Chilly Snowy February and French Bureaucracy

The Allier river frozen

I know you'll all think that either we've abandoned poor Ugly Betty or that I am giving up on blogging!

Neither the one nor the other!

Landscape towards our village

It is just that after a huge snowfall end january and then sub zero temperatures since, we've been having a 'forced' holiday. I did manage to finalise my 2011 accounting at least!

And it's not all - my darling O's most beautifully prepared plans in multiple copies with color charts and information on the windows etc for Ugly Betty's renovation accompanying a very simple 'demande de travaux' and not even a building permit - was rejected by the local very bureaucratic office. 

Colour chart for Ugly Betty

This means that we should not have asked this 'work authorisation' like most French people do. They just carry on and restore without asking anyone's permission. 

Probably another reason one sees such a lot of dilapidated houses in the countryside - Bureaucracy!

So the new, even simpler 'demande de travaux' has been handed in and we are waiting for the return of that and the return of warmer weather to carry on hammering away on our darling Ugly Betty.

Warm regards from a chilly Frogland

Front door and adorable help!

The cement lintel

I think I have mentioned in one of my previous post that I am quite a 'strong' woman but boy oh boy, I am beginning to feel the years like everyone else AND especially when we have to move stone lintels down and up again, move cements lintels of uncertain weight up and down and and and!

So when after the window lintel we did early last week, we saw our friend and neighbor Jean-Yves, I jumped on the occasion to ask him to help O with the lintel above the front door.

Front door without the cement lintel

In the meantime one of our frequent guests, Alessandro, and his beautiful partner, Caroline, decided to come and see us the past weekend and on top he proposed his help for a couple of days - I JUMPED ON THAT OFFER!

Alé and Jean-Yves with the new stone lintel in place

After we've removed the cement lintel with Olivier in the week (and we had the firemen coming to put out a fire here Aux Jardins des Thevenets the evening of Olivier's birthday party and had to organise a plumber and the insurance), the

three boys went off to Ugly Betty on 

Sunday morning!

And came back just over and hour later and VOILA - the lintel in place above the door! 

AND

I did not have to move a finger!! (Except cooking and organising etc as usual!)

And today I could 'relax' at home without rushing off to Ugly Betty as Alé is helping Olivier for a couple of days!

THE FRONT DOOR IN - Lintel resculpted by MR O!

So little by little, lintel by lintel, with little help from our friends, this is all coming together!

Nighty night!

Holes and more.......

The past 2 months flew past in a hub of work on Ugly Betty and receiving guests here Aux Jardins des Thevenets for Christmas and New Year.

Filling the holes

The last post showed you the beams being fitted by Olivier and Christophe and to do this, they did holes in the walls at 20 odd cm interval all along.

End of last week my Olivier started to refill these holes while I started to take out the grid from around the lintel stones of windows and the front door we have to move. Not one window or door is at 'conventional' heights and we have to change them all.

Then this week we decided it's going to be THE week of finishing some of the window's and hopefully the front door.

Before

Lintel out

 

So the 2 of us moved a stone lintel of an uncertain weight onto the scaffolding and we reduced the sides of the window to the right size. Then we replaced the lintel and more or less fitted the window. Now I know it has not been a cold winter thus far, but

boy oh boy, did we drip with sweat!

From the inside looking out !

Lintel on right in place and now for the cement lintel on the left!

Yesterday morning we were all apprehensive to see if this installation made it through the night! 

It DID!!

The front door is quite advanced but you'll have to be patient to see the suite!

Always nice sharing with you all!

The Incredible Adventure of the Beams !

So this is the NEW YEAR and Ugly Betty is ready for this New Year - with all the 'make up' and 'hair cutting' and 'blowing', she'll be the New Beauty on the Blog!

First part of beam out

Just after Christmas (actually the French do not know such a thing as boxing day) Olivier and another Olivier and his son Christophe attacked THE BEAMS! So this was about getting the old central beams out, putting in place two new 10 meter beams and all the other little ones that will hold the first floor! Without the roof falling in ..............

Roof being held together with almost nothing

AND they did this in 2 days!

Amazing!

I unfortunately saw very little of all of this as I was running around the guesthouse doing cooking and cleaning and and for the lovely guests we had over Christmas and NewYear.

 

New Beams IN!

Ceiling beams IN!

Now all's in place, Olivier is busy filling the holes bit by bit and this weekend half of the roof will be uncovered and new beams replaced!

I am back on site as well and you'll have more regular updates from Ugly Betty!

To you all, have a groovy 2012!

Christophe and his dad Olivier

Just a little postscript :

It is rare that one meets a young guy of 21 so passionate about his profession. Young Christophe is such a young man. Since a tender age he has been tagging along with his father whenever he was doing building jobs. His passion -  Carpentry.

First Door IN

As I mentioned in my Monday post, I painted the frame of the backdoor whilst waiting for the delivery truck!

So 

on Tuesday afternoon (20/12) we actually fitted the door!

Do not know if any of you remembered the BIG HOLE after we took out the midget size backdoor.

 In the meantime Olivier built up the sides again and on Sunday went with a friend to put the stone lintel on top! 

not quite Kimberley but...

Sides built up by my favourite mason

(Every now and then I refuse with the big big stuff pretending to be a fragile woman!)

Well, tonight the door is in (not totally sealed yet) but there!! And I am so proud of my husband and all he can do! To think when we met he was a graphic designer behind his computers 16 hours a day! And now a builder of fame!!

And I'll be back in 2012 to show the pics of the incredible adventure of the beams - Olivier and 2 friends has been working on it this week and as I have to do the B&B, could not do a real photo reportage, but have something to show you soon!

With Ugly Betty we thank you for being such wonderful supporting friends in this new brave venture.

Here's to a hell of a lot of sharing in 2012!

Over and out for 2011

Hugs from us and wishing you great goings in 2012

Another Monday

Well, this Monday started out in anticipation !

We thought the delivery of the beams and tiles for the roof will arrive this morning.

Whilst waiting we ajusted things for the future back door and I painted the doorframe before the final installation. As no one showed up by 11H30 we came back home to finalise the 'declaration des travaux' papers (in France they LOVE paperwork in 3 - 4 - 5 fold!!)

Back again at 13h30 and by 14h30 the truck arrived.

Now as this is in a tiny hamlet, with small streets, the only way the driver thought he could maneuver was to put the nose of the truck in the field opposite the house.
 

The said field is slowly but surely showing signs of delicious green growth.

The wall after the departure of the truck!

Needless to say, the truck with a couple of tons on its back could not reverse out of the field - a neighbour came along with his tiny tractor - the truck did not move - only leaned on another neighbours' wall . 

3 hours later, he did download the tiles and beams and had to drive through the field to get out and this time the tiny little tractor had to do the last bit of pulling.

So now we have so many excuses to do to new neighbours not yet formally met and repairs - tomorrow we're going over with Bubbly, Red Wine and many a humble bow!

O happy with everything IN the courtyard !

This is what life's about - you plan one thing, another happens!

But hey, it's all about sharing and hopefully this sharing process will bring us closer to our new neighbours!

Monday Monday

This is just a quicky!

Arriving 'Chez' Ugly Betty this morning, O started wistling the old tune of 'Monday Monday'!
It certainly gave us some courage to attack the finishing of the floor and carting off the rubble to the 'dechetterie' - 

we did 4 trailers today - a total weight of around 4 tons !!!

But you can see the look this morning!!

 

And what the room looked like when we left this afternoon!

Only thing I can say is that we are dog tired tonight !

See u later for more Ugly Betty adventures