Next year, the project will be to complete the downstairs room. This will consist of replacing the two small porthole windows with a three window tilt and turn UPVC replacement. Although this doesn’t match the originality of the building, it will provide us with a double glazed, maintenance free set of openings which will bring in much more light to what is currently a very dull and dismal part of the house.
We will need to fit a new kitchen and worktops, possibly from IKEA and we have already purchased a wonderful ceramic double sink unit which we found on sale at €20. The flooring will probably end up being either a vinyl covering or a tile finish, we’re not sure at this moment.
For heating, our friends Serena and Dave have recommended a wood burning stove from Bricoman which seems to have a good output for a reasonable price. We will probably also line the chimney to make the stove more efficient, as well as providing some trunking into the bedroom to capture some of the warmth that it will give out. I am in the process of designing the fireplace to make sure that we make it look as authentic as possible, keeping all the old granite stones re-pointing with lime mortar – it should look really great.
It will be great to connect up all the electrics, put in all the sockets, switches and new wall lights to bring it into the 21st century
It will be a very exciting time to finally move into this new part of the house. As a spin-off, Linda and John and any other family visitors will have the use of the middle house all to themselves.
The bedroom in the end house is now pretty close to completion, with all the walls dry lined, insulated and painted and all woodwork done in a nice contrast in blue to match the other bedrooms. We manage to reuse the original doors to try and keep some character in the house and remodelled the fireplace to make it a little more modern. We will add the little Godin wood-burning stove which we found covered up in one of the other fireplaces as a decorative feature. All that we will need to do is to put down some carpet and move a very heavy bed from the other house.
With John’s help, I also managed to take out the old attic staircase which would have become redundant anyway and this has really lightened the staircase to the bedroom I made it all look considerably more modern – a worthwhile extra project, I think.
The work in the bathroom has been a bit of a long saga. Creating a bathroom from scratch is a pretty challenging thing to do and as usual, I probably underestimated the amount of work required. Finishing off the tiling seemed to be quite a simple task but took the best part of a week to do. The end result is extremely pleasing and well worth all the hard work. John helped massively with the plumbing issues, resolving a leaking toilet which we had to take back and generally providing the patience required to finish all those small tasks. I think the end result was very pleasing and it was great to have a really nice shower and finally a nice deep warm bath. I still need to add some ventilation/extraction to the room and will sort this out next year. The IKEA patterned glass tabletop which we used for the window seems to have worked extremely well and looks very pretty.
Despite having a busy time working in the house and around the garden, our time spent in France is a holiday first and foremost and secondly a project. We had many times where we were in full swing with a particular task when friends or neighbours dropped in to say hello. It was always a pleasure to see people and offer them a coffee or an apero if it was later in the day. Whatever didn’t get done and would always keep for another day and people have always been a priority for us. We had many opportunities to eat with people in their own homes and to reciprocate to invite them back to join us. We had many fun evenings with English and French alike. Hilary is now fully qualified caterer for anything up to a dozen people and happily produces three courses without any stress at all. This leaves me free to carry on working if I need to.
During this autumn, we met up with Brian and Kit from the Isle of Man, Dave and Serena, Paul and Sue, Ray and June, Lionel and Severine, Annie and Gerard for evenings of good food and fun as well as a host of others including Kevin and Rachel who managed to get out for a few days towards the end of our break bringing with them Chris and Sarah, new friends for us. Linda and John also came out for 10 days or so and really had a good time helping out and just spending some quality time. They look like they’ll come out again at Easter, so we’re looking forward to that – especially if we get to move them into our old bedroom, as it has an en-suite.
It also goes without saying that we had coffee with pretty much everybody in the village at sometime or other, including Marie pictured here.
Le Pas in autumn is a wonderful place of contrasts from the sometimes cool and occasionally frosty mornings, sometimes sprinkled with patches of mist which quickly get burned off by the sun, to the sharp rise in temperature so that just by 11 o’clock, it is so pleasant that all you want to do is grab a coffee, a piece of baguette and jam, pull up a chair and sit in the garden and chill for 10 minutes or so. The long periods of quiet and peace are shattered by the sound of huge tractors and trailers, combined harvesters and all the other paraphernalia required to bring in all the maize and wheat. This goes on for anything up to 15 days that we take it as part of country life and know that peace will soon return.
