renovation Project - Holes in the floor, Again!!!!!

renovation Project - Holes in the floor, Again!!!!!

John starts on the floor on the first floor today, which means we are back to big holes in the ceiling and having to swing around the banister to get up to the stairs to the bathroom, if you get this swing wrong, we’re not going to get to the stairs we are going to make a swift exit to the living room, I have not missed this at all.

But the work goes well and the new floor boards go down. Unfortunately the boards do not seem as thick as the old ones and so John is going to have to put the new joists in to remove some of the bounce from the floor.

I am also going to attempt to ask for help in filling in a an offer on the bottled gas, as far as we can understand if you buy 4 bottles, and send the receipts back you will get refunded for 3 bottles so 4 bottles will cost 30 euro’s fantastic.

I go to the little hardware store and ask the woman to help me; she is always so friendly and chatty. We now buy all our gas from her, but the receipts are not very good, so I use the receipts from last year from the Intermarche as these state they are for the gas, but I take a receipt form the drug store to prove that we buy from there now, but she is so friendly when I explain this she will understand, how wrong was I!!!!

She is happy to help, but as soon as she see’s receipts from another shop the help stops and tells me to go to the Intermarche for help, I try to explain that we buy from her, but the receipts are not clear and she would have none of it, so I realise she is only the lovely friendly person whilst taking our money, I go back to the house and I am so gutted, I feel really hurt, I also decide at this point that we will never use the shop again and will take her advice and use the Intermarche instead, and I still haven’t got my offer filled in and it ends on the 28^th February, bugger!!!!

Renovation project - toast on the fire

Renovation project - toast on the fire

Today is a day spent trying to get the house in order, we need to have as much space as possible on the first floor to start working properly and we need to rearrange the lounge to try and keep warm.

Another tip run completed so now all that is left is the pile of scrap metal on the living room floor, I will have to arrange for the scrap men to come and take this, along with the 4 old radiators on the first floor.

John starts to plaster the walls on the first floor, we have decided not to board them, which would be much easier, but would make the house look like a Barrats Homes box (please replace Barratts Homes with your own countries big new house build company) so John is trying to plaster undulating walls to make the walls smooth but not straight, which is what I wanted, John loves this, his main expertise in England was as a plasterer and he prided himself on smooth, straight walls and now he is having to deliberately not keep the walls flat, its killing him.

That evening the living room is rearranged and the chairs are in front of the wood burner and the paraffin heater is behind us, Oh the warmth! Just a pity by the time you have made it to the top floor had a wash and cleaned your teeth, your blood has turned back to ice and the happy warm feeling is already a distant memory.

But on a positive note we can make toast on the wood burner

Renovation project - Spring is on its way

Renovation project - Spring is on its way

The sun has been shining all week and it has been really warm in the sun, the nights have been freezing, so much so that we are back to diving under the duvet (well 2 duvets now, yes it is that cold), but the sun shining during the day makes up for it. 

I have been able to hang washing out in the garden, this may sound dull, but it means I get to go outside and defrost in the sun; it is much colder in the house. You can’t imagine how cold it is, to give you a clue I am wearing tights, thermal socks, jeans, thermal vest, t-shirt, fleece, super big fleece, hat and gloves just to try and keep warm, I’m gutted because I have actually lost weight, but I don’t want any photo’s taken because of all the clothes I wear I look like a roly poly!!!!!

I have relented and here is one of me dressed to keep warm today

Today I see our first flower in the garden, a little yellow primrose, it is beautiful, it must be very hardy as it is the only flower in the entire garden, but it makes me so happy, spring is on its way and soon I will be warm.

We go to buy the floorboards, the decision is made, we are to replace the rotten ones and make the kitchen from the wood that was the bedroom wall.

Whilst we are there we some other wood floor boards at a ridiculously cheap price and decide to grab a pack to see if they would be suitable for the living room floor. This is currently tiled but where we have taken the hallway wall out, the floor is not level and the tiles are different, we have been wondering what to do about this for some time, but if this wood is suitable then it can be laid on top of the tiles (and save us a fortune).

I also look at the showers and the price seems to have gone up, so we decide to go to the shop where we bought our last shower and get one before all the offers go.

We have great fun loading the car, as the wood is in the boot, which has resulted in my chair going as far forward as it can and the shower cubicle on the roof rack, I have the pleasure of driving home with my nose almost touching the windscreen, and my knees causing indents in the dash board, I spend the journey praying we don’t crash, luckily we don’t. John got a little bit emotional today, not being homesick, but being van sick, he is really missing his Sprinter, this is the first time he has not had a van, I support and console him as best I can, but inside I am cursing his stupid bloody idea of selling the van and managing with just the car, but I won’t tell him that, because I am a loving and supportive partner!

In bed that night John asks me if I like the light shade and I say of course, at this point I realise I hadn’t even noticed it, so I say I was going to say it looked lovely, you should wait for a compliment not ask for it, to which John replies, how long should I wait I did it 2 days ago, bugger, it does look lovely but it seemed so normal I hadn’t noticed. I am getting scared now that I am beginning to get used to just light bulbs hanging that I no longer notice the finer things in life!

