Excitement, Preuilly style - the pictures

The Big green machine on fire



Simon

The Roof in Progress, week 3 (and a bit)

Monday morning:
After 30 minutes of trying to manouver the big green machine though the gates and into place, I graciously allow the roofers to demolish the fence. This saves me a job in the future.
Monday afternoon:
Trestle in place and the first load of tiles coming off
Tuesday morning:
With the tiles and battens removed, it is easy to see how "in the rough" some of the roof is.
Tuesday afternoon:
Chocks are placed under the roof braces so that they are somewhat level.
Wednesday morning:
Battens are going on.
Wednesday afternoon:
More progress
Thursday Morning:
more tiles off
Thursday afternoon:
and more battens on
Friday afternoon:
Susan contemplates the new roof for the first time
Wednesday Morning:
Work has been delayed by rain and a little job that "came up" elsewhere. This is the roof as we left it

Simon

The Roof in Progress, week 2

Pictures of week 2

Monday afternoon:
8 days in. most of the slates are replaced, and the sheeting is off the "hangar".
Tuesday morning:
The frame of the hangar is being cut down.
Tuesday afternoon:
The Hangar has gone and demolition of the first chimney starts.
Wednesday:
The chimney is demolished and work has begun on the hole over the stairs. This requires a bit of redesign so that the problems of rain entering the house don't reoccur. Work continues for 2 days
Friday morning:
The area over the stairs is finished.
Friday Afternoon:
The second chimney is demolished.
Simon

Demolition Man

The staircase

going

going

gone

The bit where we find the Puits named in the street

Susan arrived last Friday after an eventful trip. More of that in another post though...........

On Sunday we had a visit from a nearly local architect who we are thinking of employing. While he was with us he asked what was under the concrete hatch behind the house.

Surprisingly, we didn't know. We had always assumed that it was something to do with sewerage or drainage or something yucky. The architect, however, is made of sterner stuff. He lifted the hatch to find........ a stone lined well, complete with water about 18 metres down.

This is exciting, and news to us, even if we do suspect that we are the only people in town who didn't know it was there somewhere.

Simon

Something you wouldn't hear in Australia

M. Chaboisson came to quote for the new staircase and some windows.

We were discussing a new front window and Susan and my ideas, when M. Chaboisson shook his head and said "ce n'est pas joli".

Which is the equivalent of an Australian builder saying "No mate - that wouldn't be pretty"

Simon

Autumn is here

By Jingo it's cold!

On Monday evening I'd had enough of sitting in the gloom, dirty and cold, so I booked myself a night at l'Image.

After the mother of all baths I had dinner in the restaurant, and then I had a chat about stuff with Christophe. I don't think he quite believed me about house removals in Australia - that is, putting a house on the back of a truck and carting it off somewhere else. At some stage he will have to be shown photos.

A good night's sleep in a comfortable bed meant that I was able to cope with the advent of telephone engineer in French. They are no different to Australian Telecom engineers - lots of swearing under the breath and shaking of heads.

Today (Wednesday) EDF should arrive to connect the electricity and give us a couple of plugs. I have an electric heater waiting..........

Simon

Roofing, part the Nth

Still going with the roofing. Work has now started on the back of the barn (the tiled section). The wood there is not in great condition, so has had to have a lot of work. As ever, pics when I get home.

I have demolished the staircase - the first rise, anyway. Now I can't work out how to get up to demolish the second level.............

Simon

Excitement, Preuilly style

Yesterday the roofing team arrived back from lunch in the big green digger they have been using as scaffolding. Unfortunately, the diff was on fire, sending clouds of smoke into the air and causing a stench. Pics will follow in 10 days time.

On a less dramatic front, we will soon (Tuesday) have a telephone. I went into Chatellerault on Thursday and arranged it all. Compared to EDF, it was painless. Talking of whom..... We should have electricity on Wednesday. Hopefully they will also fit a couple of plugs (prises) so we can use it.

We also have no chimneys now. The second chimney (the one at the back of the house)has been demolished. Unfortunately, this was done while I was at the hardware store, so I arrived home to find the whole of the inside of the house covered in a couple of millimetres of oily soot where it had come down the hole for the range hood. It took me hours to clean up, because everything was black and sticky.

C'est la vie.............

Simon

Fun with EDF

EDF are the French electricity company. I don't know if they are a monopoly, but they sure act like one.

