Andrew arrived on Monday afternoon, a bit later than usual due to roadworks. We all went over to the house to unload the van and inspect the recent works. The house now has electricity and the guys made progress on the demolition of the old buildings. We celebrated my birthday that evening with steak for dinner, a rare treat. After a week-end of celebrating, it was nice to have a quiet evening at home.
The weather went a bit cool and rainy at the weekend, but was lovely the rest of the week, with temps in the low 20’s. It’s meant to continue until Friday when we’re due to get rain and much cooler temps. There’s been enough rain/sun to turn the grass green again, and I’m going to have to mow it this week, hopefully for the last time this year. We’ve still got our last wood delivery to deal with, but we’re waiting for Benoit to come by with his saw and cut it into 3rds before we stack it. He still has his equipment and the remaining materials to collect, so we hope to see him soon.
Perhaps the biggest thing to report is the improvement to our kitchen. Andrew made us a cabinet unit in wood, which he brought along. It’s now comfortably nestled between the fridge and the cooker, and has doubled our storage space. We now have a lot more room on the main counter since it’s provided an additional surface to put kitchen stuff on. We discussed replacing the bar with a shorter, deeper cabinet but that means replacing the beam with taller bit of wood. Andrew has found us a beam among the ruins of their old garage, so once they settle in, we’ll see about fitting in the work.
Both Will and I got back to work last week. The newspaper article about us generated one piece of business, a translation job for Will. It’s a highly-technical site, so difficult work, but thankfully, it’s from French into English. I finished up a project for one client today, then started on a new one for a different client. It’s building a project scheduling system, so a bit more interesting than my usual work. It’s been difficult for both of us to get back into the rhythm of work, not having done so for many months. We recently did a tally of our net income received from hosting and site maintenance, and it’s enough to cover 90% of our monthly outgoings. When I next get time, I’m going to focus on getting more of that since it’s largely passive income.
We had turkey chili and cornbread on Tues and Wed, and played cards for a bit afterwards. Francoise came over on Thursday for dinner and cards. I made sausage pasta, served with salad, bread and cheese. We played Euchre for a while until Andrew went to bed, then had a cleanser with Francoise who left around midnight.
We went out to dinner on Friday night at La Paillote, near the lake in St Saud. It was recommended to us by Lucien and Mauricette who have been a few times. We’ve been meaning to go since it’s right down the road from Anne and Andrew’s place. Will had pizza, Andrew and I started with goats cheese tartine, then he had magret and I had entrecote, making it a two-steak week. All the portions were huge, and I ended up taking home about half of mine. The service was excellent and we’d definitely go back, except that their landlord has doubled the rent, so they’ll almost certainly close for good at the end of November!
Rigit came over for dinner on Saturday night. They hadn’t been here since before the work started, so enjoyed seeing the new driveway etc. I decided to do an easy dinner, and made jacket potato casserole, a new recipe I discovered a few months back. This was served with salad and bread, and left-over cookies for dessert. They left around midnight, then Will and I stayed up and watched a film.
Andrew left on Sunday morning. He made some progress during the visit, including installing a new window in the kitchen. All their new appliances were delivered during the week, so they’ve got a working fridge, washing machine, dishwasher and cooker. Jean came by to finish up the guttering and get the hot water heater working. He’s not done the best job with the plumbing, but it’s nothing that Andrew can’t sort later. Andrew and hopefully Anne will be coming back in November to buy a French car. If all goes to plan, Will and I will drive it back to the UK for xmas and then fly back.