Dropped off Carl, Adam and Jo at the airport and went home to an empty house for the first time in a fortnight. They’re all experiencing degrees of remorse having had a great two weeks of weather and seen news of snow in places in the UK.
One week until J. arrives which should give me enough time to get the bathroom properly working and the other bedroom habitable. We will see.
For now I’ve moved in to Thalia’s M de M room and carefully stacked the perfect white bed linen on a chair in the corner. Tuesday saw a change in the weather which caught me out after nearly a month of sun. I had a white load in the washing machine and nowhere to hang it to dry, or so I thought..
It was a bit rainy and windy so lit the kitchen stove but it wasn’t hot enough to boil the pasta.
Maybe the £280 flue liner suggestion I rejected would have made the difference. As his last contribution this visit, Carl painted the newly plastered wall behind the stove for us, it looks great and adequately French - not too smooth. The kitchen is in danger of becoming ‘finished’ if we’re not careful.
Next need to find something other than three bits of wood to go under the stove and bring the hearth back up to floor tile level. Wilson could knock out something wet but tiles would probably look better. What came out from under the broken cement were hard, red, square tiles and one left an impression in the bed that rang a bell. A few weeks ago, on a scary expedition across the rotten floor above the piggery I came across a few tiles and brought the best one back down.
I think it says “PERRUSSON DE FONTAFER CHARENTE” but it’s hard to read because of the remnants of cement mix stuck on. The hearth’s impression above the tile in the photo is an inverse of this face so they had been laid smooth side up. - Easier to clean; the moulded side would key well into mortar and because who wants the equivalent of “Made in China” repeated across their hearth? We’d call them ‘quarry tiles’ I suppose. Instead, I’ve enough chunks of shower tile remnant to fill the space so they’ll be going in.
Then the debate is about whether to square up the hole (hard to photograph) or again, leave it the characterful shape it is.. I know what Jim would say.
Speaking of high quality work - spending evenings sitting in the kitchen has brought earlier projects under more scrutiny.
No idea what made me install the sockets upside down or why I haven’t noticed before. Idiot.
More drilling into shower tiles - one drill bit just about does one hole before going in the bin, making the cost of putting up a soap dish about the same as buying one and it takes roughly as long.
Three holes to go which will mean another raid on the hardware store’s drill stocks but more tiles to stick up first.
Caught this rascal trying to get in through the front door - what is it with the wildlife around here and it’s interest in interiors?
