Last week’s blog said that we had enjoyed some, what felt like, record-breaking temperatures and, as with at least the south of the UK, early last week saw the temperatures only get hotter. This made life a little uncomfortable at times but also limited the amount of work we were able to do on Grange as our guests made the most of relaxing in the garden and we didn’t want to disturb them with power tools.
That said we did achieve a couple of major milestones on Grange that gives us encouragement that we are making steady progress to completion.
The first significant change was that we managed to take down the scaffolding front and rear allowing us to see the building at its correct size and scale – the scaffolding always gave the impression that its foot print was larger than it actually was. I then spent a couple of days going back and inserting noggins in the various walls and joists that I hadn’t been able to do before which made those walls look more complete but, more importantly, it adds to the strength of the wooden structure before we enclose it all with cladding and flooring.
The second significant milestone was that we completed all the rendering required around the block walls and pillars – now ready to paint in the forthcoming weeks. Most excitingly, after I have added 2 concrete thresholds to the bays that we are going to enclose we will have finished with the cement mixer and can remove that to start clearing up. Yay!
In the margins of Grange we continue to maintain and improve the gîtes where required and this week I finished repainting the stone surround to the entrance of Hayloft. Sadly, having done so, 2 things became clear. Firstly, it became evident that the blue entrance doors themselves, already on our ‘to-do’ list need their own repainting sooner rather than later and, secondly, that the colour of the paint on the tin’s label doesn’t match what is actually in the tin in anyway! Thanks Dulux!
We wanted an ‘off-white’ cream (one of the millions of choices available) so we selected ‘Jasmin White’ whose label was a soft cream. However, for Dulux’s Jasmine White, read white and the end result is much brighter that we want especially as we want the same colour on all of the rendered walls we now have around Grange; on the fence behind Priory and Granary and, ultimately, on the front of our own house and Granary so it needs to be right!
This week has also seen two of the larger annual local events. Saturday night was the Feu de la St. Jean in the Salle de Fete – a large bonfire accompanied by the usual Breton singing and dancing into the wee small hours. We only popped in this time as yesterday saw the end of the amazing weather and the return of wet stuff in the air – we had almost forgotten what that felt like but were glad to see its return at least for the garden’s sake.
Thankfully things had dried up today for the TriBrezh triathlon based around the Lac du Drennec – always a fun spectacle and allowed us to take the dogs for their, what is now becoming regular, swim in the lake.
Next week sees the weather return to a more Breton pattern so will determine what we are able to do – I’ll let you know what we have achieved next week and, hopefully more updates in the week!
Kenavo.