I phoned the English speaking helpline a week and a half ago, and was told someone would phone me. They didn't

I phoned again on last Friday, and was told someone would call me. Again they didn't

After 3 days of getting recorded messages I girded up my loins and went to find the office. It wasn't in Descartes, as I was told, but in Loches. By the time I made Loches (via Descartes) it was almost lunchtime.

I don't know if the man I saw at EDF had one eye on the clock, but he didnt want to help. No Way. Pas Possible. He did, however, print out a copy of an email (which had been sent to a wrong address) asking for details.

No indication of the address to reply to, however.

Luckily, it is Wednesday, and the Bibliotech and Espace Multimedia is open - so with an element of guesswork and some internet research I was able to glean an adress to which I posted my details.

When I arrived home, I rang EDF again a couple of times, and then hey Presto - I was through!!

I now have an appointment with EDF on next Wednesday to establish supply.


Simon

Week 2 of the roof

I arrived back in Preuilly on Monday afternoon to discover that the metal sheeting had been removed from the "hangar". By the end of Tuesday the hangar was completely demolished, as was the old stone chimney (which was rotten).

In the meantime, I have been visited by M. Chaboisson to do an estimate on replacing the staircase (which is rotten where it still exists, due to the chimney being rotten). Another step collapsed when M. Chaboisson was on it, and we agreed that it was probably time something was done. We have agreed that I will demolish the old staircase, which is pretty solid where it hasn't rotted. This means another pile of demolition stuff for me to organise to get to the tip. I need a trailer....

Hot News
Apparently the boulangerie at the bottom of the main street (next to Petit Casino) has closed. This was sudden and unexpected- on Friday morning it just didn't open. My sources say that it has been sold, and will reopen in a couple of weeks. I feel a tinge of guilt, as I have been buying fewer treats for myself than in the past.

Simon

More windows and other stuff.

The roofers weren't the only people busy in Preuilly last week.

I decided that finding a glazier just to put glass in window frames was too big a task for my French for too small a job, so I measured the windows and went to Bricomarche in Chatellerault. There the 9 panes of glass were cut to the size needed and wrapped nicely in brown paper - all for 23€. I also bought a big tub (2.5kg) of linseed based window putty and a box of glazing nails.

Surprisingly, reglazing windows isn't as traumatic as I first suspected. I managed to get all 9 pieces of glass into the frames without breaking anything. The only slight problem I had (apart from the sheer worry of nailing glass to wood) was one of the glazing bars had completely rotted. I chiselled out the guilty party and replaced with a new glazing bar I made myself. Easy!!

Once the windows were done, the next task tackled was removing various forms of wall cladding from the house. The front room (lounge, sitting room or salon) has nasty wallpapered chipboard nailed into battens that have been nailed into the stone. This made a satisfying mess and huge cloud of dust when removed, but I now have a large pile of rotting wood and slightly damp hardboard in the middle of the room. Next stage is to get rid of it - buying a trailer may be fairly high on the list.

The front room - then (insert) and now.

In the kitchen area we had an inbuilt cupboard with decidedly manky attributes. The door wouldnt work either. This was removed during the course of a quiet (until then!) evening listening to the cricket.


I also started work on removing the cladding from the walls of what will eventually become the utilities room/wc. This is plaster board backed with 6cm (about 2½ inches) of expanded polystyrene. The board is glued with large dollops of "mastic" (it's all mastic in France) directly to the walls. Unfortunately, in our case, the walls were skinned with particularly hard concrete in the past, so this had to be chipped off the delicate limestone blocks too.


Yet more mess!Eventually I think we will be leaving the large blocks exposed, and plastering over the dodgy looking brickwork.

All this was fitted around using roundup on the remaining (and re-emerging) bramble bushes, a visit from the electrician, appointments with the bank, having bank cards that stop working when I had a trolley full of stuff and a checkout lady looking expectant......

Simon

The roof in Progress.

As promised, some pictures. It's a little difficult to see what has happened because the metal roof is in the way - when I left for a weekend in London on Thurday morning, they had completed the guttering on the front of the granary, replaced about half the slates, with 1/4 off and 1/4 yet to come off. The flashing against the neighbour's wall has also been replaced.

