7 March 2011
February will be remembered as the coldest month here since 1947. Even with little heat in the Ruin everyone worked and we moved in. David and his Merry Men were trying to finish all the last minute to dos ….painting the ceiling in the salle a sejours and the salle a manger, finishing the foyer, and cleaning up the floor in the salle a sejours. The painting took a while because it was so cold. I helped scrape the gunk off the floor because I did not want the salle a Sejours floors suffering the damage the salle a manger floors suffered. The floors are still a work in progress. We have obtained a product that will act as a protectant, seal the tiles but still allow them to breathe. The weather has to be warm enough to open the house due to the odor the product has. Now if the weather will just warm up a little so we can get on with it!!!
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| 2nd bathoom |
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| 2nd bath sink |
Paul, the plumber, came and finished his last bits. We may have to have him come back since he didn’t hook up an overflow drain on the kitchen sink….of course we will have to find an overflow drain somewhere since it wasn’t included with the sink or the sink connections….things here are not like in the States. Everything comes in pieces instead of all together.
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| new Foyer Floor |
Brian, the tile guy, came last Wednesday and Thursday and put the back splash (or splash back as the Brits say) on the kitchen counters and he also installed the new foyer floor. They are both beautiful. While the tiling took place Jerry and I stayed at Robert and Dorothy’s flat. We couldn’t walk on the tiles until Friday. So we had a “mini move” out Wednesday afternoon and a “mini move” back in on Friday.
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| master bath |
Kevin, the electrician, still has a few bits and pieces to finish before he will be finished. I could have given him a bear hug when we moved back in on Friday. He had wired the garage and we had lights in the garage!!! The entire operation in the garage had been working off extension cords which ran from various plugs in the house….we tripped over them, couldn’t shut doors properly and generally cussed when someone would “unplug” us…..until hearing our outbursts then we would hear “OH Pardon”! Ever polite these French!!
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| master bath |
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| Foyer Fixture |
All the light fixtures have been hung and I have to say my favorite is the one hanging on the landing on the 1st level. It is an English fixture that our friend Theresa was taking to the charity shop. Robert told her to see if we would like to have it and we said yes! I think it is the most beautiful fixture we have. After several unsuccessful tries rewiring several different fixtures for the foyer we finally bought one. Only to have Kevin tell us it can’t be completely assembled. I looked at the directions and it said it would take one man 3 minutes to assemble….Kevin had been working on it for 1 ½ hours. I said it should take a woman 1 ½ minutes to assemble it….challenge was accepted…..well, it couldn’t be completely assembled! I tried for 30 minutes, Jerry tried for 45 minutes and Kevin had 1 ½ hours in it. Soooo, the dang thing is hanging in the Foyer without all the wire pieces attached. It looks fine just not as fancy as it would have with all the missing pieces.
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| master bedroom |
As I said, we moved into the Ruin 18 February. David was finished with his work and we could live around the little bits and pieces of work to be completed by Kevin, Brian and Paul. It is wonderful to finally be living in this beautiful old house. Even the lack of heat hasn’t dimmed the experience. I guess I should say “limited” heat. We do have new wall heaters in the bedrooms, a heated floor in the master bath and towel heaters, but the ground floor has no heat as of today. Jerry and I have continued to do our “little” jobs. The laundry room has been painted, the floors in the bedrooms are finished and even Brian said they looked good. The small bathroom is finished (except for a little bit of paint on the ceiling where the wire was run for the ceiling fixture). The master bedroom and bathroom are set up and they are so very comfortable…even though we did have a slight set back with the shower. The first night here I was so excited to try the shower…been looking forward to that shower for months! I stepped into the shower, turned on all the jets and was hit straight on with COLD water! I couldn’t get any hot water at all and I couldn’t get the shower turned off. I would turn a knob and the shower head would start running cold water, I would turn the knob again the hand held shower sprayer would come on, I would turn the knob again and the jets would start again! I thought I would never get everything turned off and out of the shower! Apparently, the hot water hose was “kinked” behind the shower panel where the jets are. Paul came the next day and put all to rights. The shower is wonderful but we still might have to put a door on it which would be a shame….when the jets are on water gets all over the bathroom floor and it is too late to install a drain in the middle of the bathroom floor!! LOL
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| The Kitchen |
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| Salle a Manger wainscoting |
Jerry has completed the refurbishing of the wainscoting for the Salle a Manger and I have painted them. The yellow has given way to "Rouge Basque". The panels are reinstalled and look wonderful. I still have one side of the door to paint for the Salle a Manger as well. We have cleaned the inside of the front door and taken the window out above the door and cleaned about 200 years of dirt off of the glass. I rust proofed the wrought iron trim above the door while Jerry was cleaning the glass and wood. After we got everything cleaned up we reinstalled the window and I painted the wood around the window. It looks so much better from the inside and the outside!!! I have started painting the iron stair rail. I thought it would be easy but it isn’t! That “little” job will take another week to finish I imagine. It does look better with a fresh coat of paint on it. After I finish the rail I will start painting the area around the rail. The wainscoting in the foyer has been repaired, reinstalled and painted. The door from the Foyer into the garage has been refurbished, rehung and planed down to fit the door opening. As with most of the doors in the house it didn’t shut properly. The broken windows in the little French door in the salon have been replaced and we discovered the shutters over the door help keep out the wind and cold. Before they left, David had his helper install the door in the salon that Jerry just couldn’t figure out how to do. It was installed in about 3 hours and it looks pretty good, except what we thought was a door is actually a window! HA! It looked like a door to us! Anyway, as with a lot of things we laughed and “made lemonade” from what was obviously a lemon situation. When we get the terrace finished the window can open and it is installed like a door so we can walk in and out of it….the only trouble is ….there is no handle on the outside. Good thing we have the little French door to open and close! What fun we have had laughing at that “Window Door”!
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| Emmaus Chairs |
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| 1st landing fixture |
In the meantime we have been gathering up more furniture. We bought three chairs for the Salle a sejours, a desk and a large piece that is presently holding a second set of dishes, all our wineglasses and Jerry’s booze. It is a reproduction and looks really substantial in the large room. Jerry set the TV up in the Salle a Sejours for the moment. The easy chairs and the TV will be transferred to the salon when it is finished. We still have to do some sanding and painting and cleaning the floor in there. That little job should take about three weeks. I will be happy to get the salon finished. There is salon furniture in the master bedroom, the guest bedroom and the Salle a Sejours.
The only remaining big thing is the central heating and air. Regis came last Monday to confirm what Jerry wanted, collect money for the units and said he would be back next Monday to install the units. I imagine as soon as the heat and air are installed the weather will warm up and it will be warm enough without the heat but cool enough we won’t need the air conditioning! LOL
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| Jake under covers..BRRRRR! |
