The Bathroom Renovation - Part 2

After so much activity in April and early May, the last four weeks have been pretty quiet and I don't have a lot to tell you. Once the shower glass and door went in we could use it again after 3 weeks of washing in the kitchen sink, so we took a big breath and did a few non-bathroom things.

The delivery of our Ikea bathroom cabinets brought with them a new desk each. My (possibly) antique desk got shifted to the storeroom to begin another life and I now have a nice long, slim model that doesn't cut off the circulation in my thighs.

Paul scored a shorter version of mine with a cupboard as well as a drawer.  He had been working on the vintage dining table, old but ugly - it went down to the garage.

We had managed to get rid of almost all of our surplus household goods.  Only some Christmas decorations and the worst of the artificial flowers went to landfill. We even had a complete baby pram with all the trimmings - a bit dusty but now in a new home.  Paul put a price on the table and six chairs and it is still with us.

Finally, after a lot of hassling, we obtained our Dechetterie pass and joined the locals to dispose of our building waste.  

You'd think that this Dechetterie was the tenth wonder of the world given the reverence in which it is held by the locals.  Every single male that Paul has spoken to since we arrived opened the conversation by asking if we had gained our Dechetterie pass yet? So the moment our pass was approved we loaded our broken stuff, flattened cardboard, old paint cans, broken concrete, and old flower pots and headed off to the next village. The much lauded "pass" turned out to be an automatic electronic number plate scanner installed at the gate to raise a barrier to allow us to drive in.

It was very interesting watching the locals trying to work out 'what went where'.  Despite good labelling and lots of help, many found it very challenging and I suspect the staff spend a lot of time moving stuff from the wrong skip to the right skip. However, generally speaking the French are excellent at recycling and acknowledge it is their responsibility to do so.

Given there was now a bit more space in the garage, Paul could have a really good clean up........ and buy a few more tools. Apparently we need this pressure washer to clean the deck.

And we need this compressor to blow up the bike tyres and clean the filters on the vacuum.

And I need this plant to look amazing and brighten up the otherwise dull living room.  We are now in the second heatwave (hottest start to summer in more than 20 years) and it has been mid 30s every day for 10 days. So we have the shutters closed, the curtains drawn and the ceiling fan spinning at an alarming rate. 

My Anthurium was 5.65 euros at the supermarche ($8.53 AUD), pretty good value I thought for 8 flower spikes.  I think next month I'll do a post on French shopping - what's in the supermarket and how much does it cost?

So after getting the Ikea flat pack desks assembled, cleaning out the garage and having a bit of a break to sit out the first heat wave of the season, we returned our attention on the bathroom.

We had to source new white paint as my first choice had been too grey. We opted for Dulux Satin Basic White. Still not what I wanted but we had to get on with it, so the ceiling got two coats and the walls another three coats. That all took a week

Next was the handbasin and drawers. It turned out to be not quite what we wanted (the handbasin lacks a bit of depth) but otherwise it looks good and works well.

Next came the new shower mixer with two heads and a corner unit for bottles, etc. The towel rails and hooks were next.

The mirror I bought from Ikea proved to be just too big given where the wires for over mirror light had been placed. Apparently, everyone in France wants an over mirror light. It was one of the things our French plumber / electrician Alain insisted we needed - along with the two shower heads and the concealed toilet cistern. Apparently these are the most highly valued items that will add the greatest value to our property at resale.

We replaced the old electric blower heater with an energy efficient towel rail and added a vertical column storage unit to match the vanity. Our final purchases were to be the mirror and some towels. The mirror proved tricky and required a bit of running around. The towels were an online purchase from My Nordic Nest in Sweden and should be here within the week.

In the meantime, these posters popped up all over town. They say:

The Day of Breeding, Saturday 11 June, Lauzun.  

Helice the beautiful Blonde invites you for 

Competition, Displays, Animations, Spectacles.

There was much action at the lake - grass cutting, white marquees and seating for 200 plus.

A lot of ropes and sticks appeared. The following day it was tractors and hay bales.

The marquees looked incredible reflected in the lake at dusk.

As we walk up from the lake, our white umbrella marks our little narrow house. On the right, the crepe myrtle in the neighbour's garden is now in full leaf and covered with pink tips. I can't wait to see it in flower. At the rear, they are now half way through replacing the church roof and have moved the scaffolding and safety net from the front half, to the rear half.

Wandering up up the main street to the restaurant I am always very envious of those with a patch of dirt at the front for a climbing rose. The roses have been magnificent throughout the village, especially this one.

If you're interested, this house with the rose is for sale - have a look here. It includes a 360 degree virtual tour...... and I thought our house had a lot of "stuff".

Dinner outside at our local - Gostar (pronounced Goss-tar) meaning 'savour' in Patois Gascon.

The Day of Breeding finally came and it was like an agricultural show.... a bit of everything, big tractors, little citroens, lots of sashes and rosettes.

Very smelly donkeys with a racing stripe but why weren't as smelly as the goats a little further along.

Helice was there and invited everyone to guess her weight for a magnificent but undisclosed prize.  Paul was disappointed; he reckoned he had her weight calculated to within 100 grams but he couldn't work out where to enter the competiton and submit his winning guess.  While recognising cultural differences you'd still think that there would be someone standing with or near Helice to take our money.  But this is France. Nothing is predictable!

And then there were the big boys! The breed is called Blonde d'Aquitaine. 

The queues lining up to eat the animals on show seemed a bit tasteless to me, given the circumstances. The local producers were selling their roast suckling pig, goose foi gras, spring lamb, baby goat and Blonde boeuf. I wonder if this is Helice's fate?  At least they weren't cooking donkey.

The 200+ seats under the marquees were packed from 11am until midnight.

The bathroom is finally finished except for a few little touches that we know about and you don't. You don't want to know, believe me ... they involve hanging out of windows with wet cement and laying on the floor for a long period with a minuscule paint brush.

It worked pretty well really. The black trolley will provide visitors with somewhere for their bits and pieces as there is not really any bench space.

We had enough rescued tiles to fill in the area that was underneath the old bath. Did I mention that the old bath is now a horse trough. 

Despite the heat wave the towel rail has been tested.... but just the once. And my snappy new towels provide a bit of contrast.

It would have been wonderful to have replaced the horrible 1970s floor tiles but that would have been a wish too far.  Instead I found a a rather dramatic mat that takes your eye away from the tacky brown ...... well, takes it away a bit.

We are off to Italy next Monday to meet our little family and introduce our grandsons, Jack and Henry to Paul's birthplace, Trieste.