Only a short blog this week I am afraid as, again, there has really only been one principle activity – Grange – but we have at least reached a major milestone – the roof is finished and all of the windows are now watertight (subject to test in the next huge downpour not forecast for sometime!)
It was a slow start to the week as the forecast for Monday and Tuesday was terrible – although in reality wasn’t as bad as predicted but it did delay us continuing with Grange until Wednesday. We spent Wednesday to Friday with a combination of rendering – which is very nearly complete – and roofing. Our builder did the flashing around the roof windows so that they would be completely watertight, and I did the remainder of the filling-in. I finished on Saturday and Dave and I marked the milestone with a drink but we will have a proper ‘topping out’ ceremony when our builder is with us and Dave doesn’t have to go to work.
While the pictures don’t look like the build has changed much in a few weeks we are at a point when, I hope and believe, getting to the end could be pretty swift – but much of it is now down to me. There are a few tasks that we need our builder to do but he has been delayed as we await wood from a local saw mill. The mill has had a problem with its main cutting machine creating a large delay to orders so we are unable to progress with some key items such as the stairs and garage door surrounds.
What will be a great leap forward, which we should be able to complete in the coming week, is the dismantling the wooden scaffolding front and what is left to the rear. All we need is to put the guttering up before we can do that. I have a real sense that we are coming close to completion.
The only other event to report is, as I mentioned in last week’s blog, we assisted our neighbours who, today, opened their garden as part of a new commune event. Throughout the commune, 10 gardens had been opened to members of the public although 9 of them were in the town of Sizun itself, approximately 7 kms from us, and our neighbours were concerned that not many would make the journey out to Saint Cadou.
However, thankfully, their concerns were unfounded and, possibly helped by the warm and sunny weather, there was a steady stream of visitors to their garden where they were welcomed by a 7-piece ‘orchestra’ or a harp and violin trio organised by the Mairie.
Our neighbours have joined the nascent French ‘Open Gardens’ programme, currently being the only garden in Finistère, but they will be opening their garden every Sunday afternoon in August. Definitely worth visiting if you are here in the summer.
Next week will certainly be more work on Grange but hopefully, during the week, you will see some significant visual changes as well.
À bientôt.