Renovation and Repair week 2

, 

June 13th

Ian and Aaron reported at their usual time for their next week of thrills and spills chez nous.

With the kitchen fitting being seriously delayed due to the unexpected building demolition problems - another worker has been allocated the job of fitting the new windows in the kitchen and the ensuite bathroom.

However waiting for said window fitting has impact on the order of progress in the kitchen fitting - at least there is plenty of other stuff to be done! 

Plaster boards have been applied to the rails and the electric sockets and feeds to the appliances are done.

June 14th

We are ordered to go out for the day as Ian is to fit the new electric circuit board and there will be no electric all day.

We headed off to Puilboreau on the outskirts of La Rochelle - a large out of town shopping complex.

We have to purchase a fridge freezer and return with kitchen tiles. A nice light fitting for the kitchen is also in mind. We trawled around the various superstores in search of our treasures.

Carol was disappointed on visiting her favourite shop - Maison du Monde - there was nothing in the store to contribute to the kitchen purchases in mind.

After an exhausting morning we lunched at .......... McDonalds! Oh yes it was well worth Carol taking the effort to wear a skirt and apply make up - what a treat!? We gobbled our "tasty Mcdo sandwiches" whilst surfing the web on our ipads comparing prices of electrical goods and catching up with emails.  

   We returned to Castorama the chosen place for the fridge freezer and were disappointed we could not fit it into the car - delivery will be Mon 20th - 27€ extra ( How much ! - G )

    Then on to Leroy Merlin a diy superstore to choose the kitchen tiles. After much debate we went to inform the salesperson - 10 days delivery - what!! Back to the displays and an alternative was agreed on and purchased - however they are more expensive than we anticipated - ( would be - G )

    However to cheer Graham up we found a light fitting for 6€ ! -( plus an extra 13€ for the large bulb)

         We returned to the beginnings of a carcase of a kitchen 

  June 15th

Work continues - most of the electrics done .

The window fitter arrived - at last.

But the day ended in a bit of a drama when the double sink  is too large for the space - we dashed to  Niort 40 minutes away to a large diy store and bought a single one - not our favourite but the choice was limited and it will do the job.

Work finished at 8.15pm for Ian and Aaron - a long stressful day - duly rewarded with a couple of beers ,Rob the extra labouring help arrived just as the beer was opened - perfect timing as he was politely greated by the boys.

June 16th

The boys arrived this morning with tales of a good evening last night spent watching the Euros French game at Le Grand Cafe - the atmosphere was reported to have been great amongst the partisan crowd. However Aaron looked rather green around the gills - apparently the mix of beer and cocktails didn't agree with him?

It looked touch and go whether work would be done this am, but after rehydration with tea, toast and paracetamol he rose to the challenge and soon the heavenly sound of heavy drilling filled the air.

 By 9am we had 3 people working on the kitchen and 3 people fitting a woodburning stove in the dining end ( that's a lot of tea making! - C)

The woodburning stove was fitted with no problem - amazing.

Good progress was made with the kitchen and hopefully it will be completed tomorrow.

The boys have sacrificed their anticipated afternoon visit to a local bar to watch the England game - what professionals! Having monitored the score regularly on their phones it appeared to have been the usual nerve wracking England game, so it was probably better for their health that they had remained chez nous. 

June 17th

Today is the final push as the plastering, jointing and tiling are completed. However because of the unexpected extra building work needed  there remains quite a lot of finishing off for us to do.

Friends are arriving tomorrow so apart from some rubbing down and serious cleaning we have suspended decorative duties for a few days.

Just the painting and decoration to go.......!