Progress in Gite 1

Sandblasting the internal walls

After Dan and I had finished scraping out (lovingly) all the mortar from the cracks between each and every stone in the walls (not at all boring), the two maconneries spent a day sandblasting the internal walls. After the initial elation that we have nice, pretty, clean walls:

I soon realised that there was seventeen 35kg bags of sand on the floor, the maconneries had left and Dan was busy, so who was going to clear that lot up? I really am Bad Dobby – it’s not just a nickname anymore! I put my pillow case on and swept up the house like a good house elf!

Faire les Joints (pointing)

Dan, our in - house peacekeeper, resolved the strike issues with Bèrnard the Betonerrie and a 35 hour week resumed. The threat of redundancy helped as Bèrnard was aware of the suffering of the Rover families and didn’t wish to put his own family through the same trauma.
So happily, Bèrnard and the maconneries began the pointing of the internal barn walls:

First Floor

In the meantime, Dan inserted and fixed all the cross beams – I have to say, they look fantastic – we have a first floor at last:

Trench

To prevent water seeping through the lower walls of the gite, we had a 2 meter deep trench dug along the outside wall:

Before

After

Just our luck, as soon as it was dug it rained and rained and rained and rai……. The mud was horrific.

We inserted a membrane along the wall:

then added a drainage pipe and stones to assist drainage:

Before any of this could happen, the area had to be cleared. Unfortunately for me it was covered in stones (which I had thrown there when removing the BBQ). Dan was busy doing beams stuff, so Bad Dobby’s next clearance job was to remove every stone and my master said, ’stack them carefully’. So I turned my hand to dry stone walling – all those years of jigsaws have finally paid off! Not bad, even if I do say so myself:

Dan tells me that people in the village are putting in orders and asking where I learnt such an old and dying art – obviously I said it was at the Anglesey show! I am buying a new anorak next month! Meanwhile, Dan was flying ahead:

Electrics

I don’t understand a word of it, Dan did the lot. It seems that all roads lead to Paris:

Plumbing

Dan also did all the plumbing:

Progress in the garden and this month’s Visitors

The Experts (Aunty Rosemary and Mum) arrived:

The garden breathed a sigh of relief. At last people who know what they are doing, instead of these amateurs who have been plucking at various weeds which happen to be plants and tickling the plants instead of pruning! 4 days of slog – up early, planning, pruning, chainsawing, burning, then uncovering various parts of the garden – (Dan and I were exhausted, they were hard taskmasters):

We were left with a long list of things to do before their next visit.

The nice frenchmen who came to dig the trench also dug up some trees in the garden:

and attempted to level the ground but it was too wet so they have to come back to finish it - so far so good tho:

Polly was dragged into the first stage of landscaping – rebuilding one of the garden walls. Polly was eager to learn how to make concrete – so we introduced her to Bèrnard the Betonnerie . They became firm lifelong friends, infact they hung out together all Saturday afternoon, whilst Polly cooked up a fine broth of ciment, gravel and sand washed down with a bit of water, Bèrnard spun round with glee whilst chatting up the pretty young Polly:

The concrete was then dropped over the edge of the terrace to make the foundations for the rebuilding of one of the tumbled walls – it was a bit like an episode of Tiswas as I was standing below, spreading out the concrete and attempting to direct the fall of the concrete via plastic sheeting whilst attempting to dodge the splodge of ciment cascading down on my head:

Dan in the meantime was running up and down from the top to the bottom with wheelbarrow loads of sand and gravel mixture and 35kg bags of ciment on his shoulder – he could hardly walk the next morning:

Gerry and Jean drove from La Rochelle where they have been living during a 6 month sabbatical. We had a quick drink in Domme, an aperitif with a couple of friends then a nice meal with plenty of vin rouge and and chatter. Jean and Gerry then stayed in the area for a couple of days savouring their final few days in France before returning to the UK and to work – they’ll be back!

Shopping

3 Sunloungers – as soon as I bought them, it began to rain!

So much for sneaking off for an hour or so to lie in the sun and read a book!

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