Alexis

I would go for the not worth the grief. What if they don't pay the rent? What if they don't leave when planned? What if they nick all your tools? Are you going to get their names on the EDF, water bills etc?  Perhaps come back to find that the emersion has been on all the time etc. Six months and nobody touched the garden..... Certainly, if you have doubts about the electricity and gas, I wouldn't risk it.  Of course, you could just fall lucky and rent to someone doing their house up who needs only six months to do it....lucky sod! 

I have had a look at the site.  Not seen the programme.  Happened to read about the programme in yesterdays Sunday Times.  They don't seem very well liked by the TV reviewers. I couldn't get past the flowery descriptions.  Bleugh! Wouldn't mind a plate of sophisticated yet unfussy dinner though . . .

Hmm.  Sounds like you could be getting a jar of badger pate for Christmas.  Will ask OH when he comes in after putting the dinde to bed....sing amongst yourselves....he says no. He is not reliable though.

Why is nothing to hand when you need it?  HA!  It is.  You can buy them in the Baumaux catalogue.  Plant Feb.  Harvest Nov.  Crosne de Japon.  www.baumaux.com   Excellent firm.  Have a look.

I have had a look on their site, www.godin.fr and there doesn't seem to be anything electric.  I am certain that I have seen them though.....

I was all set to say Godin until I saw the word electric.  Don't know where their catalogue is but you could check it out.

That will teach me not to brag.....arrived home this afternoon and crunch crunch crunch...a mouse eating my recipes. I'm getting a bit fed up now.  The raticide is out.

Sorry Val, only just seen your post.  Not near us, near Calais.

I did a mix of five glasses of chaux, one nearly full glass of colour which was all there was in a little pot bought sometime ago - oxyde red - and ten glasses of water. Forgot about the washing up liquid and no liant.  First problem was the chaux was 'old'.  Most didn't dissolve and there was a thick sludge at the bottom of the container.  Not faint hearted me, I slapped it on and it looks fine.  I wonder if the liant stops the colour rubbing off?  As in powder on your hands?  Not a lot.  It did fade but I don't know about 50%. Seems to work out very cheap too.  The chaux is pennies, the colour was 4,90€ and the water nowt.  The mix I made filled perhaps half of a 2.5l container.  So, lots left!  In the brico mags, you can badigeon over base coats of acrylic paint.  In a new house, for example where the walls are placo or plastered.  I shall be experimenting. Later I will try one glass of chaux and water for a white wash.

Guess what time I woke up?  Quarter to eleven.  Not been in bed that late since Before Children. It was so warm last night I couldn't sleep.  Had to strip off.  Then there was a bloody mozzie...... Very strange weather.

Another one caught this morning.  Found it in bits in the bathroom. What a star!

Well, I tried cutting and pasting.  Honestly.  Didn't work but watch out, it might still arrive.  RSA grade I, II and III word processing me too. Right. Use natural pigments and remember not to use more than 20% of the weight of the lime. The badigeon loses 50 - 60% of its colour after drying. Mix the coloured powder with a little water and some washing up liquid before adding to the lime mix so it blends smoothly. Chaulage - 1 volume lime - 1 volume water. Badigeon - 1 volume lime to 2 - 4 volumes water.  Add a liant - Caparol - 3% weight of the lime. Lait de chaux - 1 volime lime to 10 volumes water. Patine - 1 volume lime to 20 volumes water. The beams were brushed clean and then a coloured badigeon with a liant was applied.  Once dry a tinted 'resine acrylique microporous' was applied.  Les Ateliers de Vérone.  You can also use lait de chaux with a liant which assures the paint sticking to the wood.....then you sand it back to show the veins. I am going to have a try this afternoon if I can find the chaux.  I have a bit left after doing the walls.  Somewhere!.

That is the one David.  Do you know, I went all through the sodding magazine looking for the web site this morning..... You buy big sacks of chaux from the builders merchants.  Big Mat for example. I will attempt to type it out later and CUT and PASTE it!!!  That will be a laugh!  Will send it to your private mail as don't want to be boring people.

I have found the file.  It was in Maison & Travaux - who don't seem to have a web site.  There is also a page or two about doing your beams.  Let me know if you are interested and I will type it out...

Go for it.  It is amazing what you can do.  We left the new windows to the pro's though.  The windows seem to slope in four different directions at once!  Very old house.  It will just take you longer than the artisans.  Oh, the pride thought!  I think you will find that most of us have done it ourselves on the site.  Still doing it in fact!

If you are talking about lime washes, you can make up your own.  I have a feeling that lime based paint doesn't exist as it would go 'off'.  I will have a look in my files. I have a 'recipe' if you need one. All our beams and walls in the cow half of the house were painted in a lime wash to disinfect them.  Do you mean to colour the distemper and then put it on the beams or use natural white?

On another post someone mention that they hadn't any heating on....  Nor me.  Sat in my T shirt here.  Bit damp in the morning but nice and warm during the day.  

Hope that Diana doesn't arrive to find no electricity.  Was it 30,000 or 300,000 cut off with the storms in Normandy?

I have been thinking about this.  Our house is much the same size  but part of it is habitable.  We are working from there.  Approximately! It may seem strange, and I have my hard hat on, but it can depend a lot on your neighbours.  If you have lots of English friends popping in, they will go through to the sitting room for a coffee.  They might even enter through the front door.  If your neighbours are French, they will sit at a table in the kitchen and have a rouge.  They will always go to the kitchen door too.   Around here, there is the kitchen and the bedrooms.  Nothing else.  The kitchen has an enormous telly and you sit around the table to watch it.   I think my neighbours would be embarassed to go into somewhere 'posh' for a drink.  In their wellies!  So, we have no need for a front door.  In fact, I was going to have my kitchen leading into the garden but a moments thought and we decided it wasn't worth it.  People would have to tramp through the sitting room to get to it.  Just put the dining room near the kitchen. . . !

What joy!  Trendy at last!  My kitchen is made from these blocks.  What with the boards for the work surface and the boards for the shelves, it must have cost me all of 60 quid.  Dinky little curtains.....  Sadly, everything is now in containers because of the mice. All my own work too.  So what if it leans a bit

Allee.

To me it made complete sense...spreading the butter or confiture on a slice of bread.  Ready to dip in his coffee. I asked OH if it had a sexual meaning and he said no.  BUT, to faire a tartine also means to droan on for ages.  As in Our Jacques addressing the Nation.

Lulu caught another one last night.  What a star!! There appears to be another one roaming about....  We must have had a boy and a girl in the first place Merde!

Hmm.  So I might get my glowing moat without moving to Bulgaria then?

Hi Julia.  I wondered where you were.  Will just go and get my Marianne Maison as I am sure it is in there ..... Here we go, Parc des Expositions de la Beaujoire.  10 - 19h  28th October up to and including 1st Nov.  Go to www.creavenue.com for a 1,50€ reduction.... I went to the last one.  LOADS of people.  It is the same place where the Floralys was held.  Easy to find, just off the motorway. Then you can pop to IKEA!