John Cox

Hi Peter I'm just about to embark on leeting out my normandy cottage and would be very grateful if you would also send me your raft leases - always assuming that I get any bookings!   Many thanks John [email protected]

My Mairie sent me a note to our UK address saying that our Permis was ready for collection. Why don't you pop in and ask what their procedure is.

I went to my local saw mills and was offered the choice of oak, sapin (pine) or douglas fir, cut to whatever thickness and width I required ( I had 18 by 120) and a nominal 5m in length.  I chose the  cheapest (pine), it was delivered by fork lift truck the next day (with nice spacers to separate the boards. I stacked it for 6 months under black polythene to dry out and then sprayed it with Wickes wood preserver. I laid them with the aid of car jacks to get a tight fit and then sanded the finished floors. Amazingly, they have turned out really well despite there being no tongue and groove. Cost (in 2000) was 3600 Francs for 145 boards inc TVA. I never counted but there seemed to be many more boards than 145 when they were delivered John Cox

Yes, I had this 'pleasure' a few years ago. Packed earth was used between the rafters as insulation. I had if under the floor boards on the first floor and as a packed earrth floor in the loft. With hindisght, I should have started in the loft and worked down... However, the ceiling was made of oak slats set into groves in the rafters with the soil resting above. I found a kango hammer or an SDS to be the best device for breaking the surprisingly hard earth and let it fall through onto ramps made from old doors to slide it outside. Beware though, once the soil had gone the rafters became unstable as it was the soil that held them in place. I had to fix these back in place with noggins.

[quote]any advice on buying a new wood burning fire. never bought one before so any tips would be welcome.[/quote] Sitting in a traffic jam in a village near Vire, I saw a hand written notice in the window of an iron mongers that said, I think, that if you installed a wood burning stove  "L'etat" would refund 40% of the cost as an energy conservation measure. As we were on our way to the ferry, I didn't have time to find out any  more. Does anyone know anything about this?

Having completed (well, almost, completed) my renovation of a cottage near St Lo, I have a number of potentially useful items to sell, such as a spiral staircase, part glazed old oak external doors, central heating radiators, oak beams etc. Does anyone know a good way of selling these locally (ie near St Lo) when I am in UK most of the time?