After all the delay's, we finally have a porte-fenetre in the barn entrance and so the barn is now totally enclosed....yeay! After this part being the part which needed the most work in terms of preparation (the barn was full of years of discarded 'stuff'; be it old washing machine parts, broken cookers etc., etc., not to mention a good foot thick of broken tiles and what looked like a chimney bar. If that house could talk, I'm sure it would have a very interesting story to tell - well it would be interesting to me!) As mentioned in a previous blog, Simon cleared the barn of all the timber (old oak roof beams, stair cases etc., as well as the 'stuff' and tiles) last September in preparation for the insulated floors being put in. Which happened February time of this year and it was then that Simon thought the best thing would be to get the door in. We got the quote and our visit in May came and no sign of the door....... The builder wanted our agreement to have it made to fit, so it was ordered at some time after that meeting, I cant say when. When Simon and I returned in September, we hoped to see the door en-situ. Mais non - because the factory had closed down for the whole of August, it was still not ready..... Where's my Fairy Godmother in all this? I do have a very solid porte-fenetre which does work but has no glass and doesnt fit any of the openings, perhaps she could bibbidy - bobbidy - boo it for us!
At our meeting with M. Mazeau during our September visit, he had told us that he expected a final part to arrive just after we were leaving France for the final time for this year (the house really not being habitable in colder months) and that he would fit it in the couple of weeks following that.
A month passed and we began to wonder what was happening. Simon has suggested that if only we had a web cam out there to see what was going on. I think it would be too worrying, at the moment we only worry about what we dont know. If we had a web cam, we'd be worrying about what we do know and not able to do anything about it! Anyway, I digress. I called our friend Michel and he went to our house the next day to see if anything had happened. Lo and behold the door was in the barn, waiting to be fitted. Michel said it looked very nice and of good quality, so that eased our minds. Then last Wednesday, we received the facture. Now bearing in mind that M. Mazeau has said to us quite vehemently, never pay until the job is finished and you are happy, this put us in a quandary. We trust him, but was he testing us? Would we offend his dignity by asking for a picture as evidence? I decided to take a two pronged approach. I emailed him back and thanked him for the facture and that we look forward to receiving the devis for the next phase of work which we had discussed; and could he forward a picture of the door en-situ? We then called Michel and asked him if he had heard from M. Mazeau. "Oh yes, he called at my house and picked up the keys last week and brought them back in the evening with another key on the key ring" - the key for the porte-fenetre.
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| barn wall when lintel was collapsing - had dropped a good 4 maybe 6 inches and wouldn't have lasted much longer before those bricks gave way and the whole things fell! |
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| same wall now lintel repaired - would you believe that a 6' 3" man can walk under that lintel, not trouble.......gives you an idea of the size of that wall - you're only seeing about half of it! |
I do look forward to seeing a picture of the porte-fenetre in place :-)
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| Yeay! Door en-situ |
