Tag Archives: living room

Thursday 2nd April 2015 – I’VE FINISHED …

… work for the next four days. Tomorrow is Good Friday and so I’m having an Easter Break. And I think that I deserve it too after the work that I’ve done so far this year.

I put my back into it today too. The living room is now emptied as far as I can reasonably empty it, and it’s now looking like it did last January and February after I had emptied it for the first time. Making a space in the barn to put everything was really a good move, although I’m not quite sure where i’m going to empty all of the rubbish. I’ll be dropping sacks off at each communal bin all the way to St Eloy.

It was all over by lunchtime too – a good couple of hours ahead of schedule. It’s not like me to be so far in advance, is it?

As a result, I had a couple of hours to spare and so I made a start on the lean-to – the one on the downhill side of the house. I’ve thrown out a good pile of stuff from there too, sorted out some space on the shelves for the gardening stuff and rearranged the gardening tools.

You can see floor in there too, and it’s been a long time since that happened.

I’d rounded up quite a pile of stray wood in there too (there’s still a huge mound of course that needs to be sorted) and that was just as well, for today has been horrible, cold and damp. Consequently, for warming up my tea tonight, I lit a wood fire up here. I may as well profit from the heat if I need it.

Now I’m off to bed. I’m going to have an early night to prepare myself for my nice long weekend off.

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Wednesday 1st April 2015 – I HADN’T FINISHED …

… with last night (or, rather, last night hadn’t finished with me). While I was boiling up the water in the gas cylinder in order to do the washing up before I went to bed, the gas ran out.

Considering that i’ve been using it to make coffee throughout the winter and also to cook and to heat the washing-up water when I’ve not had the fire on, that’s not too bad. I’m quite happy with this.

So this morning I had to boil up the coffee on the gas stove in the verandah (I later found the second cylinder of gas) for breakfast.

After breakfast, I emptied the ground floor of the house. As far as I can tell, all of the wood offcuts have been taken out, sorted into type and then stacked onto the bread trays that I had put on the floor of the barn.

The plasterboard offcuts too have been taken out and stacked in the barn now and we finally have some room in there. I’ve swept the floor as far as I could and the bit that I’ve done looks reaonably tidy. Tomorrow I’ll be carrying on the emptying and seeing where I can get to.

Another job that I had to do was to empty the beichstuhl, but that’s enough about that.

Finally, here’s some interesting news.

My friend Terry, who lives on the other side of the Combrailles, is an electrical engineer by trade but because his French isn’t good enough as yet, he works as a self-employed builder. Across the road from him lives a guy who is a maintenance engineer at the big steel mill at Les Ancizes, and he told Terry on Monday that the company had just take on two Portuguese engineers who don’t speak a word of French.

On the basis of “if they can do it, so can I” and he sent in his CV.

And the result?

He starts on Monday. So well done to Terry!

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Monday 30th March 2015 – OUCH!

Yes, I don’t know what it is that I’ve done, but I have a pain in my right wrist and I’ve pulled a muscle in my left shoulder.

The wrist isn’t too much of a problem but the shoulder is – I can’t lift my left arm any higher than my shoulder and I can’t carry any heavy weight with it.

It’s probably due to my exertions during the night. I don’t remember too much about it except that at one moment the hero of the plot (whoever he was) rounded up a baddie and his girlfriend and held them at gunpoint. Having calmed the situation, he turned his back on the baddie in order to give the girl some instructions. A silly thing to do, turning your back on someone, as events subsequently were to prove as the baddie bent down, picked up a length of 4×2 and whacked the hero across the back of the head.

Despite the hour that we lost on Sunday, I managed to be up and about at a reasonable hour for a working day. And after breakfast I made a prompt start on the tidying up. Half an hour saw tons of stuff gone out of the attic and it’s a long time since I’ve seen it look so empty. I can see plenty of clear floor. Tomorrow, I’ll do a little more and see what that brings me.

Cleaning the dust off everything was quite easy. I just threw the stuff downstairs and that dealt with that issue.

