This edition is dedicated to Doobie, my Guardian Nagger, who prods me, worries about me and, altogether, makes me feel as though Someone is Watching Over Me.
NTR! (1)
I got some new hat/scarves sorts of things in the post today, thanks to Rachel's mother. I'll try to get pictures.
Nala, after four years of living with us and being fed raw, has finally chewed on a recreational bone. Twice! (Yes, I missed pictures of that, too.) I'm not sure the bone is the attraction. She chews and chews and the bone slides on the tile floor and soon it and she are on the other side of the kitchen, fancy that!, right next to the cats's leftovers. But we caught her in time.
It's been a busy week; hence the lack of posting. (Besides NTR.) Friday, Saturday and Sunday taken up with friends. Being in the village is a spur to socialising. Yesterday, all day in Avignon shopping for: hardware, wood, more hardware, Pyrex pot, more hardware and more hardware.
Today, we bought a house.
See you tomorrow!
Showing posts with label straw bale house. Show all posts
Showing posts with label straw bale house. Show all posts
Tuesday, 21 October 2008
Wednesday, 9 July 2008
Moving Right Along
I can either cut and paste all my emails or just blog. Here's the blog. (I thought a bit of bolding would help to cut to whatever chase interests you.)
We are now counting down the days to moving -- during the week of 14 August. We have an apartment in the village to rent until May. By then, it will be warm enough to either camp out in whatever part of the house or workshop has walls and a roof -- or just camp. The apartment has a ton of storage space, should we need it, a lovely terrace and a garden. Are we lucky or what?
We have free storage space in the village, thanks to another friend. Yes, we are lucky.
We have a lead on space in the village for the workshop until the new one is built.
We can't get the straw locally, after all; no one produces enough. But we have found a supplier. We hope. It's a bit late in the year and we haven't managed to contact him, yet.
Our buyers were here over the weekend to register their kids in school, measure everything, and tell us that they have sold their house. "Good thing for you," they said. "Better thing for you," Nick thought, but did not say. "Now you won't be losing your deposit."
So, we are signing the final papers for the sale in the third week of August and the papers for the purchase about the same time.
We're offered a used cement mixer. When did I ever think a cement mixer would make a great gift?
We have another four days to clean out the house for the July 14th vide grenier -- empty the attic -- a sort of garage sale. I lo-o-o-o-o-ve throwing things out.
Of course, now is when I pick up two translation jobs. Isn't that always the way?
And we're doing 10 days of B&B because I couldn't bring myself to turn down some regular clients who aren't aware that I've retired. Then, again, one of the guys is a landscape architect. . .
We are now counting down the days to moving -- during the week of 14 August. We have an apartment in the village to rent until May. By then, it will be warm enough to either camp out in whatever part of the house or workshop has walls and a roof -- or just camp. The apartment has a ton of storage space, should we need it, a lovely terrace and a garden. Are we lucky or what?
We have free storage space in the village, thanks to another friend. Yes, we are lucky.
We have a lead on space in the village for the workshop until the new one is built.
We can't get the straw locally, after all; no one produces enough. But we have found a supplier. We hope. It's a bit late in the year and we haven't managed to contact him, yet.
Our buyers were here over the weekend to register their kids in school, measure everything, and tell us that they have sold their house. "Good thing for you," they said. "Better thing for you," Nick thought, but did not say. "Now you won't be losing your deposit."
So, we are signing the final papers for the sale in the third week of August and the papers for the purchase about the same time.
We're offered a used cement mixer. When did I ever think a cement mixer would make a great gift?
We have another four days to clean out the house for the July 14th vide grenier -- empty the attic -- a sort of garage sale. I lo-o-o-o-o-ve throwing things out.
Of course, now is when I pick up two translation jobs. Isn't that always the way?
And we're doing 10 days of B&B because I couldn't bring myself to turn down some regular clients who aren't aware that I've retired. Then, again, one of the guys is a landscape architect. . .
Sunday, 25 May 2008
Nightmare Dog-Owner Graduates School(-house)
May I speak about my great running week first? I've had two 15-year Personal Bests. Having kept at it since last summer, I finally got a run below 7 minutes per kilometer, 6:58 to be precise. Babies crawl that fast, but you know how childish you can become as you age. And I did my first 10K run today. O.K., 9.5K; I need to dream up a new course.
We are selling our house, the Valley School, as it translates into English. Or Combe School if you're English. Funny, we've lived here for fifteen years, at least 3 times as long as I've ever lived anywhere, but I feel no regret at leaving it.
We are going to build a straw bale house. (Please, we've heard all the 3 Little Pigs jokes.) And we're building it ourselves. If things go well, we will be leaving the schoolhouse in August. If they don't, we'll be leaving sometime, anyway. We don't have land, yet, but we have hopes and will keep you posted.
More than posted. I am setting up a new blog, name to be decided, to journal our activities. In France, anyone who is building their own house (un auto-constructeur) blogs or joins bulletin boards. They share techniques, budgets, resources, mistakes and other joys of building with like-minded souls and some of the like-minded souls show up on your building site to learn and to help.
We, in fact, have been helping some friends in the next village build their hemp brick house. We've learned a lot of what to do and what not to do. When their house is finished, they will help us. (Don't feel that you have to be a friend or acquaintance to volunteer. Anyone who wants to help will be welcome. Free room and board. How hard can it be if I'm doing it?) Last week we spent a day plastering (clay and lime) a 6² meter of this house to learn the technique. And learned more of what to do and what not to do. I feel certain, however, that there are plenty of mistakes left for us to make, too.
Nothing daunted, armed with little cash, several animals and a ton of books on straw bale building, we march forward.
Ah, no, we don't yet know where we're going to live in the meantime.
We are selling our house, the Valley School, as it translates into English. Or Combe School if you're English. Funny, we've lived here for fifteen years, at least 3 times as long as I've ever lived anywhere, but I feel no regret at leaving it.
We are going to build a straw bale house. (Please, we've heard all the 3 Little Pigs jokes.) And we're building it ourselves. If things go well, we will be leaving the schoolhouse in August. If they don't, we'll be leaving sometime, anyway. We don't have land, yet, but we have hopes and will keep you posted.
More than posted. I am setting up a new blog, name to be decided, to journal our activities. In France, anyone who is building their own house (un auto-constructeur) blogs or joins bulletin boards. They share techniques, budgets, resources, mistakes and other joys of building with like-minded souls and some of the like-minded souls show up on your building site to learn and to help.
We, in fact, have been helping some friends in the next village build their hemp brick house. We've learned a lot of what to do and what not to do. When their house is finished, they will help us. (Don't feel that you have to be a friend or acquaintance to volunteer. Anyone who wants to help will be welcome. Free room and board. How hard can it be if I'm doing it?) Last week we spent a day plastering (clay and lime) a 6² meter of this house to learn the technique. And learned more of what to do and what not to do. I feel certain, however, that there are plenty of mistakes left for us to make, too.
Nothing daunted, armed with little cash, several animals and a ton of books on straw bale building, we march forward.
Ah, no, we don't yet know where we're going to live in the meantime.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)