First Fixing Blues

Winter Home

Christmas and the new year is now behind us and work has re-commenced on trying to turn our house into somewhere people would like to spend a day or two whilst touring the many delights that this part of the world has to offer.

We managed to weather the storms that affected Brittany over the holiday period and came out pretty much un-scathed.

Our "hanger" is still partly flooded, but considering the amount of rain that fell, thats only to be expected. The worse thing was losing the internet, and therefore our land line, for the best part of five days. I Know many people had a lot more to cope with than that, but we found being out of contact with our children and other loved ones during our first Christmas away quite hard. 

On Christmas morning we actually showed our faces at the village church, the first time either of us had been for an occasion other than a wedding or a funeral for a very long time. It also helped by the fact Karen had heard that the priest was, quote, a bit of a dish, and she wasn't dis-appointed..........Apparently.

Our good friends Dave and Sue Price made the long trip to come over to see us over new year, unfortunately their arrival coincided with another batch of awful weather, and the staff at the local tabac going on holiday. But we did manage a few hours in Josselin before heading home for food wine and ping pong.  

First Fixing

The en- suites are slowly taking shape, however the "first fixing" stage seems never ending. And being I can't begin any real decorating until they're complete, it,s quite frustrating. We have purchased Three shower cubicles, one of which wont fit properly in the space allowed and has to be changed, three loos and three hand basins. Also we have a huge pile of both wall and floor tiles. The second boiler is in place and being tested as I write this.

Our poor plumber did manage to drill through our phone line at one point, depriving us of phone and internet yet again. But fortunately the very resourceful French "sparks" fixed it before we had to pay Orange shed loads of euros for doing the same thing.   

More First Fixing.

We have made a start on the garden, mostly to get away from the noise and the mess in doors I'll admit. Now we seem to spend half our days at the dechettirrer (the dump) and my car, both inside and out, is so filthy even a French farmer would be embarrassed to be seen out in it. Two days ago Karen discovered a path running across a large flower bed at the back of the house we didn't know existed. Uncovering it was hard work and involved another two trips to said dechettirrer.

Last Saturday we went down to the community hall where the Marie and other notables spoke of how the commune had fared over the last twelve months and what they felt was in store for 2014. Of coarse we couldn't understand a word of what anyone said, but we were introduced  to many people, got to meet more of our neighbours and had free drinks and nibbles, so an evening well spent in my book. We were surprised to find just how many people knew who we were, where we lived and what we planned, and they all were all so friendly, I think we picked the right place.

Well, next post I hope to have pics of some tiling and maybe even a fitted shower......Bet you can't wait.