July has flown by, I have no idea where the time’s gone and we’re quickly getting closer to our mid-August end date for the works which is both super exciting and super scary.
We’ve accomplished a lot this month, from sealing around the windows to make them watertight to making cement to even the flooring in the bathroom. We finally finished the radiators and the plumbers have installed them, they look really good, we’re super happy. We had to put a lot of filler into the walls as we weren’t really happy with the finish of the plasterers and we’ve sanded most of the rooms so there's been a lot of dust and white powder everywhere. We've also managed to paint at least the first coat on them too. Somehow, I always manage to cover myself in paint and dust, no matter what I'm doing. We helped Jean-Guy to finish the electrical works as well as putting on the switches and he's installed the VMC in the attic. We’ve also started putting the floor down in the toilet, bathroom and hallway. The house is starting to look really great as we’re nearing the end so it feels like our hard work and long hours are finally paying off.
The building work is very close to being complete, there’s just have a bit more plumbing to do, the woodwork on the cabin for our dry toilet and the new shutters to be installed but that's it so it’s really close the end, it's crazy! It's changed so much this month, going for some walls to everything up, doors in and the necessaries going in (like the toilet and kitchen sink).
We’ve been buying lots of bits and pieces for the decoration, including flooring and tiles for the kitchen walls, there’s so much choice but it’s so hard to find something that’s good for the environment, made in France or something we actually like! We’re compromising a lot on our ideals just so we can get something to be able to install ready for the plumbers to put the taps on.
As always, it’s not all work, we went to Magali’s old dance teacher’s final show in Chateaubriant which was really good, quite long (like three and half hours) but Magali was really happy that we went. There were open doors (not that open, you had to pay 5euros) at the Chateau de Falloux in Bourg D’Ire which has been restored by an American couple, they’ve done a really great job, it’s an amazing building with all the furnishings as well. It was great to see it, albeit slightly annoying as at the end of the tour of the chateau itself they made you watch a video that was against the installation of the wind turbines in Loiré and asked us to sign a petition against it. It felt very propaganda-y and they didn’t offer an alternative solution so you can imagine that we didn’t sign the petition.
It’s all go on the Tiny House front, we visited Baluchon on the 13th for their open door event which was really great, we could visit five different Tiny Houses and it got us really excited for our project as well as putting into perspective that we needed to trust them much more. We set up an appointment with them to talk through the plans we had received and the changes we would like to make, it was really productive and we also stopped at a really nice restaurant in Vallet for lunch. Just today, we’ve had through the new plans and it’s absolutely perfect, we can’t wait to get started! We also put in the declaration to the council for the Tiny House so we install it on our land, we’ve had a reply that they need extra info so we’re working with them to provide that.
The garden is looking really great, we’re starting to see a yield on most of our plants! We’re eating lots of strawberries plus our beans are going great guns, we have so many of them it’s amazing! We’ve also eaten our first tomato, potatoes, cucumber, courgettes and cornichons. We’re annoyed that flea beetles are eating our kale and purple sprouting broccoli though, we’ve been trying canola oil mixed with water as a deterrent as well as using ashes at the base of the stem but they keep coming back, if anyone has any suggestions, please let us know! I also opened the beehive to install a plexiglass cover so I can check how they’re doing without disturbing them too much, they’re super busy and making lots of honey for their stores for winter. I also found a snakeskin while gardening in one of the old hangars, it was pretty long (at least 1metre) so now I’m slightly terrified I might find a real snake, I knew they were around before but this made it somehow more real, I’m just stomping about the place to make sure they don’t come too close.
That’s a super quick look at what’s been happening as we've got so much to do, this time next month we should be living in a house rather than a campervan, it seems so surreal after such a long time. I really can’t wait to sleep in a normal bed, in a normal bedroom, in an actual house!
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