Saturday 29 May 2010

Master Bedroom

As mentioned, when we moved in, most rooms were incomplete, and, whilst the master bedroom looked spectacular, that too needed work doing to it.  The large external wall was beautifully rendered, the flooring was down.  However, it was finishing it off that was lacking.  Some of the skirting board was down, but most was piled in the corner.  The lighting consisted of a single 60w bulb on the end of the wires coming out of the main exposed roof beam.

A carpenter who was commissioned to put architrave around the upstairs door frames was also asked to finish off the skirting in the main bedroom, and I managed to wire in the lamp (it is a long way up there!).

Wednesday 26 May 2010

Kitchen

When we decided to buy the house, we had not planned to replace the kitchen straight away.  However, when we took possession and started to move our furniture in, we had to have a rethink.

This is what it was like when we visited with the estate agent:


 And later, after we had boght it:
Quite apart from not being to our taste, doors were falling off the units, there was no oven, and the extractor fan was a bit of a monstrosity.  The hole for the eye level oven was not a standard size, and there was no space for the fridge we had brought over.

As a result, we decided to change earlier than expected.  We took a risk on choosing an Ikea kitchen, which I think has worked, and our friendly local works manager fitted it himself with his electrician son.  Photo below (not really intended for publication, given the state of untidiness....)

Anyway, we think it is an improvement on what was there before.  This year we have gone a stage further and installed a dishwasher - we regret not doing that at the beginning, as having 9 people in the house without a dishwasher is not our idea of a holiday!

Tuesday 25 May 2010

Buying Wine in May

One of the advantages of taking stuff down in a van is that logistics determine that there should be a payload for the return journey.  Coming from the Bordeaux region, that can only mean one thing - Wine!

Whilst we were out there, Bill and I visited St Emilion and Pomerol.  We had a good session in a wine shop, where they sold Petrus and other fine wines, but we weren't in the market for them (€3,000+ a bottle).  However, we did part company with a few euros for some good wine (around the €30 to €40 range).  Whilst in St Emilion, we had lunch in Chai Pascal, a really good bistro with a great atmosphere and a good wine list (as you would expect).

Anyway, we also made other trips to the local co-operative at Les Lèves and to Berticot at Duras to stock up on day to day drinking wine.  In the end, I travelled back with over 380 bottles of wine - not all of them were for us: Bill had a quota, and there were purchases on behalf of other friends which made up most of the quantity!

Staircase

The stairs that were in place were little more than scaffolding planks, with newel posts and railings that were not very solid, as you can see in this photo (which also has mattresses and Ikea flat packs visible!).
This was one of the first things we wanted to change.  Our building contact put us in touch with a staircase manufacturer who was based about 45 minutes away towards Montauban.  They came and measured up, and we went to the showroom to chose the design.  We had the staircase made in Brazilian Oak (known as Cerejeira), and also had a step for the triple bedroom upstairs made to match.
The staircase now is a main feature of the house showing off the gallery landing to great effect.

Whilst the stairs were being fitted, the woman who had sold us the house came by to drop off a key, and mentioned to us that the stairs had been in the "temporary" state for about 11 years......

History Continued...

Whilst La Matha was probably the most habitable of the nine houses we visited, there was a lot to be done.  The house was originally a stone barn, and the previous purchaser had bought the building and a square plot carved out of a field, for renovation.

The owners were an English builder and his French wife, and, in the 13 years that they owned the house, they had achieved quite a bit.  However, for a builder, it is always more tempting to work on projects that generate money, so projects at home started to be left.  The couple separated, and we were able to buy the nearly completed renovation.

I say nearly completed - there was probably not one project that had really been finished.  Some of these I will detail with before and after photos in forthcoming posts.  Others were just laziness - for instance around the top of the chimney at the back where the stairs pass, there was a gap, into which tissues had been stuffed to block a draft; it took about 15 minutes with a silicone filler and a wet finger to produce an effective seal that did not grate on the eye!

The father of a Frenchman we knew from home lives just outside Bordeaux, and his job was the works manager at Bordeaux hospital.  In addition to his other son being an electrician, and him being quite handy at doing stuff himself, he had good contacts.  Very useful for our project to get the house usable quickly!

Friday 7 May 2010

Fencing

Well here it is. Forget the dark looking pool - it had black polythene sheeting in it as a winter protector. 
This is the gate for Mr Balthazart, the gardener to get his tractor through for mowing the grass by the pool....

I'm Back!

We got there eventually at about 1:15 am.  Driving was fine, as I was able to keep going thanks to some Red Bull about 1.5 hours from the end.   The problem with that was, I was then wired and couldn't get to sleep when I finally hit the pit!

Anyway, weather was rubbish, and became very cold - had to have the central heating on!  We made good progress and finished the fence, photos to be posted later.  

We were also able to make shutters for one of the windows - the one that was rotten.  However, because of the rain on Tuesday and Wednesday, these were finished late, and I was only able to get two coats of undercoat on them.  Not all is lost - Chris my builder will put the coat of gloss on later.

Dishwasher in, but I failed abysmally with the plumbing - Chris will sort that out too!