Fin

So - this is the end of this blog. I finally sold the shop and it is currently being converted to a holiday let apartment.  I wish Ros and David every success.

Up For Sale

So - it's been a long time since I last blogged here and not a lot has happened.

Simon and his family came and went and a good time was had by all.

I have put the apartment up for sale on Greenacres, where I also have a house at La Tache advertised.




To see the advert for the Chez Penny apartment just click this link:

http://www.green-acres.com/en/properties/74664.htm

It's a Wrap!

I finally finished the floor in the old shop, and now there's just general clearing-up and dusting to do, as the sanding made A LOT of dust.

A few days ago the ground floor looked like this...



...as I started the sanding.

Now it looks like this...



...and I'm feeling pretty pleased with myself!

Dan's son, Simon and his family, are arriving on Tuesday and I think everything is pretty well ready.

I hope the weather is better than today here, as it has been raining all day and is a bit cold too.  Maybe they won't need the air-conditioner!

High dee High

Not good weather for campers.  Far too hot.  Today was predicted to be 39°C, although it seems it was only 36 in actual fact.  Phew - thank goodness! What on earth would we have done with those extra 3 degrees?

Anyone getting the same temperatures out there in Blogland?

For your information 36°C is 98°F.  Pretty Hot.

Too hot for decorating, although indoors in the apartment is cooler than outdoors.

So I painted the first side of the second shutter, did the side window downstairs, put a second coat on the boxed-in pipes upstairs...



Do you see the wet patch on the floor - bottom left? That's where I spilt the tin of paint (not too much, happily) and had to wipe it up with paper towels and white spirit.  It had to happen some time, I suppose...

Then I put a final coat of gloss on the risers of the stairs from the first floor living room to the bedroom above...



This was one of my best ideas, I think, and it has greatly brightened up what was a rather dark staircase.  I would love to decorate the risers with words or a stencil, but I don't think I'll have the time...

Yes, that IS daylight you can see through a couple of the stairs, but I can assure you they are perfectly safe. Maybe I'll patch in a bit of filler, just so it isn't quite so scary for those who are not used to it...

The bedroom floor is all polished now, and I can start to put in the furniture - although there isn't much.  The single bed is already in situ and there is a cot to go in too.  Some curtains at the front window and it will be as finished as it's going to get for the time being.





So, apart from making curtains (and putting up the rods for them) the main thing to do is sand and polish the floors on the first and ground floors.  Too hot for that today and, anyway, one thing I have learned is that you do not sand, or sweep when you have just painted, unless you want a lovely gritty finish!

Jigsaw Pieces

I think of a jigsaw every time I do a little bit more on the shop. Or the Chez Penny Apartment as it now is :-)

You know how the puzzle somehow becomes a fabulous picture when that last piece is slotted in? Well, I think the shop is going to be like that - well, I hope so, anyway!

I am working on several things at once, as usual, and today I finished undercoating the second pair of shutters for the front of the building. They used to look like this...



...but now they look like this...



...and when they have had two coats of cream gloss they can go back up at the window and the front of the building will look cared-for again. At the moment, although the top shutters are done, the building looks a little bare without the lower ones...



In between, waiting for the undercoat to dry, I have been doing a couple of other things - I polished part of the bedroom floor, and I think it's going to look really lovely when it's all done.



The boards are chestnut or oak, and pretty old.  They are a bit worm-eaten in places, but so lovely it would be sacrilege to replace them.

I've also painted the risers on the stairs leading to the bedroom from the first floor, but I didn't take any pictures of that as they need a second coat.  I used the cream Annie Sloan paint again, and it certainly lifts a dark staircase!  I'll take pictures when they're finished.

So what else have I done today?  Well, I undercoated the front door and its shutter...



...although it really needs a thorough renovation. Still, it looks tidier now.

The whole outside could do with a coat of paint, but that is beyond my capabilities and my budget!

On my way to the shop this morning, I popped into a friend's Depot Vente in Bussiere-Poitivine - it was her first day in new premises - and bought a rather pretty mirror which, like everything else I have, has seen better days and needs freshening up. I have plans to paint the frame pale cream and apply just a smidgen of gold wax to the relief pattern of flowers and leaves. I think it will look rather lovely and it will then hang in the living room, not the kitchen which is its current temporary resting-place!

