Removing Rot and Buying Wine, 6 July

Despite such a long and busy Monday, I was awake at 05:00 and up shortly after.

Got down in the cellar and treated the woodworm, sprayed  herbicide on a large bramble growing at the back of the house and on various lesser weeds (update: French weedkiller is rubbish, bring some from the UK), and then onto the 1st floor balcony at the rear of the house and removed a LOT of rot from the base of one of the roof supports. The rot was dry – looked like it was worm eaten but no obvious sign of worm holes. Dry rot? Though there was a large section that disappeared under my chisels, it was a least localised. Trouble is, it ‘looks’ as though it may be designed to be load-bearing – and yet it is now hanging at least an inch clear of the ground!


The rot removed



Detail

Meanwhile, Sally was busy painting a wall in our bedroom that she hadn’t got around to on our last visit. She also rubbed down and painted a wall in the loo and, once dry, I fitted a towel rail. Whilst the drill was out, I also mounted a pan rack, we’d brought over from the UK, in the kitchen.

A trip to Intermarche to stock up on wine (mainly for our neighbours – honest), broke the day up nicely, and we finished the day with a stroll along the viaduct by the river.

The only other task of the day was the careful planning of the shower, measuring up and calculating what I needed in the way of plasterboard, mounting battens, etc. 

Talking of wine, and despite blaming the neighbours for the amount we bought today, we do intend to stock-up this visit in readiness for Brexit coming into full effect; no doubt we’ll be back to just a single litre of duty free spirits and a few bottles of wine.


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