Micksyl

150 overhead on the Gers /Landes Border at Cazaubon this afternoon - Heading directly North Amazing

Follow Up Am now the proud owner of an Orange Blackberry !- Biggest Screen with normal keyboard - Had to walk the suppliers and only found Orange wanting to talk. 99 Euro cost + 40 Euro Month for 2 Years - 64MB - Month / Includes Phone Few problems trying to get on line but eventually through my O2 Contract So - E Mails sent to my USA E Mail are forwarded to my O2 Yahoo account which I retained when we came out last year and then forwarded onto my French Blackberry Have tried a couple of large files including images as attachments and been OK So now the walls are going up in the house and hopefully in a couple of months we can move our live box from the Mobile Home into our Office we will have a year or so to get everything set up right Next getting it to work around Europe - Orange Sans Frontier !!  

Have been told by my bosses that I need to get one Any advice and in particular what seems best and does it work everywhere youcan get a phone signal Please help before I sign up to something stupid  

OK - So to get to Zeebrugge for a 1900 Sailing (One a Day) . Best on Mappy 9 1/2 hours  My Experience with Paris on route pushy 10 1/2 hours so to arrive for 1800 - 0730 Departure - Compared to a 1200 easy run for Caen or 1400 if you want pushy (Still in Holiday Mood. Leave at 1000 and plan a visit on route,  )  - Potential Savings again using Mappy 2 1/2 hours in UK 7 hrs from Hull and 9 1/2 hours from Portsmouth You takes your choice !

Down in the Gers our partner village has a Tourist Office cum Village Hall with its own on line computers which they have set up to provide training for local people but which I was able to hire for about 2 Euro an hour Amazing to see the older lads and lasses getting on line for the first time

Dave Any thing North of Dover just makes the second day a long one I regularly travel down to the Gers from UK and North Europe and waking up to a 1000 km drive with Paris on route is not pleasant My preference now days is to use the Overnight to Caen from Portsmouth - M40 / Southampton / Portsmouth from Birmingham is a far better route than   M1/ M25 / Dover. Off ferry at 0730 and a pleasant 8 hour drive in daylight on the other side . (Less Tolls as well)

Same problem couple of years ago , we faxed every architect in our area and received one reply who we have been working with. We have attempted to introduce him to a couple of other renovators and he has refused due to pressure of work. Over here on theLandes Border all of the builders and associated trades are very busy. Only reccomendation is to keep faxing to every architect in yellow pages Good Luck

Looking for a 3 month rental near Cazaubon / Barbotan (West Gers up against the Landes) from Mid July . Totaly wrong time of year but looks like our UK House sale is going ahead before our renovation is complete. Thanks

OK. Having seen the previous discussions ! We have had a complete foundation laid in our Barn Conversion including DPC. The foundation has been left below finished level to allow the installation of insulation , underfloor heating, water and electrics. Which would then be covered with a screed and tiles. Where existing columbage walls were situated the infill has been removed and the beams suspended on small pillars to bring them up to the finished floor level. My question related to whether we should raise dividing walls directly from the foundation or from the screed that will cover the underfloor heating pipes etc. Hope that clears the position a little.

Thanks for the ideas team The consensus seems to be that we can install straight off the render following installation of the under floor pipework.  We will have a combination of walls as the existing mixed tile, cow dung and bird nests infill was removed and the timber frames retained supported on concrete infill. It is our intention to retain this effect on a couple of walls (Oak been slowly drying for three years in the stable) whilst the tech room and downstairs cloak will  be solid block. Off to get keys to our now watertight conversion this week. Thanks Again.    

We now have our first stage foundations in and are moving forward to the installation of underfloor heating pipework. My question is whether we should build up the level from the foundation with concrete blocks where it is intended to build stud walls or if it is ok to build off the finished screed surface. Thanks for assistance

We have used our architect to Project Manage and he produced work schedules for the different trades which were quoted line by line by the local artisans. We developed a payment plan with him and ended up paying as work was completed or expensive materials were on site.  The architect fees have been paid on competions also. Good Luck  

Thanks Guys Roof being replaced as we speak followed by windows, doors and septique fosse. Managed to find a great local architect (No English) and it has taken 18 months from our original scheme to get the Permissions and Local Builders  in place.      

After 3 years of ownership and lots of fun the renovations have commenced Having lurked here for a while and gained a lot of good information thought we should share our small piece of France ( West Gers ). With many thanks to all contributors for the information and advise freely given. Pictures taken in the snow (Two weekends ago) http://uk.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/[email protected]/album?.dir=/d060&.src=ph&.tok=phiC2YEB3MrV6vDZ

As part of our Urbanisation Certificate (2003)we were advised that the road leading to the house had to be a minimum width of 3m to allow access for the Firemen. Our track across the fields is about 400m long and we hired a small digger to level and laid down about £2000 worth of mixed gravel .