June? Is it really June already? Where did May go? We cannot believe how quickly this year is going and worryingly how close we are to ‘the season’ with so much work left to do!! And to think we naïvely thought that we could be complete in all our gîtes and open for business by Easter when we arrived!!
How wrong we were and we should have known better. Having made an assessment of how much work there was to achieve what we wanted our estimate was out by about 100% as we found other things that needed to be done as we scratched beneath the surface!
May has been a bad month for spring like weather – there hasn’t been much – but has been a great success for Kergudon development with Hayloft being completed and welcoming our first ever guest – and now a lovely Belgian couple as our second guests.
Please don’t interpret a late blog submission as evidence that we are off track to get Priory finished for Friday when our first guests arrive for that gîte. I think we are certainly on track but we are having some long days to achieve it …
However, as this is late I will keep it short and (hopefully) sweet. What have we achieved in Priory? Much.
The eaves bedroom is now fully decorated as we want it – we hope you agree an improvement on what it was before – and now only needs its new carpet, curtains and furniture – on the plan for Wednesday. Honest – its not white, only the ceilings (where they are horizontal) are kept white, but we have painted all of the pine lambris multiple coats of white before adding antique cream (our word, not Dulux’s!); varnished the beams; replaced the dated lights and added a radiator for that essential comfort.
These pictures show the room furnished (about 10 years ago), being prepared for decoration (about 4 months ago) and as it is now …
We have preserved some of the older and more attractive aspects of the gîte including this door. Sadly not original by any sense but old and in keeping with the building. We understand it was never used by the previous owners and was kept locked with rudimentary draft proofing gaffer taped to the inside. However, it was also in dire need of protection and preservation before it was completely destroyed. After a good sanding, white spiriting, a little filling and TLC we hope it will be in service now for many more years. The ‘front’ door is also being replaced next week with something more in keeping – I will post pictures next week.
We have had some successes – including, most satisfyingly, sourcing the power to a high ceiling light that had stopped working some years ago leaving a theatre spot redundant and gathering dust. Once we got it working we needed to replace it and so put up a light we had bought about 18 months ago when we were planning to renovate the hall in our Balham home but never quite got around to it … Looks good here though.
All of the rooms have been transformed in the last 2 weeks and await their new furniture – some arriving on Friday (yes, same day as our guests!) and some next month – our ‘wow’ piece which I will blog about when it arrives.
We will post a significant number of pictures next week when Priory will be complete and occupied but for now some more gratuitous puppy pictures – 5 weeks …
À bientôt.