It was not my intention to have another 2-week gap between blogs and I wanted to show you the result of my efforts in David’s gym last Sunday. Sadly, our internet connection, which had proven a little more reliable recently (that’s given it the kiss of death), chose to break last Sunday afternoon and we were offline for 24 hours.
Reassuringly (sort of), when we spoke to the telecoms company on Monday morning they were aware of the problem (server issues) and we weren’t the only house out. Oddly, however they choose to provide internet services to their customers while we were offline, Granary (a separate service) remained connected throughout.
So, the last blog I was able to post saw me at the start of the redecoration of Dave’s gym. I had managed to level, fill and apply a couple of coats of white emulsion to the ceiling and had a few days of work ahead of me. I am delighted to say that it was all complete by this time last Sunday and David is delighted with the results.
Before (these were taken in 2016 so were at its best then):
After:
As you can see, he has chosen a new, moodier, colour scheme rather than the stark white walls that were there before. This will be more calming for the yoga and pilates that he is increasingly doing. One of the biggest changes is a new rubber flooring that we have laid which is a vast improvement on the previous uneven concrete floor which needed frequent painting. All he is waiting for are 2 additional mirrors to add either end of the 4 existing ones to complete that wall.
The gym took all my spare time 2 weeks ago but was completed. Unfortunately, last week has been a lot less productive and, mostly due to the un-seasonably damp weather, I haven’t been able to make any progress on what I wanted to do – which is lots and lots of hedge cutting.
What I did complete was the final garage door to enclose the north garage bay and I’m really pleased with the job. I’d hoped that having made 3 doors previously, the last would be the easiest. However, frustratingly, when it was hung for the first time, there was a much larger gap at the top than I wanted and as a result, it didn’t look right.
Thankfully, I have been able to attach an additional piece of wood and with the vertical bands you can barely see the join, and it looks great. The doors have used the additional planks that were taking up space in the central bays so now there is no excuse for me not clearing these out and then clearing our driveway – except of course for the multiple other projects that I need to undertake …
Remember the image below which will be the back drive and petanque pitch area ‘before’ image to make a comparison against when I have done the work.
We have been delighted to have all of our gîtes full for many weeks this summer including last week when we really felt for our guests as we could hardly call the weather ‘summery’. My plans to give all the hedges one of their annual cuts made no progress as I am also always conscious of making too much noise at anti-social times. Thankfully, next week’s forecast is looking much better and our guests seem to enjoy getting out and about a lot so I will be able to make some good progress (hopefully!)
The better weather arrived today and we awarded ourselves a day off and visited Roscoff for lunch. It seems that lots of people were making the most of the first hot, dry day for a while as the city was bustling with visitors. We like visiting Roscoff which is a compact and pretty little city and we ate in a restaurant that we really enjoy and used a bit more frequently pre-pandemic. The terrace of the restaurant overlooks the channel and Île de Batz which is a great view, even with the tide out as today.
Next week with the dry weather, hedging and garden work – then back to the garage!
Salut.