Hot, Hot, Hot...

Suddenly it's Summer!  Yesterday was 34 degrees and today is only a little cooler.

So I've been painting - windows and doors and shutters.

In fact, the sun has been so hot that I couldn't paint one half of a window because the sun was on it and the paint would have blistered.  I painted one shutter in the bedroom, but couldn't do the other for the same reason.

But I prepared and painted the one shutter. The paint was pretty bad...



...but I sanded it down well...



...and gave it one cot of cream gloss. No picture yet, sorry.

I also gave pretty well everything that didn't move fast enough a coat of the same cream gloss :-)

So mostly all the painting is done now (I probably won't do another coat of cream as I'm going to sell the property soon.  Please.  I hope.

Meanwhile, my other property, a house and barns at La Tache is already for sale. Hopefully I'll sell both places fairly soon and then I'll have enough money to live on or move back to England.

I miss my family and although one of the children currently lives in France, he is soon to move to Barcelona.  It's hard to be on your own in rural France,where nothing much happens - although the weather is lovely.

A Little Update

It doesn't seem to make a huge difference overall, but everything I do gets Chez Penny a little nearer to being 'finished'.  I've used inverted commas here because who knows when a place is really finished?  I would like to have done lots of things and maybe not exactly what I have done, but financial restraints have meant that those ideas have had to be shelved or scaled down or even left hanging.

But I have been busy and things are moving on, even if it doesn't look much changed.  I painted the bathroom window, for example and gave the room itself a second coat - although there is still the door to do.

It doesn't look much... (a bit messy, in fact)




...but it is a step forward.  I also painted the front window of the bedroom on the outside, but I haven't taken a picture yet - it took all day to dry and still needs a second coat.  I hate painting gloss and this time I just threw the brush in the bin instead of attempting to wash it out in white spirit!

I also did the little side window...



...and slapped a quick coat on the fireplace...



But before I did all that I painted the whole of the downstairs window and door with the white gloss and now I feel like I have stepped into a 70s movie everytime I go into that room. I wouldn't be surprised if Emma Peel stepped out from behind a door, or came running down the stairs in her shiny leather gear.  There's such a lot of white in the room, she might vanish like the Cheshire Cat, except for her smile...

...see what I mean ?

Anyway, that was almost a whole day's work and there seems to be very little to show for it.

But one day, it will all come together, the floors will be done and the furniture will be moved in.  As someone is coming to stay there in August, I guess that will happen in a couple of months!

Apart from some electrical jobs and a bit of boxing-in of pipework, it's the floors that are going to be the worst nightmare I think.  Note to self: put all the things you are taking home in a pile by the front door and start the floor painting at the farthest point away from there...

Homely

The first thing I did at the shop today was to put up the Ostention bunting, now it's all ready for the final (and biggest) ceremony on Sunday...



We put in the table and chairs on Saturday and then the Nathan unit from Janet on Sunday.

Now it almost looks like home!



Today I cleaned and polished the unit, washed the glasses, cutlery and china and installed everything in the unit.  It's a bit twee with all the teapots, but it looks more homely now!

Tomorrow I'm going to paint the remaining walls in the room - the bit behind the table and up to the toilet door.  Yes, I have a toilet in the kitchen.  It used to be the back room of a shop, you see, so that was perfectly normal. I don't think there is a law against it.  There are still houses here with no toilets, so we won't be picky.

Anyway, I came home just before 5 and cut the lawn, as it had been dry for a couple of days.  The birds were singing...

It's All White, Baby It's All White...

But that's OK...

It needed lightening up.

I've painted the beams white, and that was a task-and-a-half! Some of them are so eaten by woodworm that they were like the underside of a mushroom and almost impossible to get paint on to.  Still, they look better now than they did and the room is brighter...



Today I painted the walls - the one with the units on...



...and the opposite one, on the left as you come in the front door.  This is where I anticipate the table will be...



...and the fuse box etc will be all neatly boxed in.

I think the old sink under the stairs will have to go and a new one be plumbed in alongside the units. Either that or I need to find a cheap dishwasher...



Once that is done the kitchen is pretty well finished for the moment.

Upstairs is another story.

