18 May- August 2014

May 6th

The outside rendering is now in process - and it looks brilliant.  Chokri and Issam are the team putting the final touches to the house - and a great job they are doing. Photos to add later.

I've been working inside on the guest-shower room. The grey floor tiles were 34x34cm and I had had an extra few m2 ordered thinking of using them for the walls. However - once they were down on the floor I realised that they would be too big for the walls and would probably make the room look small.  So after a good month thinking of possibilities - I decided to cut the tiles and do something a bit different.
The grey pebble tiles on the floor forming the base of the shower were already meant to look a bit like a puddle - so I decided to anchor some flat river stones into the wall for the soap, the shampoo, to hang onto and pmr to put your foot on, and create a sort of rock face with waterfall effect.  Well - an abstract version of water falls anyway!

I cut the tiles in 3  (11.3 x 34cm) then cut some of these thin long tiles again to give varying lengths and just put them up in 'strips'. The effect is a bit like a rock face, added to by the flat stones sticking out. (These are actually big ovals which are well anchored into the wall). Then I just filled in some areas with the smaller stones to try and give a water fall effect. Looks better in real!

Got the curtain rail from a German company - and it is top quality, as you would expect! Should be at the price!  I wanted this one because I knew I'd have to have a ceiling support but still wanted the curtain to come around in one sweep. (The runners are set into the rail.)  Just need to make a curtain for under the sink - and we have a very wheel chair user friendly shower room!

 

  The outside is progressing so very well. The finish is just perfect. Now you can see the structure of the building and balance of shapes. Only a few more days and this work will also be finished.









Yesterday I worked on a unit I had to build for my shower room. The space for the sink was 43cm x 128cm, and I wanted room under for wheelchair users with shelves on either side. Nothing available with these specifications in any shop! So I bought some oak work surface (2m x 50 cm and 3.8cm thick) and 2 planks, (2m x 40cm and 1.8cm thick). Total cost 145E.

The hardest part was trying to cut the wook straight enough to make 'perfect' joins.  Also the planning was pretty long to avoid any waste of material. Hardly 10cm of the planks was left!

Now I need to rub it down and finish off the edges (round them off), stain and varnish it.   Heaven knows how much it would have cost to have it made by a professional.

At last photos of the outside of the house.

Now the render has been finished - the last of the tiles can be put down.  







My favorite photo below. The same day Chokri finished - I put up the trellis.

Now to finish the terrace.

26th May
Continuing with the terrace, a couple hours every stint and have been doing some finishing touches inside.  I'll photograph the terrace once I have finished it.

Added a couple arty things in the grey shower room, a 'tree' from Aude and Gilles and my spring chicken from Rob.  They actually look really good, not too twee at all!

 Then I managed to drag out of the garage my old book case that I made some 20 years ago with my brother, Rob.. It used to be twice the size but was cut down to go into the old house and I cut it down again to fit in the living room. From the one vertical leg and shorter shelves left I also made a small shelf unit.











 At least it saved me having to buy new shelves and in solid wook they fit the theme in the house.






















 Outside the plants in waste water basins have come on (or at least the second horizontal filtration ones are wonderful!).  They all seem to have survived and to have enough nutrients to keep them happy.

The reeds in the first basin (vertical filtration), still look a bit sparce. They don't really look like reeds yet either!  Amusingly there are some tomato plants growing in there too!  Not too sure I'll be using any of those tomatoes in my salads though.







Sorry for the long gap in the blog - it has been a busy summer and although there has been good progress - it is much slower on my own.



OK - the water treatment beds were the last thing shown so I'll bring you up to date with them.  The plants in the lower bed have thrived and look wonderful. So too have tomato plants and mellon seedlings in the first bed!!  Any seeds washing down the kitchen sink find themselves in this well watered, well fertilized sunny little patch and love it!! I wish the reeds would flourish as well.




One area which has been a headache to try and control weeds in is the bank just above the top water reed bed leading up to Bruno and Christel's lawn.The total length is about 15 m and the height difference 1m and too steep to lawn mow. To make matters worse the earth is so rich here and nicely damp rom deep springs that the weeds absolutely thrive.

After toying with various ideas - I decided a lot of work was necessary to resolve the problem once and for all. It would also give me the most perfect veggie patch I could have wanted....

          

A raised Veggie bed in perfect sun, flat, and close to the house!  It took about 3 days to do the block work and another 2 days to turn the earth. At the back on the rise, I plan to put paving slabs coming up flush at the top with B&C's lawn to keep any weeds there under control. I will also have to put down a long roll of weed mat on the veg bed when not in use.  I'm really happy with the results! Next I will put down matting and chippings along the path below the bed.

 Just before starting on the veg patch I built the flower beds at the front of the house. 4 interlocking troughs of different heights from 26cm to 60cm. I needed to do these beds first so I had somewhere to put the earth I dug out of the bank to avoid having to move it twice.

The hardest part will be to render them - there are more corners and edges than sides! But they look nice and fit well with the shapes in the terrace paving.







The next job on this side of the house will be to finish laying the terrace, then get the chippings or hardcore in for the drive.  I also want one more planter just in front of the bamboos, one side of which will be a BBQ.

 11 August
Finally I have found someone to tackle the densely overgrown field below the house.  Didier arrived with a flat-bed rotorblade machine pulled by a tractor and vanished into the field!  One hour later the there had been a total transformation (see below).

Looks kind of 'empty' now but hopefully I will get some good size bushes and pampas grass growing by next spring. The best surprise was the cost of having the field cleared. Only 40E. Believe me it must be the best spent 40 E ever! Thanks Didier - you are booked as my permanent gardener from now on!