Christmas Greetings 2011

I can't see Christmas robins, nor doves a-cooing-so
Cat never neared a cradle in a stable 2000 years ago.
I see that ox and donkey arrived without ado
but ostrich was excluded and terrible tiger too.
Camels got an invite, as did three wise Eastern kings
giving gifts of gold and myrrh, frankincense and things.
Bankers and financiers mumbled murmurs in disguise
and thought the sleepy shepherds were sensible and wise
to gift soft lambs and washable wool, never to be fleeced.
Herod later came to tell that he wished the baby seized.
Frankincense was costly, as indeed it is today,
signals opulence in churches, mosques, special for the Lord's day.

Will Ethiopians continue to export this wonderful aromatic resin,
When Boswellia trees fail to reproduce for the Christmas season?
Will they continue to tree-tap and let long-beetle attack,
let cattle graze at bark, for this amazing aphrodisiac,
let it no longer help depression, nor give medicinal purpose,
nor serve the perfume industry?  O yay, it'll cost more to purchase.

HAPPY CHRISTMAS 2011

The Oval Room Chimney and Flooring

The Oval Room Chimneybreast was fireproofed with insulation materials and plasterboarded but the flexible flue liner had to be pushed up the chimney. The proprietor was alone to instal the flue liner. He was at the top of the stack pulling the flexible flue to the top of the chimney and luckily a friend was present to help push.

Then it was sealed with fireproof bricks leaving a hole in the insulation material for the rigid flue.

Covered with fireproof plasterboard

Cut a hole for the rigid flue - requires mathematics!

Beauty after the slog!

An old original door against the new one.

Wonderful!

Towards the small room

Towards the kitchen and the courtyard

Towards the kitchen

Although three times the anticipated price the flooring is beautiful

The Oval Moulding that attracted me

Travertin tiles in the doorway so that the oak flooring does not get wet or damp if the door is left open when it rains.

Detail of the ceiling which took forever to correct the previous damage.

The rest is history!

The Swollen River

On the night of Thursday 15th December the winds and rain of Storm Joachim caused the waters of the river to rise.

No sign of the weir!

The path from the bridge is under water.

By a hill top deviation the path could be accessed.

One can normally walk here though I think it is private.

The water on the path allowed access to another footpath going uphill.

Within two days the waters had subsided.

Winter Solstice Solace

The days get longer from here on in!  Next year the sun will shine optimistically and all our troubles will apparently disappear as we sit in the lounge chairs in the garden or on the beach!
French Hanging Santas will have better things to do!

Two-bite Almond Buns

Two-bite Almond Buns - that taste a bit like macaroons

1. Buy some ready made marzipan.

2. Sieve 170g flour, some salt and ½ tsp baking powder. Rub in  85g margarine/butter. Mix in 70g sugar and create a paste with one egg. Add another egg if necessary and add more flour if it is too sticky. 

3. Roll the paste into balls. 

4.Roll a small 1cm cube of marzipan into a ball using the palms of the hands. t

5. Wrap a flattened ball of paste around the marzipan ball and seal it in. Repeat…..

NB too much marzipan will seep out of the buns like volcanic lava!

6. Roll the balls in ground almonds or brush with beaten egg and sprinkle with almond flakes.

7. Place on greaseproof paper. Bake in a hot oven for 15 minutes.

Oh woe! Not the woodburner again!

Quel horreur!
This was not supposed to happen! But it has, just one week before Christmas!! Just when I was beginning to think that for the winter I could move to an uncluttered, renovation-free environment of a new bedroom,  just beyond the oval room that contains the woodburner! How unjust!
Now, on the shortest day of the year I await the woodburner installer and know I am just within the guarantee period.  It was good that we used fireproofed plasterboard.  However, it wasn't waterproofed and the wall surface has bubbled. The glass hearth has to be cleaned and it seems that the oak flooring below has been stained. Certainly the skirting board and air vent are sticky.  Whether any of this can be cleaned and with what substance or whether items have to be replaced as yet is unknown. I would prefer the minimum of replacement!  Goodness knows how many more labour hours, material costs, and worry will be needed to create calm from this chaos.