Monday morning:
one hour after starting and the slates are already coming off. This is one hour after returning from the annual holiday.Monday afternoon:
5 hours in and almost half the slates are removed.Tuesday morning:
the battens ajoining the neighbour's wall have been replaced.Tuesday afternoon:
the new guttering and flashing are in place (having been made on site, in zinc) and the slates are going back on.Wednesday morning:
The flashing is being mortared in place.Wednesday afternoon:
The mortaring is complete, and tiles are being replaced at pace.Thursday morning.
the roof as it was when I left Preuilly.
The weather has been brilliant - a bit chilly at night, but lovely sunny days. There have been one or two evenings where it has clouded over, and on Monday evening there was even some rain. If the weather keeps up like this we should finish on schedule (touch wood, fingers crossed, and all that) in three weeks time.

This is a picture of our roof in progress, taken from the arboretum at the end of the street on wednesday evening:

Simon

les Grands Travaux

As promised, the roofers started work on Monday.

Insteqd of demolishing the "hangar" ( the tin roof in front of the granary) the started on the granary roof itself. there is method in their madness, however. They need to get a gutter on the barn before the remove the hangar, otherwise the rain will just pour down the granary wall. Once they have done that, then they will demolish the hangar. THEN they will start on the hole in the roof above the stairs, which is the most pressing ( to my eyes, qnyway) part of the job.

While the roofers were roofing, I was demolishing bits of the house.

Photos will follow; I am even getting the hang of French keyboards.

Simon

Good News

Oh Happy day!

On arrival back in France I called in to the Philosophical Roofers to get qn update on the roof.

Mondqy at 08.00. For sure. Or Tuesdqy. Since then Susan has had a voicemail saying that it's a Mondqy start.

No photos, but next post should have evidence of demolition of the metal "hangar" at the front of the granary. In the meqntime I have been doing windows, including doing my first piece of glazing. I love the way handbooks just say "hammer the pins in flush with the glass" It worked though.

For those who can't read the code, it helps to know that French Keyboards are qll messed up.

Simon

Windows (non-PC!!)

I have just spent 10 days in the house, sanding back windows, chipping out the old window putty (which was either very old or very badly done or both), re-puttying and painting.

The window frames themselves are oak and really nicely made, painted in cream paint (lead based, naturally) about 30 years ago. The paint has set like rock, and was only removable by the application of industrial quantities of paint stripper and use of one of those nylon wheel attachment thingies (that's your actual technical term, folks) on an electric drill. Once the oak grain started to appear I was tempted to varnish rather than paint, but at some times in the past they have been sanded back with a disk sander, which has marked them quite badly. They have now been reputtied (except where I broke the 2mm "thick" glass) and undercoated, and hopefully next week I will be finishing the painting. At some stage I will have to get a couple of cracked panes replaced, but it's August and the glazier - along with everyone else - is on holiday.

I also used my new reciprocating saw to remove the two tree stumps that were previously stopping the garage door from opening full width. This is the sort of thing that excitement is made of..............

There were no excursions, unless you count visiting hardware stores.

Simon

The Chateau at Dissay

I know very little about the chateau at Dissay - I didn't know it existed until I saw it on the Survol de France website. I do know that I will make the time to visit it.

More Australians

Back in the day, in Canberra, I received an education. Some of those who know me may find that difficult to believe. Luckily, some of the teachers I had were very good teachers, and equally good people. One of those is "Uncle Ricky" Sutton.

Rick and Helen are on their now annual jaunt around Europe, and joined us in Preuilly to have a look at the house, view the surroundings, and help with builderly stuff. After catching the first ferry of the day to Boulogne-sur-Mer and driving to Preuilly, I returned to Chatellerault just in time to meet them off the train. They were booked in to l'Image and I was camping in the front room of the house. We shopped for salad and flambouyantly healthy desert (well - there WAS fruit on it!), and after dinner had a wander up to the chateau.

Preuilly from the Chateau

Next morning was market day, so I shopped for Thursday's dinner while Rick and Helen slept off their train-lag. After meeting up for breakfast we returned to the market, where Helen indulged in a stone fruit and berry shopping frenzy. The peaches have been really good this year, and we also bought Reine Claudes (greengages) that were the juiciest, sweetest (and yet with just a hint of sour) plums I have ever eaten. Magnificent!

After lunch we drove to Poitiers to pick up Susan, travelling via Bonneil-Matours, which was looking it's usual picturesque self. We called in at Castorama and bought a 2400w generator (groupe électrogène) so that the growing range of power tools can be used. I was slightly worried that a trailer would have to be bought to transport the generator, but luckily it fitted nicely into the boot.


