A Break Through, or a Break Out Maybe ?

Well, I can't quite believe how long it is since I wrote the last blog update - several months in fact, and where has that time gone ? We have had Christmas, Easter and are now into Spring - the leaves are green, the long days of darkness and gloom are hopefully fading, and things are looking up.

We had a quiet Christmas, and an even quieter New Year - we didn't even stay up to see the New Year in !! Mind you, would we toast the English time, or French time ? What will 2016 bring us ? What adventures, what problems, what moments of fun and laughter - it's a clean sheet for us all.

Early on in January, I took my first trip back to the UK for work. It is a horrible time of the year to travel - very unpredictable, and a horrible time of the year for Craig to be on his own. The days are short, the evenings are long, and of course it is cold ! I always keep an eye on the ferry crossings as my travel dates loom, and invariably there are strong winds forecast, and the crossings are disrupted in some form or other. This first one of the year fell into this category - I cannot travel my usual route home from Plymouth to Roscoff, as they do not run that route in January/February, so I had to go Portsmouth to St Malo. This one was diverted into Cherbourg due to the weather, but I chose to change to another route - Portsmouth to Caen. There isn't a huge difference, but Caen is SLIGHTLY nearer home, and when you are driving on your own, even that small difference is important.

As usual, it is exciting to see what Craig has managed to do while I have been away. He had painted the downstairs toilet - walls and ceiling, the walls in the Utility Room and made a window cill for it. He had painted the kitchen and the snug, and there was furniture in there that I hadn't seen for nearly five years !!

Our next big project was to knock through from the snug into the sitting room. I say 'our' in the loosest sense of the word. My job is to help clean up, and keep Craig supplied with coffee, and food. He couldn't contemplate starting this on his own, as the last time he did a similar job, it took 9 days, and that was without the added issues of dog walking, chicken feeding, and fending for himself.....so, it was definitely a job for when I was home.

As there are no windows in this room, we had to open the windows on the landing to allow the dust out - and boy oh boy, was there some dust - from old plaster and granite blocks. Horrendous ! However much I cleaned, however much Craig tried, the dust permeated everywhere.

It was awkward too, as we couldn't relax during the evenings. Our 'snug' had all but disappeared under a mountain of dust sheets, rubble and tools. This meant that we watched TV in the bedroom, which made us feel as though we were living in a hotel, and poor Arthur followed us upstairs each evening thinking it was bedtime. He couldn't understand why he had to go for a walk, when he'd settled in his bed !

Progress was made daily. Craig managed to make a lintel shaped hole, and after three days the first lintel was in situ. This was definitely ahead of schedule.

Disaster struck though, as a large granite boulder fell, and landed on Craig's hand. I'm sure he broke his hand at this point, but he battled on, and wore two gloves on that hand to try to keep it stable, and secure. He had a huge bruise that went all the way round to the back of his hand.

Nine days later, as expected, the hole was complete - not the tidying up, or plaster boarding, but we were through. What a huge relief. It was a job that had been put off so many times, but now it was done. We covered it at first with plastic sheeting, but soon realised that the wind will find any space to come through, so Craig actually plaster boarded over the hole, until the other side is ready and wind/weather tight, and the plaster board can come down again.

Who would thought this much rubble could come out of such a small area ? And this wasn't even half of it !

We spent a great afternoon cleaning the snug, and moving the furniture round, and the room looks ...well...snug again !

It was a huge disappointment that same evening, that the TV broke down !! So, we were back to the bedroom once again ! This TV was JUST over a  year old, and JUST out of guarantee - blooming typical !

Two steps forward, and one step back eh ?