Moving Day(s) and a Planning Issue

Thurs 10 April

Very hot today, unfortunately just not in our bedroom in the caravan!   Bloody freezing, got dressed under the bedclothes.   So we've got the bedroom ready in the house and will try it out tonight. 

I spent the morning moving stuff from the caravan into the house and generally trying to clean up.  Chris went to the Mairie to find out whether our Planning Permission forms were OK before we actually submit them but the right woman wasn't there and the other one didn't know so he'll have to go back tomorrow.  He played on his new toy, the scaffolding, and cleaned out one of the gutters, something he hasn't done for 20 years.  He enjoyed being out in the sun.  Apparently it was 26 C today, incredibly warm for the time of year - although still very cold at night.

The plumber came to give us hot water in the kitchen.  Another step forward. 

When he had left we decided to get out for a bit so we drove to Eymet to see if we could get replacement paint.  There is a shop there that sells English paint, allegedly.  Well, we found it about 10 minutes after it closed but it looked well-stocked, although I couldn't see any prices.  Did a bit of shopping, made dinner and read and listened to the radio for a bit in the caravan.   Suddenly it was 9.30, really dark and bloody freezing outside.  Too cold to go over to the house so we found an extra duvet in the cupboard and snuggled down in the caravan bedroom for one more night.

Friday 11 April

The weather forecast was wrong, it's cold and cloudy.  Stuart came to cut the grass which was almost knee high, after only 10 days and Chris went to the Mairie again about the Planning Permission.  Well, here's the thing.  Our land consists of 2 parcelles of land, a smaller one on which the house stands and a much larger one.  The municipality have re-zoned the land and the larger bit is now agricultural land [note to self, must find out if I can claim some EU subsidies now] and cannot be built on.  The garage we want to build is too big under the new rules BUT they don't come into force until the end of the month.  The lady at the Mairie [Mrs Mayor, actually] phoned someone on the next tier of administration who said that if we submitted the forms today, they might go through in time.  How exciting [not].  I love the way they change the rules ad hoc, it certainly stops any feelings of complacency.  The zone change to the smaller plot means that we are quite restricted as to the size of extension we can build.  It's a good job we had reined in our original plans!!

Happy chap with a bit of kit!

 

 

Replacing the paint will cost 78 euro as they have to order it in.  Chris finished clearing the gutters and I continued with moving stuff from the caravan into the house.  We had a couple of enquiries about the caravan and it was lamb stew for dinner.  We lit the fire and as usual, eye-watering, toe curling smoke billowed out all around the house.  I was sitting thinking about this problem when I made a big leap forward mentally and decided to look up the chimney.  It was closed.  No wonder I was being kippered.  A pull on the chain, then weighting it down with an iron bar ensured a much more enjoyable evening.  We opened a bottle of red [a present from Nico's Mum and Dad] to celebrate our first night in our new home. 

First meal in our luxurious new home

The bed was comfy, the room was warm enough, even without windows.  I could hear music across the fields at around 3am, so presumably they put it on loud to drown out Chris's snoring.  Around 5 there were really interesting animal noises and I was tempted to wake Chris so we could go and investigate but I thought a] he might kill me and b] he'd start snoring again when he went back to sleep.  So I never did find out what was going on.

Sat 12 April

We had a late start and went to the market in Ste Foy, to a lovely new café with books all over the place, very busy and a lovely atmosphere.  The afternoon was given over to filling holes in the shutters [Chris] and weeding [me].  After supper we watched Sunshine on Leith in the caravan.  Caravan's warmer in the evening and house is much warmer in the mornings. We ran into the house and dived under the bedclothes.  Another night coughing and hacking.  A visit to the doctor beckons.