La Belle France!

Well first off....Phew!

I need a minute!

How fast have these last 8 weeks have gone?

They've absolutely flown right by!

My head is a shed!

I am however, super in need of a little mini break and soon!

It's been mad crazy busy here, a lot is getting done and this fills my heart with utter joy! I really never thought I'd see the day!

Get the right people onboard and it all suddenly starts to make sense, it's just glorious! Sadly, we really do see now how we were taken for a right old ride and a half these last two or more years! I guess these people have to live with what they did? We don't and are just moving forward now with gusto and it feels right, finally.

I said to Philip yesterday, that the hardest thing to live with was the ridiculous gossip, the negative cloud created as a smoke shield to hide poor workmanship and or lack of work. The obsession with what I do on here and one chap in particular being an old fish wife telling tales anywhere in everywhere, was chronic! I had thought it was someone else, but finally this chap revealed himself and bingo we finally understood! You couldn't make it up really!

In the end the only way to stop it all, was to be here!

I've now seen how real contractors work and the difference is amazing. If I could advise virgin renovators of anything, it would be......... don't use all rounders or unskilled to fill the gaps and be on site.

Use the professionals that do those jobs every day of the week, book them in and be patient. They come in, do their jobs well and go home and gossip isn't something they care about. We've had a few pieces of really great workmanship sure, but getting it completed was quite tough. Planning was impossible. We've been held up terribly by inaction for whatever reason, who knows? I think if one doesn't want the job or has lost interest, tell the truth and go home. That way we could have got other trades in to get it done. I despise time wasters in much the same way as I have no time for gossip mongering.

One of our previous chaps seemed to have an unending obsession with not wanting me to write on here and meanwhile was receiving shared posts from here, whilst complaining about said person constantly. This person thinks they are friends, but friends like that you don't need eh!

I mean of course I know whats going on, it's just sad that they both were not getting on with their own lives and leaving me to live mine. By working in my house, they did not get any say in what I did or didn't do, in fact given that they don't know me, so it's odd that this nonsense became a feature. I realised a lot too late in the usual way........and that was by walking in on the gossip in play at a local establishment.

Right now Philip is re fixing a sink to the wall in the main shower room, so it doesn't come away! Techically it required a wood panel to anchor it to the wall. No biggy but I guess if all you want to do is three hours work here and there, you aren't going to pay attention to what the job really requires! Also the loo in the same suite has to be removed, as the toilet seat can only be fitted before the toilet is hung! Every day we find something that needs fixing, but we've already paid for it to be done. Last week a load of plaster on the staircase wall fell off! It's been redone but wow......! We are concentrating on making it right and not the crap we've put up with to date.

We are now going around the house, ensuring that what has been done previously will stand the test of time and its frustrating. A lot of the wall framing that was done the year before last isn't anchored properly and so we've had to drill in new fixings, all because we weren't here to check the quality of the work.

I've not been shy about telling you all, how I struggled to see this place as my home, but I'm glad to report, that whilst we are here, getting it finished, it certainly feels more like home, than many of my homes have in the last ten years. That said, I know I will happily share it with holiday makers down the line, as our forever home is yet to be discovered. The pressure to live here is over and oddly that has helped heal the rift.

If I'm really to complain about anything, it's the fact I am not getting out and about truffling for treasures or indeed dragging him here or there searching for pretty chateaux! I will and there's plenty of time for that wonderful pastime to begin again.

The sun is shining today and we are hopeful that summer has stopped being a wallflower and will now dance with us? Make it so! Rain is sooooo....well it's so dirty when one has dogs and white bed linen!

I'm exhausted today and everyday this past week. I thought I'd tell you about it as when it hits, it's debilitating. I'm fine mentally, thanks for asking, just tired and I need a little downtime sometime soon and I'm not the only one.

Moving is hard and we aren't even there yet, nor are we getting any younger. One day, all these moves will make sense or just some rather good story. I just know, he will be looking to bring the lorry and the storage here soon, I'm sure and then the unpacking will begin again. Save me!

It is what it is eh, much to do! Also, we've still got to go and take over the little house in the SW, that's running a week late because of my hospital appointment, then it's a mid July, trip back to UK for his meetings and by the time we get back it will be the end of July, beginning of August already! We've pretty much got work going on here July till end of September, possibly including October, so we've a lot of back and forth to do yet! No rest for the wicked!

My Dad is 80 this July bless him, so maybe I will catch up with him to pat him on the back! Oh and we've a wedding to attend in November! The stag night is late October...and just like that I feel the year is going to fade away in the confusion of renovating and tripping back and forth. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! LOL.

Anyway, it's all going on here. Mostly plastering and decorating, but at the end of the month the carpentry starts again. This house really is in the finishing stages, lots of finishing, it's a big house! We've recently moved into the master suite which has a few bits outstanding, but we have a bigger bed in here and it's lovely. I love the Hicks Blue colour on the wall's, very comforting.

Mostly, I deal with the domestics and boxmagedon at Le Renovation. With my arm issue I can't do a lot of anything much really and it is very frustrating indeed. Again, not a lot I do about it so no point wallowing.

I do think sometimes being able to adjust my sails is my super power, I'm really good at it frankly. I adapt even though I complain pretty often. My stomach however, fails lagging behind taking 3 months to settle. The thing is, even though I want this house finished by the end of October....if it's December it won't kill me eh?

In other news, we are off to a petite soiree at the Creperie tomorrow night. I know right! We so know how to live! The restaurant is practically our neighbour and we love to support small businesses, especially new ones. Although, I still can't get my head around the bright pink signage! Kinda makes a mockery of the hoops we jumped through to get our black windows! I'm now thinking I might just go ahead with painting the front door tomato red and wait for the fall out!

As for the forever home....P always insists we don't rush in and whilst I was really quite taken with a house we saw a few weeks ago, it just isn't practical with a long term sitting tenant. So the search goes on, when we get some down time. We've given ourselves one year, so there's plenty of time I guess?

We also have our final meeting with the tax office on Monday and are hoping to see those tax returns in our online spaces this month! Please let it be so! It will be another big job done and really the experience was quite the eye opener, not nice. Sometimes you just have to trust it will all work out in the end?

Fizzy is okay...mostly sleeping these days. Watto is covered in plaster, usually it's paint as he likes to cuddle with the decorator and also he hates the sound of the drill, howlling along with it whilst trying to sit on my head for comfort! Bless him, he's quite the character.

Right I'm off to nag for help getting a dressing table and mirror in situ! I need to finally see how bad my renovation hair really is!

Bon weekend and chin chin!

Laters x

P.S share this! I see you.

D x