House Plans

This is for anyone interested to see what the house plan looks like and to see what we have done and how it all fits together. If you use this in conjunction with the photos already posted you should be able to figure your way around. In all pics, top is roughly north.

The "before" plan clearly shows the layout of the ground floor. From the start of the passageway by our bedroom and the current bathroom, down to the loo door, is around 9 meters. We just figured out that the ground floor (240) plus the room we will eventually have upstairs gives us a floor space of around 380 square meters.

The upstairs is currently just open space apart from one centre support wall and nothing is lined etc. The upstairs is shown by the red outline (below) - the plan is eventually to make 2 large bedrooms, an office for Wouter and a spacious bathroom area. There will also be a service duct in the (north) space close to the roofline as this area is not high enough to stand in - even for littlies like me!

Beside the back bedroom is another bedroom which will be sacrificed to make the stairway up, plus the new bathroom and loo.

In the laundry you can see 2 steps down, and then to the left of that, a few stairs - this leads down to the cellar. As the bottom of the cellar is below ground level, Wouter had to pump it out a few days ago as the ground water level is quite high at the moment, being end of winter/early spring. Wouter says you can see it's happened more often as there are marks on the concrete showing earlier levels as well as a place for a pump (which was removed before we got here).

This last picture shows what we have already worked on and completed.

Limoux Carnaval

Today we decided to check out the Carnaval. The Carnaval boasts being the longest-running in the whole world. According to the information I've read, the festival was first recorded in writing as early 1600s, but it's believed to have been going since long before that.

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first troupe with brass band

For over 2 months each year, 3 times a day on Saturdays and Sundays, the groups come out into the Place de la Republique and visit cafe owners and parade to the public. The players are not recognisable and carry a long wand (carabena) and wear a mask, and are accompanied by a band playing a miraid of tunes. They all carry confetti and after they leave, the place is covered with the colour of the visiting troupe. Today the players went to one cafe and each took a dance partner when the band started to play.

bull with 'trophies'

Note the trophies on the bull....
It's a lovely festive and carnaval atmosphere, and we saw that many people make the effort to come out and see the spectacle. Lots of cameras are poised and people vie for the ultimate position for a good photo. The link below is the best I could find in English with the history, stories, pictures and further links for those interested to read more (take a look, even if just for the photos).

http://www.languedoc-france.info/041106_fecos.htm

Spanish Lady

Cheesy Grin

Another update

We worked on the toilet and back bedroom at the same time, due to the location. The toilet, as you may remember, had pinky-purple floral paper and a beige radiator. The walls underneath were a kind of yellow and the back of the door was a greeny-yellow.

before

The walls were stripped, cleaned and covered with a mix of paint and sand and this was painted with the Vent de Sable colour from the hallway but at a quarter strength. The light colour is lovely on the walls and it highlights the flecks of stone in the light floor tiles. The radiator was painted white and the paintwork (window and door) have been painted blanc casse - broken white. The ceiling was painted a soft white.

after

tile detail

All together it's a warmer feel and smarter look than before. Just a note that the outside of the door remains as is until we have finished with the new bathroom and toilet as there will be so much mess and we decided to wait until that's finished to decorate the hallway. No pics yet of the bedroom as I still have to do the windows.

We are working like the clappers to get the large dining room done so that when the plumber and builder come in to work on the new bathroom and toilet we can focus on getting those finished - getting there!

who's behind the new door?

Meanwhile the weather has taken yet another lovely turn and it was positively warm today with 22 degrees and Cassy panting and looking for shady spots! Spring is really in the air and the plants - and weeds - are busting into bloom - it's really quite amazing. The change of seasons here is much more dramatic than in NZ (at least Auckland) with the hesitant "shall we flower or shall we wait a bit" feeling. We can expect this weather for the next 10 days or so.

acacia (or mimosa) - classed as a weed here!

erable

planting gladioli bulbs

Lastly, it was Cassy's 8th birthday last week, so on the weekend we decided to give him a nice long walk at one of the local parks. He was having a ball sniffing places he doesn't normally go and suddenly he disappeared from view - just at that moment we realised we were close to the fishing pond.... We heard "quack, quack, quack" and called Cassy back. As we reached the brow of the hill, there he was standing, dripping wet, wagging tail, ducks looking put out and two elderly fishermen further round the pond.... as I slipped Cassy's leash on both Wouter and I tried to look casual as we continued our walk. Needless to say, Cassy had a great time! Luckily for us he didn't try to catch a fish or a duck.

Spring Is In The Air

The weather took a lovely turn for almost two weeks and so while we would love to keep working inside, we felt we must make a start on our vegetable plot and other areas if we are to reap the rewards later in the season.

