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Thanks for the replies - it was the word arret that had me worried as my first instinct was 'stop' but it makes sense that this is a look at the account at a moment in time, as suggested.  I will try to set up an online account and see if that helps.

Not sure this is the right section, but we've just had a water bill from Veolia entitled Facture d'arret de compte. This follows me providing a meter reading lower than the previous estimate Veolia used. It's a holiday home and we didn't visit last year so haven't used water. I'm concerned that arret might mean they are closing the account and cutting off the water. Can anyone help?

Thanks for your responses. We can't get there to deal with them ourselves so our feeling is just to leave them. The neighbours are far enough away, and who says there isn't another nest somewhere? It doesn't sound as if we HAVE to get them removed, it would just be a neighbourly thing to do. I guess we haven't spent any money traveling out there this year though 100 euros for frelon nest is expensive, unless our neighbours know a local handyman who would give them a squirt one evening.

One of our nearest neighbours (100yds away) has reported that there are frelons going in and out of one of our barns and wants us to get the nest 'seen to' - apparently they have had a few going into their house.  We have had a nest in there before, and used one of the powerful aerosols you can buy (the ones that have a range of about 6m and cost about 15 or 20 euros) in the evening and that got rid of them. Obviously we can't get over there at the moment, and no-one should be too close so I feel we can just leave them alone and they'll die off later in the year, but do we have to get them dealt with? Also, we are on good terms with these neighbours and know that they keep a watchful eye on our house, so we're in two minds about asking them to help. How much might it cost to get someone in, now that the pompiers don't do it any more.

Hi all, Finally using the Lidl emulsion recommended and it is great. One coat has covered the wall really well (apart from painter errors) and we have some spare. Hope it keeps till we need to do the next bit, or maybe it'll come home to the UK. Thanks for the recommendation. Lynne

Thanks, that does show everything quite well. It also confirms that we need Droite openers. 

Thanks for the prompt reply. As these are existing openings in thick masonry walls, we haven't got that option. It looks as if we'll need an opening slightly bigger than the 73/83, but some of that 46mm will be the rebate for the door to sit into. Knowing that the 72/93 are the depth, I think we'll probably go for the bigger one as that will give us more surface on the outside of the frame to fix to the wall of the opening. We'd like to get the doors fitted before the plasterer starts work.

Hi, We're looking to buy a couple of internal doors with frames which will fit into an opening, not onto the edge. Can someone help with sizing. When a size is quoted as 73 or 83cm, is that the size of the actual door itself. There are two options for the frame - 72*46 or 93*46 - can someone help with which dimension is which as quoted. I'm guessing that the 46mm is the depth through from one side of the door/frame to the other and the 72 or 93 is the width So if we bought an 83 door , what size opening would we need for each of the different frames? Thanks, Lynne

Thanks for the prompt response. We're at home, but my parents live out in France so I have dispatched them to pick me up a couple of tubs from their local branch.

Good to see such a positive recommendation. They also have a Kitchen and Bathroom one. Have you used that? We have a large high-ceilinged kitchen-diner to paint (4m*7m) - do you think I  ought to use K/B paint in the whole room?

Does anyone know the best (cheapest) way to get some euros in cash out of our french bank account while we are here in the UK?  We're with Credit Agricole Aquitaine if that info helps.

We asked at our mairie when we wanted to reinstate a window back to the door it had obviously been before and were told we didn't need to do anything. I don't think we mentioned which side of the house it was on. Our house backs directly onto a (very minor) road and all the doors/windows are on the opposite side overlooking only vineyards. Does that mean we could add another window without permission? I thought we had to get permission if we changed the outside appearance but could do what we wanted inside!   

I know this is an old thread but it seems appropriate. We need to dryline an old wall and intend to use the metal railing system to support the plasterboard, but our wall is almost 3.7 metres high - ie 1 and a half sheets of plasterboard. Do we add a back-to-back set of the floor/ceiling rails at 2/3 up then continue up? Will this be stable enough if we back-to-back the uprights? Or are extra-long uprights available so we don't need any intermediate cross-rails? Any advice would be appreciated.   

Hi,   Can anyone recommend a plasterer in 47 - specifically 47230. We need both internal block wall and old stone wall doing, though just in one room for now. It wouldn't be until our next visit, which is likely to be September, but knowing how long these things take.......   Thanks, Lynne  

Thanks for the replies. As mentioned, I don't think we can fit a VMC in the kitchen, as we've nowhere to hide the ducting - unless anyone can come up with something. Does anyone know whether it's possible to have a cooker hood when the ceiling is 5 metres high?? The shower room won't have a window, which is why we thought of an extractor through the wall. The bathroom will have a window, but we thought we'd have an extractor too.  

