Skye

Around 60E per square meter I understand. How much you can do in a day depends on the day but I figured around 4-5 sq meters a day this summer. Maybe more if you work flat out.

Definitely rake out the joints before repointing. If they are deep fill in with small stones before pointing. Mist the joint so it's not dry then insert the new mortar.

You're right that the tar will leach through the lime render. When this happened with my wall backing on to the chimney I used a traditional method which has been very successful. Get some fresh cow dung, mix it with water till its the consistency of melted ice cream, paint it on the wall and let it dry. Your subsequent coat of lime/sand plaster should be half mixed with the same mixture and the subsequent two coats should be the usual lime plaster mix. I know it sounds odd but it is the method used in many countries successfully for sealing in tar/soot. And, it neither smells nor is unpleasant to use, contrary to what you might think. Also cheap as chips. There's an excellent thread on the Green Building Forum where I picked up the info in the first place ; the only caution is that the manure must be fresh as its the mucus in it which acts as a sealer...Best of luck.

Connolls - Lime based paint (le badigeon a la chaux) are reasonably priced and often manufactured by St. Astier.  Galtane is another brand but they have more limited distribution in France. You can also make your own quite easily from hydrated lime which is available at most bricos; I've done this for most rooms in the house except for kitchens and bathrooms (as they're not easily washable) and the result is a soft, opaque matt finish. If you'd like more info please pm me. (I don't have any commercial interest in this needless to say).

teapot - if your walls are lime plastered and they're in reasonable shape - it's not such a good idea to paint with emulsion as this will prevent the walls from 'breathing' i.e. the emulsion will create an impermeable barrier and prevent the house (I assume it's old) from controlling damp in the way it was intended to do. There's plenty of breathable paints around including limewash or lime based paints or casein paints, all of which can be coloured and are not difficult to paint on, as well as having the advantage of being non-toxic and easy to clean up after.

Sorry if I wasn't clear - I've never actually used WIFI but I notice that the little icon on the tool bar is occasionally on but most often off. I assumed this was because we are very rural and the signal might be very poor. The regular internet connection (ADSL) however is brilliant. So I don't exactly understand why wifi would work better than the internet....

Thanks - this sounds useful except for the fact that WIFI very seldom seems to work around here (deep rural). Is there any other way to do it?

I'm taking my computer travelling this summer while friends move into the house with their own laptops. Can someone explain to me how they will set their computers up on my Orange account? Is it just a matter of  installing the software and connecting to the Livebox? But if it is, does that mean they'll have access to my mail? I'm clearly confused about this but would appreciate some advice....

I notice that the Book Depository is still providing free delivery to France as of today's date. Does this suggest it just hasn't heard of the ruling yet?

Hi Geranium - I can't find the details of the place near Rodez however I know I located it by googling 'Galtane' and working from there. It was great stuff for a fine final finish and came ready mixed (and therefore  not cheap). But having since also repointed several internal stone walls with lime    (Terracal (sp?) (Point P standard)  I would definitely recommend the Terracal for price and easiness (it requires mixing with water) if you're planning small areas of pointing and don't want to be bothered by buying sand as well as lime. For limewashing the walls plain chaux from the bricos is fine and simply involves mixing with water and leaving for a couple of days before you use it. (A 12 Euro bag will give you more than 100 litres of limewash!). It gives a lovely matt finish and can be coloured with pigments usually available from the Bio-marches (there's one in Albi and another in Rodez that I know of) or alternatively ordering it from any of the many lime places in the UK. For straightforward advice on how to make your own try:  www.breckland.gov.uk/limewash_advice_sheet.pdf  For expert ongoing discussion on why and how to use different types of lime i.e. hydrated and hydraulic (as well as numerous other interesting bits about renovating old houses sympathetically) try www.periodproperty.co.uk which I find really helpful ...

St. Astier Lime (old and famous in the lime line) is in the Dordogne but may have distributors elsewhere. When I searched for lime render last summer, I eventually tracked down someone near  Rodez who ran a small business distributing Eco-home products and I managed to get enough  for the relatively small amount I needed. Alternatively, knocking your own up is not very difficult, cheaper and there's plenty of information around re how to do so...

I had the same situation a few years ago, trying to introduce  two smallish kittens to my existing cat. My vet at the time advised keeping them apart as cats don't willingly accept other cats into their territory and she said it wouldn't be unusual for the older cat to try to kill them. So I kept them in a separate room - the older cat used to sit outside their door and hiss but eventually got used to their scent and when I eventually had them meet face to face (a month or more later) they tolerated each other though never became too friendly. It may be best to wait until they're a little bigger before they meet unless you can supervise very closely.

them in her tiny hameau which has no shop to speak of but only a rusty bread oven in which....

