This was the week Louise and Marcus (my Sister and Brother in law) came to visit with our best nephew Ben. We sampled fine wines, restaurants, cheese, shopping, demolition, and expert sewing.
To top off the weekend we had two trucks of wood delivered (our winter fuel). Thankfully it fits into the woodland view ‘shed’ after Simon and Marcus cleared it.
We enjoyed fabulous suppers sat around the fire watching Escape to the Chateau DIY. Louise, Marcus, and Ben followed up their visit with a short stay at Chateau de la Ruche We just wanted the episode where Tim dropped the granite worktop and can completely relate to that feeling. Very thankful that we have a little Farmhouse to renovate and not a massive Chateau!
Here’s what we got up to in pictures (click the image to view up close) featuring Louise on the sewing machine, Marcus with the demolition hammer, Ben with a mandolin and tea-making skills, me with the hoover and Simon clearance and supporting demolition role.
The door to the loft 
The wall covering the stairs 
Easy to remove says Marcus 
Simon Agrees let’s move it 
Goodbye door 
Demolition Man 
Supporting roll 
Bert helps Ben take a Knapp 
Hardly any mess! 
Another job complete YAY 
Now we can see the stairs 
Up in the loft 
The wall covers half a window? 
Not anymore 
Goodbye wall 
Thankyou Marcus we could not have done this without you 
Loft clearance 
Not too much mess 
The remaining loft door 
No wall 
Loft emptied and landing cupboard doors found 
Take in the country air 
Back to the Euro-tunnel
There was a lovely sunny interval midweek. We took the opportunity to walk around the Le Chassaing hamlet. We met up with neighbors and took in some marvelous countryside views.
The week flew by leaving us with plenty of rubble, old furniture, and fully cleared loft space. Our plan was to visit the tip using the rental van… France had other plans.
We now have lots of tip runs to look forward to after inadvertently misplacing a bank holiday and finding out that All Saints Day on Friday is a big deal in France. We knew this but didn’t realise that everything would be SHUT including the tip.
We waved goodbye to our family feeling slightly overwhelmed by how much we’d achieved in one week. Louise created a beautiful warm curtain to keep the draft at bay from the front door. She will be completing the look with a cushion for our window seat. More about that in my curtain blog (link to follow soon). We had lots of creative ideas on how to hang the curtain without drilling into my fragile plaster surrounding the doorway.
We both feel very lucky to have such an enthusiastic family. They keep us on track and we have the best of times when we’re together. Roll on February for our next adventure with the Knapp’s.
