Laverrerie

The work has been delayed – it seems they finished someone else’s pool back in March and it promptly collapsed into an underground hole they had not detected. It’s taken them a month to dig it all out and start over, whislt trying not to fall TOO far behind on any one else’s pool – result, everyone’s a little delayed. But the structure is in place now, the concrete is booked for Monday, and we’re assured that once the concrete has set, there’s only four to six days work involved in the lining and plumbing, filling in the rest of the hole, and finishing off the tiles, etc. Oh well, it’s all good clean fun.

The hole for the pool has been dug. Sadly the rest of the building has been delayed by a week by a combination of weather and the effect three bank holidays within one week has on the average French pool installer.

The website has been updated, the floorplan for Gite 1 now shows the spiral stairs – and almost in the right place!

The stairs are now varnished and in use. Gite 1 visitors this year will have the full facilities of the big lounge as part of the house instead of an afterthought!

Work started on the pool this week, it should be finished in three weeks. Then it’ll be full of fresh mountain water and hopefully the hot mountain sun will waste no time in raising the water temperature to a welcoming 24 or 25 degrees.

We finally have the quote for building (digging?) a swimming pool. This will be in the area in front of the stable block. The bank and trees will be moved west about six feet to make the pool slightly wider than the current flat area. The pool equipment will be installed in the old hay store. There’ll be a patio around, and a “roman end” which we find popular with kids of all ages, far easier to deal with than a vertical ladder. We’ve paid a deposit and signed an order and the pool should be built during the first two weeks in May. We’ll fill it at once, it might be a tad chilly in April but should be nice and warm by June.

The spiral staircase has at long last been installed between the two floors of Gite 1 – you can now get to the lounge without going outside! This I’m sure you’ll realise, is a plus. On the downside the twin bedroom is now slightly smaller, but it does still have comfy room for the two beds, and now it has a door instead of just a curtain! We’ve been looking forwards to this all year. The stairs are hand built by a local craftsman working in oak, and look a treat, just need a couple of coats of good varnish to protect them before anyone starts clomping up and down.

We note that someone has put up a new sign at the road leading to La Verrerie from the centre of Egliseneuve – only it points the wrong way. 9/10 for effort, folks, but 0/10 for getting the arrow on the right end of the stick.

Well at the end of our first summer, we’ve finally been able to find time to spend a few weeks here ourselves. We’ve taken the opportunity to fix a few problems, and look into some changes.

First up, the staircase between the upper part of Gite 1 and the lounge has been built, we’re just waiting for the chippy to find time to come and install it. This will make Gite 1 a lot more sensible, no more going outside to get to the lounge! The stair will rise into the small hall off the dining room, where the entrance to the twin bedroom is now, the twin room will get a new doorway.

We’ve had a chap check out the roof. He found no fewer than ten cracked or smashed tiles, which explains why the rain was getting in. Actually, it doesn’t explain why a lot MORE rain wasn’t getting in! But these are now fixed and the roof declared good for the rigours of winter.

Several folk have asked if we could install a washing machine, so we have. This is in the workshop (next building down from Gite 2) and is shared. There’s no dryer – didn’t seem worth it with a climate this warm in summer. There’s plenty of out-door drying space and also space undercover if it happens to be raining the day you do your socks!

We’re taking quotes for a swimming pool to be built in the space in front of the stable block. If the hard quotes don’t vary massively from the “finger in air” guestimates we’d already had, then we’ll go ahead with that and the pool should be ready for next Spring.