Six days later

After six days in the South of France it was time to head back to the other reality.

I had arrived grey, clenched, with gritted teeth, peering out manically through dark circles and layers of dirt. After six days, with some sunshine, good food and wine and the company of Big T and Agnes, I had started to relax.

I had enjoyed having a real kitchen and a bathroom with a proper shower. How novel!

I had enjoyed the feeling of cleanliness after four months of living in dust. Layers of skin or dirt washed off!

I had really enjoyed using a washing machine which didn’t require coins. And even better, things came out clean!

Ah, the novelty of normal life to keep me going for a little longer as I head back into the building site for a ten day stint.

Thank goodness it’s summer and my French weekends have started.

This year I think they’ll be sanity breaks.

All pumped up

We have switched from DIY in Maida Vale to opening up the house and pool in the South of France. It’s a first world problem but it does seem like the work never stops!

To start, we had to uncover the pool and get things up and running for the next six months.

We pulled back the cover and revealed the pool in her murky green algae-covered winter clothes. I had decided to try vacuuming the pool before sweeping and so with the waste valve opened, off I went.

Leaves, olives and algae were sucked up merrily until I’d had enough and all seemed well. Until I noticed the pressure seemed a bit low and perhaps I’d blocked something with my enthusiastic vacuuming. Much backwashing ensued.

From there we visited the Aqua Paysage, our local pool shop where we were advised to buy a selection of chemicals to get the pool up and running including a clarity tablet which had to be placed in to the pump basket. Hmm, where exactly was that?

We found the pump basket and blithely unscrewed the knobs. Water started gushing out and Big T was stuck in the tiny pool shed with his weight on the lid trying desperately to hold back the contents of the pool. It was like the boy and the dyke but somehow worse…

We couldn’t get the knobs back in and panicked slightly.

I went to consult the internet and in the meantime, Big T managed to close all the valves, perhaps something we should have done in the first place…

With the tidal wave abated, we were able to locate the screws, clean and replace the pump basket and put the whole thing back together. It was a huge lesson in what not to do (sort of like getting locked out with brand new Banham locks).  The level of stupidity was definitely a ten!

The second time around was much easier, what a lesson learned as the clarity tablet was carefully placed in the basket and the valves reopened. No floods, no drama, job done.

The pool is now a nice shade of turquoise and gradually clearing so it looks like we’re almost back up and running for the summer!

 

 

Easter Break

After a two and a half hour video conference last night, I finally disconnected at 11:15pm and my Easter break officially began. Hurrah.

It’s been a long time since Christmas and the work in between so being in France where the sun is shining, there’s a kitchen, a bathroom and a murky green pool feels like luxury.

Of course there’s work to do opening the house up after the winter but it all feels quite nice after our London living.

Six glorious days. And breathe.

Southern Migration

It was a hard old slog as we were pushing to get two more rooms done and time was running out.

The birds were flying south for the summer, that is, Big T and Agnes had planned their escape.

We almost made it. The living room was painted and with a great deal of patience, twisting and turning and a lot of huffing and puffing, we managed to get the sofa back through the door. That sofa will probably have to be sold with the flat when the time comes.

The fireplace was revealed and a lot of cleaning of the floor took place.

In the good room, the bed was reassembled (hopefully the last time for a while) and we now officially have two good rooms!

The little bedroom is waiting to be painted which will take us to three rooms and by my optimistic estimation, we’ll be a third of the way through.

We’ve finally got estimates for the kitchen and bathroom and are confident we won’t be able to do both in one hit. Looks like the handicapped bathroom will be staying for a while.

In the meantime Big T and Agnes skipped off down the platform at St Pancras early on Tuesday morning to enjoy another epic train journey to the south of France.

I followed closely behind having judiciously booked Easter flights in January and just have one work commitment before signing off for a much anticipated week’s holiday.

A Disobedience of Welsh Terriers

On Sunday Agnes and I set off to Hampstead Heath to meet three other Welsh Terriers.

Ralph (pronounced Raph), Edward Lear and Henry. It’s fair to say we’re all pretentious dog namers!

Apparently the collective noun for Welsh Terriers is a Disobedience which was coined by one of the other owners and of course, we weren’t disappointed.

I was armed with two balls and Agnes’ favourite treat of crispy dried sprats (little smelly fish which she loves) in case of the disappearing dog tail over the horizon. I was pleasantly surprised as she stayed close throughout.

It was a pleasure to see all four teddy bear dogs bouncing across the grass into a large muddy ditch and Raph swimming in every pond he could find.

It seems dogs like their own kind and the Welshies were no exception as they lined up for treats and no one could tell the difference.

Which one is Agnes?

 

(The good looking well-behaved one on the left…who’s biased?)

The dogs’ day out ended with a bus ride home for Henry and Agnes; tired, muddy and straight to bed for these tired little dogs.

Caged

Living on the lower ground floor of a block of flats prone to burglary, I had concerns about our security.

And so this week we installed new locks and window grilles by the top of the range in security, Banham and then promptly locked ourselves out.

It was an exercise in stupidity as I said the keys didn’t work so we all stepped outside to check and closed the front door behind us. Duh!!!!

Luckily we hadn’t closed the window grilles so were able to break a window to get back in, alerting our next door neighbour who is a very active leader of neighbourhood watch.

It turns out the window keys are identical to the door keys and the cost to replace the broken window was not worth the discovery.

And to add to the neighbourly challenges we’ve had recently, now they all think we’re complete morons!

Still, now we have proper locks and two secure windows at the front, the back is another story…

Plastered, in a non-alcoholic way

The last two weeks have been extremely busy, rather chaotic and very, very dirty.

We’ve had a plasterer (Dan) in working on our next two rooms and while things are progressing, it’s been hard work.

I spent three weekends shaving paper off the walls by hand only to discover that most of the plaster was going to have to come off.

The original lathe and plaster living room ceiling needed to be replaced so down it came with dust and rubble everywhere. It was like a nuclear holocaust.

And then bliss, new plasterboard, new plaster, a final glass-like skim and now we wait for it to dry so it can become our second good (albeit dark) room.

In the meantime Dan has moved into the little bedroom to replaster and we’re now sleeping on a mattress on the floor of the good room. Now the not-so-good room.

With deadlines looming, Big T and Little Bags heading to France on Tuesday for the summer, it doesn’t look like those rooms will be finished before they go.