This months header is the view looking back over the wheat field to the development. Mine is the second to last house on the left.
5th. Big day. I got the keys to the house today and Richard and I will start painting tomorrow. The agreement is that I will withhold the retainter till 8 days after the house is finished which cannot be done till the electricity is connected. A large part of the fault for its not having been connected lies with Phénix, hence the special arrangement.
Richard is the husband of the lovely Tracey who was such a wonderful help with dog walking and housework when I broke my wrists last year.
13th last finishing touches and the painting is done. The guys who are supplying the laminate flooring are telling me that it is not in stock and “au cause de Covid” (it is turning into the excuse of the year!) they cannot tell me when it will be available. BOTHERATION! But the house is looking light, bright and beautiful.
living room, one of the bedrooms and the bathroom with mirrored wall unit and light fitted by yours truly!
What will be the kitchen and is the utility room. Some white goods were delivered in the week and the big unit on the right is the heating system, a heat exchange pump.
I went back to the laminate suppliers and said that I would like my deposit back as I want to buy the flooring ex-stock and “et voila!” I can pick it up on Monday when the warehouse men come back on duty! Miracle!
14th spent the day bringing stuff into the garage and doing a sort out.
15th The movers came today and I now have a “Full House”, so to speak!
Goodness knows where it is all going!
Just to add to the chaos I picked up the laminate this afternoon and unpacked it all and laid it out in the main bedroom, which is empty, for the requisite 48 hours of acclimatizing.
16th mainly re-organising space, unpacking the few boxes whose contents I can immediately accommodate and taking delivery of the materials to build the bedroom cupboards.
17th Moved over to the camping car Aire for plug in, now that I no longer have access to Catherine’s garage. Much admin to do. The most challenging of which being the French tax return. I had a telephone advisory session, booked well before the deadline, this afternoon. The woman was rather fast and brusque but I think I ultimately got the info I needed and she ended by saying that my on line declaration, that I had almost completed, could not be used as it was passed the deadline and I would have to submit a paper declaration ASAP. Well I will be dropping something into their post box this evening and I have no doubt that there will be come backs. Oh! Joy.
19th. Birthday Day. Some good gifts. A phone call from Enedis, who are responsible for connecting the house to the electricity grid, saying that they will do this on the morning of the 26th, next Friday. However that isn’t the end of the story, then one of their other technicians will call me to come and inspect the installation including the Certificate of Conformity to say that the internal wiring has been completed by a qualified and registered electrician. THEN I can get in touch with my chosen supplier and get them to switch on the power! Nothing is easy!
2nd piece of good news is that the wall unit and kitchen component parts were delivered. The wall unit is substantially flat pack but the kitchen units are ready built which is really good news. However the living space and kitchen area are now even more cluttered!
I did manage to get rid of two flat pack cartons by building the carcasses for the wardrobes in my bedroom while Richard is finishing off the laminate flooring in the 2nd bedroom and (the best news) I managed to create a sanctuary in my bedroom and make up the bed so I will spend my first night in the house tonight.
20th Great night. Comfortable. Great view to wake up to. Good nights sleep. What more could a girl ask for? Except perhaps my first deliveries to my mail box. Birthday cards from Alexandra in Canada and Jan & Alfi in London.
25th Richard came back in to help me finish assembling the wall unit and the bedroom cupboards.
26th. Huge progress and the living area is beginning to be habitable. Still no joy with the electricity although I seem to have spent half the day on the phone bouncing between Enedis, the reticulation company, and Engie, the electricity supplier. Very frustrating.
The bedroom cupboards have been measured up for floor to ceiling sliding doors. I will go and chose the material and pay the deposit next Tuesday but with the backlog I probably wont get them till October.
In the meantime the spare room has become a bit of “the place to dump stuff you can’t yet put away”!
28th. Weekend spent emptying as many boxes from the garage as possible so that I can make a bit of a camp kitchen in there to use till Jon can get over the fit the real one.
30th My “Kitchen Island” in the garage!
A huge agricultural machine reduced the waving corn to piles of hay this afternoon. Not too much noise and dust but glad it doesn’t happen every day.
The view from my bedroom window is still good.
capetocarpe 