Crooked House

A country life in France

It’s about time that we settled in

When we were house-hunting in France, the Crooked Man was certain that he did not wish to spend his time doing DIY. All of his tools and materials were sold when we left Orkney and we picked the Crooked House as one that had all of its major works done and was immediately habitable. We could have bought far cheaper and had some work to do but we wanted our freedom to travel.

The fact remains that the Crooked House was a work in progress when we took it on. It has remained a work in progress, apart from the fact that we have done no work and nothing progresses – we have been far to busy exploring France and much of Europe.

Well, here we are, locked down again, unable to travel and in need of something constructive to do. Thus it was that we headed off to Mr. Brico today.

The stairs and the back bedroom are boarded but not yet plastered. The lighting is woefully inadequate and really needs addressing as we have put the little back “bedroom” into use as office cum upstairs sitting room. We have a desk, computer and printer in there, along with our WiFi hub and file server. We added a two seater sofa and we sometimes sit in there to watch films or Netflix TV on the computer screen. We get by, but most people would have sorted it out long before now.

I don’t use the computing facility and I don’t get in there very often to clean or tidy. It’s a tip and very, very dusty. The problem is that I find it claustrophobic (low ceiling, no windows – just a skylight) and I also have a thing about the spiders… Going in to watch TV with the Crooked Man at hand to fight off the beasties is one thing, willingly going in to clean or to file… well, that’s quite another matter.

A proper tip!

Unexpectedly, the Crooked Man has announced an intent to tackle it. We have been unable to secure anyone to come and plaster it for us but he has come to learn that plastering plaster board isn’t absolutely necessary. The plan is to tape the joints, seal the boards, and paint straight on to them. That will be good enough for us. Better than waiting three more years to find somebody who is able to plaster it for us, anyway.

I shall be very happy when all of the spidery entry points are finally sealed! You should see the SIZE of the buggers! Ugh.

Today we purchased all the tape, sealer, filler, masking tape, paint and brushes etc. to make a basic job of it. We also invested in some natural white LED downlighters so that we have proper light in there to work by.

This is not the only room that is lit like this but it’s the one that we are tackling first

Whilst I sit here being useless and updating the blog with pictures of “before”, the Crooked Man is taking apart his Millennium Falcon and storing all of the Lego bricks in his newly-purchased storage drawers.

The room is very small and shouldn’t take long to knock into shape. It’s so small that I couldn’t get far enough back to take an encompassing photograph. Hopefully we shall have the “after” shots by the time that we are free to go and roam again.

I love having that date on the beam

I am hoping to have some mood lighting in there as well – for telly watching and snuggles and all those beams offer an opportunity for mounting something discreet, I hope.

Due to the very small proportions of this room, we are going to paint it white. I shall be looking out for some nice art to brighten up the walls. Well, when I say we, I probably mean he – there’s not much room in there for two to work together.

Tomorrow we move everything out and into our bedroom, all bar the desk that is too large to shift anywhere. We bought a proper dust sheet for covering that up. I shall need to take out the filing drawers so that we can move the desk around the room more easily. Perhaps I should finally tackle that filing!

NTS: Shopping list

  • Pictures for walls
  • Large map of France ditto
  • Mood lighting
  • Skylight blind
  • Desk lamp
  • BOOKCASE!!!!

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