Hi all, We're really only at the planning stage for our house in France and I'm starting to think about plumbing/electrics/kitchen/bathroom. The kitchen diner is a large room, open to the rafters so there is nowhere to run the ducts. I rather fancy the hob in the island unit I'm hoping for, but the roof is about 5 metres high so I'm not sure we can even fit a hood of any sort. Any suggestions? Is a VMC system obligatory??  The house is long and thin (5m * 25m) so any ducting would be in quite long runs and impossible to hide in the single-storey half.. We've made a start on a small shower room and thought we could put an extractor fan through the wall to outside, and do the same for the bathroom (when we eventually extend into the barn and install one). I look forward to any comments. Lynne

I recently contacted SoftyCrofty (thanks) re this book, as we are about to start rewiring our place. We may well use a local electrician for some of the work, but it will be good to understand the subject first. He provided the following links for a current copy.   http://www.sendspace.com/file/uvobt9http://speedy.sh/dfgk9/all-pages-in-one.pdfhttp://snk.to/f-cunq7f5k As he has said before, rather large. Lots of studying for us to do before our next trip!!  

Thanks for the prompt responses but you haven't quite given me the info I wanted. Perhaps I haven't explained it well enough. We know that when we contact EDF to get the supply moved/upgraded, we might end up with a new meter outside but for now the power comes in through the front wall where there is the EDF connection and a very old meter, followed by a switch we use to put the power on and off and then there's a single socket wired in. We use this with an extension lead to run the fridge & kettle and occasional tools - very limited use but it makes the house 'habitable'. If we contact EDF, I suspect we will have our supply disconnected!  What we'd like to do is replace the single socket with an appropriate tableau  but locate this on the other side of the hall, approx 2-3m away and start all the wiring from there. That will mean a long wire from the disjoncteur to the tableau - is that allowed? We're doing the renovation bit-by-bit so will probably only wire up a couple of habitable rooms, plus shower room to start with.  I'm sure that when we start to get any devis, the electrician will be able to answer these questions, but we'd like to make a head-start on planning where gaine might need to go, etc. If we have the tableau beside the current meter position, then every set of wiring will need that extra 2-3m of length as the plan is to run all cables along one side of the house.

Hi, We're renovating a property in the south-west and we're starting to think about the electrics. The electricity currently comes into the house at the front and the EDF meter, etc is just inside the hallway. However we are hoping (in the long-term) to have that moved to the back. Due to that, we'd like to have the tableau at the other side of the room to the meter - between 2m and 3m away - so that we won't have to have it moved when we eventually cough up that fortune to EDF to have the pole moved. Is that possible? Can anyone help with the rules around this? Thanks, Lynne

Many thanks for the recommendations. We usually drive but this time we're flying out for just a few days.

Can anyone recommend a car hire firm at Bordeaux airport? Internet searches bring up a myriad of companies and trying to work out which to choose is difficult. It would be good to have a personal recommendation - of one that is a long-established company and one that doesn't add loads of charges at the last minute. Many Thanks

Thanks for the replies - good to know we can get the soil testers to sort out the plans, etc. Difficult to do it ourselves when we're not there. I've obviously not got the whole thing right just yet, who is SIVOM? What do they do, and what do SPANC do??

Sorry to post another fosse query, but I've searched and haven't found the information I need. Can someone help me with a simple list of the basic steps in getting a fosse installed. I know the first step is to get a soil test, and that this is obligatory to determine the type of fosse we need. We've got a couple of names for this so will be arranging that soon. What comes next? Do we have to submit plans before we start anything? To the Mairie? To SPANC? We're planning to get someone to install the tank and filter bed for us, so I assume if the answer to the above is yes, we can expect them to provide the necessary plans (and if we pay them more, get them to deal with submitting them, etc). Once it's all installed, I'm sure we need get an inspection in order to get the appropriate paperwork - again, we'd like to get the installer to arrange this. Have I got it right? Is there anything I've missed?

Thanks for the reply eric - sounds as if we'll be okay with lead, which we can bring out with us from the UK, though can you explain what you mean by 'pactivated with acid'. OH used lead on our current house in the UK and I don't remember him treating it in any way.

We'll be out in France again in September to work on the next part of our roof. This contains the chimney, and will need flashing. Zinc seems to be the norm in France. Is there any reason not to use lead?? What are the pro's and con's of each?