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| Our garden goes down to the water |
Life on the 43rd parallel
Shortly after we arrived, we noticed an issue that we had not anticipated. A good deal of the furniture we had moved from our home in Brittany was not appropriate to the region or the style of this home. Bummer, dude. We also realized that it was 12 years old and of rather 'entry level' quality, a practical requirement brought on from our initial purchase in Brittany, showing up in France with a suitcase each with the need to furnish and decorate a 4 bedroom house from A to Z, right down to the last knife, fork and spoon, and our meager budget at the time.
Brittany is a unique area and we chose to furnish in keeping with the regional style. That was all well and good but moving that stuff here was like moving a house full of Texas ranch style furniture to a New York Manhattan penthouse apartment. That longhorn wall ornament and cowhide sofas just ain't gonna work, if you know what I mean. Besides, we were due for more grownup furnishings anyway.
As we continued cleaning up the property, I found lots of half buried trash. Odd pieces of metal, part of a garden hose, a bicycle wheel, old fencing, plastic bags, broken pottery and even a 20 foot (7 M) aluminum sailboat mast which we are considering turning into a flagpole. Oh yeah, and an elephant skull.
Excuse me?
It seems that two owners previous to us was a South African lady who had a little voodoo action going, chanting to a black Madonna in a small crypt in the yard. She had apparently brought the skull over and kept it in the garden. Whatever gets you through the night, lady!
Another little treasure was pruning our cork Oak tree. The bark is the cork that is used in making wine bottle corks. So, the next time you pop a cork, it might have come from our tree! Speaking of trees, we continued cutting, pruning and clearing the property as if we were homesteaders. Having a dumpster available nearby, I would pack it with branches. Janice and I then drew straws to see who would get to dumpster dive to crush all the branches to the bottom so we could keep packing more in.
Janice lost, but by some form of logic I was not familiar with, this apparently meant that I 'won' the task of climbing in to do the nasty. Somehow, I still feel like I got had. Still, I filled a dumpster a day (we have daily city trash pickup here) for a month before a neighbor clued me into the fact that that was illegal and would shortly face the wrath of the local authorities in the form of a stiff fine. We shifted to plan 'B' and have been burning our daily harvest since.
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| This is the first time I ever had part of an elephant in my back yard! |
Another little treasure was pruning our cork Oak tree. The bark is the cork that is used in making wine bottle corks. So, the next time you pop a cork, it might have come from our tree! Speaking of trees, we continued cutting, pruning and clearing the property as if we were homesteaders. Having a dumpster available nearby, I would pack it with branches. Janice and I then drew straws to see who would get to dumpster dive to crush all the branches to the bottom so we could keep packing more in.
Janice lost, but by some form of logic I was not familiar with, this apparently meant that I 'won' the task of climbing in to do the nasty. Somehow, I still feel like I got had. Still, I filled a dumpster a day (we have daily city trash pickup here) for a month before a neighbor clued me into the fact that that was illegal and would shortly face the wrath of the local authorities in the form of a stiff fine. We shifted to plan 'B' and have been burning our daily harvest since.
Our first 2 months here were a blur of activity. We would work in any and all directions feeling like we were running just to stand in place. When 20 things are priority #1, you can do little more than pick up the thing nearest you, fix it, paint it or put it where it belongs. It feels disheartening because you have little or nothing to show for the effort. But, this is not our first rodeo. If you persevere and do what you can every day, at some point the pieces begin to fall into place.
Lately, we finally started feeling like we are getting somewhere. The guest bedroom on the ground level had an old cast iron radiator which I removed (there are 11 of them throughout to be taken out as they were disconnected years ago when the previous owner went to a modern heating system). This left an unsightly area with a different texture on the wall behind them that could not be duplicated, plus pipes and supporting brackets sticking out which I cut off. This was an issue which simply couldn't be fixed as any patch would stand out like a sore thumb.
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| Guest bedroom wall where old style cast iron radiator was removed (AKA: before) |
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| Ceramic tile with wood texture |
Janice's solution was simple. She found an Italian ceramic tile with a wood look that is so life like you have to touch it to know it is not real wood. Even the texture is wood like with ridges and knots. Plus, unlike any tile I have ever seen, these pieces are not like square floor tiles but they are 3' to 6 ' long (1-2m) and the width of a piece of wood, adding to the realism. Each room will have a feature of some sort, giving it its signature. This was room 1. Box ticked... next!
If you promise not to tell, I will let you in on a little secret. 30 years ago when we were building our house in California, we were facing a similar 'this can't be fixed' issue. I was installing a 9' (3m) hexagon shaped mirror on the kitchen ceiling in an alcove of sorts. (Janice refused to let me put it on our bedroom ceiling) The installation consisted of gluing the mirror to the ceiling with supporting framing while the glue dried. Unfortunately, I got a little enthusiastic in pressing it to the ceiling to ensure a good bond...and cracked a corner.
A quick decision had to be made to either take it down before the glue set or leave it up and figure out what to do about it later. We chose to leave it. Later, we utilized one of the fundamental principles of magic: hide it in plain sight. Janice placed thin copper tape that is used in soldering stained glass windows over the crack and created a few 'veins' around it. It looked better than ever! Everyone who has seen it since is none the wiser and loves it. To this day, the friend who helped, Janice and I are the only ones who have ever known. With you, that will now make 4.
This was the month we also had all the 10 remaining windows and 5 French doors replaced, plus a skylight added in the garden level kitchen.
