Tuesday 17 March 2009

The hills and the doorway

A dull (weather-wise) Sunday, until mid afternoon when I heard footsteps clumping up the stairs. I was thinking, who wants to complain about what? As the knock on the door sounded. I opened the door and it was hyperactive man and one of his daughters. He asked if it was possible to get a cup of coffee, so I set about making him a cup and getting a blackcurrant juice for his
daughter. The daughter (probably about 12 years old) is learning French, but as usual it was almost impossible to get an English word out of a young lady who is timide. Hyperman went on to tell me about a heating system that I could install for the whole house to heat all the flats. It would only cost me 7 thousand euros and I would be able to put up the rents, as they would no longer be paying separate heating bills. I would even get money back from the government or doing it…. As I am only looking for 2 radiators for my flat and for the unoccupied little studio on the ground floor, one and perhaps a heated towel rail or wall mounted wall heater for its shower / toilet room, this is rather ambitious…. And costly.
Coffee drunk, we went down to the little studio and he poked about a bit and measured the window with a view for a double glazed unit to replace the existing one.
Then it was down the garden path to the small outbuilding with imminent tumbledown status.
This would take him 2 or three days to complete, once the existing one is dismantled. He described the shape of the building. I reminded him that I wanted a window as well… and a door. “A door?” he said, shocked. Yes, I said I would need to get into it. “But a door will be expensive, he said…
So it is still a mystery how he thought I would get my lawnmower in and out for example with no door. Perhaps he thinks I just want an opening, with no security for the contents.
Hyperactive man is returning with costings etc and perhaps a ventilation expert sometime this weekend.
Monday and it was time to take S back to the airport for her flight home. For the first time I got there and back without going off piste accidentally. The view of the snow-capped Midi Pyrenees as I drove back home, was pretty spectacular. For once the mountain chain was not capped in mist, so it was interesting to see where the peaks ended and the sky began, for the first time.
It was time to keep busy, so when I reached home I gave the grass its first cut, and swept and washed the main stairs of the house. I now have to get used to living on my own again for a while.

2 comments:

  1. omg, if that pic is the pic of the outbuilding... for SHAME, it is lovely. I wish I had it on my property, I could never chuck it down.... why I could turn it into an artsy retreat slash storage area slash sauna slash ... well you get my drift. heavens on earth why do you want to tear it asunder?

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  2. It has holes in the roof and walls. The roof is sagging and on the point of collapse. I am looking forward to replacing it with something pretty in plastic

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