Rent A Traditional Country
Farmhouse in South-West France
Index To Renovation Diary
The Spook Effect - How it all came about
August 2007 - Still catching up
July 2007 - Too much to say, too little time
Week 91 - Who said I can't eat a whole bucket of cherries?
Week 90 - Who's tired of a three walled bathroom?
Week 89 - "Don't say anything slanderous about EDF"
Week 88 - Stealing grapes, and more trees (not stolen)
Week 87 - Latière, and not much else
Week 86 - Another window; there's no stopping us now
Week 85 - Heavy swimming pool work (not ours)
Week 83 - Floods and EDF inspection
Week 82 - Snow, and PC obituary
Week 81 - Sawmill, butcher baker and entrepreneur
Week 79 - Back to England, again!
Week 78 - Hooray; we missed the really cold weather
Week 77 - We're going to England for Christmas. Note; it's not home anymore
Week 76 - Second bedroom done and Christmas decorations in the lounge
Week 75 - Sparkie inspects my electrical work
Week 74 - Bedroom two approaches completion
Week 73 - The roof party approaches
Week 71 - More roofing, no pictures; boring!
Week 70 - Of course you've heard the one about sleeping with a grand mother?
Week 69 - Another trip to England, after downpours through the open roof
Week 68 - Roof, while the sky is blue
Week 67 - One wedding, no funeral and skip some weeks
Week 65 - The wheat is gone and so is a little more of the old roof
Week 64 - Motivation and summer festivals are back
Week 63 - Only challenges and opportunities, never problems
Week 62 - Visitors are here so work stops
Week 60 - "Lounge" to lounge is slow going
Week 59 - The first real hot weather
Week 58 - FA Cup, rain, shutters, hosepipe ban and Ipswich lose to West Ham
Week 57 - Lounge tiles, grout, sore knees and some summer
Week 55 - Summer is on its way, and bathroom 2 is finished; yippee
Week 54 - More bathroom, kitchen and off to South Africa for my Mum's birthday
Week 53 - Bathroom two gets ceiling and our first paint
Week 52 - Time to finish the tiling in the kitchen
Week 51 - Ladder sky diving and vegetable patch gets going
Week 50 - Bathroom, more ground clearing and heathers arrive on the scene
Week 49 - What a trip. Lucky the UK has all those measures in place to stop undesirables!
Week 48 - Working in the Gulag and then off to the UK by train
Week 47 - New toys, Rotovator, gardening and one year in France anniversary
Week 46 - Off to see the architect, trying to remember we're not on holiday
Week 45 - First French lesson, another tree and some football
Week 44 - Bathroom 2 plumbing and first "tongue and groove"
Week 43 - Toilet still leaking so take it out and rework bathroom 2
Week 42 - Get that lounge warm before Spencer arrives
Week 41 - Back from holiday, refreshed and re-motivated
Week 40 - If I was a professional, I would have finished by now
Week 39 - More tiling the kitchen floor
Week 38 - Tiling the kitchen floor
Week 37 - Another fireplace, quickly, before guests (not the paying kind) arrive
Week 36 - More roof, chimney and grass
Week 34 - Light switches, painting; and then the visitors get to work
Week 33 - Help arrives, and the weather is kinder
Week 32 - Who needs under-floor heating anyway?
Week 31 - The garden looks good (or would if we planted grass)
Week 30 - More help from abroad
Give me a break; I'm still catching up here after my computer breakdown (well actually I've given up trying to catch up)
Week 20 - Well we've moved in and now are camping indoors
Week 19 - The last week before moving in, all from memory
Week 18 - Shower and bathroom tiling, taps and no smells
Week 17 - Shower cubicle and cold water runs
Week 16 - Plumbing, and floorboards, and more football
Week 15 - The fishing is as unsuccessful as the football
Week 14 - Slow, slow plumbing (who said it was easy?)
Week 13 - Roof, tiles, baguettes, and space blankets
Week 12 - More bathroom and floorboard jigsaws
Week 11 - Bathrooms start to become rooms, without the baths
Week 10 - Bathroom floors and lots of crepping
Week 9 - Electricity, hip, hip, hooray and no thanks to EDF
Week 8 - Well, at least we've got a telephone
Week 7 - Snakes and concrete arrive
Week 6 - More trenches and crepe (that's not a spelling mistake, its plastering to you)
Week 5 - Trenches and holes in the wall
Week 4 - The "Fosse Septique" septic tank goes in
Week 3 - If only we had electricity
Week 2 - The house is ours, now what do we do
