Thursday 18 February 2010

Giles' Visit

Once again Giles has come over to do some work for me. This time it is to paint the ceilings of two rooms in the house and do some other bits and pieces, according to time constraints. The weather has been very cold, but the first two days we devoted to sawing up the old beams and floorboards that were stacked in the front garden and under the barbecue abri at the back, so that I had a stack of wood for the woodburner in the kitchen.

He sawed and I stacked and in two days we had pretty well done it all. At the front we only left a small pile that was all quite wet, and at the back we could not finish because the weather changed and we didn't want to use the electrical equipment in the rain!

The pile in the front now looks like this...

...and at the back this...

has gone down to this...

...and the woodshed now has lots of wood in!

Hopefully it will last through the rest of the cold weather.

The Kitchen

Yesterday, because it was raining, we started on the kitchen. Giles prepped everything, then started undercoating the ceiling while I started undercoating the doors. He sheeted off part of the kitchen to try and minimise the mess...


... and we moved everything we could into that space!

Today he is emulsioning the ceiling and glossing the doors of the cupboards. I'm doing very little as I'm tired and cold.

The Start of Summer?

The Grue flew over today (cranes), which (according to locals) marks the start of Summer.

(you'll need to click on the picture to see them)

I'm not so sure - it's still freezing!

4 comments:

Marigold Jam said...

I remember when we moved to France in February and our neighbour told us that sighting les grues passing over was a sign that winter was over - well they muct have been youngsters who didn't know anything or perhaps an advance party because we had more snow and cold in the following couple of weeks than we had had before! We are reintroducing cranes to the Somerset levels just now so maybe we will see that wonderful sight and hear that noise again here!

Bon courage with the DIY!

Jane

Elizabethd said...

The grues...how well I remeber them from when we lived in the Gironde. Every year, back and forth, and the noise!! What wonderful birds they are.

jo said...

I wiah it was the start of summer, it's snowing again here!

MarmaladeRose said...

Poor you, there can't be much worse than decorating the kitchen, sooo much to move!
I'm sure it will be all worth it in the end.
As for pricing hearts, very difficult, have a look around to see what others are selling for. I have found that the price also depends on where you sell them.