20 Sept 2011

I am beginning to wonder if all the wall paper will ever come off.  At some time in the past a layer of wallpaper was glued to the plaster wall….then a couple of more layers of wall paper were added over time.  Between layers someone did not take all the original wall paper off (probably like me they couldn’t get it off) so they plastered over it.  Now that plaster has become crumbly in places exposing the ragged edges of wallpaper.   I told Jerry we were going to do a mini plaster of one of the walls in the pink chamber.  Since my eyes were rolling around in my head and my hair was standing straight up when I told him that little bit of advice to him he agreed…lol 

Jerry, on the other hand, is having great success with the big hammer and pry bar.  He has completely demolished the room that was the kitchen.  All the ugly 1970’s tile is gone, the pitiful counter is gone and the wall is back to its original place.  What a pile of rubbish to gather up and haul off!

An artisan came today to get information for a devis (estimate) on the repairs to the house.  He was recommended by friends in Tourbes who have seen his work.  He is a young man who apparently went to University to learn how to repair vieilles maisons, anciens châteaux, and  d'autres structures anciennes.  The ground floor and one room on the 2^nd level need a lot of work.    He was completely undaunted and said the entire project would take about 2 weeks.  The electrician will be able to come in and do his work between week one and two of the project  so all the electical wires downstairs will be hidden in the new wall.  I am happy about that fact because I didn’t want the electrical wires exposed on the walls and ceilings.  We are anxiously awaiting his devis.  I think Jerry has two other devis outstanding so we wil be making a decision soon. 

The devis on the windows will all be in on Friday so we will be making a decision on windows soon as well.  We have to wait until the Marie gives us permission for the changes to the windows.  We are replacing the old wooden windows with PVC windows.  The old windows are lovely but they couldn’t be repaired because of the rot that had occurred over the years and they are not very energy efficient.  We don’t think we will have a problem with the OK from the Marie since all our neighbors have replaced their windows with PVC and one has replaced her shutters with aluminum.  We won’t do that!  Jerry will be  remaking or repairing the shutters (as soon as we have electricity).  We will be using the original hardware on the shutters too.

Anyway the project strolls along !!!