I feel devastated and tired with all this renovation lark! I want my life back. I am sure my friend who is helping me to renovate feels the same if truth be known!
A record of the event
On Saturday night 17th December 2011 I thought I would sleep in my brand new single Victorian iron bedstead with brand new duvet and bedlinen in a totally uncluttered room,  free from office stuff, free from renovation materials,  free!  Indeed it felt as if I was on a retreat and all was calm and still in my life!  I lit the fire in the oval room about 6pm that evening.  By 8pm it was cosily warm.  I went to bed about 10 and woke unusually at 4am on the Sunday 18th December,  made myself a cup of tea and did some writing.  Then I slept like a hibernating hedgehog until late..11h30 in the morning!  I was tired! The fire was alight with glowing embers so I cleaned the window of the woodburner which was unusually difficult as the resins on the glass were stubborn.  Eventually, after rubbing the glass with vinegar, ash and the special cleaning product, it was perfect.  I laid the fire, closed the door safely, and went to have brunch.  When I returned to the room and saw the fire had not taken, I suddenly saw the wall!  The way in which the resin had dried on the glass hearth indicated that it had been like this for some time but certainly it was not there when I went to bed on Saturday evening.  

UPDATE: 21 December 2011

The two employees of the company arrived instead of the proprietor as promised.  Hm?  At first, the one who speaks English suggested it was not their fault and that water had fallen through the chimney breast, not the flexible flue liner, and penetrated the plasterboard and that old resins in the chimney had mixed with the rainwater.  Hm?  Apart from the lowest point in the oval hole there is no other moisture.  Eventually the same person accepted blame.  He'd climbed the ladder and was trying to convince us that he needed to put in some other flexible tubing to allow air pressure to escape, when we insisted  that we wanted to go up the ladder and quick-thinking, I dashed indoors for the camera.    It is as we thought: the chap had never cemented the chimney pot onto the chimney stack properly.  He says the high wind of last week had removed the metal that they normally put around the pot! Hm?  Whilst my friend and I were indoors discussing the phone conversation that I'd just had with the proprietor who tried to wriggle out of  responsibility, the men had removed the ladders and they refused toput them back for us to goup and see what they had done. The flaunching was not done correctly because moss should not be there nor the gaping hole for rain to tumble down!

There was some suspicion about his workmanship earlier in the year.  I'm cross that we never insisted on climbing the ladder when the chimney pot was put into place.  I thought that maybe they had dislodged the cement when they 'swept the chimney', when the woodburner fllled with smoke and it burst through every orifice and filled my room, but no that was not the reason.
However, there is a happy outcome - December 22nd. The charming director, conciliatory when he arrived, said he would pay for the interior decoration to be made good as he took responsibility.  The men will return in January so that we can see their work, take a photo, and be assured the work has been done properly.   If I were running his business this man would be justly fired!

Woodburners

Burning decisions

Finalising a choice of woodburners and finding an installer before the end of the year, in addition to all the prep building work was a challenge!   It sounded so simple but believe me, IT WAS NOT SIMPLE!!! I had  surfed the net to research woodburner companies in France, woodburner companies in our region of France and woodburner companies in UK and those with websites of particular brands of woodburner stoves as opposed to multifuel stoves, gathering useful information so as to at least have a little knowledge!   There is a huge difference in woodburners and I don’t just mean wood pellets or oak logs! 

I am not a technically-minded-creature so I cannot possibly re-iterate all that I have learned and what I HAVE learned is just the tip of the iceberg. I would like to learn more, but, just as I cannot afford the chateau when I can only afford a garden shed, I cannot afford the type of woodburner my heart desires, therefore as with some things in life, one just has to compromise. 

Eventually, I decided to buy two woodburners from a very new company, who had been in business for one month.  Their shop still not consumer ready but having visited two other woodburner businesses in one day, we were pleased to have stumbled upon this particular one.

