Saturday, March 24, 2012

Beyond Progress!

It has been a while since the last blog folks mostly due to me being out of Kuwait. I had to go to the UK to visit our head office but I also managed to work in a few days at the house.


In addition the morning after getting off the Kuwait-Doha-Paris-Clermont Farrand flights, I awoke to find Danielle sitting up in bed all excited. As my bleary eyes opens she says"Good morning - I have had an epiphany! lets go to Belgium today and pick up all the stuff from the storage unit! ( we took out a storage unit for 6 months in the Autumn of 2006!). So off we went down to Aubusson, rented a truck and drove the 750km to Oostende arriving there before 5pm which I thought was good going. We had a nice evening and met up with Cathy and Youri, our old friends from when we had the pub there.


Next morning we loaded up the truck which took just under an hour and off we went on our return to Epegnat. All went well, the weather was glorious until we hit the outskirts of Paris. The super hi tech GPS we have told us there was a delay on the route and kindly gave us an alternative route. It took us right into the centre of Paris during Friday rush hour!!!!!!! what a nightmare but eventually we got through it and got back to our house in time for dinner.

Some of the Oostende Shipment
Next day we unloaded all our boxes and it was all I could do to stop Danielle ripping into them there and then, she was like a kid at Christmas! We are both really excited to finally unpack all our belongings that we have not seen in a number of years and also to get our shipment from Kuwait on its way.


Since the last blog so much has happened mostly down to Danielle's hard work and orginzation of the artisans who had been allowed to lose a wee bit of focus. With all then back on track a lot happened just in the time we were in Belgium. We finally got the bi-fold door fitted in the kitchen. I can not begin to tell you all how hard this has been to get fitted. Bi-fold doors are not commonly used in France. I ended up having to find the door from a dealer in the UK, have it shipped over only to find the local artisans scratching their heads going "it's a big puzzle!". Enter the Tasker Brothers, they are a family business that's been working in France for over 30 years. They came in took one look at the door and said yip no problem take about 3 days! They have been good to their word and the door and transom window frame are now fitted.
The Tasker Brothers

New transom window frame going in





Once the stone work is dressed it's going to look fantastic


Upstairs we could hardly believe our eyes! M. Senta has shifted up a gear (didn't really think that was possible as he already works harder than any man Iv'e seen) and as we approached the bottom of the stairs it was clear that the house had finally, in 10 years, had some colour to it.





M.Senta had managed to paint every room, varnish the inside of the windows and install the new skirting boards as well. Here are a few pictures. The floors have been sanded and varnished now so we have to wait a few days before we can get in to see each room with nothing in them.









Friday, February 17, 2012

M.Kosubays Merry Men

Great progress this week yet again. Things are really coming together now with the tile work almost complete. Danielle has always been really good at visualizing the 'finished' look where as I tend to need a picture! Well as you an see below the pictures Danielle took give us a good idea of what its going to be like.

Entry Tile Being Assembled

Entry Tile Complete

The Kitchen


Grouting

Grouting Complete

Tile Meets Wooden Floor


Family Bathroom


Family Bath

Family Bath 2

Floor Tile

Box Tile


Guest wet room


Guest Shower Begins
Border at the top

Wall Complete


Master wet room


Master Shower

Master Wall


The most important picture of all. In true Danielle style she decided to make lunch for the workmen. I am not sure what French Artisans make of Texas food but I guess since they returned for seconds it was as always awesome. It was also a big milestone for Danielle as she got to do what she has been dreaming about for a long long time.....making people happy in our home!

Chez Danielle's

Saturday, February 11, 2012

How to tile a floor when its minus -20C!

I am absolutely amazed at the amount of work that went on last week by all involved. We have had everything thrown at us and the project still moved forward so a big thanks to everyone. The biggest achievement  however has to be Danielle having to drive on narrow, unserviced roads through ice storms, snow and high wind to our hardware store, a round trip of over 100 miles to try and resource heaters for the house (her first time to drive in snow!). Well done sweetheart!!



Danielle's trip was all the more special as she had no choice. M. Kosubay's merry men have been hard at work tiling the kitchen floor. The issue was it was too cold in the house for the cement to dry so everything would have come to a halt if this was not resolved.


In the beginning
Hard at work
2/3 Done


Complete

Island Breakout

Tile meets dining room floor


In addition to the great work done in the kitchen this week, we had a wee bit of a set back due to the cold. It had an adverse effect on some of the work already done by M. Senta's wall prep. This was due to the difference in temp between inside the house and the extreme outside temperature and now requires some work to be redone. 


Ice on the inside window

Icicles




We were not ready for the radiators to be rehung but the extreme cold forced M.Steunou to have his guys refit them all and Danielle organized the delivery of 1000litres of oil. This is the first time in at least 3 years that the boiler. a De Dietrich had been fired up so everyone was a wee bit nervous as to what would happen. Concerns were found-less and it fired up resulting in a nice warm house!






Other progress this week has been the wet room in the master bedroom. This room used to be a closet and so all the plumbing has been added, a special fibre board inserted on the floor and the walls treated prior to tiling.


Fibre Board,tile and drain



The family bathroom tile also started to go down this week


Family Bath Floor


Lower down in the dungeon work went on with the installation of the new doors. The amount of work so far completed is staggering and apart from the obvious it is now becoming evident as we can see part of the garage floor as seen in the last picture!  


Start of Cave Door
Cave Door Finished

Look Space on the floor (house must be nearly finished)

The last piece of work this week was the forms for the downstairs landing area




Lets see what next week brings!