Rent  A  Traditional  Country
Farmhouse  in  South-West  France

Week 59

Day 382, Monday 23rd May

It is funny how we now expect the sun to shine every day. Well today, it is trying, but with only occasional success.

The kitchen is back to its frequently experienced disrupted state. The fridge and freezer are pulled away from the wall so I can plaster, rub down and paint. Or as the Boss says, "Make a mess just after I've cleared up; again". Oh well, at least I know I'm good at something!

The kitchen walls are looking like normal rooms, if you don't look at the ceiling too hard. The shelves taken off for painting are back on and the wall painted on that side of the room finished. When the sun does come out we finish a few of the many half-completed outside jobs.

I also water the vegetables with the hose, thinking that Portuguese Pete is not home. Well I just hope he doesn't grass on us and apologies for the pun.

By six thirty, I am threatened with hell-fire and damnation if I do anything that makes a mess, so its knock off early. About 11pm, I try and take a picture of the night sky, with a few flimsy clouds and a full moon.

The result is a black picture, with a white dot in the middle. Lucky I'm not a photographer.

Day 383, Tuesday 24th May

The Boss is off to work again so a reasonably early start. The sun is shining and the weather is sweet (I think that's Bob Marley).

Each day gets a little warmer, and in the evenings, the temperature drops much more slowly. That must mean summer is on the way. I have to work inside this morning, as the second set of kitchen shelves needs to get put onto the wall. And as always, easier said than done.

Having painted, I no longer know the exact position of the studs in the wall. By trying to draw a straight line up from the plasterboard below the worktops and then drilling a few small and futile holes, I eventually find the studs.

The cooking and working area of the kitchen; as opposed to the dining area, has been transformed.

Day 384, Wednesday 25th May

The Boss is out again! I should be painting the remaining walls in the kitchen, but after a few areas of undercoat, decide they are still too rough to paint. Therefore the plaster comes out again. Of course with plastering comes mess!

Another coat on one of the unpainted walls in the kitchen and what is rapidly becoming a lounge. But the important thing is the second set of shelves is now up, and I'm letting the pictures speak for themselves.

Day 385, Thursday 26th May

Nothing exciting today. Bits and pieces in the morning and the afternoon is so hot, its time for the umbrella and the sun bed outside, and of course a siesta.

Friends come round for dinner and we eat outside for the first time this year. However to eat outside, we have to get the concrete table outside. That was a bit of fun, but it's not moving until the winter arrives again.

And tomorrow the forecast is even hotter.

Day 386, Friday 27th May

We're off to see the architect working on plans for the barn. This is really a big day out for the Boss; not your normal day out trip to Brico's! He lives in the Dordogne, but used to rent his house out before moving here permanently.

It's nearly two hours drive, but on country roads with very little traffic, its easy driving. On the way back, we stop for lunch in a bar alongside a river. Then a stop at a tree nursery. Finally, a visit to Richard and Lynette's house on the way.

And it's really hot. About time we had an air-conditioned car. Of course there is the watering when we get home, and that is the only real work we've done today.

Tough life we lead?

Day 387, Saturday 28th May

Plaster, plaster everywhere, and not a drop to drink; or something like that. One wall of the "lounge" is now smooth enough to paint. That is if you ignore the satellite aerial cable emerging from the wall. And the chimney breast stone is all cleaned up.

The others are well on the way to being smooth enough to paint, but I reckon they will need a few more rub downs and plaster coats. We've set ourselves some short term objectives, simply to focus our minds on what needs to be done.

And tomorrow, perhaps well get on with it, except its a light work day!

Day 388, Sunday 29th May

Light work day today. The work was so light, as I'm writing this in Tuesday, I've already forgotten what we did. I remember going round to Mick and Tracy's to collect some seedling courgettes. While we were there, the courgettes, onions and something else and of course they had to be planted when we got home.

But tomorrow, back to work.