MimieMM

Thanks for letting me post the cry for help. We have managed to get a French builder to do the work now but by jingo, it is very difficult and frustrating waiting finding someone who will do it and then waiting for ever for quotes etc. I think the French should appreciate we want to employ them but they do take for ever and sometimes don't turn up...........still love em though! Down here the wine growers may be in trouble but the builders are doing pretty well.

Is there anyone living in the Pezenas, Aspiran, Nizas or Gignac area that could help my husband for a couple of days replace a large beam under a floor? You can agree what you are prepared to do it for when you see him/the job in hand. He is in the house in France now so please respond asap. We cannot wait for another year for a French native and dare not risk putting a fireplace on top of this floor at the present moment.

We have had difficulty finding a plasterer able to cope with plastering a very old, bowed ceiling. Eventually, we did manage to find someone through our plumber. He is "very good" according to our plumber but has put in a quote of between 2,500 to nearly 3,000 for what is a moderate sized room (we have taken nearly all of the old plaster off and wonder if he is charging excessively for the removal of the rest - he does not stipulate the dimensions of anything on his quote). He has loads of work and it is obviously hard to find craftsmen who are not insisting on using modern plasterboard - it would not work on this celing anyway! Can anyone out there advise us as to whether this is an excessive quote?