MKJ

I am a massive dali fan (but have not found time to go yet)but my friend went and tells me it was disspaointing if you were expecting to see the big famous masterpieces. She says there were alot of line drawings and sculpture and that the best one was actually outside. That said, im still going to go..... Maria (ps my friends, who were housesitting for me at the time, did buy me a fantastic poster of the hallucenogenic toriador and a lovely mouse mat from the shop there, which they reckon was one of the best bits).

I have checked the archives and cannot find any recent articles comparing the runnign costs of these two systems of central heating. It used to be said that fioul (oil) was much cheaper to run, however I understand that it fluctuates with the oil price and as this is at a near all time high, and may go higher still, is it still cheaper to run than gas? (we have no natural gas and two winters of fighting the woodburner have driven us mad - dunno how anyone holds down a full time job and has one of them!) we have the option of installing either, but i prefer gas as it wont smell and i am hopeful that the ugly white tank can be buried (can anybody confirm this too?). Also the gas boilers seem quieter, smaller and less smelly than the enormous red giant types of fioul boiler we have seen. It may also be cheaper as the fioul boilers seem so expensive here. My husband is fearful that it will be alot more expensive. Is there any way i can calculate which is likely to be cheaper for us to run? our house is a maison individuelle with about 150m living space. thankyou in advance maria

hello, I wonder if anyone can shed any light on this matter - we want to install central heating, fioul, and ideally would prefer to have the tank in the ground rather than in the garage. My questions are 1) are there regulations (there must be) about how this has to be done ie does it need to be a concrete lined hole, does the tank itself need to be a certain material or grade (we were thinkign of one of those plastic ones) and any ideaas where we can find the regulations. 2) do we need planning permission or a declaration de travaux or any other permissions or can we jsut go ahead thankyou in advance Maria

can anyone give me any idea how much we are likely to have to pay for a reinforced PVC liner for our pool (and its fitting). I am just looking for an approximate square metre cost, but our pool is 8m by 4 m and with depth of 1m to 1.5 m. I have been trawling the internet for hours but although i have ascertained this is definitely what i need to fix the problem, it seems impossible to get even an approximate price. I had already phoned several pool companies but are all way too busy to help me apparently. the most I have managed to glean so far is that it costs about twice as much as a liner, but of coruse i dont know how much that is either. grateful for any light anyone can shed Maria

ok, so obviously nobody knows. lets try another one - what about wood cladding 'clin' - the stuff they make sheds out of. as long as there are no holes or anything to get a grip on (its tongue and grooved)does that meet the norme? as far as i can see from AFNOR site, wood is ok 'according to conditions' but it doesnt say what conditions. hope someone can help Maria

Have been worriedly following this debacle for ages. its crunch time for us now as we have bookings in our house for July. We have our fence posts in place but no panels as yet and no gate. We want soemthing see-through, but cant afford safety glass. my question is whether sheets of polycarboante or plastic or PVC will meet the standards as long as they are secruely battoned to the posts all the way round and at least 1.20 metres high. I have been to the AFNOR site but with my poor command of the language am uanbel to deduce for sure whether this is ok or not. if anybody thinks it IS ok, then i would welcome ideas on where to get hold of such stuff here in France. Thanks in advance Maria

sorry, Im asking this question on behalf of my husband.Our house doesn't have a soil stack vent. We are putting in an upstairs bathroom and dont know whether to just connect the loo to the existing soil pipe which goes to the fosse septic or to vent the pipe above the gutter level like in UK. If we don't put a soil pipe vent in, then is there a danger of buildup of fumes like in the Uk, or is this only because of being on main sewage in the UK? what happens to the build up of fumes here then? grateful to know if anyone else with septic tank systems has got soil vent pipe or not. thanks Maria

after much digging we have discovered that our black and grey water flow down separate pipes which run parallel until you get to the septic tank. There the black water pipe goes into the tank which miraculously appears to be working properly and doesnt smell. the other pipe, the grey water, just er... ends and flows out into the ground (this is about two foot down) The ground in question is a 10 foot square clump of bamboo, also hiding the fosse itself. if we run alot of water, the ground does get very boggy (obviously). any suggestions or ideas as to what we need to do? ie leave well alone, put a tank in - how big, what sort, how , is it legal etc and finally, the distasteful question of what happens to the 'bits' that go down the sink? Maria

can anyone shed any light as to why the french tend to use a chauffe eau to heat the water electrically (on the cheap rate)rather than use the boiler which is often standing nearby ?? puzzled Maria

Having done various searches on this forum general advice seems to be thatit is best to fill in a tax return here whether one thinks one has a tax liability or not, for various reasons. Can anyone help with where or how i can get the forms? and when they must be filled in by? Presume they say on them where to send them to after completion thanks in advance maria