April Showers

I went to the shop today to take photos. Saturday I made so much dust that I could not take any pictures at all. I could barely breathe, in fact - despite the dust mask - and I managed to get some dirt in my eye which was fairly uncomfortable. But, dear readers, I have FINISHED THE DIRTY BIT! I think! And Dan finished the electrifying job of the hob, oven and sockets and the place is now ready to rock and roll! More or less. Well, it is better than a squat, although maybe not exactly finished...

Today I took some pictures of the kitchen as it is at present...





It's looking OK, I think, though I haven't given this area much thought as yet.  I've left the old sink under the stairs and not had the new one put in at all, as it seems pointless having two sinks!

I suppose I'll need to think about what to do with the floor at some point, as it hasn't even been oiled down here.  Maybe I'll just put some vitrificateur on it for the moment.  Upstairs I was thinking of sanding down the boards and oiling again with linseed. i just don't have the money for click-clack flooring, or even vinyl...  There will be rugs in the living room and bedroom anyway, so not much floor actually showing.

I still have half a tin of CAMI sous-couche (undercoat) that I'm going to use on the kitchen beams, I think. I'll give that a try later in the week and see how it looks.  I really need to put some insulation between the beams at some point, but I'm not sure how I'll do that.  I guess I could use sheeps wool, but it will need an awful lot! If you buy the commercial stuff, it costs a fortune, and picking bits of barbed-wire fences might take more time than I've got!

I know I should be more organised, and now that I've finished the demolition bit, I think I should try to start at the bedroom and work down.  At present the en-suite bathroom is a greeny-blue colour and I have undercoated the beams but that is all.  I need to get that sorted, paint the door and put it back on, and  install the new light. It's just such a tricky little room to get into, the stepladder doesn't fit in easily and, without the light, it's a bit dark in there!

On the first floor, I just have to paint, I think, so that won't be too bad.  It is a lovely light room...





...and will be very pretty when it's finished.

So, tomorrow I will start the cleaning-up and then the painting.  Hopefully the weather will be warm, as there is no heating in the living room now, because all the electric radiators have to be assigned to new positions and that can't be done until the painting is finished.

Weather wise it is April.  Say no more.

It's hailing right now. Here. In France. Halfway to the South of France. In April. Nearly Summer.

What can I say - the weather is unpredictable. Often I think I would like to live in a Utopian country where the weather is known on a daily basis.  Always equable - neither too hot nor too cold. Where the rain falls gently - sufficient to fill rivers and streams but not enough to make it impossible to get from the car to the house door without being soaked. (Preferably at night, of course). Where the sun shines gently but persistently in summer on field and moor without ever being too hot for ones feet to touch the ground.

But who am I kidding?  This is not Camelot. And even Arthur had his problems, it seems. Problems...What problems do I have that could not be surmounted by a dozen or so knights of the round table galloping through Le Dorat, stopping at number 10 rue Robert Lapayriere, knocking on the door and demanding to know if the lady of the house would like some Round Table help with her labours.

Oh how I wish....

But no doubt you're eager to hear of my labours today.  Unaided by knights of the round table, although Sir Daniel of Radford has been giving of his precious time in order to supply magic potency to my kitchen.  In other words, he has connected up the hob and cooker (well the cooker will be done at the weekend) and finished the electrical sockets on the wall.

I, dear readers, have spent my time taking paint OFF yet another wall (how many walls does this place have, I hear you cry) and putting paint ON some sections of a lath and plaster partition, which now looks like this...



The bits that I painted today are just earth and straw and were b***dy difficult to paint as the earth had an affinity for the wet paintbrush and did not want to stay in the wall, but rather crumble into the paint tin.  In the end I just lightly skimmed over the left-hand two bits and hope this will hold the earth in place for further painting another day.

The wall that I have been stripping back is the bit behind the door into the room from the stairs - the last bit of wall to receive my ministrations.  I am removing the dark brown paint and some of the other layers underneath, by working along with a chisel.  This leaves it in a sort of mottled state, which I rather like...



I have a mind to leave it (once I have removed all the brown) in this mottled condition and simply polish it as if it were a precious plaster - or as is the modern method for 'posh' cement.  I am now searching for a video on how to do this, from You Tube.

These close-ups show you how interesting the 'new' colour is...





