...and here is the news on Monday...

It's all go here today.  Graham is here to finish tiling the kitchen floor and Paul is here to start putting in the electrics for the front room and the rest of the house.

So the front room looks like this at present...

 

...as everything has been moved to allow Paul to get to the walls and the ceiling to put in the wires.

A Night on the Tiles

Well actually it is the tiles that have had the night - as Graham laid them yesterday :-)

He'll be back on Monday to do the rest. They're being laid over the old ones, which were rather dated.

I had hoped for blue units, but it looks like I will have to settle for whatever the firm has in stock. 

Hopefully it will be these...

...which are cream, but a yellowy cream...

When Father Papered the Parlour...

Actually, it's the dining room and it's not paper but paint - on the ceiling.
Here is a picture of the preparation...

...and here is the artisan ready to carry out the job...

When it's all painted, the electrician can install the lights properly.

Spring has Sprung

It’s so nice to have some flowers out.

Breaking News

I have been rather dilatory in posting on this blog. I’ve been busy with the house and then to make things worse, I fell, in the garden, and broke my arm in three places. My right arm of course.  So you’ll have to forgive spelling mistakes in this post, as I’m dictating it rather than try to do everything with just my left hand.

The accident couldn’t have come at a worse time. We had the builders in knocking down the wall between the kitchen and the dining room. Also the pseudo-baronial fireplace was removed to reveal the original, much simpler one behind it. I love the old original fire place, it’s so much more in keeping with the walls.

The old kitchen is still in place here in this photo, but Roy is gradually removing the units so that when the builders come back they can dryline the walls and insulate as neccessary.

They have also insulated the ceilings and put in plaster board. The electrician laid his cables and made places for the lights to go in. Last week he came back for a couple of hours to add emergency lighting.

We haven’t yet chosen the kitchen, and I think it will take About four weeks to arrive when we do, so at the moment everything is everywhere and the house a complete mess.

I have an appointment with my surgeon in the middle of March and hopefully, the arm will be healed.

What Can The Matter Be

Oh Dear!

You've probably guessed already what happened.

I was in the kitchen, making greengage jam, watching the bread machine which was nearly finished, and waiting for the washing machine to stop spinning and let me hang the curtains out in the (now) sunny garden.

I put the curtains in the washing basket and headed to the front door.  I thought I'd better tell Roy where I was going, in case he had another disaster in the painting of the little bedroom upstairs.  The last one was about an hour ago when he lifted the stepladder a touch too high as he was moving it and swiped the faux oil lamp fitting, which promptly shed its opal glass shade which bounced off the top of the ladder and then hit Roy full in the mouth before shattering on the floor.

After making sure he had no  permanent damage I swept up the shards of glass and work resumed.

As I said - that was about an hour ago...

So, I shouted up the stairs that I was going into the garden to hang out the washing and an unintelligible mumble was the only response.  'What did you say?'' I shouted.

'I'm stuck in the toilet' he shouted back.

'Stuck in the toilet? What do you mean' I shouted as I went up the stairs.

'I was in here and inadvertently pushed the door to and, as I had taken off the handles, it shut tight and could not be opened.'

'So how can I open it?' I asked.

'Get the handle and the bar that's on the sink and you can open it.'

Which, ultimately, is what I did and released the poor guy.

He had been stuck in there for a quarter of an hour, waiting for the washing machine to stop so that I could hear him shouting and banging on the door to try and get my attention.

Maybe we don't need that sound-deadening insulation after all...🤣

Hot, hot, hot.

So, another hot day. Yesterday was 40 degrees C and today was 38. It is impossible to do anything either outside or inside. It's so tiring even just watering the garden in the evening☹️ Tomorrow is forecast to continue the same with 34 degrees.

At least Roy is a lot better.  We went to see the surgeon today and he confirmed that the hip implant was OK.  Such a relief and Roy has been off the painkillers today so that must be good!

With the hospital visit an hour's drive away the day was half gone by the time we got home again, but we did get to visit a hummongous Auchan supermarket in Poitiers and I'll certainly be going there again.  Such a change from the little local places, it reminded me of one I went to in Paris...

Anyway, we did get to plant, or rather half-plant a clematis, but the soil is soooo hard we couldn't knock in the metal stand without a lump hammer, which we don't have here☹️

So at present it is leaning against the wall...

Tomorrow I'll be driving back to the other house again to water the plants and try and tidy up etc so I can bring back the lump hammer and complete the job😊