Monday 10 September 2012

Renovation project - Keystone Cops or Beverley Hillbillies? - Tuesday 4th September 2012


Renovation project - key stone cops or Beverley Hillbillies? - Tuesday 4th September 2012
Its Andy’s last day so we are making sure that all the heavy work is completed before he goes, which includes going shopping again. This time we are buying our wood burner. We go to Quimper to look at a new shop, which was not successful, so we decide to find the Brico Depot, we know there is one but without our all singing all dancing Sat Nav, we have no way of finding it, which results in driving around trying to find places we only found originally by chance, I am starting to get more stressed by the minute.
We eventually found the shop and what a find it was, we bought the most amazing wood burner, for an even more amazing price, but while we were there we also bought a fantastic sink unit, a wooden stand with a full glass sink and all chrome fittings (I will show you when we fit it) unfortunately because it was being sold off we had to buy it made up, which in itself would not be an issue but with only a Volvo, 3 people, a 200kilo wood burner and all the chimney fittings how the hell are we going to get it home!!!!
We still have the roof rack on the car but it was like a scene from the Beverley Hillbillies trying to load up, the staff from the shop took it in turns to come and watch.
John and Andy managed to get the wood burner on the roof rack, goodness knows how, and the rest of the stuff was wedged in the back seat, along with Andy, nothing fitted in the boot, so we had to drive away fully loaded with an empty boot. It was a slow drive home (due to the fact that we had a roof rack with a 55 kg limit, carrying a 200kg load!!!!).



The chimney was swept and the wood burner installed, it is beautiful. As it was Andy’s last night it was fitting that we managed to have a meal at the table in front of the wood burner, I added this photo to face book to show everyone how beautiful the living room looked.





I added this one the day after to show the view from the other side of the table, it’s amazing what you can do with a camera, beware photos of nice hotels ha ha ha.

Laura arrived after we had finished eating, to wish Andy a safe journey so a few more glasses of wine were consumed. As we had to be up at 6.30am I had a reasonably early night, I only wish John had, as he came to bed a couple of hours later and woke me up, needless to say it was not a restful night.


Cheers and a bientot Andy, you can follow Andy's further adventures on his blog:

http://costablancayachtandmobilehome.blogspot.com
Top tips
1.       Buy a trailer or use a van when buying big items
2.       Everybody have an early night when you have to get up early
3.       Hide the wine when you have to get up early
4.       Always look at photo’s from different angles

8 comments:

  1. Am really loving these tales Jen & can't wait for next episodes,
    You are really "living the dream"

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    1. thanks sandra, yes we are, at times maybe more nightmare, for example when you have a wild cat hiding under the bath lol, but worth every minute :)

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  2. This is such a funny read, lol over you trying to fit the equipment into your volvo Beverley Hillbillies indeed. At least you making progress, such a challenging project. keep up the blog its and interesting read!!!!

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  3. Thanks Jacqui, the funniest bit was the staff taking in it in turns to watch, I'm sure they were taking bets on what we were going to leave behind!

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    1. jenny, Ive been following you since the beginning.. and you are quite the writer.. I love it! please don't change your style.. we too are hoping to move from Vancouver BC Canada to France in a couple of years.. so I am living thru your trial and tribulations for now... please let us know what type/brands of wine your are enjoying too and other foods.. I'll be you guys will be missing Andy... he should stay longer.. me think anyway.. keep having fun, Valerie

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    2. Thanks Valerie, good luck with your plans,it's amazig how quickly it will come around and if you ever need any help or advice gice me a shout and if I don't know I can point you in the right direction.
      Yes Andy will be missed but he is heading back to Spain, so we will be visiting him for our winter sun :)

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  4. I love the front and back views of the table, had a nice laugh thank you. The wife and I are visiting brittany in the spring with intentions of moving there in the near~. Please keep the story going!

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  5. hey good luck wih the move, if you're near Huelgoat give us a call. Hopefully the B&B will be ready by then! or at least you can have a chat about all the pitfalls. please keep reading ha ha ha

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