Sunday 7th June – Priory Complete

Firstly – as requested via Facebook – first billing goes to Dave’s aunt and uncle, Chris and Clint, who arrived with us yesterday for a week’s holiday in Hayloft. This is their second visit to us, the first being in February before we had started any of the refurbishments, so they have been able to see some remarkable changes.   Welcome to them – its lovely to have them back.

Yesterday we said goodbye to our Belgian couple who had stayed in Hayloft for a week.  They left some lovely comments with us on the accommodation and their holiday.  They also made full use of Dave’s catering ordering a frozen meal of fish pie in advance for the evening of their arrival.  They enjoyed it so much that they ordered a 3 course supper in the week (with boeuf bourgignon) and another frozen meal of Shepherd’s pie for their last night.

This has been another very frenetic week during which we have completed phase 1 of Priory and have guests settled in – a very nice couple with a lovely Labrador and a Lab / Husky mix who looks very hot in this weather

You may recall that we cut completing Hayloft fine before our first guest arrived (15 minutes), well we were almost closer with Priory and we didn’t have time to take any proper photographs so the ones on here are temporary and we will be updating the website during the week when we have been able to take some better shots.

We have not needed to do as much ‘major’ work in Priory as we have kept the kitchen units and bathroom suite although both rooms have been completely refurbished with layers and layers of paint to cover the pine lambris as well as changing taps, handles, fittings etc to revamp where needed.

We have replaced all of the furniture in the lounge and bedrooms; changed almost every light; had new curtains manufactured where there weren’t any and had some existing ones dry cleaned; repaired and re-varnished the old front door and replaced the external door to the kitchen and the result looks fabulous.

Paint, specifically white emulsion, is something we have used A LOT of and certainly more than we had initially anticipated and with all the painting we required in Priory we finished all of the paint we had bought in the UK and additional that had been brought out to us.

Very early on we were told by a lot of people that French paint is not very good and is incredibly expensive so we stocked up when we were in Portsmouth in February. When it was evident we would run out of emulsion we, seriously, considered ravelling back to the UK to replenish as we could get better paint at less cost even factoring in a ferry ticket. However, we thought we’d do a bit of French paint shopping and it confirmed what we had been told. There is cheap paint but we were advised against the very cheapest, but for regular white emulsion you can spend up to EUR 10 per litre! It seems you have to choose whether you have more money, for the expensive stuff, or time, to paint multiple coats of the cheaper brands. We had little of either so went for a mid-range brand and, to use an Australian gag about American beer, the consistency was like making love in a canoe!

However, with numerous coats it did what we needed it to do and have attached some before and after photos below.

Kitchen:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Living Room:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

First floor twin room:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Eaves twin room:

 

 

 

 

 

 

We have rewarded ourselves with a few days off and a beer in the pub for the first time in a couple of weeks before we get back to completing Granary.

 

À bientôt.