We have just had another glorious weekend in Sigogne, 2 days of icy clear mornings giving way to wall to wall sunshine and 20 degrees. The price we pay for this lovely weather is fog, this morning it was not too bad, only affecting the first 10 Km and the last 20 Km of my journey to Bordeaux airport.
Rather than give in to temptation and spend the whole weekend in the garden, we got on with finishing room 3, Tournesol’, so the final coats of paint were applied to the ceiling and walls and skirting boards installed. Sadly I did not have enough skirting board to complete that task, and since I bought them in Bordeaux, I will have to finish that job next week. I took the windows off removed the double glazing and gave them a good rub down. I think this is the first time since the windows were installed that the secondary glazing has been removed, there were lots of tell tale signs of folks painting round the secondary glazing. I painted the windows with the same emulsion as the walls, which will keep them consistent in the short term with the rest of the room, and will act as a good under coat and they can have the top coat applied later when the room is not booked. The finishing touches should be applied next weekend such as putting up curtain rails, and curtains as well as a few maintenance jobs in the bathroom then it is finished. One small fly in the ointment is that we cannot get the water in the bathroom hot enough so we will have to speak to Frank our plumber and see if he can check out the new boiler he installed for us. One of the advantages of the nice weather is you can take a few jobs outside and so I was able to paint the door to ‘Tournesol’ again with emulsion for the first coat, then next weekend we have to work out what the top coat will be.
We were invited for and ‘extended’ cocktail by our neighbours, well actually they are three houses along, but they are the people Franca sees most often. This was always going to be a struggle for me, an evening in French after a full days work on the house, but we got by with Franca doing the majority of the talking, but even she was running out of things to talk about and I was not really helping, with moving conversations on as I cannot form a sentence quickly enough to be of any help, at least I am understanding much more now. A familiar pattern seems to be forming as this is how I learnt Dutch, I will have another few months of listening and understanding more, then I will make my first tentative steps into conversational French and finally get past the tourist stage. It’s a pity because they have a collection of old/classic cars which I would be very interested in seeing and even helping with, however that will have to wait until my French improves.
The big news of the week was that we had an inspection from the tourist board in Jarnac, a nice lady who is also a parent at Fleur’s school. She liked what we had done to the house so far and we will be added to their web site. We have to do a few things to be fully compliant such as including the price of breakfast in the overall cost of the room, putting price lists in each room and outside the gates. Since we are now official we have to get our public liability insurance and 3rd party accident insurance in place and register at the Marie for a ‘breakfast licence’. We will then investigate the process for getting and alcohol licence which has to be applied for in Cognac. So we have a few hoops to jump through before we are as legal as we should be.
Below are some photos of progress on room 3 'Tournesol' showing the bathroom construction, knocking two rooms into one and then the not quite finished version, just dressing the room to go as they say on all the lifestyle programs.
Monday, January 28, 2008
The Finished article.... almost
The almost but not quite finished en-suite bathroom with impressive but un-tried massage shower!
Room 3 or Tournesol before
Well part way through the conversion, but this is what happens when 2 rooms become 1, it took 6 coats of paint to cover the strong pink colours!
and Tournesol after....
The Bedroom of Tournesol waiting to be 'dressed' as they say in the makeover programs. Its had the stone wall repaired and pointed, a nice new wooden floor, spots in the ceiling and of course white paint every where. As you can see from the light shades the accent colour will be yellow.
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Good news week..
I am back at
There was more good news to greet my arrival in Sigogne, Bogdan the builder has finished Room 3, as far as his work goes, which means it was finished on time, and within budget!! So now it is over to the family Porter to begin the process of finishing the room. So on Saturday morning all three of us, yes all three, set to work on rubbing down and then painting and by the end of Saturday we had the base coat on the walls and ceiling, and it was looking pretty good. Hopefully
Even more good news in Sigogne was that the heating was finally fixed, and it is now so efficient we have to have the setting down almost as low as it can go. The house feels so cosy now that the heating is working properly, it makes such a difference to the feel of the house.
Yet more good news is that we have a booking for a week in February, from a house hunting couple via our estate agent Matthew, so the challenge is get room 3, we are going to call it Tournesol, ready for these guests on the 8th of February. If it is not ready then we may well test drive it, and the guests will get the tried and tested Porte Bonheur. I am pleased that business is starting to come, and from real guests, not just friends.
And finally... even more good news, on Sunday the skies cleared nice and early, and from
Thursday, January 17, 2008
The guests are coming......
