Welcome to our new web page – Normandy Life – an opportunity for us to keep all our visitors up to date with what is happening at Le Deshayes.

Thursday 29 May 2008

Many apologies to our numerous readers - but - well, we have had a few hiccups. Not with the house renovations, they are moving on very nicely - no, it's everything else that seems to be ganging up on us!

During a recent visit to the UK to attend a wedding in Gretna Green we stopped for a night at a Travel Lodge. When we got up early ready for the long drive north we found some git had broken into the van and nicked my beautiful camera - hence no more progress photos for a while!!

Just to add to the stress levels the PC decided to join in on the fun and packed up - a software malfunction!! Fortunately a really kind friend spent many hours identifying the problem and reloading windows - you just don't need it!!

So, the house renovations ... the dining room is virtually finished and the work to the lounge is progressing well. The walls to the four rooms eventually came down and the rubble taken to the tip. This revealed the great size of the lounge and why we needed such a large oak beam to hold up the floor! It took six of us to lift it into place + Jo and our neighbour helping with the props. It is 28 x 22 cm section (about 12" x 10") and 4.5m (15') long - a real beast!! The smaller beam and supporting column were much easier to erect. Now that they have had their first coat of stain - to protect them from plaster marks - they look fantastic. We are now putting up the metal studwork, insulation and plasterboard, and expect to have it all painted and in use in two weeks time. Then we will finish off upstairs and the long snagging list!

As soon the camera problems are resolved we will get some up to date photos posted.

Thursday 13 March 2008

Well, we have really motored since our break in Ireland. It was great having our guests in the Gite, especially as they were over here to buy the building at the back of us - our Barn as we describe it, (even though it is a series of very old farm worker dwellings, possibly 500 years old!). Kay and Jerry will be converting it into their permanent home over the next 12 months and as our old nieghbours from Nottinghamshire, it will be good having them living next door again!

While they were here we started using our new kitchen - wonderful and so much better than the old gallery kitchen - but, now the Gite is empty we have moved back in and work continues apace. The kitchen walls are tiled and look great. An unusual colour, but it looks just right against the white units - a great choice by Jo!!!

Plinths and lighting pelmet still to go up, but nearly there. To keep things going and to stay ahead of the electrician, we have built the new wall to create a porch off the new dining room. It is a good size and doesn't detract from the space available for the dining table. Today I also demolished a heavy block wall in the downstairs toilet - a hard, dirty job but one that had to be done!! When we have cleared things up a bit I will photograph the porch and toilet alterations.

Monday 25 February 2008

We are in the middle of another bout of lovely weather - warm enough to eat our lunch outside yesterday! Loads of flowers in the road verges and the birds are singing their hearts out - just great! We had a wonderful weeks break in Ireland visiting our son Matt in Dublin and friends near Gorey. Matt took us to the west coast for a quick visit - breathtaking, especially Achill Island.

Matt and his proud Dad!

The break from renovating was much appreciated, but the hard work continues and we are just about to start to use our new kitchen. Excellent timing as we have guests in the Gite this week and have had to move back into our own house! The plumber finally did everything asked of him and the electrics are live - so no excuses, tomorrow we cook on our posh new cooker and start to fill up the cupboards. For those who have seen our old tiny galley kitchen we are sure you appreciate our joy!

One kitchen ready for use!

By the end of the week we will start fitting out the new dining room and downstairs toilet, a slightly easier job! It is all looking good.

Sunday 27 January 2008

What a lovely day - temperature around 12 degrees C, clear blue sky - fantastic. We went for a long walk along the deserted roads and saw some primroses out. Thought we would share them with you all!

Primroses or Primevère

Real progress has been made on the kitchen - the walls and ceiling are painted, the floor is tiled and the kitchen units are all put together and in place. Tomorrow we will level them all and start securing them to the walls and together. By the end of the week we will have the worktops cut and fitted and the wall tiling well on, if not finished!! Wow - it is actually looking like a real kitchen!

Kitchen cupboards now in place!

The rumour is that the plumber may turn up tomorrow to do the first fix in the kitchen and utility room. A bit slow in responding, but if he does appear we won't be too delayed and it is France after all - so why rush!

Monday 14 January 2008

After a excellent Christmas with our kids and a bout of the dreaded winter tummy upset, we are now back hard at work on the house renovations and happy to bring you up to date with progress - as requested by so many of our readers (well, okay, just Chris, thanks mate!!).

Jo and kids braving the cold wind on the beach at Creances!

We finally managed to get the plumber back to finish the bathroom and enjoyed the luxury of a first floor bathroom over Christmas! He is a great plumber - but way too busy!! The skirtings are all cut to size and are being stained and we still have some fittings to put up and the final colour to put on the walls - the white is just too stark!

