Oil, Glue and that Yellow Paint
A Surprise Delivery
The day after the signing of the Acte de Vente we booked out of our hotel and moved into our new home properly.
At around 9 am the door bell rang and there was an oil tanker parked outside with 2000 of fuel oil that we hadn't ordered!
I had written to a local supplier enquiring as to whether we could arrange delivery, asking how much they suggested for priming the empty system (as it happens it wasn't empty anyway) and how much it would cost. We'd had no reply. It appears the supplier had decided to send 2,000 litres anyway. I told the driver that was way more than we needed and asked if we could take just 500. That was fine and he pumped the fuel into our tank - I suspect that this will least several years as we won't be in the property much over the next 2 - 3 years, and when we are it will tend to be the warmer months.
Now, I hope the meter on the storage tank is inaccurate as after the delivery of 500 litres on top of the 150 that was already in there, the meter read 475 litres. If it isn't inaccurate, we've been ripped off for a couple of hundred pounds - next time I'll watch the delivery tanker's gauge as the delivery is pumped out.
A Sticky Situation
The house has been pretty much stripped bare. There are no carpets, only a few bulbs in the light fittings and the only movable object left is a rickety (but very useful) set of step-ladders.
Whilst the carpets have been removed, the glue that held them in place has definitely not been. We took a floor scraper with us hoping it would make short-work of removing the residue - WRONG. The old glue is literally like concrete. The scraper didn't touch it and it took me an hour with a hammer and chisel to clean up a single floorboard - not a single floor, a single floorboard!
Since returning to the UK, Sally has found floor glue remover listed online so we'll be heading to the local carpet shops, here, to see if they recommend any particular products.
Not So Mellow Yellow
Needless to say, we left the floors and turned our attention to the paintwork. The diagnostic reports had highlighted the fact that there was a fair amount of lead paint in a poor condition, so we were hoping to address that during the week's stay.
I made a start on the window shutters, removing a pair, rubbing them down and undercoating the patches of wood that showed through. Now, as in many French villages, we are not allowed to change the external appearance of the house without the Maire's permission - not a problem for us as we are happy to maintain the current appearance. A significant number of the houses in the town have the same light grey external paintwork that our house has, so we expected to find a colour match easily in the local shops - WRONG! Neither of the two supermarkets in town nor the two DIY stores stocked the colour needed.
We visited the Maire's office to see if they could help guide us on the specifics of the colour and tell us where we might be able to buy it locally. The gentleman there spoke no English, but with our limited French and by sharing Google Translate on his PC we were able to make our needs known. It appears the colour codes they use are Sikken's codes - but he also said that, provided we go for a very light grey, an exact colour match isn't necessary.
Rather than go paint hunting again, we decided to instead make a start on the internal woodwork. This was going to be white and we had the paint already, having brought it from England where it is much cheaper. Between us, Sally and I started prepping doors, windows and window frames. It should have simply been a matter of sanding to feather in particularly rough patches and give the paint a key, a clean with white spirits and get painting. I wish.
The previous owner had obviously got a great price on a job lot of yellow emulsion - it is everywhere. The trouble is, not only had he applied it liberally, he had applied it over gloss. This meant when we started the prep, the yellow paint would lift and flake - leaving us with little option but to remove it all using paint stripper, cellulose, heat gun or wood chisel, whichever seemed to work best. This effectively doubled the preparation time. By the end of the week we had only managed to paint one window, one window frame, one door and one door frame, and to prep two shutters, another door & frame and a single section of skirting. The paintwork is going to be a long job.
The day after the signing of the Acte de Vente we booked out of our hotel and moved into our new home properly.
At around 9 am the door bell rang and there was an oil tanker parked outside with 2000 of fuel oil that we hadn't ordered!
I had written to a local supplier enquiring as to whether we could arrange delivery, asking how much they suggested for priming the empty system (as it happens it wasn't empty anyway) and how much it would cost. We'd had no reply. It appears the supplier had decided to send 2,000 litres anyway. I told the driver that was way more than we needed and asked if we could take just 500. That was fine and he pumped the fuel into our tank - I suspect that this will least several years as we won't be in the property much over the next 2 - 3 years, and when we are it will tend to be the warmer months.
Now, I hope the meter on the storage tank is inaccurate as after the delivery of 500 litres on top of the 150 that was already in there, the meter read 475 litres. If it isn't inaccurate, we've been ripped off for a couple of hundred pounds - next time I'll watch the delivery tanker's gauge as the delivery is pumped out.
A Sticky Situation
The house has been pretty much stripped bare. There are no carpets, only a few bulbs in the light fittings and the only movable object left is a rickety (but very useful) set of step-ladders.
Whilst the carpets have been removed, the glue that held them in place has definitely not been. We took a floor scraper with us hoping it would make short-work of removing the residue - WRONG. The old glue is literally like concrete. The scraper didn't touch it and it took me an hour with a hammer and chisel to clean up a single floorboard - not a single floor, a single floorboard!
Since returning to the UK, Sally has found floor glue remover listed online so we'll be heading to the local carpet shops, here, to see if they recommend any particular products.
Not So Mellow Yellow
Needless to say, we left the floors and turned our attention to the paintwork. The diagnostic reports had highlighted the fact that there was a fair amount of lead paint in a poor condition, so we were hoping to address that during the week's stay.
I made a start on the window shutters, removing a pair, rubbing them down and undercoating the patches of wood that showed through. Now, as in many French villages, we are not allowed to change the external appearance of the house without the Maire's permission - not a problem for us as we are happy to maintain the current appearance. A significant number of the houses in the town have the same light grey external paintwork that our house has, so we expected to find a colour match easily in the local shops - WRONG! Neither of the two supermarkets in town nor the two DIY stores stocked the colour needed.
We visited the Maire's office to see if they could help guide us on the specifics of the colour and tell us where we might be able to buy it locally. The gentleman there spoke no English, but with our limited French and by sharing Google Translate on his PC we were able to make our needs known. It appears the colour codes they use are Sikken's codes - but he also said that, provided we go for a very light grey, an exact colour match isn't necessary.
Rather than go paint hunting again, we decided to instead make a start on the internal woodwork. This was going to be white and we had the paint already, having brought it from England where it is much cheaper. Between us, Sally and I started prepping doors, windows and window frames. It should have simply been a matter of sanding to feather in particularly rough patches and give the paint a key, a clean with white spirits and get painting. I wish.
Just a few examples of the ubiquitous yellow peril
The previous owner had obviously got a great price on a job lot of yellow emulsion - it is everywhere. The trouble is, not only had he applied it liberally, he had applied it over gloss. This meant when we started the prep, the yellow paint would lift and flake - leaving us with little option but to remove it all using paint stripper, cellulose, heat gun or wood chisel, whichever seemed to work best. This effectively doubled the preparation time. By the end of the week we had only managed to paint one window, one window frame, one door and one door frame, and to prep two shutters, another door & frame and a single section of skirting. The paintwork is going to be a long job.
Suited and Booted
Comments
Post a Comment