Happy New year - albeit belated

It's been a while. Far too long since I spoke to you.
Firstly a very Happy New Year to you and I wish you all a very happy and successful 2016 (what ever that may mean to you)
The end of last year saw Phil working really hard on creating a dining room in the barn. Our guests when the weather turned, were foced to have breakfast in our kitchen / living area which as far from ideal. an unfinished room and not much space - also from our point f view the only space other than our bedroom that is exclusively ours.

I cant remember exactly when work started - October sometime I think. We cleared the barn out and there were tip runs to get rid of a couple of hundred years of stuff. Our friend came and concreted the whole floor area and put up an enormous beam half way down to carry joists and provide us with a ceiling and more importantly a storage area on top.

Ceiling going in

New upstairs storage space

Stairs to new roof storage

The stud partition walls and plasterboard ceiling then went up. Also we odered a new window to replace the 'false window'. It was only a week late arriving - not bad for France.

New toy for lifting plasterboard

Taking old window out

New window overlooking garden and repointed wall

The wall around the window was pointed to save the lovely stone surround and also the wall closest to the courtyard just to retain some character.

View from the outside now that Phil has made some new barn doors (at some point these will be painted in the Charente blue/grey to match the rest of the outside doors and shutters)

Floorboards have been laid and stained and the inside I started painting the walls.

It's the first colour we have used (other than shutters) since we have been here and I have to say it's nice to see something other than white. However the colour wasn't as duck egg blue as I would have liked. In fact it's much more like the shutters outside. Oh well!

Please note wine rack in far corner (Phil has also popped a wine fridge in)

 When we bought the house we found a metal wine rack that holds a hundred bottles. We saved it, painted it black but weren't sure where it was going to go. as you can see (above) we have found the ideal place.

Table set for a dinner party - our first in our new room which we held just after Christmas

So there you are- pictures of the finished room. I would love to know what you think.

Carte Vitale

After a long wait and lots of forms to fill in (well it is France) i have finally received my Carte Vitale. So if anything happens (and it won't) at least I am covered!

Feeling very happy!

Terrace in the garden

The work began in June to build a terrace in the garden. It is east facing so gets the early sun and is a great spot for our guests to have breakfast.
Rob came and did the heavy digging for a small fee and that let Phil and I off the hook.
Here are some photos of our progress.

Exposing apple tree roots and levelling

Rob with chain saw

Levelling

Wasn't really working - just showing off dress and new haircut

Wall in the making

Levelled and nearly ready for  gravel

New arch cemented in

The gravelling commences

New jasmine

Nice place to sit now!

Roof over terrace renovated

Now work inside has finished (well in the public bits anyway) our thoughts have turned to the garden.
Phil has made a fantastic gate for the end of the path that comes out by the church. We had to get the handle in the UK as we couldn't find anything here. I brought it back in my hand luggage and when going through the scanner it was queries. It did look a bit like a set of handcuffs! 

New gate

The roof over the covered terrace was more like a garden and we had numerous leaks so Phil started cleaning and replacing tiles. We had some left over from the roof on the second house. Really hard work and the second and third day our friend Rob came and  did wondrous things with walking boards and a little more agility.

Yesterday the final tile was laid. Huge thanks to John and Helen at l'Etoile d'Or who had some spare tiles they let us have when we ran out. And for those who like the recycling aspect of our project Rob has now got some great hardcore for a barn floor he is going to be levelling.

Next job - Terrace in garden for breakfast and planting.

Overview

Slowly coming on

Half done

Last tile being placed

New roof

The plan was that during April or May a new rood would be put on House 2 - where we are going to create the gites.
We arranged a provisional date of 18th May (earlier bad weather had put them behind). Then I giot a call to say they could start at the end of April.
The first day we had good weather but rain was forecast over the following few days.
Well the majority of the roof was taken off then the next day was bank holiday.
It poured and poured for 3 consecutive days and there was nothing to stop the rain coming through the middle 'gite'. It fell onto floorboards that are also the ceiling and came through it like a waterfall. I do wish I had videoed it.
The net result was that all the boxes that Phil had brought back from the UK were soaking wet. The two new staircases we had just bought were sitting in puddles of water (thanks to the recently concreted floors the water had nowhere to go). Boots and shoes that had come back with Phil were ruined. Books and DVDs - although we managed to save the DVDs and some books during a period of sun when they were laid out all over the courtyard. Photos, Rich's school reports and certificates drenched and stuck together.
We were beyond upset!