Another chapter to come...

What a Difference a Day Makes

24 little hours, as they say... or 5 hours painting beams with undercoat.

I was so tired when I finished working today.  I started at about 10.30 and finally crawled back to the car at about half-past three.  First I did a little filling... then I vitrified the other side of the alcove... and then I started on the ceiling beams.  They will look good when they have had their final coat of paint, but they look pretty fine, just in the undercoat right now, although a bit shiny as they're still wet!






I did stop for lunch, of course, but carried straight on afterwards.  My neck was really cricked when I finished, from being in that 'staring upward' position for so long, and I just felt like I wanted to get into my bed and sleep...

Thank goodness I don't have a house with 775 rooms, like Buckingham Palace! Not that, I suppose, Queenie does her own decorating...

I looked out those old wallpapers that I found in the shop when I bought it, but I don't think any will be of use for the alcove.  There is an orangey one and a geometric pattern in a kind of red (very 70s)...





...but these are only little bits and the one that there is a whole roll of is very sweet but definitely not suitable...



So I'm waiting for new inspiration now.

Hitting the Wall

I'm not an athlete, but I am getting my fair share of exercise in the form of DIY, and today was no exception.

The lath and plaster wall was vitrified about a week ago and on Saturday I painted some of the woodwork above it with a gloss paint by the Little Greene Paint company, called Hollyhock.  It was just the end of a tin I've had under the sink for about 5 years, but it was still in perfect condition.  I did the beam above the lath and plaster and some other bits...



I also painted the mantlepiece and it looks great, but I forgot to take a picture!  Next time...

Today I stripped some plaster from the old cupboard alcove, which now looks like this...





When the pipe is boxed in I quite fancy wallpapering this alcove with some 60s paper I found in the shop when I bought it.  I want to make a box cushion to match the paper so you can sit in the alcove...  Just an idea, I may change my mind.

This whole project has been bedevilled by me changing my mind!  I first intended just to make do and mend, but it rapidly got out of hand. Now the entire place has changed, with the result that the living room is much larger, and the kitchen will be downstairs...



I just walked in one day, looked at the ground floor and thought 'Why waste all this space?'...

The sockets should be working by the end of the week and the units moved back against the wall.  I would like to tile, but that costs money, so may have to wait until the budget is a little higher than zero!

Lath - but no Plaster

The title refers to the fact that today I completed the removal of the plaster (earth, actually) in the lath and plaster wall.  Half of it had already fallen out over the years, helped by me removing the layer of pink plaster that had hidden it all.  When I started this morning, the wall looked like this...



...and when I finished it looked like this...



It was dusty work and my hair was like straw at the end of it! (Should have worn the hat!)  Now I have to mix up some lime mortar (which I've never used before) and replace the earth between the laths with it.  As you can see, there are stones filling the gaps between the wood uprights and behind the laths and I guess they would have filled in with these from the bottom up, as they nailed in the laths. Since I found no earth between the stones, but only on the exterior face of the wall, I'm just going to leave these as they are and plaster between the laths, trying to get some to go between some of the stones to hold it all together. Wish me luck!

I wanted to clean up the laths and perhaps polish them a bit, but any movement sends a shower of loose earth and stones to the floor, much like the collapse of a mine pit prop! On a much smaller scale, of course! So a finish on the laths will have to wait.

Yesterday I painted some oil undercoat on the remainder of the beams in the bedroom and it looks good...



However, the first half, at the other end of the room, which has had two coats of Annie Sloane paint plus one in between of an undercoat, and looks OK at first glance, is still bleeding through in a few patches, so I feel I want to go all over these beams with the oil undercoat another time, or I will never be happy with it... For someone who is not a happy painter this is close to torture!




I know - I'm just making more work for myself... this is really the French version of the Forth Bridge!  Maybe I will frame a picture of it to remind me never to do this again!

Mortar Ready

No. I haven't joined the TA - I've just finished the front wall of the shop flat and it's ready for the lime mortar to go on.



It looks neat and tidy now, but it will look spectacular when the mortar is done.

As for the rest of the room, well it's in a bit of a mess...

... but it won't really take too long to sort out (I hope).

It's just that I am only one woman, and it takes a bit of time.

One small step for womankind, but I have BIG plans...