BUYING AND INSTALLING a woodburner in France, or anywhere, was difficult for me because I like to try and understand as much as I can! Hence, nothing is simple in my life! Now to the practicalities, procedures and facts!

1. In France, one has to invite the company to one’s house to study the chimney/ fireplace to measure dimensions and to verify that it will accept the woodburner and to establish how the company will install it.  That appointment has to be made months ahead of when one wants to install the woodburner, because
      a) it will take several weeks before they can do ‘l’etude’,
      b) it will take at least two weeks after that for the estimate to arrive!
      c) it may take several weeks for the woodburner to be ordered and installed!
   

2.     IF as a law-abiding English person living in France on a full-time basis and registered to pay French taxes one wishes to apply for the 40% or 25% tax rebate, one needs to buy the woodburner from the installer!  This precludes buying a woodburner online!  As a result of this knowledge we did sums to compare the costs of buying a cheaper and/or more expensive woodburner online and not gaining the tax rebate with buying a cheaper and/or more expensive woodburner from a buyer/installer and applying for the tax rebate.  The difference was surprising! Please note that France may well reduce this tax option at the end of December 2010, hence the fact that all woodburner companies are fully-booked!

3.     Other complications set in!   One cannot discover the price of a woodburner from a French company because they want to come to the house to do the ‘l’etude’ so one has to enter the game!  I was unable to find out the price of a DOVRE from one establishment without this farce. I liked the installation company and if I had not found SEGUIN I would despite the cost have gone with this other company.

4.    When we came across the new company, I was amazed. The proprietor was prepared to give an estimate according to my friend’s plan, diagram and measurements AND within a few minutes of enquiry we had a devis / estimate as opposed to a 4 week wait!  More importantly, whereas from one company we had been quoted 650 euros to install each of the two woodburners we were now being quoted 150 euros to install the two woodburners.  Subsequently, from a different entreprise, I was quoted 200 euros to install one woodburner if they came and installed the two!  We realise the profits have been added to the cost of the woodburner but I have also gained a 15% reduction on the cost of each woodburner. It’s all to do with tax.  I realise that certain companies purchase e.g. the Dovre model and market it under a Franchise brand name.
  5. Another shop would not tell me the price of a Jotul or Dovre woodburner because they also have to come and do the study which will be in 2 weeks time!  NO, I cannot wait further at this time of year.

6.     An Englishman and his company working in France for over 10 years sounds to be a reputable company and eventually after some mystery and hesitation he agreed to work from the plan with measurements. However, I discovered that their website does not suggest that they can get me a certain  brand of woodburner that is not advertised on their site!  A telephone call does suggest this! Of course I have chosen the upper end of the market with the Jotul range and because I wanted two woodburners with side doors and in enamelled Ivory colour, one with 12kw or more and one with about 9kw he can order these.  If I had known this back in June I might have been more tempted!  Too late now.

7.    There is a requirement that the installer is responsible for the chimney, and in the case of any unwanted "fire in the chimney", the insurance company makes a claim against the installer. The installer has to guarantee his installation to the house insurance company. So obviously he must be registered. I was lucky. My friend has a technical and practical mind and had installed woodburners in a previous life but even he had to admit he was out of date with modern regulations.

8.   My research ended. The company which we stumbled upon had my confidence and within two days of correspondence  I’d paid 30% for the installation of two Seguin (Dovre) woodburners to be installed at the end of November. However, it was December 2010 for one and April 2011 for the other. My friend’s Nestor Martin beat out the heat in the winter and kept us as warm as toast.

9. I lit the larger woodburner in June 2011 and gradually built up a layer of ash but it was difficult to keep the fire in at night. Now that is much better because I have explore a technique!  In September I lit the small one and was rather horrified  to find smoke leaking out and filling the room. This happened several times and eventually after cleaning the brand new flue the company explained how I must light it. Following their instructions and  creating flames to eat the smoke I now have developed the right technique.  These designated wood burners have flat waffle-patterned beds and are not for multifuel.  

So in December 2011 logs and luxurious comfort have shunned the cold.