Having dealt with the attic, I turned my attention to the ground floor. I moved 12 sacks of rubbish out of the ground floor – 2 of household rubbish, 7 of builders’ rubbish and three of plastic bottles, tin cans and papers.

Once all of that had been thrown out, I could turn my attention to the rest of the ground floor. A few more bits and pieces, notably the cable sheathes, found their way into the lean-to and I was able to bring in the floorboards out of Caliburn, swapping them for the rubbis.

With a little bit of space downstairs, I could start to stack things better in the ground floor and I can even see some floorspace there too now. So feeling pleased with myself, I knocked off at 18:15.

Tomorrow, I’m going to clear out the bit of the barn that I cleared out before, and then I can see what I can move out over there. If I can move out the wood and the portable gas heater, that will make tons of empty space and I’ll feel much happier about all of that.

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Friday 18th March 2011 – I’m having another early night tonight.

Yes, I can’t last the pace these days.

I was awake again long before the alarm clock, and I was up, dressed, breakfasted and out working by 09:00. Caliburn is now emptied completely and everything is stacked in the lean-to. Some of those boxes were heavy and it wasn’t half a struggle as well. But there’s plenty of room in there ready for more stuff.

Once that had been done I had to pick up a pile of stuff that had fallen all over the floor in where the living room will be (so that’s what the crash was when I was in bed) and then I brought all of the clothes up here. And that wasn’t easy either.

I had a rest for a few hours after that and did more work on my web site. It won’t be long before the Trans-Labrador Highway pages go on line.

Finally I started to tidy up in the barn so that I can start to move the stuff that came from Brussels in February. You may recall that I had to come back twice and each time I brought a load of stuff back. I need to get that ready as soon as possible so that I can rescue the stuff round at Terry and Liz’s. And then go back to Brussels for the Minerva and some more stuff.

But it’s wearing me out, all of this. I dunno how many consecutive early nights this will be but I’m sure that it will be a record.

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Thursday 10th March 2011 – I have to go to rescue my Minerva.

If you are fairly new to these pages I bet you don’t know that I own a Minerva. It’s something I bought years ago while I was on the lookout for an old Land Rover for hauling logs around the farm. Ever since then it’s been in storage near Antwerp but I received an e-mail today to say that the storage facilities are closing down and I need to move it.

Luckily we are here with Terry’s big trailer, and I reckon that the Minerva will fit on it. It’s rather a shame in a way because I was hoping to be able to move the Cortina 2000E estate and get that down to the farm, but it will still be nice to recover the Minerva after all  these years. Ahhh well.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, I’ve painted the door frame to the apartment and I’ve also prepared the wall at the back of the terrace. But when I went out to paint that, the wind blew me back inside again. It was rough out there, and so that will have to wait until another day.

This afternoon I cleaned all of the paintwork in the hall and then painted the ceiling in there.

Terry carried on with the odd jobs such as repapering part of the kitchen and fixing a few electrical items while Liz carried on with her marathon floor-waxing, with the help of Terry once the little jobs were finished. Once the floor was something like, we moved the living room back into where it ought to be and I’ve moved my bed and computer into this room while Terry and Liz started to paint the walls in the hallway.

Tomorrow I have to empty out my room of what is left there and then give it a good clean, put the second coat of paint on the door frame and paint the terrace wall if the wind will let me. Terry and Liz will finish the walls in the hallway and then paint my bedroom. The second coat for the hall and bedroom is planned for Saturday morning, and then all that will remain will be touching up in the blue bedroom where Terry and Liz are sleeping.

And that, dear reader, will be that. We’ll empty the place on Monday morning, have an estate agent round on Monday afternoon and then adjourn to a hotel for a couple of days so that the place will be completely empty so that we can do the touching up.

Such is the plan. And so you just watch something happen to upset it all.

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Tuesday 8th March 2011 – I’m going to have another early night this evening as well.

