Our first stay in the house

Its been far too long since I last wrote a blog about our renovation project in France and I have been thinking that I should put this right. The last blog talked about our viewing of the house in March and reported what had been done up to then. Since, the builders were asked to make the house habitable for us in readiness for our two week vacation in the middle of July. Basically we wanted all of the first floor fully plastered out and the bathroom complete, all the second fixes carrying out upstairs and a temporary kitchen installed. On top of that we asked for all of  the new doors and windows to be fitted. Also at the last moment we instructed a company to sand blast the oak beams and the stone quoins.

 
All of the work was completed only hours before our arrival. There air was full of dust with the builders just having finished cleaning out from the sand blasting. The temporary kitchen had been fitted complete with a sink with hot and cold running water, microwave, mini fridge and oven.
We arrived with a trailer and a car boot  laden with a double bed, tables, chairs and all manner of small kitchen appliances,crockery, kitchen utensils, bedding, towels,  tools, paints etc. It was really like setting up a new home. Having arrived at the house after 9pm we slept on the mattress not having time to set up the bed frame.

Although it was great to stay in the house it soon became apparent that this wasn't going to be holiday. Every thing you touched was covered in grit and building dust and only after few hours we both had dry and sore throats.There was no chance of keeping your clothes clean and after a few days our hands also became dry. The floorboards to the bedroom were covered in plaster dust as was everywhere else. Having said that the bathroom was complete and looked great, and the new doors and windows transformed the whole property.

Having had a meal - a salad that we had brought over with us and a glass of wine we threw down a few dust sheets and pieces of cardboard over the bedroom floor and retired to spend our first night sleep in the house.
We spent the next two weeks painting up the shutters, decorating the bathroom and the two smallest bedrooms and landing and carrying out a few odd jobs. As the two weeks wore on the comfort level increased and we found that after a few days the dust had settled and after a coat of paint on the walls things seemed far better, The temporary kitchen worked really well and we had an endless supply of hot water. The weather hadn't been great but it didn't matter as we were working in the house most of the two weeks.

Not much of a vacation but we left the house having achieved everything we set out to do and above all we actually stayed  in it albeit rather less comfortably than we would have liked. However, having talked to other Brits that have moved out to France they recall exactly the same experiences of living in partially completed properties.