Saturday 21 May 2011

Petit en Petit

Each little step is getting us closer to our goal.  We left for a working holiday on 5th May and I think we have achieved much in this visit.  We arrived to find that our second 'roofer' had also let us down and still not returned to finish the work!!  The walls having another winter without proper protection - it feels like a broken record.  On the positive note though, M Mazeau has done the works which he was contracted to do and you can tell, he is a serious builder.  Here are the latest pics

 Relaxing after the first days hard work......getting a fridge from someone in the village who had one to sell - Big thank you to Gareth and Ruth for making our stay so much more civilised......The funny thing was that we couldn't get the fridge in the car.  Not letting such a small problem get in the way, we managed to take off the door to the fridge and get it into our Peugeot 107.......Must have looked so funny!
But at least we now had a reasonably functioning kitchen - with water on tap too...... all be it that the tap was out side and in the ground still - we bought some flex hose and a tap and there we were - independent !

 After M, Mazeau's visit Simon and I could be found up the ladder putting on the last 4 rows of tiling which had not been put up and also finishing the guttering as you can see in this pic.  I think that this is the first time, possibly ever, that this part of the house has had guttering of any kind.  You can also see that we have started to point up the wall which will stabilise things.  After the leg pulling about my bad workmanship last year, I have the last laugh as the corner of the barn looks exactly as I left it.  Pointed up, with no cracks.  Cheeky b'**@rs - I pointed a house up over 30 years ago and that looks just as good today as it did when it was finished!  Maybe we need to believe in ourselves a little more!

 In this pick, you can see that we have managed to cover some of the front with pointing and are now moving on to one of the parts which has suffered the most.

This is a view of the village that you will only ever see from the fields and farm land - no road which is intended for regular use passes this way - but I think that it is just as lovely as any that you see....Village hanging on the hillside, with ruined 11th C chateau in the fore ground and 7th C Church towering over the village......  Our house can be found further right of this picture - didn't manage to line it up to get us in!!

About us

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Simon works for Sainsbury's as a Department Manager has a multi-million pound turn over annually on his department and works all hours God sends. I am Events Monkey. I call myself that, as my actual title is unknown!! Just responsible for any event, function, conference, meeting etc.,etc., that happens on the campus where I work. I'd be better being called an Events Elephant, as I'm paid peanuts and expected to work all hours known to man. This is the tale of how we decided to take the massive step to living a totally different life. Selling our home in England and moving to a fantastic little village in the Auvergne, including some of our adventures along the way.