It’s hard work at the moment doing all of this. Terry has been grouting the tiles on the terraces and then sealing all of the concrete, followed by painting the metal guard rails out there. Liz has been painting the ceiling and the woodwork in the living room, and I have been rubbing down the rest of the doors in the hall and then putting on the first coat of paint.

But I’ve run out of paint and so that called for a shopping expedition to Brico, only to discover that the paint that I’ve been using and which I bought in about 2004, has been discontinued. I’ve found some that looks near enough but I hope it’s going to be okay. I don’t want to repaint all of the woodwork in the hall. There are seven doors for a start.

We had some excitement coming back from Brico this evening. I pulled past a parking space, put Caliburn into reverse, the reversing lights came on brightly (as it was pitch dark outside) and as I set off backwards, some kid on a pushbike decided to cycle behind the van. I almost got him as well, and if he tries a stupid stunt like that next time, I’ll flaming well get him too and shan’t spare a moment of regret about it either.

What with crazy kids on pushbikes, old women with dogs tearing down our safety barrier to take the short cut to the grass while we are manoeuvring large, thick and heavy tiles six stories directly above their heads, I’m convinced that everyone here is totally off their heads. I’m not going to be sorry to get back home

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Monday 7th March 2011 – I’m going to have an early night just now.

I didn’t sleep very well last night and so I’m hopefully going to make up for it. And I deserve it as well as we’ve had yet another day of hard work. What is even more exciting is that we seem to be on the downhill slope.

While Liz carried on painting the woodwork in the living room and I carried on painting the cupboard, Terry started to empty the place of all of the tiling gear and the tools and material that we won’t be using again. Now that is major progress without a doubt, beginning to empty the place.

And when the cupboard was finished I dismantled all of the shelving in my office. Terry took it downstairs while I joined Liz in the living room and put the second coat of paint on the wall. And once that was done we tidied up the plastic sheets protecting the floor and had a good sweep up.

Liz carried on with the woodwork afterwards and Terry grouted the main terrace but I’ve made a start in the hall sticking down the loose wallpaper and scrubbing the outside of the front door to clean it. Yes, cleaning and tidying – these are all positive signs.

Tomorrow I have to sand down the outside of the bathroom door and the outside of the living room door and then I can paint those along with the outside of the cupboard door. Liz will have finished the woodwork by then and Terry the grouting on the back terrace, and then we can get on with the cleaning and tidying and touching up.

It’s all looking a lot more positive here now.

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Saturday 5th March 2011 – We went for a Mexican this evening

But before that, we went to Chi-Chi’s for some food. It was Terry’s idea – as soon as I mentioned going out, he volunteered the Mexican restaurant. And as soon as we got there it was “oooh look, there’s deep-fried ice cream on the menu this evening”. So now we know.

We all had a good meal and the dining was accompanied by Manuel Labour and his mate on the guitars. It makes quite a nice change to have a musical evening.

And Terry and Liz deserved their meal. Terry has finished tiling both balconies and there is only the grouting to do on there, as well as a small amount of cementing. Liz finished emulsioning the walls and has started on the woodwork. I scrubbed the floor in the cupboard again and painted the woodwork in there too. We’ve been working hard just now so it’s nice to go out and relax.

And I’m off to bed in a minute. I had a bad night last night and I’m thoroughly tired out. I’m getting old and I can’t last the pace.

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Saturday 26th February 2011 – I haven’t been here long today.

This morning I went to the dechetterie and threw another huge pile of stuff away. Much of it wasn’t really worth anything at all but there was some stuff that was rather significant in my past and it was surprisingly difficult to hurl it into the waiting jaws of a huge digger that was about to carry it off into the incinerator.

While I was there Terry rang me and asked me to pick up a three-phase circuit breaker. And I was halfway to the tile shop before I realised that I was supposed to be going to the electrician’s. Anyway, to cut a long story short … “thank you” – ed … they didn’t have one in and needed to order it. Could I come back this afternoon?

So after lunch and a little desultory sanding down of woodwork and polyfilla in the second half of the living room, I went out to pick up the circuit breaker. Terry rang again and asked me to pick up three packets of tiling cement and so this time I did indeed go to the tile shop where I had a lengthy chat with the owner while the minions searched for the cement.

