Outside the Gite

Back to it – Bernard the betonnerie was pleased to have had his month off but declared he was ready to go back to work; he said he was starting to cease up and needed to get the old joints working again! So first job, outside the gite. Ohh the dirt, will it ever go? Oh yes, take a look at this transformation:

Before:

So Dan dug and dug, lowering the level of the ground:

He then built up the walls around the flower bed a little more and then set to work making some steps :

Dan decided to build a small wall enclosing the steps. By a stroke of luck Chris and Anna Tayton had come to visit that very weekend:

Chris seemed keen to become Dan's new trainee so off they went while Anna and I discussed very important things over several cups of tea:

Bernard, however, wasn't sure he was prepared for training up new users! This was not helped as Dan gave Chris a particularly complicated mix to perform as we were running low on aggregate.

The first trainee mix was going well. Bernard had no complaints. Dan instructed add more water.

A pail of water fell into the mix – oooops – Bernard's mood changed – what could be worse than Bernard (admittedly, a betonnerie of few words) simply exclaiming that he was very disappointed in Chris's achievements.

Chris vowed to do better – the next mix was perfect but when it came to transferring the concrete into a wheelbarrow, Chris let Bernard's head fall forward too quickly and the concrete mix fell to the floor despite the wheelbarrow being right next to the mixer!

Bernard wasn't happy, he had a small cut on his chin – he said he was lucky he didn't need stitches! And he complained of severe whiplash. His injuries were reported in the accidents at work book – Bernard asked Anna and I to recommend a good litigator – unfortunately we didn't know any other than Chris.

Anna and I, helpful as ever stood by and laughed but by the end of the day, Bernard presented Chris with his level 1 certificate for concrete mixing! Chris was eager to move on to level 2 but Bernard felt he needed to consolidate what he had learnt first!

I now have pleasure in presenting to you, “The Wall”:

A week or so later when everything was dried out a small wall was built down the other side of the gite entrance and Dan laid some paving stones, ready to take the various sections of beton lave (a finish on a pathway):

We then mixed and laid the beton lave –

And crepied the little wall that he and chris built:

How nice is that.

Eager to finish things off around the outside of the gite, Dan then put up the drainpipes and gutters:

We were then very fortunate in the fact that a nice chap, Simon (the son of a friend of mum's) decided that he had a spare 10 days and would like to come out and labour for us. We were delighted. Simon came and dug out an area by the gite so that we could insert a land drain. (Previously, this area was piled high with soil and roots, overgrown box and other self seeded plants – not an easy task to remove):

La Maison

Dining Room:

Dan knocked down the exterior wall:

I supervised:

And then it was rebuilt:

I took down the ceiling:

And piled the wood up outside:

Study

We removed the plasterboard from the walls:

And I started to remove the plaster – tedious job:

 Ground floor generally

Simon then cleared all the rubble and plasterboard:

which was all over the ground floor of the house

into one pile outside, ready for us to arrange for its removal.

Having done this, he started to take the remaining plaster off the walls in the sitting room.

In the study and we knocked through another window:

And in the dining room. This was how one of the walls in the dining room did look:

and it now looks like this:

Simon then began to dig a trench in through the sitting room door, so that electrics and pipe can run through it.

La Piscine and garden area

Chris decided to take the plunge – very brave:

He broke a couple of world records whilst he was at it; at 17 degrees, he has now broken the record for diving into the pool at the coldest temperature yet. He then stayed in for a while whilst he then set a new record for the quickest length at 8 seconds! Any challengers?

Anna and I stayed firmly on the water in a canoe:

Towards the end of the month, Dan crepied more of the pool house:

Whilst I jet hosed the rock, Simon swept up around the pool, thereby cleaning the area up ready to lay the tiles around the pool at the beginning of November.

Simon leveled the part of the garden not yet grass seeded and then Simon and Dan fetched rocks so that I could make a new border. I then set to work filling it with soil, planting the few plants we had to plant, placing geotextile over it and then shredded bark. In the spring, I shall put some bedding plants into it to provide a bit more colour:

We also finished the stone walls around the other borders that we had made:

And the stone walls of the pool house:

Nearly finished now!

Wildlife

Dan finally proved that there are snakes around here:

And then we found a salamander in the skimmers in the swimming pool:

Oh no that's Chris, easy mistake to make – it must be the legs, here's the salamander!: