Rent A Traditional Country
Farmhouse in South-West France
Week 54 |
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Day 350, Wednesday 20th April Having travelled to Cape Town taking over 24 hours each way, spending a day going
backwards and forwards to the passport office, and then being there just two days, I'm shell shocked.
Therefore not too much work today. While I've been away, it has rained and been overcast almost all of the time. The grass has grown so long, that a number of things in the garden have all but disappeared in the long grass. With only damp oak to burn, the Boss has had the under-floor heating on. At last she is a convert! While I was away, the Boss did a lot of "crepe" that's plastering of stone walls leaving the stones exposed. Its a big improvement and makes a big inroad into the work needed for the next two bedrooms. Together, we get the undercoat on the walls and ceiling. Not quite as easy as its sounds. The original plastering we did, the plaster must have gone off. It was not as smooth as the rest of the plastering and painting over the thinner areas of plaster, some of the plaster came off. Perhaps I had better get back on a train or plane.
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Day 351, Thursday 21st April The Boss goes off to work and I get on with bathroom two. Having put the undercoat on, its now easier to see where the walls and ceiling are not as smooth as they should be. So its back to plastering. I seem to have cracked the art of mixing plaster, without lumps and with the right consistency. However, try as hard as I can, I can't seem to buy plaster suitable for thicker coats of plaster. The stuff I'm using is fine and good for thin coats. Then its on to the kitchen to plaster the walls which are too bad to leave stone exposed. Get the first coat of plaster on and then grout the final few tiles before lunch. After lunch, its the weekly French class. We're the only two there; apart of course from the teacher, so we get almost one to one instruction. Perhaps the others decided to sit at home in the sun. By the time we get back, its tea in the sun. Perhaps this is the start of summer for real? As I've got respectable clothes on, I can't be bothered to change, so its knock off early. If its still hot tomorrow, then perhaps its outside work again
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Day 352, Friday 22nd April The sun is shining first thing in the morning, but by the time breakfast is finished, it looks like rain. Instead the entire morning is consumed by a heated argument. The Boss wants some shelves built in the kitchen. However, I am concerned that unless she is absolutely explicit, she will get what I think she wants, not what she actually wants. Drawings on paper, more discussion, drawings on the plasterboard wall, more discussion, and finally I resort to computer so it can be easily modified. Agreement at last. After lunch, a trip to the saw mill and Brico's to get the necessary wood, a bit of smoothing of plaster, clean up and the day is gone. Doesn't time fly, when you're having fun?
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Day 353, Saturday 23rd April As I'm sure you know by now; Saturday is croissant day, but sadly, due to the strict (well, not so strict) diet, no croissants. Its painting day. The walls and ceiling of the second bathroom need doing. I'm hoping that with the recessed ceiling lights, the uneven ceiling will not show up. A day of painting and it really is looking good. but it will need another coat on the ceiling and on the areas where the plaster continues to come off as the roller goes over it. The Boss goes off later to a garden centre to buy a birthday present, and as she is incapable of visiting a garden centre without buying something for herself, that's what she does. In the evening, we watch a film on TV which goes on late into the night and the most excitement we had was when the rain started. And it rained all night.
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Day 354, Sunday 24th April After a late night, its a late start. And it's still raining. As its allegedly a rest day, there is no work done in the morning. After lunch, the bathroom gets the extra coats, and touching up needed, and then we start to clean up. Getting acrylic paint of the floor tiles proves harder than we expected. A quick visit to Mick and Tracy's to give Tracy her birthday present ends the day. As its still cool, we light the fire using the oak that doesn't burn well. It seems to have dried out and burns a little better than it did last month, but at least the Boss is warm!
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