Renovation project - the roof has fallen down

Renovation project - the roof has fallen down

It’s time to start work again and once more we are not doing what we planned. The weather whilst we had been away had been terrible and part of the old barn roof had come down. This means we have to start work on this to make it water tight.

There had been an old porch over the back door and this is partly hanging off now. John removes pieces of it to ensure that it will not fall on anybody, but this will need removing as soon as possible.

We had already bought the materials for the job but it was a job we had planned to do once we had finished the house, but as our wood is stored in here and all of Johns tools this has now taken priority.

This is another example of how flexible you have to be, because your house will dictate which jobs you need to do.

We clear out the roof of the barn and there is so much rubbish in there, we also find a lot of car bits, one of which is a car bumper still in its original crepe paper packaging, we do toy with the idea of trying to sell this as it must be very old, but we can’t find it on the internet and to be honest we just want it all gone, so a trip to the scrap yard will be in order.

There is no point in trying to fix the roof as most of the joists and roofing beams are rotten. Even putting the new floor in there requires additional joists to make it safe enough to stand on.

John manages to build a flat roof inside the old roof, we had bought exterior sterling board to do this, the pieces fit together and are waterproof to a point but do require either roofing felt or liquid rubber to make it fully waterproof. We had brought some over with us from the UK, but the tin is not big enough, we find some in the builder’s merchants and it is very expensive, but if it works it will be worth it.

We spend a couple of days on this job and it is yet another job that does not look any different once it is finished, but at least we know it is safe now.

The old porch will be removed tomorrow, but tonight we are going to celebrate News Year Eve, we are actually at the point where we can have friends around. We have cutlery and crockery now and furniture to sit on!

I even make a selection of nibbles, all French which means we are having snail vol au vonts (I can’t remember the actual name)

We invite 2 couples around and unfortunately at the last minute one can’t make it, but never mind I am still having my first soiree in France.

I Skype my daughter and we get to wish each other a happy new year, I know we only left a few days ago, but it already seems so long, but there is no point feeling melancholy as she is on her way out and had we been in the UK we would’ve probably been babysitting rather than having our first party!

We have a fantastic night and Theresa finds out that she likes snails, this may have been a little cruel as I actually said that they were garlic vol au vonts and forgotten to mention that they contained a snail, but she liked them, so did I. A big tip when eating in France is not to know what you are eating until you have tried it, because even as I am writing, the idea of a snail vol au vont is making me pull a face and I know how nice they were!

We head off to the lake just before midnight as there is a fire work display, we get there and the heavens open again, we open our champagne and realise we are the only people there, midnight chimes and we toast with champagne, still waiting for the fireworks, at five past midnight we realise that there aren’t any and walk home (if it had rained any harder we would’ve swum home!) we’re still not sure where the rumour of fireworks had come from, though we do have a good idea, but I’m not cruel enough to mention Craig’s name here!

Our second New Year is over, we head to bed slightly merry and definitely happy.