In the garden, all the work was focused on preparing for winter and the following year. This autumn, for the second time, I dug up all the area alongside the little river and at the top end of the meadow in preparation for sowing new lawns again. I did this in April this year but was thwarted by a two month drought, leaving the earth barren/weedy for the whole of the summer. Hopefully when we get back in the spring, there will be new growth and by the end of the year strong new lawns. The aim of this was to get rid of all the very invasive yellow weed that we had at the beginning of 2010 and judging by the other lawns, the use of the weed and feed at the beginning of the season seems to have kept the other invasive weeds at bay — only time will tell.
We also carried out the second part of the serious pruning of all of the fruit trees, cutting them down to a sensible height were we could actually pick the fruit without the use of a ladder. We are also hoping that the pruning will somewhat reduce our crop as this year we had thousands of apples which ended up on the compost heap.
Perhaps next year will join locals in working out how to use our surplus to make some cider, or pommeau as it’s called locally, but I think we might avoid trying to do some distillation to make the local gout, which has a ferocious reputation. Our neighbour Solange frequently offers me this drink at lunchtime with a bit of a smile which makes me think she’s teasing little.
We also found in time to build a new pergola to add a little structure to the garden. We managed to find some unusual bamboo trellis in Fougeres, which we never saw again in any of the other DIY stores, so it pays to buy when you see it as the offers are sometimes not repeated.
I also persuaded Hilary to let me use a small part of her potager over the winter period to see if I could raise some plants from seed ready to be planted out in the spring. We did a whole range, including some that we knew would be successful like the poppies and calendulas, and a small selection of others that I was unsure of. By the time we have left, many of the seeds had germinated successfully and I know that on our return will have enough plants to keep us going until the weather gets warmer.
None of these plants will get in the way of the early sown vegetables that Gerard and Lionel have already told us that they will plant in late March, hopefully salad and potatoes like last year. When we get over there in spring, we will add the onions or shallots, runner beans and tomatoes ready for another bumper crop. We have left the leeks in over winter and have been assured that they will be ready to crop in the spring.
The garden continued to be a very pretty right up till the time we had to cut back all the perennials and trim back plants that were still flowering to prepare them for next year. We have trimmed the roses quite hard and look forward to another wonderful year with them. We noticed a significant increase in the number of butterflies that we saw this year and it made us happy that perhaps we restored the garden and they once more are flocking back, or should that be flutting?
Summer in La Pas is an amazing experience from watching the weather, which this year was quite changeable, to watching the farmers busy toiling with their winter feed and harvesting wheat.
It’s also very satisfying to see all of the work done in the garden earlier in the year coming to fruition with shrubs sprouting new growth and all the varieties of flowers we have planted trying their very best to outdo each other.
On arrival at the house, we were quite amazed to see the size of the hollyhock that we grew from seed last year and planted in front of the house-it’s over 4 m now and self supporting.
The fruit trees, which we pruned in the autumn and again in July have still managed to produce a wide variety of very edible fayre. The most successful has been a very old Peartree against John’s Wall which is extremely gnarled and old but nevertheless has cropped extremely well. We bought a number of the pears home with us and they have ripened beautifully. The only tree that seems to have suffered is the poor Peachtree which lost two large limbs last year and spent the whole of 2011 sprouting new growth. We will decide which of these new growths we will keep as, despite its lack of produce, it is still a pretty tree.
In between jobs we still managed to find time to sit down and have a civilised meal at the back of our house, something that is an essential part of a French day
As you can imagine, we undertook a number of tasks to try and improve the state of house and garden so that our visits and those of others who come along will be that much more pleasant.
Hilary has been training one of our small hedges into the shape of an animal-any ideas what it is?
Hilary also took it upon herself to continue the good work that Heric did on the Dunny in the garden by painting the previously drab grey concrete walls a nice bright colour. Hilary had previously stood on the somewhat flimsy and fairly rotten floorboards inside and had managed to step into a recently deep pool of what looked like water — well I hope it was just water. We used some of our leftover rubble to fill all this in and make it a little more safe.
