Everyone's Happy

No rain today and so the gardener was happy to get out, tidying, weeding and planting bulbs.





On the other hand, I was happily beavering away on the landing floor. I've fitted some of the 'space age' insulation under the flooring at the window end of the hall, as, below the floor is the 'outside'. I would have finished it, except I had misjudged the number of flooring sheets I would need to fit it into the doorways of the two bedrooms.






As it is due to resume raining again tomorrow, we decided not to go to buy two more sheets of flooring today. To make the most of the dry weather, I dug the holes for the two Judas Trees that Sue wants.






The first hole wasn't too bad, but when I started on the second, I could only remove about 3 inches of soil before I uncovered the bedrock! In consultation with the garden designer we filled in the hole and I dug another one about 50 cm lower down the 'hill'. Even so, this wasn't easy; I have dug the hole and removed a heap of rock and we're hoping that the tree will have enough room to grow!

Poor Little Trailer

Having finished leveling the floor of the landing yesterday, we went off this morning to buy the flooring...12 sheets of chipboard, 2 metres by 60 cm. We loaded up the trailer and secured everything down, but we'd only gone about a kilometre when we realised that we needed to stop. Our poor little trailer was trying to do a big trailer's job!

I'd laid a number of the sheets on the front panel of the trailer and, as you can see, the weight was just too much. Repairs to the front panel now required!

We managed to reload the sheets, putting some of them into the car and holding the rear door down with a 'bungie'.

So, this afternoon, I started laying the flooring. Even with only 3 sheets down, it's amazing how much better it looks.

Keeping Spirits Level

The Autumn weather properly arrived during the night; it is forecast for a prolonged spell of wet weather. This morning I started to level the flooring of the landing/library.





It's slow work, but another half a day and I'll be ready to lay the flooring! Just got to buy it first!

However, I have to work round the existing stairs that lead up into the loft/our bedroom (in the fullness of time). I've freed the feet of these stairs, chocked them up on blocks of wood, and then eventually I'll lay the new floor, before letting the stairs sit on the new level.




I'm hoping to have all of this done by the weekend, and then it's into the two bedrooms off the landing!

Playing with Toys

As we have the surround of the courtyard finished (John was determined to complete it before the winter), it is now necessary to keep it pristine. Therefore a sucker /blower to remove the leaves was purchased. It was assembled and I was poised with the camera for "blow off" if you see what I mean. However as he switched it on the wheels fell off. Much abuse followed about Chinese workmanship until he found the nut he should have tightened!! As you can see it eventually worked and it is now up to me to spend all winter finding and barrowing earth from wherever to fill the centre for grass.

Not to be out done I wanted something to play with. Fortunately we received a leaflet saying that the local garden centre had loads of offers, so up early to catch the "plants". And then, on Friday almost 1000 bulbs (never one to miss a bargain) arrived from Holland, so I will be playing for a long time yet.

Another Trailer Load

Having replaced the tyres on the trailer, Sue was insistent that the trailer started work again. So, off up the hill for more manure! But, when we got there, we were shocked to see that the farmer has taken about 90% of the heap. And without asking us!!!

However, Sue says that there's still plenty for us (even though she's said in the past that we can't have enough). So, we brought home two trailer-loads and have left them in heaps ready for me to start making the planting holes for the roses.

Another job to go on my list.

Hole Plugging

I took the trailer in to Gourdon this morning to get new tyres . I'd tracked down a pair and, even though it took the tyre-fitter the best part of 40 minutes to change them, they only charged me 3.20 euros to put them on!

Then it was back home to start repairing the holes I'd made in moving the beams. And I was very pleased to get all of them done by the end of the afternoon.

So now all I've got to do is joint them up before I start working on the landing floor. Still, it keeps you out of mischief!

By Design?

Now that I've started working inside and we've got the basics for the configuration of the stairs in place, I've been unhappy. And the reason for this goes back about 2 years when I changed the architect's layout for the two bedrooms on the first floor. He had drawn up the plan showing one large room and one small one. However, as we were changing the stairs and creating a 'library', I got the builders to position the door openings for the bedrooms such that the 2 rooms were equal sizes. But, 2 years down the line, I realised that this meant that you needed to be under 5 foot in height to be able to pass under the 'new' supporting beam as you mount the stairs from the ground floor to the first floor.

So, we finally hit upon a solution, but it meant moving the 'new' supporting beam (as installed by our builders) 50 cm back from the stairs opening. Just the sort of job for a quiet Sunday morning.

Fortunately I was able to start on the end of the beam that is in the wall at the back of the fireplace.

As you can see it ended up quite a big hole, but at least I could work from the salon until the hole was large enough to move the beam from where it sat on the left of the hole across to the right hand side!

At least our guests won't have to crawl up the stairs on their stomaches now!

Having moved the beams, and cleared up the mess, we grabbed some lunch and then charged off with Betty to the annual Chestnut Fair. Although it rained all day yesterday, today was warm and a clear blue sky! We enjoyed a wonderful journey with magnificent scenery, and beautiful autumn colours. And, as usual, we were thoroughly entertained by the crowds and the bands at the fair.

Have you heard the one about the two old ladies and a lavatory?