How is it almost the end of June already?

Bonjour mes amis,

Well it’s been a busy few months here and my feet have hardly touched the ground since getting back from India – did I really go away???

Whether it was going to India, the continued wait for summer to arrive and my feeling of a lack of progress here or a combination of all 3 I have been taking a bit of time to look back over some old photos just to remind myself how far I have actually come over the last 2 years.  So forgive me while I indulge myself and show you a few before, during and after photos.

But stop press!!!! Hold the front page!!!! Get the flags out!!!! There are 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms oh so close to being finished, all that’s needed are window sills and lights fitting, that I’m going to do a big reveal and tell you that finally after just over 2 years I am no longer sleeping in my squat but in a proper bedroom, with a proper bed with a proper working bathroom.  It’s not the room that will eventually be mine but it’s just perfect for now. I can’t begin to tell you how nourishing it is to be able to go upstairs to a clean room to sleep in and have somewhere to put my things other than boxes.

First up bedroom one. The lack of a windowsill is such minor detail after what it took to get here I’m not worried. I’ve been doing a bit of up cycling of some pieces of furniture to pull the room together and this is the finished result.

 

Next bedroom 2.  Again you may notice the lack of window sill and the lights are still a work in progress but I cannot tell you how nice it is to go upstairs to a clean bedroom away from all the mess and chaos I’ve been living in.  What a treat to lie in bed and look at the lovely beams and think to myself, ‘I did that’.

And finally the corridor

While bedroom 3 is not yet finished it is good to go back and look at the progress that has been made.   Bedroom 3 has been painted and is ’just’ awaiting a bathroom and some flooring…….

While I was away in India Builder Dave and Builder Dave Junior (Shaun) got stuck into to demolishing my house downstairs.  I’m not sorry I wasn’t here while all this mess and dust was created.

One day this will be 2 rooms, one large yoga studio and a smaller art studio.  In the process of knocking out the old shower room, they discovered that previous owners had fitted new shower trays on top of the old ones rather than remove them. No wonder it was such a big step up into the room.

One day, stick with me here, the next few photos show what will be my kitchen!

I’ve been busy at work too, helping Builder Dave and Shaun build some additional storage space on the side of a barn, cleaning up pools ready the for the summer and adding new borders to them (another new skill I never thought I’d ever need!)

Shaun and I built a small deck for one of our neighbours’ too.

I’ve also been an ‘exposant’ in 2 brocantes, one of which was in my back garden.  The whole village took part and everyone opened up their back gardens and laid out their junk to sell.  A few of my neighbours’ joined me in my garden and we passed a very pleasant afternoon in the sunshine with a few glasses of wine while selling our wares. The second one was in a neighbouring village and I was joined by Shaun and another neighbour. Again I made enough money to make it worthwhile and it was another very pleasant day in the sunshine finished off with a bbq at Builder Dave’s that went on til 3am!!!!!

Shaun and I have also taken on some gardening jobs, and while Shaun does all he hard work with the strimmer, I get the very easy and fun part of sitting on the tractor mower.  Although lifting the full collecting box off the back and emptying it is easier said than done.  And there is weeding, a lot of weeding, of driveways and reclaiming flowerbeds.

This is all the old oak floorboards and beams from what will be the yoga room, which has now been cut up ready to burn next winter.

I’m still teaching yoga twice and week and last week after a lot of searching, I finally found a jive dance class.  It was pretty basic but I’m hoping they will improve over the months and attract more people than the 12 couples and me!!!  Good job there are lots of solo strolls you can dance. I’ve even found a bit of time to paint, nowhere near enough time but I am very happy I got to paint this.