Oh yes - nearly forgot!

Other improvements which may be appreciated even more, are the addition of heating to the swimming pool, and wireless broadband........

Improvements for next year

For this year, we made many changes and improvements, not least of which was the new shower-room.  We have more planned for next year.

Firstly, there is one improvement which hopefully won't be noticed! The floorboards under the laminate flooring in the triple bedroom need replacing - a hangover from the flooding we had in 2008.  Making these more solid will make my mind rest easier!

Whilst that is being done, we have decided to completely refurbish the en-suite for that bedroom.  There is the possibility of making the inside bigger without increasing the footprint - I know this is a useful magic trick , which can't work everywhere, but an extra 10inches width will make all the difference.  In addition, there will be a velux window in there, which will also make it less claustrophobic.  Whilst we're at it, we will be replacing the basin and loo, more in line with the style of the new shower-room.

As well as a couple of other small things, we are having a basic ceiling put up in the utility/boiler room.  This is phase one of the project to make that room more usable - phase 2 will be next year, rendering the stone walls and then painting walls, floor and ceiling.  As a result these sights will be a thing of the past!

Finally, we hope to put in some more kitchen units - a peninsular coming out of the wall the other side of the door to the utility/boiler room.  One thing we have always found is the lack of food preparation area.  This will resolve that problem.

The Hedges

We have been getting Mr Balthazart, our gardener to keep the leylandii hedges well trimmed.  He had been doing that, but there was one section which was out of control.  This was affecting two cherry trees, which seemed to be suffering.


We have now had this section chopped back down (photo below).  The difference is stark, but as the hedge was not providing privacy from anything other than the horses in the next door field, we think it will be fine.  Just hope the cherry trees appreciate the extra light!

A weekend Away

The Rugby team we support, London Wasps were drawn against Union Bordeaux Bègles in the European Challenge Cup this season.  As soon as the fixtures were announced, I booked the flights for Pip and me, together with my son Andrew.  Therefore 11 - 13 November we were at La Matha.

There were other things to do apart from the rugby.  We went shopping in Leroy Merlin in Bordeaux for toilet, washbasin and tiles to refurbish the small shower-room upstairs (more on that later), and of course, we had to visit St Foy market!

Saturday evening, we had a nice meal in a restaurant in the shadow of the football stadium where the game was being held.  That was followed by a bit of a walk-over by Wasps - six tries to two: 14-47 - but that really capped a great weekend.

Oh yes - the weather was fantastic - 20c during the day!  We had both breakfasts outside on the terrace - that's what it's all about!

Another Trip from La Matha

We had a week in La Matha at the end of October (half term week, although without children!).  We were joined by four friends, and had a thoroughly good time.  We ate very well - cooking a lot at the house, as well as the usual evening at La Terrasse and a really good lunch in Chai Pascal in St Emilion.

One day we decided to go out along the Dordogne towards Sarlat.  The first stop was Les Eyzies, which is near to where they have found the earliest remains of modern man.  We went for a nice walk along the valley in search of an image of a fish, but were disappointed in not finding the fish!  In the village, there is a visitor centre, called "Le Pôle international de la Préhistoire", which is in an amazing building.  The museum was a bit disappointing - we expected to be able to go around the houses which are nestling underneath and attached to the cliffs.

We had a great picnic lunch there, and then moved on to a very old chateau in the woods, visited 30 years ago by Toby and Sophie who were with us.  This is Chateau Commarque - a spectacular castle on the edge of a hill suddenly appearing out of the woods.

This castle is still being excavated, but it is so dramatic, looking across the valley at another Chateau.

This was really the highlight of the trip - you can climb all the way to the top of the tower, for an amazing view (the picture above of the neighbouring chateau is taken from there).

From Commarque, we went on to Sarlat - a very quaint town.  Beer/wine in the square, and then home for a late evening meal.

The Little Green Frog

Visitors to the house will have read about the green frog, which has captured people's imagination over the last three years.  Earlier this year, we finally got to see the frog, photos below!

Summer's Here!

Our first guests of the summer are  now well into their second week.  Weather has been a bit mixed - some heavy showers, but also a lot of warm sunshine.  After they leave this weekend, we only have the following six days when the house is not occupied all the way through to 12 September.

We hope that all the guests who go there this year have a great time - enjoy sunny weather, good wine, tasty food etc!

Improved Kitchen

As promised, here is a photo of the improved kitchen.  Earlier photos were taken before the dishwasher, and this photo now shows the new wall unit, used for the crockery (of which there is also now more!).  Also note, the photo shows a much tidier kitchen than the previous ones, we may even include this on the website!

Castelmoron d'Albret

In an earlier post (here), I mentioned a village that we found when going for a drive near Sauveterre de Guyenne - Castelmoron d'Albret.  We went there again just before Easter, and I took a camera.  Here are some photos.  It really is a delightful village!

