Bountiful Autumn
It’s been nearly a year now since I bought Nettie and started writing this blog. It’s passed quickly – I can’t believe it’s autumn again. Although the Cotentin is quite mild, the leaves have started to fall and the tourists have nearly all departed; just a few stragglers rock up each weekend in their camper vans to enjoy the seafood and sunshine. The fields and hedges around Barfleur are full of bounty, from sloes and blackberries to cultivated vegetables, sometimes of enormous proportions.
Just a pumpkin the size of a small horse
Nettie’s renovation is progressing quickly under Stéphane’s direction. He’s full of creative ideas, from money-saving shortcuts that enhance the house, to small additions to the fit-out that will add personality and charm.
Not only that, he often arrives bearing gifts – this time a basket of goodies – three types of homemade preserves, bundles of different fresh herbs, and fat tomatoes and peppers from his organic garden. I couldn’t wish for a better builder, and it will be sad day when he packs in business for good. He’s exasperated by the high taxes on artisans in France, as well as the complexity involved in training the apprentices that would lighten his workload.
The bathroom is now pretty much finished, including – at Stéphane’s suggestion – the addition of coloured opaque glass panels overhead and in the sliding door. These will give some borrowed light inside the tiny space, and also provide a warm glow to illuminate the sitting room.
An updated before and after shot of what will be the sitting room, with the nearly completed bathroom
Stéphane’s installed the new windows on each floor, and is preparing the ground floor area so it’s ready for installation of the underfloor heating. It feels so clean, new and fresh already, barely recognisable from the rubble strewn mess of a month or so ago. He’s done a running repair on the front door too – it’s not really salvageable but we reckon we’ve bought a few more years before it will need to be replaced.
Ground floor progress
He’ll soon be leaving site to work on a second project for me, and I’ll be busy again inside Nettie, repointing walls, top coating windows and patching and skimming the lime plaster in the living room and stairwell up to the bedroom. I’ve not found any useful videos on how to repair lime plaster so I’m going to do my own step-by-step guide, and here’s the first video here for any of you planning your own project.