I did a few bits in the garden which included clearing all of the stones and rubble from along our boundary fence and planting some new shrubs as well as continuing the work clearing by the little river. This entailed cutting down the remainder of a rather large hazelnut tree and moving a few large pieces of bamboo. I also started the process of reinstating the steps down to the river which Heric has set as his next project when he visits in 2012. I think there is much more light down by the river now and the new plants should be well established by next year.
We also added a new entrance and doorway to our ‘le Petit jardin’ which is enclosed by a Leylandii hedge
We also did some work in the house with the bathroom progressing to the tiling point, having managed to finish the plumbing marathon. Phil made us a wonderful sink unit which we have now painted and it’s all ready to connect up.
We also spent some quality time with our friends Dave and Serena, helping them to put up a rather large pergola in their garden as well as enjoying the company of Chris and Angela who were staying at Kevin Rachel’s house for a fortnight.
Finally, the last weekend in August, Phil Sam and Grace came out and joined us for four wonderful days which rounded off an excellent holiday. Phil spent much time in the river building a dam so that we could hear the trickle of running water. Happy days
This is the eternal question. One that is discussed around the table in France with great regularity. Some have very strong views and even consider a rose not to be a real wine, but just something to be drunk in the summer months.
For me, wine is simple – if I like it, it’s good. The end.
Some ‘good’ wines seem a bit pretentious and overly lauded, whilst other, simple and even cheaper ones will do me quite well. Maybe I’ve just got an under developed taste or perhaps an under developed wallet.
So it was good to read an article talking about French cheeses and the wines that could go with them
We went back out to France for a couple of weeks , the first of which we spent with Phil, Sam and Grace and Eric and Julia for a couple of nights. We all had a great time and had a lovely meal with Lionel and Severine in Vautorte.
We managed to get Rob in to to fit the water heater and all went fine during the day. He did upstairs and I did downstairs. No leaks and seemingly endless hot water – well enough for 6 of us and Hilary doing the washing – bliss.
Eric got going and put together, fitted and painted the dunnie door a matching blue – it really brightens up a bit of a glum corner.
Julia got started on weeding Heric’s edge and the round bed – what a good job she did of it.
Phil started making the washbasin stand for us that we had designed. Took a couple of 1/2 days but the end result is excellent. Just need to paint it and add the tiles and it’s finished.
Grace started talking lots and learned to say ‘Hiya’ and ‘Hello’ by the time they had gone home. The weather was delicious and most of the time we spent it in the garden under the pergola.
Most of the seeds we planted in April perished under the searing heat of a very unusual time in France – a drought. All that remains are loads of calendulas, a few cosmos, a couple of fennel and more weeds. The poppies were a complete success and grew to 6 feet in most cases and provided a great source of nectar for the many bees that were attracted. We bought some more shrubs for the borders and put in a timer to run the watering for the potager when we are in the UK. Marie Therese had been doing it for us but with the weather being so dry, it was a bit too much to ask her to do it again.
The reseeded lawn in the meadow also took a hit, with only the areas in deep shade under the trees showing any grass growth at all. Clearly it is time to plant shrubs and plants, but October is the time for lawns and seeds. We will learn how it all works some day soon.
In the house I began the mammoth task of plumbing in the bathroom. normally, this is not too difficult to do, but in an old house, it’s a complete puzzle. Solid granite walls don’t like being drilled or hammered and often are so flaky, that getting any sort of fixing is a miracle. I did manage to get all the copper in place with runs being supported under wall joists, packing in places where there was no wall and a 7-way junction in copper, a toilet, basin, shower and bath connection all in the space the size of a shoe box – oh yes, all at floor level. Talk about fiddling about.
Much of my time was spent cutting long pieces of copper into many much smaller ones! Recycling was the order of the day.
All I need to do now is to take it all apart and solder it up – all inside a shoebox, whilst lying down. Ho hum
Kevin and Rachel popped in on the day we were leaving and complimented us on the lovely garden – it’s great when someone else sees your work after a while -it makes you realise how far you have come.
