of the old plaster, which had departed company from the walls; in other places we left the stonework exposed.

In the hallway, the small rusty firegrate was removed and some of the plasterwork fell away to reveal a large stone fireplace which added great character to the hallway.



Danni sanded down the wooden "shopfront" windows from what was formerly a bike bits-and-pieces shop. A lot of the nails were removed from the beams in the "shop", although some required the use of the angle-grinder.



Meanwhile, Simon H discovered the joys of making a hole through a 30" thick stone wall to allow us to fit the waste pipe in the bathroom to the sewer outside!