On the day of the arrival of our fist guests in 2008 the continuing saga of our unreliable central heating boiler took a turn for the worse. After the second plumber had given up on fixing it (without giving us a bill) he recommended we call the depenage, or emergency callout service, which we did, and after finally getting hold of them after the usual 3 or 4 tries talking to an answer phone, we got an appointment with the engineer for the morning of the same day the guests were arriving, so it was fingers crossed. It started well enough as finally someone who appeared to know what he was doing got stuck into our boiler and after 3 hours work concluded that the boiler was ok but the electronics controlling it had a life of its own (as we have already discovered), so he needed parts, nearly 300€ worth of parts. The problem is if you want anything doing in France between Christmas and Epiphany you are likely to encounter the reply, but everyone is on holiday, or sorry all the offices are closed for the winter holidays, and so as I write we are still waiting for our parts a week after the return to work, because the other thing about the French way of doing things is that nothing is ever in stock. One good thing to come out the engineers visit was that our hot water system which also had a life of its own now appears to be 100% reliable, which means our guests could shower without us having to sit next to the hot water cylinder the whole time. I dashed off to the DIY shop to buy a couple of electric radiators just to make sure we had enough warmth for the guest rooms.
Our guests, who turned out to be 2 sets of very nice parents, finally arrived at 10:00pm after a long journey driving a large van from Kent. They were bringing furniture for the newest residents of Sigogne, members of their respective families. So after giving them a glass of wine to wind down a bit after the journey they went off to bed exhausted. They then spent most of the rest of the weekend unpacking cleaning and tiding for thier children.
Unlike the last time we had guests everything went as smoothly as could be, and it finally gave us the feeling that all the work had been worth it, and we even had time to enjoy the experience ourselves. It was a small glimpse of our future lives but one that, at least for the moment means that the light we can see at the end of the tunnel does not look like an on coming train……
Other good news is that we have our first firm summer booking for 2008 which is three rooms for a week, as well as promises of guests coming in February and May, so things are certainly making us feel much happier as we enter 2008. We have of course just about run out of money again but the good news is that room 3 has come in just about on time and in budget, and we now need to start saving for the next big job, which will probably start in April, to complete the roof re furbishment and get rooms 4 & 5 ready for guests. Room 3 now has a name, because of its southern views and having the sun for most of the day it is going to be called Tournesol, sunflower, or literally turning with the sun, as sunflowers do, so the accent colour will probably be..... you guessed it yellow.
Our guests, who turned out to be 2 sets of very nice parents, finally arrived at 10:00pm after a long journey driving a large van from Kent. They were bringing furniture for the newest residents of Sigogne, members of their respective families. So after giving them a glass of wine to wind down a bit after the journey they went off to bed exhausted. They then spent most of the rest of the weekend unpacking cleaning and tiding for thier children.
Unlike the last time we had guests everything went as smoothly as could be, and it finally gave us the feeling that all the work had been worth it, and we even had time to enjoy the experience ourselves. It was a small glimpse of our future lives but one that, at least for the moment means that the light we can see at the end of the tunnel does not look like an on coming train……
Other good news is that we have our first firm summer booking for 2008 which is three rooms for a week, as well as promises of guests coming in February and May, so things are certainly making us feel much happier as we enter 2008. We have of course just about run out of money again but the good news is that room 3 has come in just about on time and in budget, and we now need to start saving for the next big job, which will probably start in April, to complete the roof re furbishment and get rooms 4 & 5 ready for guests. Room 3 now has a name, because of its southern views and having the sun for most of the day it is going to be called Tournesol, sunflower, or literally turning with the sun, as sunflowers do, so the accent colour will probably be..... you guessed it yellow.
Gosh and that was Christmas
I am back at Bordeaux airport for the first time since the Christmas and New Year break, I always drive down when I am staying a bit longer than a week, because the car is full of all those things that are cheaper in the UK such as paint and glass, and the odd Christmas present.
Christmas seemed to flash by, as does time in general, but it was a good if busy break. The weather is very wintery now so the first thing we bought when I got down to Sigogne was a wood burning stove to go initially in the ‘Bistro’ or dinning room. Once I had installed it I had to start chopping wood for the fire, luckily we have a ready supply of raw material at the moment, our old roof which is piled behind the house so we are working our way through the rather large pile, though not everything is suitable for the wood burner, the unsiutable stuff will be used to power bonfires to burn the garden waste built up over the summer before the fire ban comes in in March. Bonfires are not allowed between April and October, in case they spark forest fires...
Christmas itself was a quiet affair, if Christmas with an excited 5 year old can be described as quiet. We did not do the full French Christmas which would have entailed eating Christmas dinner after midnight mass, it was easier to do it on Christmas day itself ala UK tradition. We ate venison in place of turkey and very nice it was too, Fleur had lots of presents to open, in fact a few too many if the truth be told, but she enjoyed herself, though wether all the presents get played with I am not too sure, she has her favourites, Bingo, Kerplunk and all the drawing things she received, we will see what happens with the rest.
