Planning Solutions? Not really

Mon 28 April

Well, it shouldn't have been a good night's sleep but a sleeping pill helped!  The gutters were overflowing when we went to bed and we were pretty worried that there was some problem.  We woke early, determined to be positive about today.

We ordered the windows we want, although they won't be installed til July.we bought stuff from the garden centre, we worked in the garden in the sunny periods, we ordered the suntunnel which might be installed this Friday.  Chris checked the gutters, which were simply blocked at the top of the down pipe, even though he checked it 2 weeks ago.  We've had terrific winds and storms and that is a big roof so the leaves had all backed up and caused the gutter to overflow.

I gave the house a good clean twice [well, the 4 rooms that we use anyway].

We went to the Mairie to get an update on the zoning issue, as instructed, this afternoon but the woman concerned had not yet met up with the Monsieur concerned.  Chris went back down later and came back with the following information:

For official purposes, the garage should be sited on cadastral AD204.  At Francoise's discussion with a 'monsieur' at the planning office, he suggested the following compromise:

The planning permission would show the garage to be sited on AD204, though if it was built on AD204/295 it would not be checked.  He further suggested that in the course of time, a retrospective adjustment of the zoning be requested, to include a small proportion of AD295 in Zone Ah.

 

which means that we have to apply to put it on the small plot.  We then build it mainly on the big plot and hope to God no one checks.  Apparently, they are so overwhelmed by these changes that they won't get around to check.  I am not sure that I feel too good about this, it's a bit too much of a risk for me. 

 

So new diagrams had to be drawn, new forms filled in and all before 5.30.  If we don't get the application in today, we wont be able to build anything bigger than 40sq m.  No pressure there.  The weather was lovely this afternoon but we were too busy drawing, copying, colouring and filling in to make the most of it.  Chris headed back to the Mairie at 5.20 and lodged the application.  Phew!

Chris has the same neck spasm I had last week [so unoriginal] and now I have a full-blown back muscle spasm.  Hope it goes soon.

Tuesday 29 April

Chris has blocked up the window holes so the house is pretty cold but at least we don't have that nasty North Wind whirling around.  Now that we've ordered the windows, I can't wait to get them.  At the moment we have to have the doors open to let some light in.  The suntunnel and windows should make a helluva difference.  Chris is sick of hearing me say that not since St Michael's have I lived in a house that is colder inside than outside.  The caravan warms up for a couple of hours later in the day so we usually pop in there for a while.

Rain made it impossible to do anything in the garden so I cleared out the caravan so that it can be moved and then I gave it a good clean.  Chris went to the loft space to clean it.  Unfortunately, unbeknownst to him, as he was hovering, dust was falling through the gaps and the 4 rooms I cleaned yesterday were covered in a coating of fine black dust and cobwebs.  So another clean up. We are both struggling with our back/neck problems.   Hopefully tomorrow we can get the garden sorted as Stuart will be here too.  We were too tired to cook anything so just sat in front of the fire with some wine.  We are ignoring the issue of the planning permission and struggling to find something entertaining or humorous about the situation!

My back really hurts and Chris's neck and shoulder hurt.  We're definitely not an add for healthy living at the moment.