THE RILEYS MOVE TO FRANCE – Part 2

As you will recall from part 1 – we made it across the channel to make our new home in France and when opening the fridge which had travelled in the 7.5 tonner, found a lonely egg that had been left in the door still intact – a testimonial to the careful driving of my brother!!

Within a couple of days of arriving and whilst we are still in a mess,  a motorcycle stopped outside the gates, just happened to be one of the better bikes around (1200RT)!! And a gentleman got off; we’re thinking at this point, first chance to practise the French!! It turns out to be an old work colleague of some 20 years ago in my HIS Limited days who had become one of our customers in the company we had just retired from. We had sent a general e mail to all advising of our retirement and, of course, sending a link to our web site. He had been on a trip around France and decided to try and find us. We had a good catch up, provided food and drink and found a tiny corner so he could stop the night – what a surprise.

A couple of nights later we decided to treat ourselves after the ‘trauma’ of the move and have a meal out at one of our local restaurants, what a great night, warm and such a clear sky with a wonderful full moon, great walking along the towpath after a bevy or two, chasing shadows !!!

Now nearly 3 months on work is progressing but at a slower pace than we anticipated, we had planned to be in, central heating on, electrics sorted and starting on the conversion of the first floor – not to be; garage and store renovation not yet complete, (although nearly), central heating radiators, most of the ground floor fitted but not connected, electrics, basic wiring to garage installed but nothing connected – oh the joys of France and their approach of – there’s always tomorrow!!

Still – cold, wet and windy weather has arrived and we have a great big hole in the house wall where the 2 sets of double doors will go and that’s what the builders are working on at the moment – in the rain. The garage has the new doors hung and windows fitted, the new first floor in the garage has been laid and three of the beams replaced due to excessive woodworm, all the other existing wood has been well and truly sprayed with woodworm killer!! I’m working on the new internal walls which will provide a new shower room where we will also house the 500litre water stockage tank; this will be replenished with hot water from the new log burner (currently sitting in the lounge on a pallet) and then supply the hot water tank (300litres), radiators and Hot Tub.

During the 3 months to date since arrival, the garden has been turned ‘upside down’, a new sewer treatment plant has had to be installed, (the ground is not suitable for a septic tank) so there has been trenches created all over, not only to service the plant but also to provide water pipes to and from the existing old septic tank that once cleaned will provide our rainwater harvesting facility. The Hot Tub has been moved to its final resting place and although the electrics have been supplied it is not yet up and running – hopefully soon. Viv spent many a day cutting and thinning the ‘hedge’ at the bottom of the garden next to the canal giving us an additional 3-4 meters of useable space – looks so much better, I unfortunately picked the short straw when it came to cutting down some unwanted braches off the trees – I’m not a lover of heights!! So there I was stuck in a bucket of a JCB with an extendable arm, chainsaw in hand and at the max reach and stability of the machine – I’m glad I was told that AFTER doing the business!

Viv has also sited the two compost bins and we have started filling with waste etc in preparation to getting the allotment going.

We travelled to our local DIY store yesterday and spent over 1200 Euros on some of the insulation needed to keep the place warm, Saturday we get some more at around another 1000 Euros and that is only for the first floor external walls, we still need some for the first floor and first floor internal walls – ouch!

We are concentrating on getting watertight and warm before the real bad weather sets in as after that we will be working indoors, catching up on our reading and keeping the wine makers employed!!