New Year was celebrated French style with and 8 course meal which we ate with our French friends Fabiola and Patrick with their son and Patrick's mother, as well as Franca’s mother. There are no fireworks to mark the passing into a new year, and no big count downs on the TV so it was left to ourselves to count in the new year give or take 5 minutes. Franca’s mum had brought sparklers from Holland, where the spend six million Euros on fireworks for new year, and so we went into the garden and let the children play with them, but otherwise it was very quiet outside. Despite loads of prep time, infact too much, we managed to mess up the main course by cooking the roast pork much too soon so by the time it reached the table it was over cooked, something to remember for next time. The problem was the meal was so relaxed it took much longer to get through each course than I though so I started cooking the pork much too early.
Over the festivities we had in the back of our minds that we had guests arriving on the 4th of January for the weekend, so we had a lot of work to do to finally get the rooms ready for them. Even Port Bonheur, the first room we finished needed a lot of cleaning & tidying because that has been our bedroom for three months, and the second room Nature had to be finished off. So we created a snagging list and off we went to work and apart from a few false starts getting hold of a door for Nature everything was ready by 2:00pm on the day of the guests arrival.
Whilst preparation work for the guests was going on we were also progressing with room 3 and because the 26th of December is a normal working day in France I had to paint the bathroom ceiling on Christmas day so that the plumber could install the shower on the 26th, but such is life in France, Christmas and even New Year are not as important as Bastille Day or the local Fete, which takes a bit of getting used to, but is a refreshing change.
We should be on the final week of room 3, though I suspect it may slip into next week before the builder is finished. We spent this weekend getting the new wooden floor unpacking it and stacking it in the room to acclimatise, and doing my least favourite job, cleaning the stone wall with bleach and a washing up brush. The finished result is great as the stones get their rich natural colour back which really gives the room an atmosphere, but I end up smelling of bleach for 3 days and very sore hands. The builder now has the job of tidying and pointing the wall, as well as laying the new floor and finishing off a few bits of plastering, before handing over to us for the final finishing touches, such as painting and dressing the room.
Christmas seemed to flash by, as does time in general, but it was a good if busy break. The weather is very wintery now so the first thing we bought when I got down to Sigogne was a wood burning stove to go initially in the ‘Bistro’ or dinning room. Once I had installed it I had to start chopping wood for the fire, luckily we have a ready supply of raw material at the moment, our old roof which is piled behind the house so we are working our way through the rather large pile, though not everything is suitable for the wood burner, the unsiutable stuff will be used to power bonfires to burn the garden waste built up over the summer before the fire ban comes in in March. Bonfires are not allowed between April and October, in case they spark forest fires...
Christmas itself was a quiet affair, if Christmas with an excited 5 year old can be described as quiet. We did not do the full French Christmas which would have entailed eating Christmas dinner after midnight mass, it was easier to do it on Christmas day itself ala UK tradition. We ate venison in place of turkey and very nice it was too, Fleur had lots of presents to open, in fact a few too many if the truth be told, but she enjoyed herself, though wether all the presents get played with I am not too sure, she has her favourites, Bingo, Kerplunk and all the drawing things she received, we will see what happens with the rest.
New Year was celebrated French style with and 8 course meal which we ate with our French friends Fabiola and Patrick with their son and Patrick's mother, as well as Franca’s mother. There are no fireworks to mark the passing into a new year, and no big count downs on the TV so it was left to ourselves to count in the new year give or take 5 minutes. Franca’s mum had brought sparklers from Holland, where the spend six million Euros on fireworks for new year, and so we went into the garden and let the children play with them, but otherwise it was very quiet outside. Despite loads of prep time, infact too much, we managed to mess up the main course by cooking the roast pork much too soon so by the time it reached the table it was over cooked, something to remember for next time. The problem was the meal was so relaxed it took much longer to get through each course than I though so I started cooking the pork much too early.
Over the festivities we had in the back of our minds that we had guests arriving on the 4th of January for the weekend, so we had a lot of work to do to finally get the rooms ready for them. Even Port Bonheur, the first room we finished needed a lot of cleaning & tidying because that has been our bedroom for three months, and the second room Nature had to be finished off. So we created a snagging list and off we went to work and apart from a few false starts getting hold of a door for Nature everything was ready by 2:00pm on the day of the guests arrival.
Whilst preparation work for the guests was going on we were also progressing with room 3 and because the 26th of December is a normal working day in France I had to paint the bathroom ceiling on Christmas day so that the plumber could install the shower on the 26th, but such is life in France, Christmas and even New Year are not as important as Bastille Day or the local Fete, which takes a bit of getting used to, but is a refreshing change.
We should be on the final week of room 3, though I suspect it may slip into next week before the builder is finished. We spent this weekend getting the new wooden floor unpacking it and stacking it in the room to acclimatise, and doing my least favourite job, cleaning the stone wall with bleach and a washing up brush. The finished result is great as the stones get their rich natural colour back which really gives the room an atmosphere, but I end up smelling of bleach for 3 days and very sore hands. The builder now has the job of tidying and pointing the wall, as well as laying the new floor and finishing off a few bits of plastering, before handing over to us for the final finishing touches, such as painting and dressing the room.
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