One week closer to guests arriving in Granary and can I honestly say that there is only a week’s worth of work left? I’m not entirely sure …!!
It has certainly been a busy week of work and we’ve made progress – which I will detail later – but, having previously said we should complete with time to spare, I think we are, once again, going to cut things a little finer than we would like – how fine remains to be seen!!
However, having said last week that we were bad at taking pictures of the animals we have tried to improve which is a good thing as both Mouse and Garrratt are growing rapidly.
Mouse is definitely a ‘people cat’ and not, yet, the feral killer that we hope she will become. She is changing more than Garratt in that her features are already changing from kitten to small cat and, facially, she is becoming more angular and pronounced. She remains, however, very keen to be around people and stroked constantly while she purrs loudly. She especially enjoys exploring around Granary while we are working and getting into everything she shouldn’t – including walking across a newly painted window ledge and walking wet paint all over the stairs!
We learned last week that, contrary to the English view, the French see all black cats as unluckly. Thankfully Mouse has a small white patch on her chest making her a very lucky cat!
Having showed the ‘Mouse House’ after we cleaned it on last week’s blog, I hadn’t shown the palace it has become for Mouse (although now she is having to share her house with a washing machine and some of the Maisons du Monde Granary furniture that was delivered but we can’t yet put into the gîte.)
Garratt on the other hand remains very much a puppy, albeit a rapidly growing one. We have started to train him in some of the basic commands, some he has picked up very quickly, others may take more time. One of the things we have tried to teach him to do is wait for his food until he is told he can eat it – this he seems to have mastered (mostly), whereas getting him to ‘Stay’ after sitting in other circumstances he doesn’t quite understand!
Animals aside we have continued to work on the gîtes, principally getting Granary completed. We have grouted the kitchen tiling which has made a massive difference; nearly completed the family bathroom (should be done tomorrow); tiled the wash stand for the en-suite bathroom and laid new flooring; and have actually completed (bar a few minor ‘dressing’ things) the bedrooms (plural!) in the eaves space. The eaves has been transformed from a dark, large, space with 3 single beds into a much more practical, spacious, 2 bedrooms which we have made into a twin and a double – which could easily be made back into a twin. This has made Granary a genuinely practical gîte for a family with 3 or 4 children or for families who want to holiday with Grandparents.
You may have seen from our Facebook page (which we really hope that you ‘Like’) that we had a(nother) delivery from Maisons du Monde of the Granary furniture. With everything we have bought from them it’s a pity they don’t have any sort of loyalty scheme we must be up for a few euros off! As an aside – French stores don’t seem to have customer loyalty schemes in the same way as the UK (let alone any form of Customer Service) infact Castorama (who you may recall from blogs past) have one of the best – probably means their prices are too high anyway!
Having had the furniture delivered there was the challenge of getting the larger items into the rooms they would eventually live in. Had we not been able to get the large bookcase into the first floor lounge it could have stayed in the dining room downstairs – however, had the wardrobe not fitted in the bedroom window it would have looked a little odd in the kitchen. The disadvantages of not buying flat-packed furniture – we’ve got the challenge of getting the 4-poster bed onto the Priory mezzanine level next week, its disassembled rather than flat-packed but large.
Last week was of course the French Fête Nationale on 14 July and we have to admit – we didn’t do or see anything. There were fireworks in Sizun on Monday which we weren’t aware of but we had planned to go to the, Commana organised, fireworks on Lac du Drennec last night – but we feel asleep and missed them. There will always be next year!
The coming week brings – LOTS more painting and completing the other floors of Granary – 5 days left!
À bientôt.