For quite some time now we have been trying to put up
polystyrene insulation on the ceiling of the cave. As it is the same area as the lower floor of the house, there
is rather a lot of ceiling to cover and we are not the best DIY’ers. Also, in mitigation,
we have had numerous guests, as I have already told you, and I have been unable
to help. So the work has proceeded slowly with one or two guests, and Courtney,
being roped in to help put up another sheet. This Wednesday though, with only
ourselves in the house and no need to remake beds for anyone soon and with the
Madame feeling strong enough to do some stretching and holding, we thought it a
good opportunity to get on with the job. In the end we made very good progress
and put up three whole sheets. To all the experienced DIY’ers, you can just
stop your sneering right now! Let me explain why. First of all the walls of the
cave are raw stone so they do not
have flat surfaces to deal with; the ceiling area has beams which support the
floorboards above and it is on to these that the insulation has to be screwed;
allowance has to be made for anything that projects below that level, like
light fittings etc, and the ceiling is normal height above the floor. Take that
all into consideration.
The insulation sheets that we are using are not heavy but
are just over two metres long and sixty centimetres wide. They are quite floppy
and need to be handled by two people or they will crack and break off. Now
picture this….. we haven’t any trestles so to cut the lengths they are balanced
on the rounded top of a three-step kitchen step-ladder and a v-shaped towel rail which folds flat if you
close the ‘V’. I stretch across the board and clutch it to me to try and stop
it shifting while Neels saws the necessary piece off. It rocks back and forth
and I also have to keep an eye on that towel rail to stop in folding up underneath
the board. We are now a bit smarter about the next step, which is to cut out
the required notches for protruding bits and pieces, and it was soon done.
Getting it fixed to the ceiling beams is the hardest part.
Neels stands on the little ladder and grabs one end while I support the other
end with a rubber-bristled broom. The stuff has a mind of its own and twists
and turns as if it wants to escape, while the broom slips from side to side,
with me pretty much at full stretch. The boards are a tongue-and-grooved type,
so once we have them up in the air we then have to slide the tongue into the
grove of the previous one, a process which is quite delicate as a misstep could
result in the tongue breaking off. All the while this wretched slippery piece
of board keeps trying to do just the opposite of what we want.
Add to all of this the fact that the cave is in use and has a lot of stored cartons, among other things,
in it, as well as the washing machine, also that part of it has been
partitioned off to create Neels’ workshop. All obstacles to getting the job
done quickly and smoothly. But fear not………it will be done!! There are about two
long sheets still to go and then six shorter pieces.
Earlier in the week Andre left, on a rather convoluted route
to Amsterdam where he was to continue his business trip. We took him down to
Toulouse on a grey and miserable day and were alarmed to notice the electronic
overhead notice boards on the motorway announcing a ‘Traffic alert – storms’.
Really? How bad could they be? It was drizzling a bit when we got to the
airport and we had to use umbrellas to get to the terminal building, but
nothing serious. About an hour later, when we left, the rain had stopped so we heaved a sigh of relief and thought we
had missed the worst. Not so! About ten kilometres from Toulouse we ran into
the first storm. The traffic was heavy, the road busy but the rain was
literally like someone emptying a bucket over us. You couldn’t see a thing!
Luckily the French motorist is fairly well schooled and everyone immediately slowed
down and put their hazard lights on, but it was still pretty scary. It only
lasted for a few minutes but it was really frightening. And then we hit the next
storm! This time we realised that it was relatively unlikely that some crazy
driver would try to come roaring past at top speed and managed to cope with the
pelting rain, which again only lasted for a couple of minutes. The heavy black
cloud continued to follow us for quite a way but luckily we had no more rain
until Saturday when we had a violent thunderstorm with enormous raindrops that
sounded like hailstones on the windows. Fortunately, that too passed over
fairly soon and we were able to go and do some shopping in the relative dry.
On Sunday we were disturbed around mid-morning with the
sound of revving engines, an unusual sound in our quiet little village. On
investigating we found a number of vintage motor-cycles parked in the square
and still more arriving. They were on their way to a display of vintage
machines in Villefranche in the
afternoon and apparently there would be upwards of forty in the complete
display. The youngest machine was about 5 years old and the oldest was one
hundred and five years old. The riders were all very proud of their trusty
steeds and were willing to show them off to anyone who was interested.
In the afternoon we drove into Villeneuve to see what was
going on at the Giant Antique fair and Car Boot Sale. It was certainly giant and
stretched almost right around the town. I bought a DVD of the French version of
Brother Bear, hoping it has English subtitles or even English as an option.
Cheating, I know, but I was prepared to risk a Euro on it. Neels bought a set
of masonry drills that look completely unused, for 2 Euros and Courtney treated
herself to some Candy Floss, known here as Father’s Beard, also for 2 Euros.
Talk about the last of the big spenders!
No comments:
Post a Comment