Next, we got the ground level kitchen (new fridge, oven and dishwasher) and bathroom set up, and some of our bedroom. Last, we got the dining and living room in acceptable shape until we have the time to return and put the finishing touches on them.
On the other hand, we have yet to really get into the business end of the lower garden level build. Not to say nothing has been done there. We had a 3 man crew here for over a week to rebuild the roof over a bedroom and part of the kitchen, repair the roof over the main part of the villa, waterproof both terraces as they were leaking water into the rooms below and pour a new cement floor in the master bedroom on the garden level where I had jack hammered the tile out of it.
The floor was laid on a thin mortar bed so it all had to come out to re pour the cement floor and covered anew. I now get to re-tile both terraces and the bedroom, all 750sf (75 m2) of them.The bottom line is that there is so much construction going around here at the moment in so many areas that the place looks similar to the Syrian towns after Assad's troops have dropped a barrel bomb.
A rather fun find was being in line at our local grocery store and discovering that two of the postcards of the local area show our villa in them. One is a picture of the bay in front of our window, taken from the bottom of our property. The second is taken from a boat, facing the opposite direction showing the bay in front of our place with our home on the hill. Pretty cool!
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| The headboard is olive tree wood which I made from a raw slab a friend was going to dispose of. |
(After) with new windows
If you promise not to tell, I will let you in on a little secret. 30 years ago when we were building our house in California, we were facing a similar 'this can't be fixed' issue. I was installing a 9' (3m) hexagon shaped mirror on the kitchen ceiling in an alcove of sorts. (Janice refused to let me put it on our bedroom ceiling) The installation consisted of gluing the mirror to the ceiling with supporting framing while the glue dried. Unfortunately, I got a little enthusiastic in pressing it to the ceiling to ensure a good bond...and cracked a corner.
A quick decision had to be made to either take it down before the glue set or leave it up and figure out what to do about it later. We chose to leave it. Later, we utilized one of the fundamental principles of magic: hide it in plain sight. Janice placed thin copper tape that is used in soldering stained glass windows over the crack and created a few 'veins' around it. It looked better than ever! Everyone who has seen it since is none the wiser and loves it. To this day, the friend who helped, Janice and I are the only ones who have ever known. With you, that will now make 4.
This was the month we also had all the 10 remaining windows and 5 French doors replaced, plus a skylight added in the garden level kitchen.
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| Out with the old... |
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| ...in with the new |
Ground floor bathroom
On the other hand, we have yet to really get into the business end of the lower garden level build. Not to say nothing has been done there. We had a 3 man crew here for over a week to rebuild the roof over a bedroom and part of the kitchen, repair the roof over the main part of the villa, waterproof both terraces as they were leaking water into the rooms below and pour a new cement floor in the master bedroom on the garden level where I had jack hammered the tile out of it.
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| "Hey! Where j'a put my roof?" |
The floor was laid on a thin mortar bed so it all had to come out to re pour the cement floor and covered anew. I now get to re-tile both terraces and the bedroom, all 750sf (75 m2) of them.The bottom line is that there is so much construction going around here at the moment in so many areas that the place looks similar to the Syrian towns after Assad's troops have dropped a barrel bomb.
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| Our place under construction |
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| Oppps, wrong picture. My bad. This is the tile removal. It's just that both pictures look so alike. |
A rather fun find was being in line at our local grocery store and discovering that two of the postcards of the local area show our villa in them. One is a picture of the bay in front of our window, taken from the bottom of our property. The second is taken from a boat, facing the opposite direction showing the bay in front of our place with our home on the hill. Pretty cool!
We
have started making friends and one couple in particular have been
generous and helpful to a fault. In an attempt to reciprocate, we
invited them to come visit us in California next fall. Three days later, they had their tickets in hand. Seems like the plans are a go!
All work and no play makes us cranky so we have made some time for visiting a bell foundry. They produce everything from the little table side bells to call the maid to the 9' (3M) church steeple bells. Very cool! Today, we were 'kidnapped' by new friends who took us to Dolceacqua, a medieval town on the Italian border for lunch.
I know it sounds kind of exotic and well....hell's bells, it is! Driving past Cannes and Monaco to have lunch in Italy, visit a glass blowing museum and return home for dinner is my idea of having more fun that we should be allowed to have.
Is it legal to have this much fun?
All work and no play makes us cranky so we have made some time for visiting a bell foundry. They produce everything from the little table side bells to call the maid to the 9' (3M) church steeple bells. Very cool! Today, we were 'kidnapped' by new friends who took us to Dolceacqua, a medieval town on the Italian border for lunch.
I know it sounds kind of exotic and well....hell's bells, it is! Driving past Cannes and Monaco to have lunch in Italy, visit a glass blowing museum and return home for dinner is my idea of having more fun that we should be allowed to have.
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| Dolcheacqua |
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| The 'streets' of Dolcheacqua |
Is it legal to have this much fun?
An apology
It is quite likely that some time last month you got a request to add us to your Linkedin account. One of us (name withheld to protect the guilty) got a request from someone to do the same which the guilty party in this case agreed to, in order to 'be nice'. This, unknowingly, sent the request out to all in our email address book.
We do not participate in Linkedin, Twitter or any of the dozens of sites that keep up with Lady Gaga, the Kardashians or allow us to send risky photos which will self destruct 30 seconds after you have seen them.
We just wanted to apologize for this inadvertent boo-boo while I have reviewed our 'safe computing' practices with her.
I mean the guilty party.
I mean the guilty party.
