It's all go!

At long last we have the news we have been waiting for. We now have the permis de construire  for the renovation work to our little stone cottage. So everything is set for a start on the work this week. 

First we will be digging out for a driveway and also for the courtyard at the back of the house.The topsoil will be stockpiled for future landscaping works and the areas filled with locally sourced crushed stone as hardcore. For the technically minded the stone is graded from dust to 30mm that will compact quite nicely but also lets water percolate through it. The courtyard area will be gravelled to start with but as we start to spend time more time out in France we will probably form some areas of paving here and there. 

 

Also next week I think the front stone wall is being demolished and the offending bay tree dug out. This has been the cause of the wall collapsing and if not removed it will start to give problems with the house foundations We are keeping the stone to use elsewhere, probably to build some ornamental walls in the courtyard area or even used to repair the outhouses.

Fosse Septique - Fin

Yesterday our fosse septique was finally completed after a long week toil by our Contractor. It has been passed by the inspectors and for us its the first construction milestone reached.

However, that's not where it quite ends. It is France you see. When asking for the operating and maintenance manuals and guarantee for the pump I could see all of a sudden I needed to learn a third language as I was clearly not being understood. However, being a stubborn sole and really insisting on these things I have been promised that these will be forthcoming but would first need to be collected from the four corners of the earth, before being sent onto us.

I don't think it was so much my powers of persuasion that brought about this sudden change in helpfulness but more of a sudden realisation on the Contractors part that he was still owed quite alot of money. I am now thinking until I get these bits of paper I will with hold just a tiny amount of money from the job.

So from now on there should be no more hedgehogs having to be rescued from open excavations and the build work can now begin .That reminds me, I must check on the planning permission with the Maries office  - it has gone really quite!!