Don't show everything!

Why do I blog? Let's have a look at potential explanations:
  • to keep me sane while completely out of my comfort zone
  • I like to write
  • I love the English language and feel impotent without its complex cloak around me
  • to sate a latent exhibitionism 
  • I take lots of photos and need to do something with them
  • to share my joy
  • to share my pain
  • to keep a permanent record of the adventure
  • to make you laugh 
  • to encourage people to visit us for a holiday when we are up and running as a wee hamlet of gites
  • to keep family and friends updated on progress
  • to help others decide if this is the adventure for them
  • as a warning to innocents
  • to get out of other jobs for an hour or so 
  • to raise and explore issues that commonly occur when renovating property in France
  • I don't want you to forget me


You may have other ideas about the true reason... If so, please let me know. 

I do know that lines must be drawn in a blog. As Kevin oft tells me, 'Don't show everything!'. So, in the light of that, here is a shadow of our latest piece of house:


Today has been slightly disappointing. We threw ourselves at Mr Bricolage again, to see if the shower screen was in. It wasn't. It was 11:58 when we arrived, so we were lucky to get in there at all, as lunch begins at midday. We then went to the dechetterie to unload a new batch of the unwanted. It was open, but it was 'closed'. We weren't allowed to unload. This means that we had wasted precious time venturing out... instead of knuckling down to work. Never mind. I did manage to post a letter; the post box wasn't closed.

The plan today was to put up walls and wire things. After a bit of double-handed 'pulling through' cable see-saw activity, which involved some almond scented washing up liquid, Kevin seemed happy to continue without a boy, so I decided to scrape off a two-feet wide, twenty-feet long, ribbon of growth emanating from the falling down stone wall. I unveiled some tumbledown steps which had previously been a bulging, multi-tentacled stinging nettle haven. 





Bags of leaves, earth and weeds (and some worms who wouldn't let go) begin to build up
 Meanwhile, in the kitchen-to-be, a lot of metal work has gone up. I fluff-puffed what I could, but we have to wait so that the water pipe for the fridge can go in, and, oh dear, we've run out of copper pipe.

Kevin continues with the clean, technical jobs, while I immerse myself in sweat and mud outside. 



A worm city emerges...


And now, just in time for 'beer o'clock', I've finished the clearing sweep, all the way to the culvert. Yes, I can feel your awe. We have a culvert! As I've said many a time, 'water management is key on this site'. Gosh, I feel so 'bloke-y' sometimes!
Culvert close-up


And so the ground is clear, and I've retained the wall flora. Off to the five-needle shower!

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