I laid photos out by the hundreds in one of the guest rooms to dry.

The owner of the roofing company came out to discuss. The weather was still iffy and he explained that as the rafters had to be replaced they couldn't have covered with a tarpaulin because there was nothing to attach it too.
A lesson for us all I think.
Next time he sees a door he may ask what is behind it. We didn't know the right questions to ask as they were the professionals so we didn't anticipate anything like this happening.
Anyway - all hands were on deck and whilst I was back in the UK they worked like stink to get it finished. I came back on Monday and by Wednesday night all was done. 



 

The salvage operation continued. How rain could seep into sealed containers and sealed bags within those containers I really don't know. However I think we are there now and we have a lovely new roof so we will put that little experience behind us.

A bit more about Angouleme

Angouleme (about 45 minutes south) is the capital city of the Charente.
It is known as the capital of the ‘Image’ especially comic strips or ‘Bandes dessinées  and has a museum dedicated to this. Every year the City hosts the International Comic Strip Festival in January. Cartoon characters appear over more than 20 walls and even street names are contained within a cartoon bubble.

Angoulême also hosts the Gastronomades festival at Christmas, Music Metisse in May and Piano en Valois in October.

The streets of the old town are quaint and in summer it will be lovely to sit in the squares and cafes and watch the world go by. There are so many places to eat and drink - it will take us years to work our way through them all.

Here are some photos to whet your appetite

Cathedral - over the entrance

All post boxes should have character like this

Bust of Herge

Relais d'Alsace - Angouleme -reat food and service!

Some of the street art

Missed deadlines and first guests

Well our deadline of 1st April for an open day was abandoned.
we were putting ourselves under far to much pressure and we didn't have any bookings so we have decided to postpone until Phil gets back from the UK. He has popped back for a service.

We have been so busy on the social side.
Friends Simo and Meg visited from the UK and Simon has popped two coats of stain on the floorboards in Bedroom 3. Just waiting for me to varnish now.
The walls have been plastered where necessary, painted (3-4 coats) and the window painted. Also the beams have been painted.

Walls plastered

And filled

Walls and ceiling painted

Beams being done

Window satinned (is this a word?)

Floorboards going down

In the meantime I went to a brilliant hen night in La Rochelle. Really should get away more often. Then last Monday I picked Rich and Emilie up from Limoges airport before rushing back here to go to a wedding. John and Helen's MP3 player provided music and Rich sang a couple of songs as the 'entertainment' let the couple down at the last minute due to sickness. Rich was brilliant and I was so proud.
We had a lovely few days with them even though the weather could have been kinder. We had a lovely few hours in Angouleme (our first visit) and definitely recommended. Yesterday Phil drove them back to the UK - great for him as paying the tolls in a right hand drive van isn't the easiest of tasks.

Whilst I was in La Rochelle we had an enquiry from a family who found ud on google (I added the business a couple of weeks ago). Great that google is doing more for us than any of the other sites I have registered La Cour with.
Anyway - it seemed silly to turn the booking down just because we have postponed opening and they wanted to arrive the same day Rich and Emilie left. That gave me something else to think about! The upstairs room is ready and I had two Z beds for the two children so our first guests have arrived!
And what a lovely family they are. They are with me for 3 days and then I will be getting to work on varnishing the boards and starting to put Bedroom 3 together. Hopefully Phil will be back after doing some jobs of his own back at Evergreen.

I am looking forward to some warmer weather - I think it is forecast for the coming week and then we can celebrate the end of the first part of the project. Having said that - there is still loads to do outside but I am hoping that we can start to enjoy the sunshine and locality a bit more in the forthcoming weeks.