Renovating a derelict property - Lost in France 19.02.13

Renovating a derelict property - Lost in France 19.02.13

Time for the remaining wall to come down, this is a momentous occasion as it will be the last bit of demolition, I know I have said that once before, but that was before we decided on the new layout of the house.

The wall is made of wooden planks and the wood is in excellent condition, apart from a few boards.

Once all the walls are down, we can see what an amazing room this is going to be, I think I may have a new favourite, which will mean that every one of the rooms is a favourite, I maybe need to readdress this and pick just one.

We can now see the floor properly and this causes new dilemma’s, we had intended to remove the floorboards and replace them as we thought many were rotten, the good ones were going to make our new kitchen, but now that we can see them there aren’t that many that need replacing, also the boards that we were going to replace with would not be big enough, the joists are over a metre apart, this means that they would not support the narrower floorboards, which would result in having to put in many more joists, not a good option, the next option is to only replace the rotten floorboards, which would result in not enough boards to make the matching table and kitchen, again not a good option.

We ponder what to do for quite some time, and drink lots of tea and suck our teeth, we are builders after all!

I decide to give Theresa and Craig a call, we met this couple when we first moved to Huelgoat and they gave us their contact details, we couldn’t swap contact details as at that point we had none. Unfortunately the address that they gave us was in the sat nav that was stolen.

We get their number from the Sue and Peter at the Tregont Restaurant, and call them, to find out that they had burnt their old floorboards, I could cry at this moment, but they did say they were rotten, so it’s maybe not that bad. We arrange to go and visit them later.

John gets on with some finishing touches, such as tiling around the new bath, I have the joy of pricing a job in the UK, I had intended not to work again, but it may be useful to have some income when we can get it.

I also do a lot more work on the blog and the new look design is almost ready.

We visit Theresa and Craig that night and have some excellent directions, Head to Carhaix and pass the sign to Plouye, then take the next turning past the white house on the bend going down the hill and it’s about half a mile (not all roads have names!!!!!!) once its dark, we also realise not all roads have street lights and there are a hell of a lot of white houses in France (which also happen to be on bends going down hills!).

After driving for about 10 miles and down lots of hills, past lots of white houses on bends to a house that is only 3 miles away from us we find them, we have a fabulous night and I finally get to talk to someone who understands exactly what we are going through, they also still have no heating or a finished house, I have a feeling I will be talking to Theresa a lot!

We swap lots of tips and John finds out lots about available floorboards and places to go, eventually we realise that it is the same shop that we have been going to all along that has the correct floor boards we need!

Renovating a derelict property - Walls come tumbling down 17.02.13

Renovating a derelict property - Walls come tumbling down 17.02.13

Time to start removing the walls from the first floor, first things first and we have to try to empty the rooms, we have been using these as storage.

So all the paint goes into the back bedroom, this means once again a room that was almost finished has turned back into part of the building site.

The first wall takes approx 2 minutes to come down, we were left wondering how the hell it had ever managed to stay up, but it really is best not to dwell on these types of thoughts or I may panic and want to move out.

The acro goes back up and I go back to the tip, twice! I am starting to get quite friendly with the guy who works there, and he now helps me to unload the car when he’s not busy, toady he was quite busy and I had to make a stupid mistake, emptying the rubble bag into the skip I didn’t hold on to it very well and the bag went in with the last bits.

They are very strict with the recycling here and you are not allowed to put things into the wrong skip, and a hessian bag in with rubble is definitely wrong, so he comes over with his fishing rod and gets it out for me.

I made up for it though as I had memorised how to say this is the last wall in French, and I knew this sentence until I spoke to him, when 2 of the words came out the wrong way, but he understood. I think this is one of the reasons he is so helpful, on my first visit I hardly knew a word of French and now I am having little bits of conversations with him, he can see I’m making the effort, this will always help if you move to another country with a different language, if you try and people can see you trying they will generally make allowances and be a lot more helpful.

I also strip the hall wall of the remaining horrendous brick wall paper, once the paper is off, we realise that there is a type of tar on the wall, this takes hours of scraping and still does not fully come off, I also find out it is not a good idea to move the step ladder whilst there is a bucket of water perched on the top.

IT WILL FALL OFF AND GO ALL OVER THE FLOOR!!!!!!!!!!!

We have to try to stop the water from going out of the front door as there are all the bits of paper and tar in it, I hate stripping walls, and to make matters worse it doesn’t even look that much better!

I am so ashamed of myself 16.02.13

I am so ashamed of myself 16.02.13

Well we have bought the new joists and other bits and pieces for the walls. We had intended to make a start on pulling down the walls today but unfortunately whilst we were checking yesterday we found more rot than we had originally thought.

