Garage Doors, 5 - 8 Sept

 

Saturday 5th Sept

A solid day’s work for the two of us painting the exterior of the garage doors and the door frame. Also undercoated the lintel.

The four-panel folding door has lift off hinges, which is a god-send. In fact most of the hinges in this house are of this type – don’t know if it’s a French thing. We have them in the UK of course, but there they are the exception rather than the rule.

I have been wanting to get these doors done since we first got the house. In fact I’d like to get all of the exterior woodwork painted as some of the paint is in a very poor state. However, the last year has seen the interior take precedence as we try to make the house a little more attractive to live-in. The electrics are the thing really holding back substantial progress indoors – and I’m now starting to contemplate getting it done professionally. Will start to phone for quotes next week. Mind you, I’m expecting something around the €15,000 mark.

Finished just after 4pm and then a relaxing evening.

It was crepe’s for lunch and is to be a fondue for dinner; I could get used to this continental life-style.

A wedding party was having their reception under the bridge. They had a great band playing songs that I love, so that was fun. The disco though – playing till 5am and horrendously loud at 01:00 – woke me up.

Sunday 6^th

Cracked on with the garage doors today. Got the lintel above the wooden door painted along with the wood above the ‘plastic-fronted’ doors. Gave the latter a thorough clean and rubbed down their reverse – which is wood. Sally finished painting the last section of wall in the lounge-diner and then helped me by starting to paint the inside of the wooden garage doors.

Monday 7th

A surprisingly good and productive day – it shouldn’t have been. We got up late after both having a rough night and neither of us have an idea why – too much booze? We’re having a couple of units a day where we perhaps have five a week in the UK - we'll try a dry day or two to see.

Anyway, despite a late start Sally got the inside of the wooden garage door completely painted whilst I rubbed down, washed and filled the study window. Some of the exterior woodwork is in a bad way with barely any paint – and what there is is flaking off. This window is one such. Thankfully the frame and lintel are hardwood – otherwise they would have rotted away years ago. We removed the shutters and windows together, to give maximum access, and then I balanced precariously on the radiator and windowsill to reach outside to sand, wire-brush and hose the outside. There’s no rear access so this technique (whilst not the safest) was really the only option. Luckily everything was within stretch reach - just. We were finished by 6pm – fairly early for us, especially given the late start.

Tuesday 8^th

Perhaps laying off the alcohol worked – slept like a baby last night.

And a great day followed. Nice mix of work and relaxation. Started with some sealant around the shower base to try and stop a leak we have and then rubbing down the study window ledge where I’d filled it the day before. Unfortunately it needed a little more filling so, whilst that dried, I joined Sally in painting the wooden rear of the plastic fronted garage doors.

Once they were done, we headed to the supermarket for fuel and some provisions, after which I sanded the small amount of filling I’d done on the window frame. Then it was a stretch again to reach out and undercoat it. Not quite enough undercoat to do the sill – so that will have to wait.

Next we headed into town on the push bikes to get a couple of ice creams in the centre of town. With those consumed we rode the old railway embankment that we’d walked a couple of nights before.

Back home and the rest of the afternoon was spent tinkering on small jobs. And then a lazy evening.

Tomorrow we’re taking the day off entirely and heading to Limoges to visit the Emmaus charity store to see what furniture they have, then a look around Limoges itself. We also intend to head to Oradour-sur-Glaine to pay our respect and there’ll also be a trip to Leroy Merlin for undercoat and some other DIY supplies.