Sunday 12 February – Wood work

As forecast in last week’s blog, the weather was a bit iffy at the start of the week and I had 2 more days doing my carpentry  (a.k.a woodwork!)  Much of it was preparing things that will be built later and a couple I have kept secret from David as well.

One of the ‘surprises’ that I had been preparing was something that David had asked for sometime ago.  It was a ‘house’ for our boite aux lettres.  For those familiar with France you will know that, certainly in the country, rather than the postie delivering your mail through the door everyone has a box in front of their property where mail is left.

The box we inherited when we arrived was quite old and had rusted through in a number of places meaning that we often had wet mail.  We actually bought ourselves a new box within a couple of months of moving here but, as we wanted to move its location as well, although didn’t know where, we never swapped them over.

On a journey Dave saw that someone had built a house in which to house their boite and he asked me to do the same – which led to a further delay in exchanging our old box for the new one.  As building the house never quite got to the top of the most urgent list it was not done – until now.  It isn’t quite finished but I gave it to Dave today and, when I have stained the post it will sit on, we will replace the old mail sieve!

Sadly I had to stop my woodwork on Wednesday when the weather improved and we were able to progress the garage – and we made some great progress.  Over the rest of the week we have managed to complete all the rafters on the roof and have built the end gable wall which means that we should be able to start covering the roof next week.

I apologise, a bit, for posting more pictures of the garage (it is our major project) but, amazingly my facebook post on Wednesday of progress reached 940 people and last week’s FB blog post got to 407 so I have reached my New Year’s readership ambition.  Thank you to everyone who has read, shared and responded.  Now the hard bit will be keeping  it up!

 

 

 

 

 

 

As the garage has progressed we have discussed what we are going to call it.  As you will know, we have given our gîtes English names, Priory, Granary, Hayloft and Stable, none of which, with the loose exception of Priory, have any relationship with what the buildings actually were, but it has made us think carefully about what to call the new building.

We have made a short list of a few names and would be interested in your thoughts as to which you prefer.  We do have a favourite – no pressure(!) – but would like your input.  Those on the list are:

• Atelier – the French for ‘workshop’ which, to some extent it will be
• Hangar – a word used by the French for any large hangar-type buildings, generally agricultural which the new garage will actually be
• Garage – the same word in French as English and that is what the building will be after all
• Grange – French for ‘barn’, which it is the size of, which also has an English translation which, while not completely accurate for what the building actually is, isn’t too far off.

Let us know your thoughts.

Next week more of the same, woodwork Monday as our builder can’t be with us and garage for the rest of it – weather permitting …

 

Salut.