Our House Becomes More Habitable - Monday 4th June, 2018


Today didn’t quite go to plan but was productive nonetheless.

The sofa and mattress were due to be delivered by noon so, rather than do noisy sanding (with ear-protectors) and risk not hearing the door bell, I decided to vacuum (floor, walls and ceiling) what I think will become the study. The idea being that I can then move things currently stored in the lounge-diner into there and then get sanding in that room.

The wallpaper in the study looked ready to peel off so, why hoover it when I can strip it? Little did I know that little job would take most of the day. There was layer on layer of paper in certain areas and smatterings of glue and silicone in various places for no apparent reason.

Study - Before
Study - After
 The morning went quickly and before I knew it noon had come and gone – but the delivery men hadn’t. I’ll admit mild panic set in, not so much because I needed food and couldn’t leave the house until they had been (lunch was two slices of toast and an orange) but more because I feared I may have (literally) misinterpreted the email saying it would be delivered, today, between 8 and 12. Checking the emails with the aid of Chrome’s translate feature I was certain I had got it right, but also noticed the delivery company should have notified me 72 hours ago that they were delivering – they hadn’t. Aha! There’s a link to track my delivery. Uhm, that only tells me the delivery company collected it 3 days ago.

What to do? Contact Ikea I guess. Trouble is, a telephone call will probably be problematic due to language and email will be too slow. Great; there’s a chat facility – perfect. With that and Google translate I am able to explain my concern. The lady at Ikea puts me through to the delivery company by phone. The anticipated language problems materialise – but I am able to determine that the delivery will happen today – so I guess I just need to sit tight (actually, continue stripping the study).

14:00 and the door bell rings. Two young men from Ikea. One brings the rolled mattress into the house, I reckon I can carry that to the second floor so I ask him to leave it on the ground floor. Next they bring in the sofa. “Premier etage, si vous plait” I say, as I suspect it will be too heavy for me to carry alone. They carry it up and leave it in the lounge-diner for me.

I carry the mattress up two flights of stairs and unroll it on the bed. I also unpack the Ikea pillows we’d bought with us, put the double-bed linen on (to our queen-size bad) and give it a try. Oh my, but it was nice. An hour or so later I awoke.

The mattress made the bed so much more comfortable

OK. Back to work. Eventually the study was stripped and vacuumed. Though hungry, I decided to assemble the sofa and move in our rug and coffee table, before eating. As I ‘dragged’ the sofa into the study I realised just how heavy it was. I was now even more grateful to the lads for carrying it up the stairs. Then a repeat of yesterday’s chicken in white wine sauce – the can provided for two meals after all.

Our house is becoming a home - if you use your imagination
As I finished eating, Sally Skyped so I showed her the study and sofa. As I was sitting there, enjoying the view of the medieval town’s towers and turrets, the swallows repeated the entertainment of the previous evening – the perfect end to a productive day.

Perhaps tomorrow I will make it to the mairie’s office – I certainly need to do a food shop.

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