From what you say they sound rather admirable in an awful sort of way... does this mean resistance is futile?? But I still want to know how one knows if its THEM or just rats for instance?

My neighbours have been telling me that loirs (which I think are some kind of dormouse)  are really detrimental but very common in attics. Now that I've started renovating the grenier I've found a lot of droppings which are too large for mice and I'm wondering if the loirs have been making themselves at home in the walls. Anyone have any experience of these critters and how I might first identify them and then get rid of them (if I have them)?

I'm not sure about the Phillipines but I do know about bringing pets in from outside the EU and Britain since I moved with my cats from Kenya in June.  I would first check with your vet re getting a chip since this is very likely to be required and if it can be done in Africa I'm sure it can be done in the Phillipines.  The next thing I did for the cats was to have the vet take blood samples which were then sent to an approved (i.e. Schengen-country) lab in France to ensure that the blood titre levels of the rabies vaccine were high enough - if your dog has had his shots, then this is likely though not guaranteed. When all this paperwork was done, I took the cats to the vet the day before we left and he provided a health certificate saying they were fine. As it turned out the customs officials in Toulouse didn't even bother looking at all the paperwork (but of course they would have wanted it if I hadn't had it). So... I would suggest you get in touch with the French Embassy first and confirm all this with them - they have some standard paperwork that outlines the procedures for non-EU countries. Good luck! and start early as the whole process took me several months.

You could decide to paint over the chaux which will ordinarily come off with a stiff brushing BUT it would be a pity to do so if you want to maintain the original character of your home. Chaux does breathe and is the best covering for old walls since it moves slightly with the movement of the house, is a natural fungicide and is very inexpensive if you need to re-do it again in a few years. It does have the drawback of being slightly chalky if it isn't applied properly in the first place but in low use areas like bedrooms I don't find this any problem, and in any case you can buy ready made chaux with added ingredients such as casein which improve adherence. If you're interested there's a number of good sites in the UK that explain chaux (limewash), one being periodproperty.co.uk  (which is also brilliant for a lot of other topics related to preserving and restoring old houses).

Sorry can't help you with recommending a roofer but can recommend someone in Mirandol who does language classes mostly for Brits which would allow you to meet some - . Just PM me if you like. More Brits around than you might think - I'm near Tanus on the way to Requista - are you close?

I've been finding puffballs springing up under my oak trees at the back of the garden this week. Seems to only take a few days and  a lovely ostrich-egg sized one or two appear as if overnight -  lovely in soups or lightly breaded and fried up in thick slices. And even for a beginner you can hardly go wrong in identifying them as long as you slice them straight through the top to ensure they haven't any gills or other signs of Amanitas inside.

An interesting thread for me since I was just at the vet to check the regs and it seemed all too easy given my circumstances. I brought my cats from Kenya in June with all relevant documentation and plan to take them on to England in January. The vet here tells me that its sufficient to bring them in to get their tick treatment etc. a day before and he will issue their pet passports, therefore complying with the 24-48 hour rule provided I get to the ferry in time. But since their last rabies shot was in Kenya in March 2006 (therefore won't have expired), similarly their blood titre test (sent to France from Kenya therefore an "approved" lab) 1) they won't have a French rabies shot and 2) more importantly (?) there's no proof that they've been in France for 6 months since they weren't stamped or anything when they entered through the Toulouse airport.  Does this sound to anyone like they're going to have a problem entering England? I do remember a post a while back indicating that they had to be in France for at least 6 months but how can I prove this? Any ideas?

When I  inherited two kittens  at  10 weeks who hadn't been  handled I spent some time  on the net  learning about how to  tame feral kittens and learned that there is a critical stage (about  12  weeks) after which it will become very difficult to handle them so... I would  suggest  that you try to  pat them and get them used to being handled and to taking food from you. I  did it by keeping them in separate cages for a few weeks and feeding them  by hand (with garden gloves on) so that they would  get used to hands coming towards them and also so that they would learn to bond with humans rather than just with each other (which will keep them feral). It took some time but now they are lovely domesticated cats albeit a bit shy still but since yours are younger you have a better chance of success at fully domesticating them I think. Good luck

I thought about it but when the estate agent suggested a local architect to go over the house with me and ask as many questions as I liked - I took that option instead. All in all we spent about two hours in the house for which he charged me 75E - it was very useful as he pointed out a number of problems I wouldn't have noticed and answered the questions I had. So - reassuring and pretty inexpensive - ended up buying the house and have no regrets. Of course this route depends on your asking a lot of questions and being willing to live with not having anything in writing, but as noted above getting any recompense in any case would be a long shot.

I've  been trying to find out where to get this in France without luck. I believe in French its 'huile de bois de chine'. Does anyone know where it might be found? Anyone used it for sealing stone floors?