With everything to clean...door-frames, window frames, skirting boards, every single surface including the floor, it is small wonder that it took me all day.
We opened the house, turned the electricity on, turned the boiler on (the house had stayed reasonably warm from yesterday, surprisingly) and set about opening all the shutters again. We are flabbergasted by the number of flies we are finding. Waz has suggested bombing each room to kill what is there, and close the door to see if new ones are coming in from somewhere in THAT room, or are they coming in from only one place in one room, and dispersing throughout the house or level. The bedroom level is particularly bad in a couple of the rooms. Considering I had vacuumed all of them up, a couple of days ago, this is somewhat disturbing. It isnt just flies, but stink bugs (for want of a better name...and no, I'm not going to find the proper name, right now, lol) and lady bugs too.
These flies on the window ledge in the bathroom are mild by comparison with what we found today. These were in the afternoon, two days ago, after having vacuumed ALL of them in the morning.
We turned the clocks forward last night. It is now 9pm, but it feels like 10....but was 8pm yesterday. Confused? lol
It feels like 10pm, because we are worn out, I guess. Waz is feeling a bit old too, tonight.
So worn out, that on the way home we decided to go straight to Le Calice in Verteillac where we were sure we could get some dinner. We arrived to find no dinner being served. A grand Crème and two cups of dry roasted peanuts did the trick, and the company wasn't too bad either:) The chef (who was sitting at the bar, and we wished he was cooking our dinner, but never mind!) ASSUMED we were Australians. For shame! He got a quick lesson on the differences between Aussies and Kiwis. He KNEW the difference in our accents, but made a bunch of other assumptions that didnt go down too well. We kiwis are a bit touchy about being mis-diagnosed as Aussies...and if you knew why, you would appreciate our point of view:)
We left the bar somewhat restored, if still hungry...peanuts aren't good for a meal! and drove home to our reheated pasta primavera from last night. I added some more mushrooms and another courgette, which made it a larger meal. Waz relaxed with a glass of red wine, having cut enough fire wood for another night or two of fires, as soon as we arrived home.
We have no food in the fridge. We will need to make a food buying trip to the supermarket somewhere, tomorrow. I also want to get some basic food stuffs for the new house. Salt being one of them. Cant keep anything in the fridge...Waz turned it on again today, hoping that something might work, but it didnt! Preparing to purchase a new one!
Todays mission (well, one of them) for him, was to get the cupboards up on the opposite side to the microwave, and the ones he installed two days ago.
These are not forever cupboards, but we didnt think, at 25 euros each, that they were going to break the bank, while giving us more storage space in the kitchen. Base cabinets alone dont contain the necessaries.
Before!
In the meantime and somewhere following lunch...oh yes...I keep talking about Baguette Cereal...this is what we enjoy the most, for our lunches. Today we had a cup of soup with it and Waz finished off some of his favorite stinky (bleu) cheese. Lettuce, cherry tomatoes and cheese! Good food.
In one of our other rooms has been this coat/umbrella stand. I have no idea how old this thing is, but it was earmarked for the front entry. I was afraid such a large and dark piece of furniture would dominate the entry, but in fact it made the entry look larger, strangely. It got a vacuum and damp wipe down. I had originally thought I might paint it white, but I hate to do that to this handsome stand.
In the meantime, back and forth to the living room, which is like two rooms in one. Both ends needed sorting out. Too much furniture, and all kinds of bibelots. I'm not a fan of silk flowers, much preferring simple, real life orchids or a well placed vase of fresh flowers...preferably all one kind, like Fresias or Irises. This large vase full of everything under the sun is quite nice, and it fills a gap...for now.
I just HAD to reorganize the furniture. With the window drapes pulled aside, the light in this part of the room is lovely. Cant wait to put our own furniture in this place.
We think that the previous owner bought all the furnishings for her holiday let house at Brocante and Vide Grenier sales. These are like car boot and attic sales. Much of it is in reasonable condition, but very much shabby chic faux -period style. She made some interesting purchases that overall seem to work.
There were crumbs and food scraps (albeit small) on the floors and in and under the furniture. I need to get under the pink sofa cushions tomorrow. I forgot to vacuum under there today. Bother!
There has been a long haired animal and/or person/people in this house. The carpets are producing so much of it that it clogs the vacuum head. Even though I vacuumed all the wood floors, they still didnt look clean. This called for my new squeeze mop, which was brilliant. I didnt want to 'wet' the wood per se, just damp it, and the heat in the room from the heaters was sufficient to dry it well, over about an hour.
We stopped work around 4.30pm and had a cup of tea sitting on the pink sofa. Then it was up and at it, shuttering the house again, and cleaning up the clean-up tools.
It is about an hour's drive home, but we know the way now. I did miss one turnoff and have to back-track. Tough to find a place to do a U-turn, as there are no shoulders on the roads, just ditches!
I'm still sleeping propped up by three pillows, on the sofa. Four weeks today! My shoulder burns most of the time, which tells me something isnt right. I still have trouble raising my whole arm straight up and straight back. I can raise it over my head now, but not keep it there. Working on the house is good therapy, but I have to be very mindful of what I'm doing as the arm doesn't have much strength yet, and I'm keen not to push it. We have a lot of work to do in Florida and NZ, so I will need my arm then.
Ok, I'm outta here! Time to get some sleep.
A bientot.
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