what next you ask?

Too much to do, where to start, what comes first?

the good life

safe now for friends to drop in

No light fittings yet... eat in the dark.

No balcony railings yet... stay indoors.

not done yet

dizzy wields roller and brush

With dizzying speed, she wielded brushes and rollers and before we could say sauvignon blanc, two walls were done. Not only have I enriched my British vocabulary, but learnt how to say it the Sussex way. We both looked good (for our respective ages) even before the chardonnay and even better afterwards.

cloning the husband

If only I had the man energetic enough today to install the rest of the electrical outlets, fix the lightfittings, put up the balcony railings, move some furniture up, move some furniture down, build the bookshelf, fix the foot of my granny's wooden antique chest, fix the railing on the circular staircase, place the hardwood floor in the new living area, paint the ceilings, fix the plastering on the old walls, finish the ceiling and walls downstairs in the wine shop, place the new tile floor, place the new kitchenette in the wineshop, finish the toilet downstairs, place the washbasin, lay out the new garden arrangement, place the courtyard tiles and get me some hot water in the new kictchen.
If only I could clone him. I reckon if I had about 15 Jopies running around doing these odd jobs, the work could be done within a month.
This morning after freshly squosen juice (I made up this word as there is no word in English to describe the kind of juice I make; the word squeezed does not float my boat) of celery stalks, oranges, carrots, apples and root ginger, we each made a list of what jobs could and should be done today, this very day.
Of course the lists were completely different. His list was all about ventilation and visiting hardware stores, whereas my list made demands for fixing the broken foot of the chest, the desperate need for the bookshelf and the light fixtures....
We compromised -- he dropped me off to shop at Ikea, he went shopping for a 4 cm. piece of ventilation equipment, then he looked at the broken foot of the chest, I went off to the hairdesser and we sat in the sun just to relax and dream of a time when the job is done.

birth of a living space

 

This morning I can finally report the birth of a living space. It has a subfloor and walls, ceiling in need of patching and painting. Too much unnecessary stuff lurking around yet,  but, a castle it is! We shall be sitting in sheer luxury this morning to enjoy our croissants and coffee. It is all relative, isn't it? Another thought stikes me: when all else fails, you lower your standards!

building bridges

How do you join the old sagging slanted antique floor to the new level straight floor? A pertinent question, especially when you're creating an open plan area. You simply start knocking things out with a pneumatic hammer to strip three layers of flooring. You leave the wattling and daubing that is still attached to the many layers of ceilings below (now the wine-shop). You remove 300 year-old oak joisting. You do all this when the wife is at work. When she comes home, you explain there are now bridges to walk on between kitchen and living areas. You justify the thick layers of fine dust covering the new kitchen by explaining it was the only way to go. You do want a strong base for your hardwood floor, don't you?

wining and whining: are we winning?

Pressure at home and in the business... what are the priorities? We put on our best public faces to promote our range of wines this past weekend at the cloisters of Nivelles where the commune hosted their Vins Passion event, allowing the public to taste and buy from a wide range of vintners.
When we had a free moment, we talked floors, walls, light fittings and "is there light at the end of the tunnel?" The wine shop on the groundfloor has no floortiles in its extension yet, nor a ceiling, nor its kitchen corner, nor the WC. When do we do all that?
Upstairs we eat and move furniture as we come to grips with the old floor that needs levelling; old and new floors have to meet. All the furniture is packed against the back wall while we enjoy a sundowner and some leftover chicken-in-beer stew. Cooked in beer? Enough of the coq au vin for the moment...

Putting our feet up for a few moment's rest before we dig into chicken-in-beer