So now we have some power. Rock and and Roll!!

One of the problems of travelling all that way (about 600 miles each way) is that it takes a couple of days to get oneself properly organised to do work. This means that on a visit of only 6 days not a lot of work gets done. We did, however, manage to get the granary swept and cleaned. This is not really about cleaning, because it will get dirtier when M. Galland arrives, but more to do with stirring things up just in case we have wildlife in the timber. Apparently they like a quiet life and will depart of we disturb them too much. Mind you, after Rick swept the walls we discovered they were properly almost white, so that was good...........


Our main excursion this trip was to the Brenne to meet up with Tony Williams (warden) and have a wander around some of the areas of the park not usually open to visitors. Susan understood more of what was happening there than I did (me being a bit plebby when it comes to insects) but it was interesting seeing some habitats we hadn't seen before. We all appreciated the quiet and it must be said it does have a certain beauty to it. There are some Camargue horses on the reserve as well, which add a slightly exotic (to my eyes, anyway) feeling to the place.


After walking the reserve, we adjourned for lunch at the Auberge La Gabrière. We had been there before but now it is summer, all the tables are out the front under umbrellas with a view of the lake. We had one of the best lunches possible - a 12 euro menu and a bottle of Creamant du Loir - all served by charming (if very young) waitresses and with a view. If it is a meal that can be improved upon, I am not quite sure how.


Our other excursion was taking Susan back to the airport. We went via Angles sur l'Anglin, where we picnicked, and then to St Pierre de Maille which is another very pretty village by a river.After that we went to the church Notre-Dame-la-Grande at Poitiers I had visited with my parents in June. After Susan had left we went to Dissay to find the Chateau, which is most attractive. Unfortunately we were too late to visit, but next time I will allow time.

St Pierre de Maille

The only other notable event was visiting the showroom/workshops of M. Chaboisson, who we hope will be building our staircases, Having had a look at his work, I think we will see if we can afford to have him do our windows in the granary as well.

Rick, Helen and I travelled back by car, having an uneventful trip (apart from me rejoining the autoroute heading in the wrong direction at Alençon). The ferry crossing was probably the smoothest I have experienced - which this year is really saying something!


Simon

A Humbling Experience

After the staircase had it's "ceased to function" episode I went to the joiners to arrange for a quote. I worked out what I was going to say before arriving.

"J'ai un escalier qui s'est effondré et le besoin une devis pour le restituer" I said

"Je ne parle pas d'anglais"was the reply.

I honestly didn't think my accent was that bad...................


Simon

Two weeks in "Summer"

It is now 12 months since we decided the old granary is the right house for us.

In that time we have paid many visits to the house, but work has been restricted by the amount of time we can spend there. The longest stays we have had in Preuilly is a week; Christmas 2006, February 2007, and May 2007. This time we went for broke - 2 weeks, half of which would be spent working on the house. We had booked Mme. Fouchécourt's house in Roux, near Boussay. My parents were with me, and Susan was going to join us for 4 days next weekend.

We arrived at about 19.30 on the Saturday evening, and immediately drove over to the house to pick up our supply of food and clothing. Amazing, although it hasn't stopped raining this year (this will become a lietmotif) the house didn't feel very damp, even though there were pools of water on the stairs. I think this is a result of the house being made of limestone. Hopefully, once the hole in the roof has been fixed the house will feel dry and warm during winter, and dry and cool in summer.

On Sunday it rained, so being tired from the drive the day before we had a quiet day, shopping and visiting some of the local villages. We visited la Roche Posay and walked along the abandoned rail line across the Creuse river. Although we didn't get wet we had some amazing views of approaching storm clouds, and by the time we got back to the car it was obvious the weather had set in. As we drove back through the village I was amazed that the end of the market square we were entering town by was in sunshine, but it was raining so hard at the other end (about 80 metres away) that we couldn't see any of the buildings there.

Approaching storm, la Roche Posay

On Monday it was raining (again) so we went to Richelieu and Fontevrauld. The weather turned out not too bad in the end, and we had a good day exploring the garden at Richelieu before moving on to show mum and dad the abbey which Susan and I had visited in November.

