VADOULOU

The week started with the fitting of the 2 enormous windows both sides of the lounge, weighing over 450 kilograms each!!
Wonderful to watch but a bit frightening at the same time.
The first one had to pass through one window & be taken across the lounge to be fitted, a procedure which was time consuming & very hard work for the team. Coffee & croisants/chocos all round seemed to help before the 2nd one went in. This one was marginally easier as the delivery wagon had a fancy bit of kit (huge suckers) which could hold the window until the team lifted into place thus making life a lot easier.
Unfortunately delivery of all the white goods & the oven for the kitchen/utility room, plus the TV on the same day was to say the least unfortunate!
Here’s the photos. Wish that we could post the videos which really show how it was done.

There’s been lots of progress with the kitchen, the lights, the heat pump, the water softener, our wardrobes, bathrooms, the stove (to be revealed next week) & the lights.

And now the news.
There is one problem with the polished concrete floors to resolve & we’re working on it.
Otherwise we have insisted that the entire project be finished for the 21st December when it can then be handed over to us.
We need some days of no frost & no rain to allow the team to organise the external groundworks & levels + finish the terracing, paths & parking etc & last but not least to install the gates. It looks as though the temperature at night should be fine but they may have to work around the odd shower.
Assuming now that all goes well it will be Louise’s birthday present & our Christmas present.
We just can’t wait!! Our move will be next year but for once January will pass very quickly!

Basically all the internal lime finishes & water proofing have been finished by Abigail & her final bill is paid.
The painter has to finish off the internal walls & ceilings.
The tilers have started tiling the showers & our toilet area but all to finish this coming week. Good to see the tiles up & we are happy with our choice. You never know!!

Some more electrics are in & the garage is completely finished. It just needs the shelving/racking to be fitted plus, of course, the door!

All the internal floors are completely polished & finished & have to dry over the weekend. They must now be seriously protected by everyone who goes in.
The 2 terrace floors & the garage are both finished as well.
This started on Wednesday & since then no-one other than the floor team was allowed inside the building or on the 2 terraces.

Because of this there’s no photos of the interior this week.
We’ll be the first in on Monday to see how it looks.

We’ve now got 9 working days to get everything installed.
Kitchens, cloakrooms, cupboards, bathrooms, etc etc. The carpenters will be there on Mon. We have some deliveries organised for Tues & Wed & the kitchen/bar area drawers, cupboards & surfaces will be installed Thur.
All the comms are up in the air with Orange suddenly trying to sort them out. We need a trench under the road (quel surprise!!) but we could be moving without comms! We first gave Orange all the info in March 2023 & they finally decided to act last week after much pushing & prompting & swearing from us.
Will we won’t we?? Everything crossed.

We’ve had awful weather – fog, rain, freezing fog, heavy frosts & glorious days.
This what it looked like this morning.

What will it look like on Monday?

The ducting for all the services from the road, water, drains, electrics & comms, to the house is all done. It was a deep trench but there is nothing to see now.

We’re trying to protect the interior now from muddy footprints etc.

The 2 outside terraces & the garage floor have now had the last layer of concrete poured + their first treatment. The flooring company is returning at the end of this week to give all the floors the polished effect—the final treatment! Both inside & outside will be completely closed to everyone until Monday of next week.

But then it will get really busy as the carpenters move in to install the kitchens, wardrobes, a TV unit, cupboards in the halls, bathroom units etc. The plumbers will then follow through with the fittings. Some have started but not too much at this stage.

And all the outside drainage, parking, drives & pathways etc should be starting this week.

Last Saturday we had the Tarn equivalent of the Beaujolais wine race, the Gaillac Primeur tasting tour.
20 of us left Vaour at 11.30am Saturday in 2 minibuses & returned at midnight. We visited 4 vineyards for tastings, with plenty of oysters, lots of singing & dancing, drum parades & general great humour. We finished at Larroque with a meal accompanied by “Vide Grenier” playing a great 3 hour session from a truly French playlist.
Both the guitarists/singers are from Vaour, which always helps.
Those of you at my 70th birthday may remember them opening the soirée. The difference from then to now is amazing. They really had the place jumping. We were so busy that we forgot to take pictures there. These are from earlier in the day. (This site won’t let us post videos, sorry)

We were in Albi all day Monday & when we passed by the site on our way home it didn’t look as though much had changed. This was somewhat worrying since the handover date to us is Friday 8th December.
We had lots of questions for the architects & organised a meeting on site Weds. They were in agreement that there should be much more activity. By Friday’s site meeting everything had changed, all the artisans were on site & working. We’ve never had such a crowd before!

The floor is in & drying & everyone should be wearing clean footwear inside, the downside being that, as the photos show it’s mostly been followed, but not entirely. In this weather it’s not easy but…so we now have reminder notices at all points of entry & we’ve banned smoking inside the house as well.

When the floor company comes to apply the final polished finish it will be interesting to find out what they think. That is programmed for 23/24 Nov, when the house will be totally closed for those 2 days + the weekend to let it dry completely.

After that it will be all systems go to fit the kitchen, wardrobes, TV unit etc etc. There will be only 2 weeks after that before handover!

BUT there has been lots of progress this week after the slow start.

Firstly the leak has been fixed & tested.

The floor. It will look similar to this but will be sealed & polished.

The fuse board is coming on.

The heat pump & underfloor heating is coming on. (There’s a temporary fix testing all the pressures & slowly increasing the heat to aid the drying of the floor)

The plumbing of the bathrooms has started.

The internal wood finishes around all the windows are well underway.

The ceiling & wall painting is underway & the final finishes on the internal stucco walls will be started tomorrow.

The external render on the terraces is being done & the garage walls are done.

All the stone cladding is at long last finished.

The Friday site meeting was hectic, with all the workers on site, plus all the heads of the companies, plus 3 architects & us two.

The ducting from the road to the house for water, electricity, sewerage & telephony is started.

It also needs saying that we’re having really foul weather & working outside is no joke.
All the filling in around the house, the levelling for entry from the road to the garage, all the parking, all the drainage from the roof to the reservoir we’re putting in & the excess to the drains is all to do in these conditions!

And then there’s Louise’s “entretien”/interview for French nationality right in the middle of all of this!! It’s unlikely to be a quiet birthday for Louise, nor a quiet Christmas chez nous.
It seems that we’re really living up to something I said to Louise when we decided to get married.

“It’ll be many things, but it’ll never be boring”