On the way back the canal bridge was all closed off and there were loads of police cars about – whether someone had thrown themselves in the canal I don’t really know but the circulation was difficult to say the least and it was about 18:30 when I returned home.

It’s Saturday night of course and so once the rugby had finished we hit the streets. Up to Schuman where we found a decent Italian restaurant. My penne al arrabiata was the best I had ever eaten and everyone else thoroughly enjoyed their meal. A pint in the James Joyce rounded off the evening perfectly and then we came back home – at about 11:15.

What an enjoyable day!

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Friday 25th February 2011 – It’s been another day …

 where we have made huge strides. We’ve also done a fair bit of work too.

This morning while Liz put the second coat of paint on the first half of the living room, Terry and I concreted the terrace outside the front and the side of the apartment. We cracked on at it at quite a pace, fixing some simple shuttering and then me mixing while Terry spread and tamped. It was all done by lunchtime and for an encore I filled in the spaces on the back terrace where the shuttering had been.

After lunch, while Liz and Terry sorted out what needed moving from up here, I went downstairs into the garage and began getting the stuff ready to throw away. Terry came down to help me later on and now Caliburn is chock-full to the roof of rubbish for the tip. I really can’t imagine just what I was doing with half of the stuff in there – I really can’t.

Anyway, by tomorrow lunchtime it will all be history.

Once it’s all away I can load up Caliburn with more stuff to move to the Auvergne. There’s a meeting of CREFAD – the organisation in the Auvergne that helps people set up small businesses – on Tuesday evening. They are discussing self-employment and how to register for this new minimalist self-employment scheme, and I have been invited to speak at it. Shameless self publicist that I am, I’m not going to miss out on some free publicity and so I’ll be there, hopefully. It means I have a good reason to go there with a van full of stuff.

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Saturday 19th February 2011 – It was Saturday today…

…and so, just for a change, we worked.

Terry started the day by fixing the sink in the toilet with the bits that we bought yesterday and now we have a working sink. While he was doing that, Liz and I put the first coat of paint on the wall of the part of thee living room that we papered yesterday, as well as a fair amount of paint on the floor as well. Liz may have a steady hand and a keen eye when it comes to painting but she’s working with me and a line of masking tape across the edge of the floor is never going to be sufficient. Mind you, it’s looking quite good in there and a second coat will work wonders for the wall.

Back in the toilet, Terry finished off the grouting of the little mosaic tiles that he fitted and once he was out of the way  Liz painted the woodwork in there too. Now it’s almost completely finished in there. Just the shelf and the towel ring, the second coat of paint and a bit of touching up, and that will be that.

After lunch while Liz was painting the toilet woodwork, Terry put the damp-proof membrane down on the terrace at the back of the apartment and I rubbed down the door to the cupboard under the stairs. That door was filthy – I don’t think that it had ever been cleaned at all, ever since the apartment had been built.

As an aside, if you don’t know the story of the apartment, it was built in 1969 and the first occupant was an old blind man who was unable to clean up after himself. He died in 1997 and the apartment stood empty and untouched for three years with no takers until I bought it as a ruin at a knock-down price.

Anyway, after all of that it was 16:00 and we were exhausted. We should have been out shopping and then going for our Saturday night meal but no-one was in the mood. Domino’s special Saturday offer of large pizzas at just €7:99 each take-away swung the decision for us. My vegetarian with no cheese was absolutely delicious and there is enough left over for Sunday lunch.

So that was that – we are all worn out again and so in a moment I’ll be off to bed. The others crashed out a while ago.

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Friday 18th February 2011 – There’s some light …

 now at the end of the tunnel – and we aren’t talking about roaring express trains heading our way.

Terry has made a start on the big terrace, and that’s his last major project (but there are a couple of smaller ones). He’s poured some waterproof sealing all over the old waterproof covering and then stuck some new waterproof covering over the top. That’s kept him out of mischief all day, except that he lost his Stanley knife. We are now expecting to hear a news report of a local Belgian wandering around with a Stanley knife firmly embedded in his head. After all, we are 6 storeys up.