The rest of the fortnight was spent doing a couple of hours work a day, followed by an excursion. Dad and I made a shutter for the window of our storeroom (currently the guest bedroom) and mum chipped all the weeds out of the garden. In addition to this we stripped all the "lovely" 1980s wood panelling from the kitchen and the remainder of the wallpaper from the upstars rooms.

The back of the house showing the new shutter

We also paid a visit to the Philosophical Roofer. He had originally scheduled our roof for May, then June (It is now the middle of July and still no sign of work). The main problem has been the rain - he hasn't ever know anything like it, apparently. Certainly we can understand how continual rain affects how much work a roofer can do, and we certainly don't want our roof taken off while the "sunshine" is more than 99% liquid, but it is frustrating. I suspect it is just as frustrating for M. Galland, because he keeps on getting two Australians cluttering up his office and looking naively hopeful.

The main hole (or one of the main holes) in the roof is directly over the stairs, and it does get rather damp. Unfortunately, the staircase would appear to have breathed it's last, having given in to the stresses of being soaked every time it rains. The fact that mum happened to be standing on the stairs when gravity took it's course is not coincidental. No bones broken though! Of course, the damage means that we have to speak to a menuisier (roughly tanslates as joiner) to get the stairs either restored or replaced. This may be an advantage in a way - at least now we know how long the stairs will last..................

The kitchen in progress.

Our big excursion was Chenonceau, which Susan has already written about. We also visited Poitiers, a town we have driven to and through, but never spent time in. The churches are magnificent! I am not sure if the painting in them is original, restored or recent, but they are jewells. I never cease to be amazed by what can be found in the least likely of places.

Church interior, Poitiers

One of the advantages of having spent 2 weeks in the house is crystallizing our ideas for what we want to do with the house - and how we will progress.

Simon

A Trip to Chenonceau

Chenonceau doesn't look promising from the car park. There are a dozen coaches and it doesn't look like there are many empty parking spots - but it turns out to be one of those places that swallows the punters up with ease. A few minor bottle necks in congested doorways in the chateau itself, but otherwise the numbers of visitors is not a problem. We had a simple lunch of blue cheese on 'tricolor' ficelle with fresh apricots to follow - all from Loches market earlier in the day. We had to sit on the canal bank and fend off very bold and persistant mallards because all the picnic tables were occupied, but were quickly fortified for the stroll down the driveway to the chateau. Everyone seemed to be streaming in through the front door, so we took a left turn and started in the impressive formal garden. When the crowd had dissipated we nipped in past the faded but still beautiful carved wooden front doors and began our exploration of the chateau.

Chenonceau is presented as a house of women - Diane de Poitiers, Catherine de Medici, Louise of Lorraine, and Madame Louise Dupin who saved it during the revolution. Any men - Louis XIV, César de Vendôme are presented in light of their relationship with the women. This is a charming conceit that I am sure is an effective drawcard to romantic women everywhere. I did think it was a bit rude of the curators to hang a 19th century 'portrait' of Catherine de Medici in the 'bedroom' of her principle rival, Diane de Poitiers though (Diane was evicted by Catherine on the death of Henri II).

The house is fairly sparsely furnished for display, but there are many fine paintings, fireplaces, painted exposed ceiling joists in the best French tradition and of course, stonkingly rare and valuable tapestries (several of which are quite entertaining if you take the time to look at the detail). Many rooms have most interesting painted textile wall coverings, albeit heavily restored in places, and of course, a range of very grand beds. The visitor reception room on the ground floor once had the most beautiful floor of blue, white and yellow maiolica tiles, now with their glaze completely worn away except on the tiles closest to the walls. In every room there were also enormous flower arrangements featuring foxtail lilies, agapanthus, copper beech and ferns and the like. Frankly, many of the visitors were much more interested in these than the furnishings. I think most people vote Louise of Lorraine's black painted bedroom as the best bit, decorated with the symbols of tragic widowhood (Henry III was assassinated) at the top of the house.


The grounds are extensive and heavily wooded, with many walks criss-crossing. We were treated to a Banded Demoiselle female in perfect glittering condition indulging in a bit of seductive wing waving in the long grass by the river, and a nuthatch hopped about up and down the base of a cedar tree long enough to be photographed several times, completely unbothered by excited wildlife enthusiasts gibbering and pointing at him from a distance of about 10m. There is a delightfully perfect 'model village' and a huge potager. Simon and I were sooooo envious, and it was soooo neat and tidy, with a section for cut flowers and some friendly donkeys at the end.



Susan