The fruits of our labour...

Lovely apples ripening on our trees...

The wailing wall...

Why the wailing wall? Because there was a lot of wailing, moaning and cursing! We wanted to use the remenants of all the left over bricks from the walls we had knocked down to brick up the old door-way from the living room to the hall-way. It wasn't fun but by the time it's plastered hopefully it will look fine...

Chalet Claes open for business...

Well our garage was already full of fire wood so we needed somewhere else to stock fire wood and miscellaneous bits and pieces of wood...enter the 'chalet!' The feet were sunk into concrete and the main beams were part of the old roof frame from the house. The roof plates are gavanised steel we bought second hand for 50euros, the floor was constructed of pallets (free!), and we where given the fence panel which is on the rain end of the chalet (thanks Marco & Antonella :) ) You can't make it out on the picture but along the left hand side and back of the chalet are two layers of chicken wire to stop the wood from falling out. All in all the most expensive thing was the Hammerite paint for the roof and the sealant for the wooden pieces but the neighbourhood cats are happy that they have somewhere to play and we can sit dry in the garden when it's raining...

Rub a dub dub...

This is the Cambridge Bath that we have just ordered from the very helpful http://www.thebathstore.co.uk/ for the killer price of 400euro! This is of course without the taps. You have a choice of two types of feet, same style but either black cast iron or paintable resin. We took the resin partially because we couldn't agree on which colour we liked, Koen prefered black, I prefered white or silver. Maybe one of each? The bath itself is a sandwich of acrylic and steel plate and weighs less than a cast iron tub but about three times as much as a modern bath. It's been delivered to my lovely Nan's in the UK on 22/7 and we will be bringing it back with us when we come back from the UK on the 2/8. How? On the roof rack of course! With the Seafrance ferry service between Calais and Dover. Pics will follow assuming we get it back safely, we will be taking lots and lots of blankets, sheets, ropes and loading straps. It sure will be a sight to behold!

Open sesame!

The faint red lines are where the three new openings in the walls will be...
These are the reinforced lintels which 'should' be strong enough to support the upper floors...
Pneumatic drill in action!
The new lintels are cemented in and left to dry for one week...
After marking out with an angle grinder we can begin to knock away bricks...
It's already a lot lighter...

Finishing off...

I've got gas...

The gas company finally came to lay the gas pipes and install the gas meter.

Koen digging the trench...

Gas being connected to main gas line in the street...

The new gas pipe exiting through the foundations of the house...
New gas meter...