Let It Go!
We're frozen. All renovation jobs are rendered nigh impossible when you can't feel your hands, so progress since we returned to France four days ago has been s l o w. There's another reason for our lack of progress, but more about that later...
We bought a cute log burner with a back boiler while we were in England for Christmas. It's sitting in icy stillness in our sitting room, waiting to be brought to life. We need to install a flue and connect radiators. The radiators we wanted are in England. Don't worry, we'll work it out. Meanwhile, we have three electric blow heaters. That may sound quite luxurious, but we can only have one on at once, and it needs to be switched off if we want to boil the kettle, or heat the water, or cook. This is because we currently only have a 3kw supply from EDF. That's what they start you on. We've asked for 9kw, and an engineer will be with us next week to make that so. We can't wait!
Putting on five layers of clothing in the morning is slowing us down; getting out of bed requires nerves of steel. Our bed is a warm haven, thanks to the old-fashioned rubbery blessing of hot water bottles! Thanks Ron and Meg! Even though we don't have colds, both Kevin and I have chapped noses and lips. And the permanently ruddy cheeks of a Norwegian fisherman. We'll thaw.
We continue to work on the kitchen. The armoire we found on Bon Coin (French ebay) is being hacked about in order to be seamlessly fitted around the array of fuse boxes and electrical uglies. This has involved another sudden rush of electrical installation by Kevin. I have been busily sanding down surfaces, filling divots and holes, and painting. Looking busy. And sweeping up leaves.
I've been intrigued to discover how many different things can freeze. Yes, the outside tap and the cold water tap in the bathroom are to be expected, but what about toothpaste? And olive oil, nail polish (not frozen, but extra McThick), mascara...? At the moment, we put things in the fridge to warm them up a bit. Fridge 4 degrees. Kitchen -4 degrees. True.
Something I've always wanted to avoid in the aroma department is a house that smells of dog. But I think it may have happened. You see, when we arrived back in France four days ago, we acquired a puppy! He's a Border Collie/German Shepherd cross, and he's a real eager beaver. We should have called him Beaver, but he already responds to Merlin. No shoe or rug is safe in his domain. He's a chewer. My current counter-strategy is to immediately replace whatever contraband he's unearthed with a dog toy of a similar material. We bought quite a few toys for him, so we've managed to carry this out effectively so far. But we cannot take our eyes off him! This is also slowing down the renovation work. Luckily, an eight week old puppy sleeps for 16 hours out of the 24, so we do have spurts.
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| What's this? I can only imagine that a tiny Elsa has been 'frozen-fractal-ing' in our freezer... |
We bought a cute log burner with a back boiler while we were in England for Christmas. It's sitting in icy stillness in our sitting room, waiting to be brought to life. We need to install a flue and connect radiators. The radiators we wanted are in England. Don't worry, we'll work it out. Meanwhile, we have three electric blow heaters. That may sound quite luxurious, but we can only have one on at once, and it needs to be switched off if we want to boil the kettle, or heat the water, or cook. This is because we currently only have a 3kw supply from EDF. That's what they start you on. We've asked for 9kw, and an engineer will be with us next week to make that so. We can't wait!
Putting on five layers of clothing in the morning is slowing us down; getting out of bed requires nerves of steel. Our bed is a warm haven, thanks to the old-fashioned rubbery blessing of hot water bottles! Thanks Ron and Meg! Even though we don't have colds, both Kevin and I have chapped noses and lips. And the permanently ruddy cheeks of a Norwegian fisherman. We'll thaw.
We continue to work on the kitchen. The armoire we found on Bon Coin (French ebay) is being hacked about in order to be seamlessly fitted around the array of fuse boxes and electrical uglies. This has involved another sudden rush of electrical installation by Kevin. I have been busily sanding down surfaces, filling divots and holes, and painting. Looking busy. And sweeping up leaves.
I've been intrigued to discover how many different things can freeze. Yes, the outside tap and the cold water tap in the bathroom are to be expected, but what about toothpaste? And olive oil, nail polish (not frozen, but extra McThick), mascara...? At the moment, we put things in the fridge to warm them up a bit. Fridge 4 degrees. Kitchen -4 degrees. True.
Something I've always wanted to avoid in the aroma department is a house that smells of dog. But I think it may have happened. You see, when we arrived back in France four days ago, we acquired a puppy! He's a Border Collie/German Shepherd cross, and he's a real eager beaver. We should have called him Beaver, but he already responds to Merlin. No shoe or rug is safe in his domain. He's a chewer. My current counter-strategy is to immediately replace whatever contraband he's unearthed with a dog toy of a similar material. We bought quite a few toys for him, so we've managed to carry this out effectively so far. But we cannot take our eyes off him! This is also slowing down the renovation work. Luckily, an eight week old puppy sleeps for 16 hours out of the 24, so we do have spurts.
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| Merlin |
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