I have started on the potentially awful task of putting a skirting board round the edge of the downstairs shower room. As I write this, I have done 7 of the 15 pieces necessary but it has taken me the best part of an hour per piece and there has been much swearing in the sheer frustration of the constant tiny problems that stop it all fitting properly. Much of this is due to working at the absolute limit of what the mitre saw can handle. I can see there will have to be some short cuts taken in some way as I am approaching the toughest pieces and am probably going to have to budget two hours per piece as things get tricky
But on the upside today, Steve the electrician has put in a full 8 hour day and has done a remarkable amount. The two chandelier lights that I bought from Gill back in November are in place. The previous light fitting above the dining room table is now in the shower room. Two new lights have gone up in the lounge. The wiring in the shower room has been tidied up, as has the remarkably bad wiring above the sink in the kitchen. And various other small things done too. This has made a huge difference, as we suspected it would
I continued working on small jobs through the afternoon, while Grant worked on the boxing of the VMC unit. He has finished the downstairs toilet and is half way through the bathroom upstairs. So I shall be painting the toilet tomorrow - when not doing the skirting board
Wednesday
A quiet day with no visitors. I spend it working on and off on the shower room and doing more smaller jobs. Though I have also given most of the back bedroom its second coat of paint.
We have had a few idas about the use of the garage. Having decided that we won't ever use it for storing a car, we are thinking about what would be required to turn it into a studio to support the painting courses that Jerome and Yvette are hoping to run in our house over the coming years. If we have time newt week, I am going to suggest that maybe Jerome would like to break up all the furniture in the garage and we'll have a go at getting the space visible. Then we might think about possibly putting a skylight in the roof and doing something with the walls (later in the year).
It could work well
Thursday
Remarkably, we have had a flurry of snow this morning. True it only lasts for 45 mins and then melts virtually straight away. But I am assurred that any snow here is a rarity.
Grant is back today to finish the boxing in of the VMC pipe work and then do a clean of the outside stonework, when we might discover that the walls will need whitewashing, which would be a very time-consuming extra job.
In the morning, we also have the delivery of the new TV and washing machine and the new satellite dish is fitted and I now have Freeview. This ensures that we have complied with the requirement to provide an English speaking TV service but it has to be said that the choice of channels is pretty crap.
Grant's cleaning is a success and we don't think any extra painting will be required. It is a high tech operation combining chemical treatments with a high pressure Karcher water system, but the results are great.
Friday
After yesterday's snow, this morning is cold but blue skied. So I can take some photos of the walls now they are looking really clean
I also get a visit from Rick and his local electrician friend who take a couple of hours to work out what was wrong with the light circuit in the back bedroom but do get it fixed in the end. Apparently a neutral cable had been pinched by the work done on reinforcing the grenier roof. So it wasn't to do directly with the new door at all.
I have just about finished the skirting board in the downstairs shower room and though it has taken about 25 hours to do, it does look really good. What remains is some touching up of the paint - though I am getting very low on the blue. The new linen chairs are working really well in each room I have put them in so far and the shower room is no exception. I wish there had been 10 of them now.
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