Improved Kitchen

When we installed the dishwasher last year, we took out a 600mm width cupboard which was used for the crockery.  The only place to store the crockery then was in the dresser at the other end of the dining room, which was a bit of a hassle.  As a result, we went to Bordeaux and bought a new double wall unit to go above the draining board.

This now houses mugs and cups as well as all the plates and bowls - perfectly placed near the dishwasher!  There is also now more space for the glasses, having moved the mugs across.

Unfortunately no photo as yet, but as I will be going out soon, I will take a photo to upload.

The Entrance Hall

One thing we had been planning was curtains for the large windows at the front of the house.  We had curtains made with thermal linings, so it will be good insulation both summer and winter.  Together with a relocated sofa, the area now looks like a proper room, and is a great space to chill - perhaps with a glass of wine and a good book?

What a Great Week!

We've just come back from a week out at La Matha, and the weather was gorgeous!  Early 20's every day, except the day we were heading for Bordeaux airport!  Pip even went swimming (this time next year when we have the heater working, I will join her!).  As well as the weather, we enjoyed the usual good wine, we went to Duras and Eymet markets, had some good meals, and had drinks with the neighbours.

More importantly, we completed a number of improvements.  Firstly, and most importantly, the shower room is now virtually complete.  Just one small thing to rectify, which I hope to do when I go out in a couple of weeks.  Here are some photos:

Compare this to before we started:

Wine - again!

Taking a van down to the house with furniture and stuff means that there is the opportunity to bring some wine back.  Bill and I did a bit of shopping - I say a bit: we bought about 700  bottles.  They are not all for us - some friends had placed orders - but I need to work out how to store it all!

We bought so much from the Co-operative shop Univits in Les Lèvès that the man gave me 18 bottles of a nice red wine, 6 of white, 12 of crémant, and three bottles of St Emilion!

Here is the van loaded up:

Improvements Carried Out

These are the things which have been done this last week:

• Skirting board fitted on the landing
• New wooden trim at the top of the stairs
• New wood covering all of the beam next to the stairs
• All the "junk" (decorating etc stuff) has been moved from the boiler room
• The workshop, a private room at the back, is now used to store the decorating stuff
• The "lean-to" at the back has been cleared and the wood tidied up
• Two bikes (one adult, one kid) now kept in the wood store
• Kitchen cupboard between the cooker and fridge now fixed to the wall
• New shutters built for the bunk bedroom
• Table tennis table delivered
• All beds now have decent pillows
• There are now warm spring duvets for all the beds
• Additional crockery and cutlery bought (necessary with the dishwasher!)
• Additional serving plates bought
• Another sofa - we now have a sofa by the large doors: perfect for lounging on with a book!

There is still more to do (there always is!), but I am happy that the house is getting better and better each year.

Finally, a very big thank you to Bill who accompanied me on my trip and helped with a lot of the work.

Back Safely - Bathroom Update

Lots of things done whilst out there - many of them small things that I've been meaning to do for ages.  Will list them later, but firstly, here are photos of the work in progress on the bathroom.

Chris the builder had faithfully promised to have the bathroom finished by the time I went there (which was going to be difficult as I was delivering the shower).  However, he had a bad hand the week before, and was struggling with a joint in the central heating, which caused delays.  Now estimated time for completion is next Friday, 8th.  Anyway, it is looking so good, and when painted will be impressive.

All Set Now

We have a nice big van waiting on the drive.  All the stuff loaded in there ready to leave at just 04:45 tomorrow morning.  Let's hope I haven't forgotten anything.  The drive down won't be as bad this time.  We WILL be leaving on time, and I managed to persuade the nice man at National in Slough to put Bill on the hire as a driver, without any extra charge!  So Bill can do some of the slog tomorrow......

The shower-room is nearly complete.  Tiling around the shower cubicle (which is currently in the van!) was being done today.  We have been promised pictures for some time now, but our builder's broadband always seems to be on the blink.  I have my camera with me, so will be able to publish on my return.

I estimate that I will be buying about 650 bottles of wine to bring back.  Whilst of course this is for my "personal consumption" my friends will also enjoy drinking Bordeaux wine in the months to come!

A bit of a Stutter.....

The building work is going well.  I hope to have some work in progress photos to post soon.  Unfortunately, the shower we had selected is no longer available.  The solution will now end up being better - we have bought one here, and I will take it over in the van in a couple of weeks' time.  This will only have a few days' delay on the completion, but the end result will be better, and in fact cheaper!  This is what it looks like (I don't think we'll have the goose there though!)

Swimming pool repair work has now finished, so this year the pool should hold its water much better.

Finally, we are collecting together all the stuff I need to take down: hopefully the van will be big enough!

