Painted Shutters!

Here we are - the "new" shutters for the downstairs double bedroom, finally painted.

September Visit

Well, we finally managed to get out to La Matha for a weekend.  This was the annual pilgrimage with Bill (of the fence building project), Shirley, Freddie and Ali, the precedent for which was set last year.  Slightly different route this time - Easyjet to Bordeaux and a Europcar rental.  I've decided now that, even if Europcar is the cheapest quote, I will go elsewhere: the Europcar desk was the only one with a queue, and that moved very slowly.

Anyway, Pip and I had a trip to Leroy Merlin to look at bathroom stuff for the en-suite whilst the others did provision shopping in Auchan at Bordeaux Lac.  We then headed straight to the house for a late lunch, followed later by dinner at La Terrasse.  Saturday was St Foy market to get fresh food for a BBQ in the evening, following which we just chilled out in the garden, by the pool, on the terrace..... The barbecue was fantastic - we had bought some meats from one of the butcher's stalls ready prepared - some duck kebabs which had duck liver on, as well as devils on horseback, and some butterflied and marinated chicken breasts..

I managed to get the shutters painted - they had held up remarkably well considering they were only undercoated.  Photos were taken and will be uploaded later.

On Sunday on the way back to Bordeaux, we stopped off in St Emilion to have lunch in Chai Pascal http://www.chai-pascal.com/, which was superb.  A really good Lalande Pomerol for €22 and some delicious veal as the plat du jour.

I suppose it sounds as though we were just eating all the time.  That's not quite true - we did drink copious amounts of wine as well!!!

Next time, I will NOT be the designated driver!

Here are some photos

Shutters

When we had the wall to the side of the house re-pointed, it really highlighted how rotten the shutters for the downstairs double bedroom had got.

Therefore, when I went over to La Matha in May with Bill, I took some tongue and groove wood, a skill saw and some other tools.  The wood was not as thick as the original but I ended up with something that worked.

The weather was so bad in the last few days I was there, I was not able to paint it outside - that meant I had to wait for one side to dry before painting the other side.  As a result, I ran out of time, with only two coats of undercoat on the wood.  I did ask a builder to pop over and paint it in the same colour as the shutter on the front, but.........  I will be painting it when we go over in September, provided the undercoat is still in good nick!  The other shutters will probably need replacing as well before too long.

The Next Project

When we bought the house, one big project that had not been completed was the en-suite bathroom for the main bedroom.  The door was there, and a large velux was in place, but no flooring, walls etc - bare roofspace.

There is a problem, though: the large beam that is visible in the first picture above is just a tad too close to the wall adjoining the bedroom for a shower to be fitted, and that's the only place for it.  The solution has to be to move the wall about 6 inches or so into the bedroom to create space for the shower.  A nice bath under the velux, and a stylish washbasin between the two.  Finish it off with the loo, some nice tiling, and we're in business!

There will of course be updates on this as it progresses!