Renovation project - Bartering in Brittany

Renovation project - Bartering in Brittany

There is still damp in the living room so John takes a look at this, the fire place has been blocked up, and he removes wood, we then realise that the chimney has not been capped, so whenever it rains water is coming in, this explains the damp on an internal wall, again we do not have the tools to do this job so set about finding a company that will.

We arrange for a company to come in and price up installing a wood burner and sorting out the chimney. Again this company has come through recommendations and is fully insured.

John cleans out the fire and there are 3 rubble bags removed, including a number of dead birds!

In the corner of the room there is the saniflo outlet pipe, this is currently covered by a curtain, there is still enough wood left to box it in, so John does this today, this is again one of those little jobs that makes a big difference.

Before painting the room John decides too empty the under stair cupboard and the smell of damp that comes from here is unbearable, but we do find a fantastic old trunk, this is now given pride of place in the living room as a side table.

Bags and bags of damp rubble are removed from this cupboard and as we take a break in the garden we get chatting to the guy from next door, who is incidentally called Guy!

He comes to have a look at what John has done, and John offers to give him a number of his tools as he is also renovating. He does not want to accept the tools as a gift so invites us in and gives John some fantastic bottles of vintage wine, result!!!!!

He also explains that he has some damp in his under stair cupboard (which is directly where we have just emptied the under stair cupboard)

So the problem will now be sorted for both houses, however when the door is closed on the cupboard the problem will remain as there is no air circulation, John sorts this quickly by drilling a couple of air holes in the bottom stair.

As we are chatting and explain about the chimney, he tells us he is going on the roof to do some work on his chimney so will happily cap the little house chimney until the owners arrange for the company to come in and complete the work.

I just love this town everybody is so helpful and friendly and bartering is still a way of life.

Wine for tools

Job for job


and more wine because they are just so nice!