Daytime temperatures were getting up to 19.5/20 degrees, which is not bad for February - you could compare this to end of August in NZ. Our nights are still cold but the days have been brilliant and I'd love it to be like this most of the year. Having said that, we are just having a cold snap - Kiwis should know what that's like :) Many things have started to flower - the apricots, cherries, mimosa and a lot of spring flowers both in pots and in the garden. the irises are shooting up large new leaves in preparation for their beautiful flowers (which I can't wait to see).


Now preparing the soil is important - we let things slip during late autumn and winter for a few reasons - we didn't have our things from NZ until late October, we planted a few things in beds but soon after that the weather deteriorated pretty fast, the soil is not very nice to work when it's wet - it's very claggy clay just like Auckland soil, but once it dries it becomes sandy - we will need to add organic matter over time to improve the soil structure.

We found out that the land we are on used to be a river, and therefore the soil is from the river bed. We find lots of stones while working in the garden and leave them in small piles until we have enough to go around and collect. Wouter is the 'slasher' (as well as the pole dancer!) and is getting rid of the large weeds, turning the soil once to dry it out a little and then running a manual tiller over it to fine it up. It seems to be working ok.

preparing more beds, broad beans in foreground (left)

Before winter set in Wouter planted a whole lot of things which just sat there all that time nice and cosy - heaps of onions, garlic, shallots, broad beans and so on - won't mention the obvious...... and now they are starting to shoot away. In the beds which are already prepared I've planted some more radishes - we got quite a few before the winter, but the ones which were left were eaten out by slugs and the local rabbit! An aside here - I put the old and crusty radishes in the wheelbarrow so they could be put onto the compost heap or just thrown out with the rest of the weeds. The following morning Wouter found Cassy half in the barrow having a feast of radishes...

Some seeds have been sown in pots to germinate and await warmer nights before being planted out. These include capsicums, tomatoes, chillies and aubergines. They should be planted out when they are a bit bigger as we will have problems with snails and slugs - we will do our usual trick of "hunting by torch light" and either burn them or pop them into boiling water and let the birds eat them the next day.

We've also bought lots of flower seeds - things like sunflowers, prairie mix, poppies, cornflowers and so on. It should be a riot of colour here later in the season.




For now we have jonquils flowering, daffodils, crocuses (in pot), cowslips, violets. The existing hydrangeas are budding - we transferred some round to the southern garden where they have the spring sun but in summer have shade from one of the trees - they are looking happy so far and we will need to water them in summer. The oleanders we planted earlier are looking fine, and some of the other shrubs we transferred from spots in the garden we didn't think they belonged also seem to like their new spaces. I must say that it's quite fun playing around in a new garden - loved my one in Waimauku and often miss some of the things there (especially my lemon tree, which I may have mentioned before...) but it's exciting to create a new look with different variables and see how we manage to feed ourselves and have flowers throughout the year from this new place.

Now for another story about the dog - while we were working in the garden, Cassy was getting the occasional ball throw and having a lie down on the soft soil in between - every so often he would get up and sniff around underneath the fruit trees with obviously fond memories of the figs which used to be there when we first moved in. Lo and behold, he managed to find some old potatoes - so, the garden once again becomes an interesting place.

While our backs were turned he had a munch - I called out to Wouter to check out what he was eating and we found it was raw, but fresh, potato. The following morning the potato magnet was strong and Wouter found Cassy slinking back into the laundry, looking very guilty, and his paws were so caked with mud that his toes couldn't fit together any more - this must have been really uncomfortable and was a dead give-away as to where he had been - you've guessed - in the vegie patch to find more potatoes. Pity we don't have truffles......

I'll just wait until they're not looking...

Saint David's Day

1st March is St David's Day.

St David (Dewi Sant) is the patron saint of Wales and he was a Celtic priest. The date was chosen to commemorate the death of St David in 589 and has been celebrated since then. Traditionally people wear a leek or daffodil (either real or badge) and these days lots of parades and parties take place. Sometimes young girls wear traditional costume - the common image of tall black hat with white cap underneath, woollen skirt, woollen stockings and shawl is being debated as national Welsh dress as it was apparently the daily dress worn over all Britain during the early 1800's. The woman (Lady Llanover) who actively promoted this costume was making an effort for the local wool industries.


This time of year is also when people participate in the Eisteddfod, which is a celebration of Welsh poets and musicians. The earliest confirmed Eisteddfod was in 1176. Competition was originally limited to professional bards and Queen Elizabeth I said they should be examined and licensed to maintain high standards. Interest waned but luckily was revived in the 1700's. These days the competition is open to the public and the International Eisteddfod attracts competitors from all over the world.

