21 April 2012
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| The shutter |
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| building shutters |
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square nails from old shutters
yes this is how they pulled oout |
Well, let’s see. Where do I start this catch up post? Jerry and I are working a little everyday on
something. The biggest job we have going
now is rebuilding the shutters. As with
everything else it seemed like a simple but time consuming job. How hard can it be to buy boards to length of
the shutters, fit the boards together, paint the boards and the old hardware
then put everything together and hang them?
Apparently it is harder than it
looks. Jerry has been working on
shutters for over a week now and we have two pair of shutters put together and
painted (hardware on one) and one shutter (not a pair of shutters, just one
shutter) hung on the dining room side of the house.
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| a work in progress |
The front door has been
partially disassembled and sent to the joiner for repairs. It has been sanded
and one rotten board replaced. When Jerry gets the raised panels back from
Mister Ruiz, he can tell what other boards need to be replaced. Then we will stain
the door and apply vernis. (and attached the new door knocker)!
We put the doors back on
the cuves. For those of you who don't know...we have 5 of these in the Garage. After giving them a good scrub and sorting out all the matching
parts, it takes two to put them on because they have to slide into the cuve and then
be pulled back into the hole while someone puts the clamp and nut on. Jerry has
poured 3 slabs of beton to cover holes in the garage floor that were used in
the winemaking. They were located near the water well in the garage and seemed
to take much longer for the concrete to cure.
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| Foyer wainscoting |
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| wainscoting to 1st level |
I am still painting
everything in sight it seems like. The wainscoting
in the Foyer and the stairwell has been painted, all the trim in the master
bedroom has been painted, and I have started work on the bookcase. Jerry is about to relieve me of some of the
boring painting since he has figured out how to use his paint spray rig. The remaining doors and the shelves will be
sprayed. All I can say to that is “Halleluiah!” The last really big thing is the Salon. As I have told you all it has to be sanded
then painted, then the floor cleaned. It
is a big job and we keep saying we are going to get to it but something else always
needs to be done.
I finally got the floor in
the salle a manger to look decent. It
looks 100% better but it is still a work in progress. The “wax” that I applied made the floor look
a lot better but the “wax” seems to attract dirt and it becomes dingy very
quickly. Maybe over time the coating will handle the traffic. I am thankful I
am not still mopping with a paintbrush!
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| the satellite Guy |
Jerry is a happy man
because the satellite dish has been installed and his satellite box is hooked
up and the TV is now working. For a
while we could get only French TV and Fox News!
It was funny to watch an old American western with French
voiceovers. Jerry found one channel that
offered movies in English. The movie
selection was limited ---- Jerry watched Spaceballs……twice!
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| 1st Party at 2 Cool |
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| Good Friends, Good Food, Good Wine |
We had our first “Happy
Hour” at 2 Cool on 5 April. It was a
celebration of April birthdays (Suzy, Patrick, and mine) among our group of
friends and of course celebrating the first party here at the Ruin. We had 34 attending, and Chris was even escorted
here by the Mayor who said to Chris ‘oh, yes, I know them and exactly where
they live.” It was a wonderful evening. Later we found out about several more
April birthdays that we’ll include next year. Doug had a birthday dinner and we
were included and Theresa in Valros had a champagne fete on her birthday, the
16th. With me telling Jerry “take champagne”
to Theresa’s he made a faux pas by bringing wine instead! He never listens!!
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| Roasting Mutton |
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| Easter Monday Tourbes Fete |
The week before, we had
something going on every night. Monday at the bar, Tuesday Jazz in Laurens, Wednesday
usual pizza night, Thursday happy hour at Helene and Patrick’s, Friday and
Saturday fete in Alignan, Saturday night
Doug’s birthday at the Auberge, Easter Sunday lunch in Cap D’Agde, Monday
Easter Monday bar-b-que, and Tuesday at Theresa’s. wheeew!
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| Plants of Rapeseed |
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| Jake enjoying the country |
Jake and I are enjoying our apres midi promenade thru the vineyards. It is beautiful here and Jake always gets a good snoot full of rabbit scent or gecko scent or anything else scent. We have a good time in the vineyards.
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| Alignan Vide Grenier |
Jerry and I have been
making the rounds of the Vide Greniers in the area to help furnish the Ruin. We have lots and lots of bare walls, table
tops with nothing on them and we are still looking for the perfect sofa for the
living room. The spring brocante sale in
Pezenas is coming up 6 May and we will be sure to find things there. Last weekend Alignan Du Vent and Pezenas had
their Vide Grenier. We picked up 4 prints
for the walls, two tablecloths for the dining room table, 12 cloth napkins, a
door knocker, a butter dish, two “doilies” and Jerry had to have an ice bucket. When all was said and done we had spent about
25 euro. Money well spent!
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| andirons |
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| the old branding iron |
We are still finding “treasures”
in the garage. We found andirons in the
garage that we de-rusted then painted black.
They are now in the fireplace in the Salle a Sejour. The other item we found was an old branding
iron. We think it was used to brand the
side of oak wine barrels. Back in the
fall I had discovered linens used in the winemaking with the same initials hand
embroidered on the corner. The same
initials are also in the iron works over our front door. One of our recent village visitors was an elderly
woman who told us the original people who lived in the house were named
Armand. We were also told by this
villager that about 20 years ago Arabs lived in the house and they kept goats
on the 2nd level where the granary is! She also told me after the Arabs moved out;
the house was occupied by Gypsies! I
thanked her for the information and tried not to laugh at her matter of fact presentation
of the former occupants of the house. Our
village visitors have picked up again since the weather is getting better and
our front door stands open sometimes.
Everyone is interested in seeing what we have accomplished with the
Ruin. They seem to be very excited that
this wonderful old house is no longer decaying before their eyes. The words we hear most often are “tres jolie”,
and I hope they are not just being kind!!
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| The birthday girls and their fellas |
We put the doors back on
the cuves. For those of you who don't know...we have 5 of these in the Garage. After giving them a good scrub and sorting out all the matching
parts, it takes two to put them on because they have to slide into the cuve and then
be pulled back into the hole while someone puts the clamp and nut on. Jerry has
poured 3 slabs of beton to cover holes in the garage floor that were used in
the winemaking. They were located near the water well in the garage and seemed
to take much longer for the concrete to cure.