Liz and I started to wallpaper the first half of the living room and despite me having to nip out for an hour for various errands, that part is now finished. Tomorrow morning we’ll be putting the first coat of emulsion on the wall in there while Terry seals the small terrace at the back.

We had to nip out to Brico for a few things too and we were looking at the paint on offer. We need to overpaint the wallpaper in the hallway and some 10 litres or so of emulsion would do the job. Having some properly mixed the colour that we like would be perfect, burt at … gulp … €140 for 10 litres we can forget that and it’s going to have basic magnolia and like it. Mind you, at €50-odd for 10 litres that’s not cheap either. I’m going to start importing and reselling job lots of paint. I’ll make a fortune at these prices.

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Wednesday 16th February 2011 – I’m not going to be here much longer.

I’m all thoroughly exhausted again.

I slept right through last night until about 08:45 and it’s been a long time since I’ve done that. And afterwards, while Terry carried on in the toilet, Liz painted the woodwork in the living room while I painted the ceiling and did some more sanding on the floor.

Once Liz and I had done that, we carried in ripping up the tiles and the old infilling on the terrace. We managed to make enormous inroads into that, and it was all put into dustbins, bin bags, crates and the like.

After lunch we went to the tip where I disposed of one of the sofas from here, an old carpet, some wardrobe doors and some other odds and ends. Back to the apartment via LIDL, we loaded up again with all the tiles, sand etc etc off the terrace and took that down to the tip. You have to pay to dospose of that and I’m sure that they make up the prices there. The first load a couple of weeks ago cost €68:00 – the second last week cost €36:00 and today’s, which was probably the heaviest, cost €12:10.

But it’s exhausting mauling all of this heavy stuff about. I’m not as young as I was. And so I’m going to bed early to recover my strength ready for tomorrow.

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Tuesday 15th February 2011 – I’ve been falling asleep here.

Yes, it’s only 22:25 and I’m worn out. I’m clearly working too hard.

So what did we do today? Terry has spent all day in the toilet – but that’s nothing t do with Liz’s cooking of course.He’s been tiling. It’s not easy for firstly there isn’t much room to move around and secondly, there are too many crooks and nannies (“as well as nooks and crannies” – ed) in there and they all need to be tiled. And so for most of the day we have been without … err … bathroom facilities which has been something of an inconvenience, if you pardon the expression. This evening though, there’s a toilet connected to the wastepipe with a bucket of water for flushing, and that will have to do.

Liz finished off painting the bathroom while I washed down the walls at the inner side of the living room and then I painted that part of the ceiling with two coats of paint. Following that, we sanded down and painted all of the woodwork in that bit. We are doing the living room in halves because it’s so big, and using the “other half” of the living room as a place to store the tools.

Once all the woodwork was painted we had a go at sanding down the wooden flooring in there. It seems like at one time there’s been one of those rubber-backed carpets on there and the rubber back has melted, staining the wood. So on our hands and knees, we scrubbed away at the damaged part of the floor with 80-grain sandpaper. And you have no idea just how tiring that can be.

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Monday 14th February 2011 – AND SO …

… having decided upon a new plan for the apartment, we cracked on with our work today.

Terry started off in the toilet this morning. He ripped the toilet and the sink out of the WC and ripped all of the tiles off the wall in there. Liz finished off the painting in the bathroom while I washed down the walls and part of the ceiling in the living room.

While Terry was tiling the WC floor, Liz and I went to the tiling place in Schaerbeek and bought some wall tiles for in there. We saw some nice glass mosaic tiles that would make a pretty border like we did in the bathroom and so we added them to the list of shopping. We may as well make this apartment into a place of which we can be very proud.

Mind you, whether the bank balance can afford it is another matter completely. But I’m not going to spoil the ship for a ha’porth of tar. I need to concentrate on the long-term ciew and keep on going.

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