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!

Living Room

The room which needed least doing to it was the living room.  We did need to clean it thoroughly, put up curtains, install lighting (there are no over-head lights, hence the two uplighter/standard lamps).  Sofas and arm chairs completed the line up, although after the first year we bought a couple of low tables - handy for that glass of wine or bottle of beer!

Important improvements were the installing the TV, DVD player and UK satellite digibox (although the first year, we couldn't get that to work).

Later in the year, we aim to buy a new grate for the fire place, which will make fires in the winter easier - we also need to do something with the top of the chimney, as, for some reason, it goes straight up, with no cover or device to stop rain from coming down onto the hearth!

The attached photo of what it was like when we initially visited with the estate agent is not that inspiring, and shows what a bit of daylight and less clutter can do! 

Summer Time

The Summer period is now here, and from last weekend, we will have visitors at the house virtually all the way through the summer until we go in early September.  It is encouraging that we can get so many bookings given the economic climate, but also a bit scary: we hope that people will enjoy themselves, and that the weather stays good.  Last year was a cracker down there after a poor year in 2008 - lets hope the summers do not alternate each year!!!

We are asking guests if they are happy to send us photos for publishing on this blog - obviously of people looking happy!  Watch this space for a small photo album coming soon!

The Bunk Bedroom

The other bedroom downstairs again was one of the rooms originally created about a dozen or so years before we bought the house.  The bedroom was used by the 11 year old son, and it was decorated in very very faded wallpaper, and a carpet that was completely threadbare and really filthy.  The wallpaper was nursery stuff - obviously not for a 11 year old boy - and was papered onto some form of polystyrene wall covering, which was badly dented and coming away in places.  Behind that covering one wall was very damp.

Unfortunately, I did not take any photos of the "before" - I was too busy concentrating on stripping the wall covering, ripping up the carpet etc.  Not knowing why the damp was there, we took a gamble and simply sealed the stripped walls with watered down PVA and then painted onto a rough finish.  The damp came back slightly right at the beginning, and the very first visitors we had complained about an unpleasant smell in that room.  However, since then (touch wood), the damp has not come back, and there is no smell.  We are now convinced that the cause was that insulating wall covering not allowing the wall to breath properly.

With the plain white walls and new flooring, we have furnished with bunk beds, a wardrobe and other small bits and pieces to make up a child's bedroom.

We may well be getting a camp bed, which could easily be used in this room, which will increase capacity in the house to 10 (ok, at a push!)