July 2007 - normandy
We had a whole two weeks split between our Normandy and Aude houses in which to work. It is amazing the amount of work that can be achieved in an extended period of time and when the pressure of time constraints is removed. However, an added pressure was created by a deadline - a friend will need to stay at the property in September to participate in the Duo Normande (a cycling event in Marigny).
The French love cycling. We caught a local Criterium event in a local town and watched the road race with hundreds of other spectators. The roads were closed, and the whole town took part in the event. You can see pictures of the event in the Gallery/Normandy/Miscellaneous.
During that first week in Normandy, we extended the parking area at the back of the house, meaning we no longer park our car in front of our neighbour's gates.
I made good the plastering in the lounge, where we had previously uncovered the finished stonework. We also prepared the base for the wood burner in the fireplace in this room. As the room is now mostly finished, we cleaned and tidied the room.
The kitchen was one of the first rooms we progressed to an 'almost finished' state but the floor we laid over a year ago was dirty and needed sealing. So, we cleaned the room and scrubbed the floor so that we could varnish it. This spurred us to finish some of the remaining jobs that had been outstanding there.
Upstairs, we started to create a landing at the top of the stairs between the first and second bedrooms and installed cabling for electrics and lights. In doing so, we removed some of the plaster from the wall and revealed more of the fantastic finished stone that is in the lounge.
At the end of the first week we traveled by car down to Aude; a 700 km journey. We returned after a weekend of working on the Aude property and watching the Tour de France.
When we returned to the house, it was nice to return to a building that resembled a home. We did some work in the garden and built a path around the house, primarily to keep the weeds down.
Also, we overhauled some of the existing windows in the main house, got the mechanisms working and repairing some of the rot and damage.
Finally, we completed some of the enabling works for the second phase. Here, we removed much of the debris on the ground floor that consisted of masse and clay. This revealed the base of the bread oven that had collapsed previously. We also installed a window in the dormer window above this area to the rear of the property and removed a poorly constructed partition wall separating two sections of the upper area.
Overall, we did a lot of work and progressed the house a long way. There are a few things that need to be finished before September, but these are easily achievable.
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