Youths compete in the Urdd Eisteddfod in singing, recitation, dancing, acting and musicianship. I remember very well the time our school was lucky enough to participate in the recitation. There were about 8 or 9 of us - we thought we were pretty good, and managed to come second. I also made a puppet one year - paper mache head and a knitted body, for which I received a commendation - maybe they don't have 'art' as a category any more.


This year I am celebrating St David's Day in a new country, but am lucky enough to have some daffodils in the garden, planted by the previous owners, and a daffy dog!

Entrance Hall

It's a while since I posted a blog with pics. We have been busy with lots of things as the weather becomes more agreeable. But one task which is complete, apart from maybe some further wall decoration is the entrance hallway. You will remember that we had some dark green, yellow and orange velour type paper on the walls, and on the floor the greeny-brown tiles which were also in the kitchen and living areas. The ceiling was a sort of brown paper we've never seen before - it took a lot of paint to make it a soft white - I think about 5 coats.

front entrance

towards the loo

towards dining room

So a list of what we did - clean, paint ceiling and scotia; strip walls of all paper, sand to remove any glue residue, apply crepi (this is a type of plaster) and then paint the walls; lay and grout floor tiles and plinths; decorate with some second hand chairs we found and our own cabinet and some new light shades; remove, paint and reinstall radiator (this was an awful job....); painting the doors was a huge job and the photos below don't really show the pooey pink they were before they were painted - each door has 18 glass panels and 2 undercoats and 2 top coats each makes........ (18 panes x 4 coats x 2 sides x 3 doors = 432!). One door remains - the door to the dining room. The current one is not big enough for wheelchair access so we have another ready to be installed once the doorway is adjusted.

towards our room

lamp

Now we feel that the house takes on more of our character and has a brighter atmosphere.

Another decorating story to come as I'm just doing the finishing touches in the loo and back bedroom - after that it will be work on the new bathroom and toilet with special attention to wheelchair access. And of course this will include a stairway to the first floor - we currently have a 'trap' (pull-down stairs). All these things are joint efforts as I need Wouter to do things like removing door handles and knobs, taking down and hanging doors, and so on, and he leaves me with painting while he does another 101 jobs elsewhere in the house or outside.

What else? We are working on the web pages so that we can be googled and hopefully get some business from 1st May - yes, we are mad enough to believe we can get all this extra work done by then.... You've seen the TV programmes where the first guests arrive and the painter is leaving by the back door!

Also we are busy in the garden preparing for our vegetable and flower crops - have bought lots of seed packets and are weeding, working the soil and planting. Temperatures are becoming more like NZ spring with cool mornings and lovely afternoons. The days are more sunny with about 4 days a week full sun and the other 3 grey, overcast, and a bit of rain - almost perfect.

For those of you who haven't had an update recently, after a few meetings and Wouter registering as an auto-enterprise, we are now waiting for the siret number which allows Wouter to trade as an ebeniste and for us to be able to get health insurance. So everything seems to be coming together at long last.

Be My Valentine

Well, it's a while since I wrote but we've been so busy doing lots of things - like decorating. Will post another blog soon with pics of the new entrance hallway and newly finished toilet and soon-to-be-finished back bedroom.

The last couple of weeks we (especially Wouter) have been busy organising stuff for the Chambres de Metier in order to get registered as auto-enterprise (self-employed with no provisional tax for 3 years) and then get a siret number - the magic number which permits trading in a certain profession and allows you to get into the social system here. A few meetings later and Wouter is finally registered, although it was not without hitches. The lady wanted to know our social security number - you don't have one? How is that possible in France? You can't have health insurance without it, and health insurance is compulsory - yes, tell us all about the chicken and egg story......

So to backtrack slightly, last week it was Valentines Day and as we are on a tighter budget until we start bringing in some dosh we decided not to get anything for each other. In NZ Wouter would buy some flowers (I told him to pick from the garden as otherwise it's like taking - for the British, coals to Newcastle - for the Dutch, water to the sea) which was really nice, or some chocolates. I can always find room for choccy!

This year, no flowers, no choccy, but while we were at the supermarket, we saw some cheese - we debated whether we needed it this week, but Wouter said - let's get it for Valentines Day - so there you go all you people who thought romance might be dead - cheese for a Valentines gift. No complaints as I'm a cheesy kind of girl and I wasn't expecting anything.

Today Wouter came home from his meeting from registering, and he said he had a present for me - a kind of belated Valentines gift. I thought perhaps it was a bit extravagant, but it sounded exciting and romantic...... until he showed me the new paint rollers for doing more painting and being able to get behind the radiators a bit better. I guess it was hard to top the cheese.