Boussac Market

A quick jaunt to Boussac market for a quick bit of shopping with our friends Janet, Jo and Martyn.

Clearing out the Barn and the Forge

October 2010 and Steven was aided by our friends Pat and Leslie in some Autumn clearance of the barn (to make a new workshop) and to start to clear out the old forge. Steven decorated a cake to celebrate Ken and Jeanette's 25th wedding anniversary. Sadly, the trip was cut short as Steven's mother passed away during the week necessitating a swift return to the UK.

Summer 2010

During the summer break, we took the opportunity to finish some of the remaining work inside the house. This included completing the en-suite bathroom, furnishing the new third bedroom, installing ballustrade (which helps to avoid one falling down the stairs in the dark!), replacing the final window in the hallway and putting up curtains.

Towards the end of our stay, we were aided and abetted by Tina, Mark and Hannah!

Civil Partnership

Having become "Civilised" in the UK, we spent our honeymoon in Paris for a few nights before travelling to the house for the remainder of our holiday. We were able to continue our Civil Partnership celebrations with our friends in Creuse courtesy of Ken and Jeanette, who held a barbecue in their garden for us (big thanks to K&J). These are a few of the highlight photographs

Easter 2010

Having cleared out the weeds and brambles in the back garden, we were able to see just how large the plot of land was!

And having spent some further time working in the attic conversion, we were well on the way to installing the ensuite bathroom in there.

Hey! We've got a new roof

As a result of the gales in France in February, we found that several of the roof tiles had slipped on the forge roof; so we took the opportunity to get the roof on the rear of the forge re-tiled. So this was completed in October, together with the installation of a brand new back door on the forge, thus making it weather proof and no longer a home to the House Martins who had made the rafters of the forge their home over the summer. This will allow us to be able to press on with gutting the forge and starting to convert it to living space next summer.

Summer Escapades

With the new frontage on the forge, and the new windows installed in the two first floor bedrooms, the house was beginning to take shape. It took us some time to install the windows and at the same time we completed the decoration of the two bedrooms, making them all together more homely.







We also spent time tiling and decorating the hallway, which also helped to improve the inside of the building, making it lighter and brighter.














With the landing painted white and the glosswork finished on the woodwork (thanks to mum and dad for that!) the first floor was complete!


The garden (aka the Jungle), however, is a different story!

Despite lots of effort to try to tame the garden, it continues to grow at a rapid rate.

Horror! We discovered we have an invasion of Japanese Knot Weed, which will need to be virtually nuked out of the garden to get rid of it. According to our reading on the web, we need to inject the plant using a hyperdermic syringe with systemic weedkiller at regular intervals for at least three years!

And the garden furniture still leads a little to the imagination - however, it is sufficient to enjoy a barbecue and a bottle or two of the local wine. At least the builders have completed the installation of the french doors in the forge; we however await the installation of the back door to the forge in the Autumn as this has to be bespoke manufactured.