|
early days continued
as things progressed we were getting photos emailed to us from the builder, it
was re-assuring that work was getting done as there was nothing more stressful with not being there when all our hard earned
money was being spent. It didn't take us long to realise that we would benefit from having a heavy duty trailer at our
disposal, each delivery costs us money on top of the material and we sometimes had to wait a couple of days for delivery (not
what we are used to as Jan always wants things done 'yesterday'). A trailer would give us the flexibility of collecting
what we want when we want and in time would pay for itself.
As the work progressed the weeds continued
to grow, and grow & grow.............
With the need for electricity(something we didn't have) to power
the tools we got on with jobs like treating the woodwork for termites, painting walls, try to tame the garden and chop
back alot of overgrowth. We lived quite comfortably in the caravan but the shower was pretty useless so to christen the
new shower we had to improvise - we used a watering can and boiled kettles of water in the caravan - now that was
novel!!!!
In June the electricity was finally connected on the Thursday, we arrived on the Saturday - with
the convenience of the electricity Dave set to work on fitting the kitchen, both of us painted the bathroom and
working flat out until we were exhausted. Jans parents Marion & Allan arrived by plane on the Monday and they
decided that their mission was to de-weed, if ever there as an Olympic sport for weeding they would win GOLD everytime!! We
never make things easy for oursleves as we also had friends from Spain stopping by for a few days on their way to Northern
France. Extra pairs of hands always come in handy, Val kept us fed & watered while David busied himself with the chainsaw,
cutting branches that were overhanging the barn that were keeping us awake at night with them banging in the wind and
seeking out ants nests and burning them - he is a bit of a pyromaniac but thats another story........... lets just say
we needed to get a new bucket and fuel can.
On the Friday we had invited people who
had helped us reach this stage round for a get together as a way of saying thanks, the builder Nathan and his wife Hazel, Rob
the electrician and Sam his wife had all put themselves out to try to get us connected to all the services. Cathy
& Clive who had drawn the plans up and liased and interpretted with the authorities on our behalf. When they arrived they
couldn't believe how we had transformed the kitchen and shower-room - the kitchen had been completely empty of any
cupboards the previous Thursday and the bathroom unpainted. When we put our minds to it we work like beavers until its done.
the delivery of gravel didn't take too long to shift into place, a very different type of work that Jan is used to.
With the B&Q kitchen units bought in the January sales and a left over piece of worktop from our kitchen
in England it kept the cost down - Dave quickly had the carcasses built and the kitchen soon took shape. The fridge
freezer was bought in the Super U anniversary sale so we managed to get it all sorted within a reasonable budget. The
time that Dave spent in the building trade in his younger days has proved to come in very useful, he has an eye for detail
and is a perfectionist with any job he turns his hand to. We had to keep the colouring of the paint in keeping with the stone
grey of the granite walls so a coat of masonry paint did the job. As water is expensive in France we wanted to harvest as
much as possible to water the garden, after a few visits to the local hardware shop for the exact joints and lengths
of guttering and piping and a 500 litre butt we felt that we had a good job done in saving many litres of rainwater. We
will harvest the water from the barn and from the house roof in the future.
 
|