Backtrack - July to September 2010

JULY  AUGUST SEPT 2010

My new house came to a standstill as I took stock of my life and reviewed the goal to get the ground floor of the house ship-shape with running water, a bathroom, a better kitchen and all rooms painted and decorated and NORMAL. How on earth did I think it would happen in just a few weeks? Someone once said of me in my career "Ever the optimist".when things were going awry and I’d made some naïve comment akin to 'it will be alright on the night'.

So .it seems  it will take a little longer than I thought and the plan on how to do it may change but that's OK ... and if I have to struggle a little more in life then "c'est la vie". It's my life and I'll have to do it my way even if I create a muddle as I go. I'll get there wherever that may be. I won't be beaten. That's another lesson that I learnt recently. Pick myself up... get on with it ... keep moving ... keep doing things ... don't brood ... think happy thoughts ... put the music on and dance, dance, dance to the Rolling Stones or reflect quietly with Chopin or Bach.

I am still energised and when I get back to 'work' I will enjoy it because life must be about working. I don't have time to be lazy anymore! I don't have time to waste! I don't have time to spend on negative energies. I want to be positive and happy. I don't want to experience any more horrid moments. I have things to improve and things to sort and dispose of or keep. I have places to go and things to do and people to meet as once my dearest friend once said. That said and one year later I’m aware of how much of my time has been wasted in depression and thinking about others and how my life seems to have taken an unexpected turn. What went wrong and why. Grappling with certain feelings despite all the contradictions.

What lesson am I supposed to learn from owning a stone house with its once 18th/ 19th century beautiful 'to the modern eye' stone walls which suck up the damp from the soil, but which have been covered in plastered insulation board since 25 years ago, and today, we struggle to covert a 21st century look?  

I like the look of French stone walls on the interior of a house so why do I have this house where not a stone can be seen as it is fully plasterboarded and hence potentially very warm inside? 

A message cries out to me to build or buy a modern home, a simple, unashamedly faceless practical residence of a Fairfax-type home where I once lived with its joy of an almost 'maintenance free' lifestyle that it was!   But even that dream has its challenges.  Modern sings to me... as does l'ancienne.    Pick me or Pick me.... the houses say!   Life is just not easy!  My friend wanted me to do build a new house... but I wasn't ready. I felt I did not have sufficient knowledge, expertise or confidence. It is strange because now I know what I would do and how I would do it.  The difference also is that we have some French friends who can help us and if I'd had the courage to approach them a year ago I am sure they would have helped us unravel the building regs for such a project!
For me, the wrinkles become more evident as the brain and wisdom grows.  However, it is my perception that we keep more fit in mind, body and soul by undertaking this project, now that the horrors of what I have undertaken appear to be a little more manageable and under control!
It has been a scary experience.... and I am not out of the woods yet....
MESSAGE:   
KNOW what thy doeth when a French renovation project calleth,  and even when one thinketh one knoweth all, be humbleth when knoweth nought!!!!!!!!!
As my French friends tell me ... when one buys an old house it can be aesthetically beautiful but one does not know the surprises that one purchases.   When one has a new build there are no surprises! I now believe!

Backtrack - May to July 2010

Between May and  July 2010  although I was energised by the owning of a property, evidently demonstrating vim, vigour and enthusiasm for renovating and wallpaper stripping, sanding down woodwork, clearing out junk, digging and filling trenches, rubbing down large beams, baking bread on a building site, helping to organise what might have been the start of a Midsummer ritual in my garden, after 7 weeks of what could be perceived as almost a kind of trauma about what I had done in buying my house, I decided to have a break and Do Something Different. So at the end of June and the beginning of July I decided to visit family and friends instead of or in addition to the months of March and November. Reflection and Meditation were necessary.

It was gloriously wonderful weather in England. Sunny days with privet blossom, scabious flowers and poppies by the wayside, cereals growing golden in their English gated fields surrounded by English oak trees and hedgerows. Yet though the beauty in the East Anglian fields was very marvellous I missed the French stone walls and lanes.