Heating or No Heating

With all the talk of improvements and repairs to the pool, we had been thinking of getting solar heating installed next year.  Monsieur Bouilhac, our swimming pool man, has replied that solar heating is not effective even in Gironde, as it would require solar panels with a surface area equivalent to the size of the pool.  We had been thinking of having an open-sided covered area to the left of the pool house with a pitched roof for the panels but that would need to be very big!

His suggestion was a heat pump.  I'd heard of heat pumps for heating houses etc - Grand Designs have them all the time, but I then looked into it for swimming pools.  It works like a reverse air conditioning unit, compressing the heated fluid and having a heat exchanger between that and the pool water.  It can heat the pool to 28c with an energy multiplier of five to one (for one unit of energy used in powering the pump, it generates five units of heating energy).

This looks to me like a very good idea.  The temperature of the pool is "refreshing" for most of the season, and to have it heated would definitely make it much more attractive for a longer period of time.  We have decided that this will be an improvement to install next year - after all, we are doing a lot of improvement this year already!

Well, That's no so bad!

We've just had the quote for the swimming pool, and the problems are not as extensive as first thought.  We will not be needing a new lining, which is a big relief!  There is some extensive work required digging up the paving so that new pipes can be installed to feed the nozzles, but no-where near as bad as we had thought.  The good news is that this will be completed before the first visitors in June.

At the same time, the builder will be starting the bathroom at the end of the month, and has confirmed he should complete before I go out at the end of March.

Accumulating More Stuff

We have just ordered some curtains, which I will be taking out with me in March.  There will be a (v) large pair to go in front of the large barn door, with replacement curtains to match on the patio door and window in the lounge.  The ones for the barn door are really to keep the heat in/cold out when there in the winter - the windows are of course not double glazed, and the whole door set up is a source of lost heat.  I suppose it can also be used to keep the place cool in the summer, as thermal linings would just as easily work the other way!

There is a downside, in that when open, the curtains will be blocking a certain amount of light, as the doors go right up to the side wall of the hall.  That said, the whole door area is 3m by 3m and lets in so much light, we don't think it will hurt too much.

The visitors coming this year who have been before, will notice loads of improvements: new bathroom, curtains, furniture, table tennis, a pool that won't be leaking.........

It's not all Bad!

Whilst we are disappointed that we will have to spend an as yet unknown amount to plug the leaks in the swimming pool, there are still some positive things happening.

Firstly the table tennis table.  We got this for a great price on eBay, and the pick-up was only five miles away!  We've picked it up, and it seems fine.  We've got a new net, four bats and some balls, so we're all set!

Secondly, we have just picked up a great bargain.  We have bought a new three seater sofa on eBay for a ridiculously low price - the cost of collecting it 15 miles away is more than the price we paid for it!  Anyway, we will probably put that in the sitting room to replace the white two seater, and have that one up in the entrance hall.  It's such a large bright space, it has always needed something there for people to sit on and read, or just relax.

Anyway, the stock of stuff I will be taking down at the end of March is piling up.  I hope we can fit it all in the van!

Oh Dear!

When we were at La Matha in November, we noticed that the hibernated pool had lost a lot of water.  The pool man, Monsieur Bouilhac of BLM Piscines had been advising us of a loss of water for the past couple of years, but each time he told us it was not serious and didn't necessarily need attention.

He has now investigated, and it seems there are a number of cracks in the concrete fabric of the pool, bad connections for the drainage plughole, and poor connections for the jets by the steps.  This will need a new lining, together with some work on the pipes.  Further investigation and subsequent estimate to follow next week, but this is definitely something we need to have sorted out!

We will update on how this progresses.....

Bookings for 2011

Well this is going well!  We have now booked all prime slots, and we now only have six free days between 4 June and 11 September.  Included in the 13 weeks are four weeks from previous visitors.  In fact, another previous guest tried to book 2 weeks just after a new enquiry had come in.

This really is encouraging for us, and hopefully shows the work that we are doing to the house is paying off.  Repeat bookings and word of mouth recommendations mean that we must be doing something right, and it's good to see that other people can relax and enjoy the house pool and garden just as we do.

Sporting Facilities

Paving the way for competitions in the summer, we have just bought an outdoor table tennis table.  Whilst we think this should fit in the boiler room/utility room with a bit of rejigging of things, we intend to put it out on the hard stand outside the bathroom for the summer.  The area there has more than enough space, and is flat; when swept should be great - certainly in the morning or early evening!

This will complement the boules and badminton sets we have provided in previous years.  There is also a darts board left by a visitor (although I don't really classify darts as a sport!).  Together with swimming, guests may be able to have a "Superstars" competition........

Bathroom Progress - Update

We have now received the quote from the builder, and have sent a cheque for the materials.  He now has two months to complete before I go out there.  Here's hoping  he does that!