Bathroom nearly there!

Progress in the kitchen has been just as dramatic. The opening through to the dining room has now got all four lintols installed and the acrow props have been removed - all safe and secure! The plasterboard has been fitted to the walls and joints are being filled ready for the paint - first coat by the end of the week. We also expect to start tiling the floor this week - now that'll be real progress! The utility room is a bit behind the kitchen, but we are dependant on the plumber again to complete the first fix in there before we can finish the plasterboarding. Hopefully we shall have a working kitchen by the end of the month!

Opening now complete!

We have moved into the Gite for a few weeks to have a break from the dust and turmoil - it is so nice to have a lovely kitchen and a comfortable lounge. Hopefully the house will be ready soon!!

Wednesday 5 December 2007

Excellent progress is being made - well, apart from our rather busy plumber that is! The shower is tiled and grouted, the plasterboard completed and the jointing nearly finished. The bathroom will be painted by the end of the weekend ready for the plumber to finish his work next week - fingers crossed he arrives!

Shower now tiled

In the kitchen the new windows are in and the opening into the dining room is progressing well. We have two of the huge oak lintols installed and are carefully removing the rest of the stone and mud ready to fit the remaining two lintols. Digging out the massive stones at the base of the wall was quite a task, but tomorrow we can concrete the last part of the steps down and start finishing off the sides of the opening with cement and stones. Strangely, we found a small toad hibernating inside the wall. It was about a foot up the wall in damp mud. How it got so far under the house and into the wall is a complete mystery! It is now settling down in new winter quarters in the garden!

The opening nearly there, with the floor above well supported!

Sunday 25 November 2007

Life in Le Deshayes is as good as ever. We are now well into the renovations of our own house and expect to have the new kitchen and upstairs bathroom ready for Christmas. It has been hard work these past few weeks. The kitchen will be in the old lean-to utility room on the end of our house. We had to first break up the old concrete floor that rocked – not worth keeping! – and then get the new drainage installed by our friendly, but busy, plumber before laying a new concrete floor. Fortunately we had two friends come over and help mix the concrete.

The concrete floor being laid.

Whilst that was curing we started the work in the smallest of the upstairs bedrooms to convert it into a bathroom. All the walls have either been lined with timber stud walls to accommodate pipe-work or insulated plasterboard to help keep it warm and condensation free. We are including a large 90cm square shower – well, after the tiny ones we have used since we brought the house six years ago we thought we deserved a touch of luxury! The plumber has now installed the first fix pipe-work and we are finishing off the walls. Hopefully we will get the shower tiled this week and the plumber back the week after.

The shower ready for tiling.

Once the new concrete floor in the kitchen was hard enough to work on, we started to break through into the house to form an opening between the kitchen and the dining room. This was always going to be the fun part as the wall is 70cm thick and we couldn’t be sure what condition it was in until we started opening it up! With loads of large acrows supports under the ceiling and floor joists we made a start at removing the stone facings. The wall had been built many years – maybe centuries – ago using random stone held together with mud. Fortunately it held together quite well and we have managed to install the first oak lintel on the new kitchen side and construct the first concrete step down. We can’t break through completely until windows are installed and we can be sure that the local wildlife is kept outside! The concrete block walls have been completed and the windows are promised for Tuesday – now we just hope they fit okay! Once the opening into the dining room is formed and all the oak lintels installed, we will start constructing the new timber stud walls, tiling the floor and installing the new kitchen units. Hard work, but great fun and so nice to have our friends pitch in.

 The opening into the dining room half way through.

Saturday 30 June 07

Yesterday was a big event for us as we went with a French friend to a nature reserve close to Utah Beach – Parc Naturel Régional des Marais du Cotentin et du Bessin – to do a spot of bird watching.  It was a very wet and windy day and we didn’t really expect to see much, but arrived mid morning and walked to a couple of the hides. We did spot a number of beautiful white little egrets, a yellow wagtail, a heron, a coypu and some unusual ducks.  But the highlight of the day was after lunch when we visited an area where there are man-made storks nests and we were fortunate enough to see a nest with four storks in which was absolutely amazing and the first time that both of us have ever seen a stork.  After photographing this we moved to a canal and managed to spot a lone stork in the reeds collecting fish and small eels.  It then flew quite near to where we were parked and we managed to take another photo close up – wonderful.

We have been interested in bird watching since spending a couple of cycling holidays in the Creuse and the Brenne National Park area of France.  We now know that Normandy and the Manche area in particular has some very beautiful nature reserves.  An excellent place for bird-watching holidaymakers.