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.