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!

Bathroom Progress

We have now sent detailed specifications of the master en-suite to our builder.  It will not have a bath any more, as, although there would be space for it, the room will seem more spacious without it.  In reality, few people would actually use the bath anyway, and if they did want a bath, there is always one downstairs.

We're hoping that the wall to the bedroom won't have to be moved by much, not that it would make much difference in the bedroom given its size.

We now await the quote and the builder starting work.  It's getting exciting!

Letting Websites

This year we are experimenting a bit.  When we started, we signed up to Holiday Lettings and Holiday Rentals.  That first year, all the bookings we took were from Holiday Lettings, and I think we only received one enquiry from Holiday Rentals.  I'm not sure really what caused this: was it the site or the advert in the site? As a result, and not knowing the underlying reason, we dropped Holiday Rentals and still managed to have a good set of bookings in 2009 and 2010, with our first bookings outside of July and August in 2010. 

Not wanting to leave it there, though, for 2011, we have signed up with Chez Nous, who claim to have a different demographic from the other letting websites, and a newer site called Pure Holiday Homes.  Both have nicely presented adverts etc, although there is a downside in that I will have to update three sets of availability calendars as well as recording details of the lettings here.

Has it paid off?  Early to say - we have five weeks next year booked already, but four of those are re-bookings from previous years.  The other week is from Chez Nous.  I am reasonably confident that week would have been booked from Holiday Lettings, and the true results will come if we manage to let more weeks away from the main season - for instance the "shoulder" months.