bientot la fin ...* The end is in sight - Semaine/Week 19 (23/12/06)
... de la première partie.
Et oui, la fosse sceptique est posée, l'électricité et la plomberie sont terminées. La salle de bain est maintenant opérationnelle, mais avant de déménager, je vais devoir m'occuper de petits indésirables qui se sont nichés dans le bois de charpente. La petite maison a donc été vidée, et il ne me reste qu'à passer du xylophène, une belle substance bien chimique.
Pour être précis, il reste encore quelques menus travaux avant le grand déménagement. Il y a des infiltrations d'eau tres génantes au niveau de la cheminée, à l'intérieure et l'extérieure. Je vais voir si je peux cimenter les trous. La hotte doit être achetée et posée. Je vais voir ça cette semaine je pense.
Et enfin un grand nettoyage d'hivers va devoir être fait pour éffacer les 3 mois de chantier. Ce sera fait au moment du xylophénage.
*The end is in sight....of the first chapter in the big Reundrez adventure! The sewrage system is in and the bathroom functional, the electricity is finished and the house emptied of it's great piles of tools, machines and bits and bobs. (There's hardly any room left for our other 'stuff' up in the shed already!) An extractor for the stove has to be installed at some stage, and a little attention given to the fireplace which seems to get damp every time it rains.
A last and very unpleasant job remains, which is the treatment of the wooden beams against insect attacks. We were aware of the fact that we had borer holes in our oak beams and above the windows and doors etc, but as they're 200yrs old and still in pretty good nick we decided against a horrible chemical treatment as they'll not change much in the months or even the years to come. With a baby in the house it was out of the question, and anyhow, I wanted to spend some time looking up alternative treatment products to the radio-active-looking sprays you can get from hardware shops in France. BUT, now that our date to move house has been delayed by 1 1/2 months, fabrice has taken it upon himself to treat the wood right away and is using "xylophene" in a spray form. I've looked it up on the web and it sits amongst the very toxic (but not the Most toxic) of solutions. I've discovered that there exists a range of different borers that can affect a house; ambrosia borers, capricorn borers, longhorned borers etc etc and not all can be treated the same way. We didn't bother to investigate which sort we had... And appart from that, you should always give yourself a year of observation time, in situ, to see whether the holes are ancient ones which can be completely ignored, or fresh ones which need attention. So, my personal opinion is that Fab has jumped the gun this time, and anyway, as a buddhist, insect-loving, future-occupant of the cottage, I really should have insisted on waiting a while to see if my incence-burning couldn't just smoke them out more peacefully! : )
Well, I couldn't let my wife telling lies on our blog so here I am again, in english this time :) I am an insect loving person too, but when comes the choice between getting rid of the little buggers now, or having to wait for another 10 years and see them probably eating our timber out, the choice was easy to make :) But I reckon this is not the right place to have a couple's argument, so let say that I took the right decision at the time :)
The photos below:
1) The sewrage system as it leaves the back of the cottage and runs down to the huge drain.
2) The courtyard, newly scraped of it's muddy top-layer.
3) A gravel path leading up to the storage shed, ready for the move...
4) The fallen remains of the ugly brick wall between the main house and the big shed.
Voici quelques photos du travail d'expert de monsieur Soubigou, notre térrasier préféré qui nous a nettoyé la cour, fait tomber le mur de brique et amélioré l'accès au garage du fond.
Et oui, la fosse sceptique est posée, l'électricité et la plomberie sont terminées. La salle de bain est maintenant opérationnelle, mais avant de déménager, je vais devoir m'occuper de petits indésirables qui se sont nichés dans le bois de charpente. La petite maison a donc été vidée, et il ne me reste qu'à passer du xylophène, une belle substance bien chimique.
Pour être précis, il reste encore quelques menus travaux avant le grand déménagement. Il y a des infiltrations d'eau tres génantes au niveau de la cheminée, à l'intérieure et l'extérieure. Je vais voir si je peux cimenter les trous. La hotte doit être achetée et posée. Je vais voir ça cette semaine je pense.
Et enfin un grand nettoyage d'hivers va devoir être fait pour éffacer les 3 mois de chantier. Ce sera fait au moment du xylophénage.
*The end is in sight....of the first chapter in the big Reundrez adventure! The sewrage system is in and the bathroom functional, the electricity is finished and the house emptied of it's great piles of tools, machines and bits and bobs. (There's hardly any room left for our other 'stuff' up in the shed already!) An extractor for the stove has to be installed at some stage, and a little attention given to the fireplace which seems to get damp every time it rains.
A last and very unpleasant job remains, which is the treatment of the wooden beams against insect attacks. We were aware of the fact that we had borer holes in our oak beams and above the windows and doors etc, but as they're 200yrs old and still in pretty good nick we decided against a horrible chemical treatment as they'll not change much in the months or even the years to come. With a baby in the house it was out of the question, and anyhow, I wanted to spend some time looking up alternative treatment products to the radio-active-looking sprays you can get from hardware shops in France. BUT, now that our date to move house has been delayed by 1 1/2 months, fabrice has taken it upon himself to treat the wood right away and is using "xylophene" in a spray form. I've looked it up on the web and it sits amongst the very toxic (but not the Most toxic) of solutions. I've discovered that there exists a range of different borers that can affect a house; ambrosia borers, capricorn borers, longhorned borers etc etc and not all can be treated the same way. We didn't bother to investigate which sort we had... And appart from that, you should always give yourself a year of observation time, in situ, to see whether the holes are ancient ones which can be completely ignored, or fresh ones which need attention. So, my personal opinion is that Fab has jumped the gun this time, and anyway, as a buddhist, insect-loving, future-occupant of the cottage, I really should have insisted on waiting a while to see if my incence-burning couldn't just smoke them out more peacefully! : )
Well, I couldn't let my wife telling lies on our blog so here I am again, in english this time :) I am an insect loving person too, but when comes the choice between getting rid of the little buggers now, or having to wait for another 10 years and see them probably eating our timber out, the choice was easy to make :) But I reckon this is not the right place to have a couple's argument, so let say that I took the right decision at the time :)
The photos below:
1) The sewrage system as it leaves the back of the cottage and runs down to the huge drain.
2) The courtyard, newly scraped of it's muddy top-layer.
3) A gravel path leading up to the storage shed, ready for the move...
4) The fallen remains of the ugly brick wall between the main house and the big shed.
Voici quelques photos du travail d'expert de monsieur Soubigou, notre térrasier préféré qui nous a nettoyé la cour, fait tomber le mur de brique et amélioré l'accès au garage du fond.
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