June, 2016 – Graham Miln

The Roof Begins – Part 6.0

The roof has begun. We learn more than usual in our latest site meeting. Details about tiles, electrics, and the telephone connection all become clear.

Credits
Transcript

Good morning. We are off for our sixth on-site meeting. Today we are taking the bus again because the trains still are not trustworthy. The strike seems to be coming to an end but the timetables are not, are still in flux.

It means a very long day. It is about seven o’clock in the morning now and we doubt we will get in our door by maybe ten tonight.

Still tempting but no time for that today.

Like last time, we are going to be taking the bus from Lyon, here, to Clermont-Ferrand and picking up the car and driving the rest of the way. Hopefully this time the car will be were we think it is and it will all go to plan.

And we are back in Clermont-Ferrand. We do not have too much time here. Got to take a bus now and try to, well take another bus.

This time we are going to go the right car rental address even though are current voucher says the old address. Which we learnt last week is closed.

Little bit tight for time but we do have enough time to stop in at the local supermarket for some lunch. Our plan is to have the meeting and then eat on site.

OK, we have just had the meeting. That went really well. There is a lot happening this week. Again, I know. I say it every week but I am going to keep saying it because a lot is happening.

So we have some wood going up in the, I suppose the roof structure, the roof trusses we saw last time have now been put in place. We are told that the windows and the doors are all going in next week. And they are going to make the place water tight in a week or two.

Yes, in the middle of next week potentially.

So, at least in a couple of weeks it will be water tight and we have a bit to do at that stage. Which is, we have to organise special insurance at that point because it is kind of a house then.

The window sills have gone in. That is a big step. They were waiting for those last time. So it is great to see them in place.

With the window sills in place, we can now see a lot of things like the depth of the walls. We can get a bit of an idea of how thick the plaster is going to be. How deep the internal sort of insulation; not really plasterboard but the final wall we will have to deal with actually is.

In France, everything is flush inside the house. The window does not have a window sill. Not inside at least. That is all on the outside. Bit different.

So our last visit we had one poppy. This visit we have a lot more.

The house is progressing really well.

Yes, it is great. The roof trusses have gone up since last week.

It helps give much more of a feel to how much space is in the house.

Yes.

That’s good. We have learnt a little about the log burner and some of the air circulation, ventilation, needed for that.

We know that next time we have to be prepared for the electrics. Tile choices? Or close with the tile choices?

Close with the tile choices. I do not think we need them for next week.

OK.

Soon.

So for me the big one, getting the electrics right is a bit of a task but we are most of the way there. That will be OK.

Renault Twingo today. Not a bad car. Not fast. Not powerful but not bad.

OK, that is the car dropped off. Now we have a few hours to spend in Clermont-Ferrand. Lets see what is there.

We have just braved the Free telecom shop to find out about getting Internet connected to our new home.

We have tried phoning them and sending them letters but they have never given us a clear answer. So it turns out we have to deal with Orange. Which is the sort of equivalent to Telstra or British Telecom depending on which country you are in and they get the line connected. And once we have a line connected, we transfer over to Free. So that is lot of good news.

Good to know.

Yes. We have found out the process. So that is half the battle.

That is some good things done. I am glad we have got the Free, the telecom people, sorted. Knowing that we have to go to Orange first rules out an extra journey here in the future.

Having the house progress just coming on so fast is also great but I will be glad when the trains are running because these afternoons are feeling a bit long here.

And we are back in Lyon.

It has been a long day. Bus was a little delayed but we are back and we have achieved everything we wanted to.

It is good.

See you next time.