A two weeks
family “holiday” in Pujols has recently drawn to a close, and this note gives a
review of the activities in the house and the projects underway.
The weather
over the fortnight wasn’t as clear, warm and sunny as we had been dreaming
off. A number of overcast days, and some
rainy ones. Yet also some sunny, bright
spots and the chance of eating out on the garden patio one evening. But the BBQ didn’t come out once . . . .
POOL
There have been months of discussion on "where shall we put it?", which came to a happy conclusion on the day after arrival, when we met the project team on site, and the red spray paint came out. Discussion, measuring tape sizings, lines drawn on gravel, more discussion and a couple of hours later everyone was agreed on where the pool would be located.
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| Ancienne Ecole Courtyard . . . . with pool location marked in red |
The major excitement was on day 6 of the holiday when two diggers arrived with a team of workmen – and all of a sudden, work began on the long-awaited swimming pool.
By the end of the day, the large whole was dug and all the earth removed to a couple of spots in the village where, evidently, neighbours were pleased to receive it.
Here are some pictures taken during that day - proof positive that the pool is underway!
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| Digger Arrives |
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| Digger rolls into Courtyard |
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| And the digging starts |
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| The pool hole gets bigger as the morning progresses |
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| Tea Time and the hole is there! |
A nervous gap over Easter where there was no sight of anyone or anything and then on the Thursday, another spurt of activity with the arrival of a large cement mixer, various lengths of steel and threesome of skilled “mason”. By mid-afternoon, the concrete foundation was laid and a large plastic cover secured over the area.
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| Concrete mixer draws up beside the Abbey |
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| Getting ready to pour the concrete foundation |
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| The concrete pours in |
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| Concrete is left to set, with a cover to keep the rain off |
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| One week later _ walls appear |
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| And then, the walls are there, too! |
The main construction work is due to be complete in two weeks, and then Christopher Cuisset, the pool installation wizard and the main contractor for the job, works his magic. Handover is set for mid-May.
In discussions with the construction team, the issue of pool security came up. We had previously intended to put a security fence around the pool. But this is quite an intrusive structure, and doesn’t seem to fit with the courtyard location. We realised that the courtyard is already “secure” for children. There are four points of access, but all can be closed and locked; so why not use the natural security of the area, for child security, too? This seems to us a better proposal, and the one we are opting for.
The pool will also have an electronic alarm fitted, so that when it’s switched on (which it should be at all times, except when swimmers are in the water), any activity in the pool causes a loud bell to ring.
GARDEN
There are
three areas of “garden” – the courtyard at the front (lovely for catching the
morning sun), the courtyard at the side of the house, and the larger area at
the back of the house, that drops away down in the hill into our wilder,
coppice woodland. Neither the previous
owners of the property or ourselves are great gardeners, and the gardens will
never perhaps be the finest point of The Old School House.
We do however
love the various rose bushes that are a feature of the courtyards, and my
attempts at winter pruning in 2011 will show themselves in 2012. Hopefully, the roses will survive my
incompetence with the secateurs . . . .
My preferred
tool to a hoe is a chainsaw. There have
been days of removing branches and trees to open up the views across the valley
towards St Emillion. You will see the
result, and hopefully approve. More
could be done? But the trees also
provide shelter from the wind, and a framing to the wonderful views.
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| The front garden, before Francis attacks . . . |
One major
achievement of Easter 2012 was researching and finding someone to keep the
garden in control. Thankfully Francis
Francois (the husband to our beloved home-help, Michele) has agreed to the role
and he will spend some hours every two weeks at the task. Things will get into order over time, so our
early guests of 2012 shouldn’t expect too much from the estate!
EASTER WORK
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| Work begins on the front entrance |
Over the Easter
period we refreshed the front entrance area to the home. The front entrance is the old main entrance
to the School, with the Girls School to the left and the Boys to the
right. The respective heads of School
lived on each side, so the one central lobby divides into two. We smartened this lobby up a bit, painting
the outer doors, the inner doors, the walls etc.
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| Before |
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| and After! |
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| Morag seems proud of her paintwork |
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| Welcome to The Old School House |
The girls’
part of the building, to the left of our house, is pretty much as it was when
the school closed years ago. It’s been
used as a workshop by a firm until it closed down a few years ago. Meanwhile, The Old School House (boys’ side)
was turned into a home.
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| The Outer Lobby - after our work |
And the
children did some work, too (eventually!).
The lobby to the Front Double got painted, as did a feature wall in the
Garden Bedroom.
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The Garden Bedroom gets a "feature wall"
(visitors will excuse the paint on the stair treads?!) |
Inevitably,
there was the visit to a range of antique stores and antique markets to search
out that needed piece of furniture . . . .
Plus a series of visits to DIY stores and other shops for this and
that. There’s an endless stream of bits
and pieces that the house seems to need – I tell Morag that there surely can’t be room for that?
Oh, and I
spent some exasperating hours with drill, wall fixings and pictures as various
bits of “art” took fixture on bare walls.
PROJECTS
There
are a number of key things that we want to do, in addition to the pool. Longer term is the plan to convert the two “old
class rooms”, which are currently useful stores, into accommodation. The home would benefit from more “en suite”
bedrooms and perhaps more sleeping space.
Along with moving the kitchen, making a separate dining area etc etc etc.
But on the
nearer horizon is a project to improve the lower, garden terrace. It’s split level at the moment, and the patio
stones aren’t that great. We would like
to replace the stones with local paving, and have a surface at one level.
As you will
see when you visit, the guttering to the courtyard outbuilding needs replacing, and over
Easter we met with a local artisan who is coming up with a “devis” (quote) for
doing this.
Having
obtained a series of “devis” over the last year for another area that’s a bit
unsightly, we have just ordered new wooden windows for the old classrooms. The original windows are still there, and are
long past their “sell-by” date. The work
will happen in July.
A completed
project is the replacement of all the zinc guttering and flashings around the
roof of the property. This isn’t very
visible work – although fairly major stuff, and the bank account certainly
noticed it had happened.
So, our
Easter holiday of 2012 was a memorable, productive affair. The children thought we worked too hard and
played too little. There was certainly a
lot to do – and their grumbles were muted by some treats. A lovely lunch in the village at Chez Sylvie
and another superb meal with everyone at La Table Rouge. Plus we had an interesting visit to the
nearby “Chateau de Mallet” and bought enough wine to give the Espace something
to grumble about on the road home (a lovely white, good rose but not sure about
the red – tell us what you think).
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| Katie makes cakes for visitors |
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After a year of discussion, it was wonderful to see the pool team arrive!
Thank you Christophe and Piscine des Bastides www.piscines-des-bastides.fr |