We also had the previous owners – the brothers Ruault and wives visit for an hour or so. They really enjoyed telling us about the house and gardens when they lived there. We gave them the old pictures we found in the attic and they promised to let us have some more history of the houses.
I look forward to the next episodes in the adventure
It’s always a bit daunting turning up to an old house you’ve left locked up for winter for five months. Will the roof still be OK? How will the garden look? Will all the pipes be ok and no leaks? How about the electrics? So many possibilities.
When we arrived, our shutters were open and the Rosieres and the stove lit giving a gentle warmth throughout the house. It felt very homely. Fortunately for us, there were no issues with any part of the house – long may it stay that way. A few slates had slid off and I got into the lofts with some silicone to fill the gaps and secure other loose slates.
The garden was pretty over-run with weeds in all flower beds, but the new lawn by the well area had grown beautifully. We spent pretty much all of the time there in the garden and on departure, I think we had it under control.
We planted loads of previously collected seeds – marigolds, large medium and small, cosmos, aqualegia, fennel, calendula as well as lots of poppies, foxgloves and hollyhocks that we put in last year. I have managed to raise one lupin out of all the seeds I put in and it seems pretty happy.
Inside the house, all was ok and we had to begin the process of putting in the new hot water tank as the old one is decidedly dodgy. It did stop working, but Rob the electrician got it running again on the proviso that we renewed it. We bought a 200l one from BricoMan in Laval and stuck it on the roofrack! What a game getting it up the stairs. Heave ho! Then Hils suggested using the other stairs – dead easy. I will book in Rob asap when we return to do all the pipework as I don’t really want to have a 200l reservoir leak on the first floor!
We did some painting of windows in the end house and I cleaned up the utility room with a lick of white matt and some soft sheen for the paintwork.
It all looks really clean and nice now. I also got busy and emptied two of the three lofts. Probably not been cleaned for 100 years. The end loft had three complete windows and frames all with glass intact and all rotten. Rotten shutters, doors and lino – loads of lino all over the place, bits of wood, bricks, stone you name it. I swept and hoovered until the place was spotless. This was all to accommodate the new hot water tank, which we then decided to put somewhere else!
We were given an armoire by Dave and Serena which will go in our new bedroom.
Outside, I decided that all the sheds were in particularly poor state of tidiness, having not really been cleaned up properly since we bought the houses. I started in my little tool shed and put in a new concrete floor, took out the eye level rafters and little loft, cleaned it all up and added a new long bench. I now know where all my tools are and even have room to service the mower on the bench, it’s that big.
We also did the same to the little wood store, and it’s now waterproof and relatively clean and tidy. The tin sheds had a tidy and sweep and we reorganised the wood storage a bit and cut up all the logs that were too big for the fire. We also chopped up all the remaining floorboards from upstairs.
The whole garden had a tidy up as well with all the edging being lifted and replaced, two new brick paths, all the dead wood trimmed from the trees, and the final bits of ivy coated with Roundup.
The fruit trees were all trimmed pretty hard last autumn and have recovered well with lots of blossom and the promise of lots of fruit this year.
Hilary got the potager underway with two French friends planting early potatoes and salad and after the donation of a box of onion setts from Lucien, we now have two happy rows of these as well as 5 rows of leek seedlings. Severine gave us black runner beans and we bought 6 cherry tomato plants, all of which are growing rapidly in the Le Pas sunshine.
The weather was fantastic for pretty much all but a couple of days and really felt more like summer than April.
When we go out next, it will be plumbing, bathroom and kitchen time. Phil, Sam and Grace are coming out to help, so it should be a really nice family holiday – oh yes, Eric and Julia will be popping in for a couple of days too
We met up with our friends Serena and Dave a few times at Easter and we chatted about wood burning stoves – they have two. They are both from the Bricos and from comments on AI, many of these are not top quality, so should be avoided. They said that their one in the kitchen from Bricoman was an excellent stove and had performed really well during the winter. This was only 399€ and seems a good purchase.
They also used a local plumber, Dominic Boisnard, who lives in la Haie-Traversaine to collect and install the whole thing. This will also qualify for the Flamme vert tax break, so saving some money.
It’s always good to get personal recommendations of local artisans and I’m sure we’ll be using him in due course