John has decided he is going to replace the rotten joist on the first floor as we will need the acro (the big metal pole that is currently holding the joist in place) and the bit I try not to think about, the floor above the joist, i.e. our bedroom!!!!!!!!

The rotten piece comes out and John replaces this, to ensure that it is truly secure John triangulates the bolts,(as you can imagine these are johns words not mine, to normal people these means the bolts go up and down,  up and down and up and down) these bolts have to be big enough to go through the old joist and the new attached joist long and John used  more than necessary to make sure it was truly secure, the top tip is to always put enough in and then add a couple more.

The hole in the wall and all the surrounding area are fully treated with specialist rot and word worm treatment, as even though all the rot has been removed it is better safe than sorry, this is not an area where corners can be cut.

The next job is the beam over the window in the living room, I am so gutted that this has to be removed as we are planning to keep the stone work exposed and the wood across the windows, John tells me not to worry and we won’t know the difference once he is finished, I know johns good but is he that good????

He puts the acro up, just in case, because the ceiling joist is supported by this beam. Once we start to remove it we realise that it wasn’t supporting anything because the wooden beam is so rotten it is just dust (3 rubble sacks worth of dust, I know this because I had to bag it and take it to the tip!!!!!). 

Here is a video of the beam coming out and a bit of the dust, John apologises for his one swear word in the clip.

Once the beam is removed John removes the stone work around it. He then sets to work on the replacement beam, he uses the chainsaw to remove the engineered corners and make the beam look old, so in answer to my question, yes he is that good, once the beam is stained it will look just like the old one, minus the wood worm and the disintegrated wood.

Next he has to replace the stone work, and treat all the surrounding areas, wood worm there is no escape for you, we will find you and we will exterminate, exterminate, exterminate, oops sorry I slipped into dalek mode for a moment then! Even Dr Who, couldn’t manage this job!

All finished and it looks amazing, and we no longer have any part of the house held up by acro’s, well at least for today, tomorrow will be a different story!

I also have a terrible confession today, forgive me father for I have sinned! I did it, I finally turned into a real expat, it will only happen once, I will never do it again, I promise. I made a roast chicken dinner and went to the shop and bought, wait for it, this is the really dreadful part, some stuffing from the Brit aisle, there I said it out loud, I am so ashamed of myself! I have never bought from the Brit aisle, and laugh at it most times I go into the shop, and just to make matters worse, it wasn’t even Paxo, it was a Happy Shopper version! I would never buy this in England and certainly not for six times the normal price!

But it was nice

A family day out in Brittany 12/02/13

A family day out in Brittany 12/02/13

We have a lazy morning, after all our guest are not coming till the afternoon, and as we are sat having a cup of tea, planning on starting the big clear up there is a knock on the door, Bugger, bugger, bugger. There’re here, I’m so pleased to see them but gutted that the house is a mess (yes I know it’s a building site but it can look semi presentable at times).

I don’t let anyone have a look round until I have a tidy up, which I realise is a bit cruel as after a long journey they all want to use the toilet, I suggest the outside toilet, but this is probably a bit mean.

So I relent and give the guided tour. Whilst they have a wander around the forest we have a mad clean up, and the house is ready for their return.

My brother and sister in law have not seen it since their last visit and we have given them the loft bedroom as this is big enough for my nieces blow up bed.

They can’t believe how different the house is, and it is really nice to see it from somebody else’s eyes, as when you are living in it, you never really realise just how much you have done and how far you have got.All you see is the building site.

But one of the most exciting parts of the visit is the curtain rings and curtain hooks they have brought me, we now have proper hanging curtains, I’m almost as excited as when we got the bath (a year ago it would’ve taken a lot more than a pack of curtain rings to get me this excited, but hey, priorities are different now).

We have a lovely four days and even take a full day off for sightseeing; we visit Chateaulin (and get a photo’s of me and John together!!!!)

this was the most random place to see a red telephone box!!!!! if anybody knows the story behind the red telephone box, I would love to hear it

Locronan, which is the most amazing town, the buildings are so old and they all have trees grafted into them, we will definitely be visiting again in the summer to see them in full bloom.

And Douarnenez, where we go for a long walk along the beach

With a final stop over in Quimper.

And the sun shone all day!

If you are ever to visit this part of Brittany, I would definitely recommend a visit to each of these towns, my words do not do them justice and my photography skills are rubbish, so if you like the photo’s you will really love the actual places.

My niece also makes us pancakes for shrove Tuesday, which were very nice and only one ended up on the floor from the tossing, which is good going, what we didn’t realise is, if you do not clean every bit of batter from the work top, it turns into cement the following morning! Maybe useful for when we come to fill up more holes in the walls.

The four days go so quickly, I can’t believe it is time for them to leave, I love having them visit and it was especially nice to see my niece, even if she is the fussiest eater alive (but I still love you so much). The house seems very empty and quiet when they have driven off.

We spend the rest of the day shopping as we need to get supplies to replace the walls on the first floor, these will all be coming down in the next few days.