Christmas Presents

We got a very nice Christmas present from the Notaire yesterday, a cheque for nearly 2000 euro's !
Apparently this is the balance from the huge fee he requested a few months ago.
Very nice indeed, that will pay for the work I have to do in January to put the wiring in behind the T&G before the chippies put the inside walls up.
That is going to be a cold weekend.

No news about the chalet as far as windows or earth cables or backfilling goes. I will find out in January.

Pictures

I have now loaded all the newest photos into the web album.

This is how is looks from Rob's chalet. The roof is a single layer of tongue and groove (T&G) boarding covered with a red roofing felt. It is about 95% water proof as it was tipping it down for most of the trip and there are only 2 minor leaks in the roof. There is a big hole right around the building






Inside the carpenters have only built the outside skin of T&G and lined the walls with building paper. This is the kitchen as seen from the door from the entrance hall. There are no windows or doors in the whole building. This corner is where the waste pipe for the kitchen has been built into the floor. This is where the kitchen and the entrance hall will get the power. Gaine will be feed up through the floor in this corner and will spread out through the walls. I have been strongly advised to fit the gaine before the carpenters T&G the inside wall.

This is the dining room. Through the windows there will be a largish balcony on this corner of the building. The balconies have not yet been constructed. As you can just about see, the support coming down from the roof that will form an upright on the balcony is propped up on this skinny plank of timber. We are waiting for the triangle bits that fix to the concrete wall and prop up the ends! These big windows will slide open nearly all the way and with them both open it will feel like outside. In the summer it will be fantastic.

This is the view of the salon from the dining room. You can see the "wall of glass" on the far end and just make out the steps in the foreground. This is a lovely room. It is big and roomy and light, definitely room to swing a cat and kind of makes up for the smaller bedrooms. On the right hand side just below the picture is another opening in the floor. This one was originally intended to take the moisture from the bathrooms and send it up to a second chimney directly above. I dropped the second chimney on grounds of cost but will make use of the box outs in the concrete to route my cables though The dining room and saloon will be powered by cables coming from here.

This photo shows the jointing and detail on the mezzanine level. This big brace ties the roof together and I think it looks superb. The mezzanine will go on top of the concrete walls although the finished floor height will not be very much higher than the top of the present concrete as the window sills of the 2 big windows facing Robs place are quite low.






This vertical column is intriguing, on the plans it is shown coming down on to the corner of the concrete entrance hall. As built it does not. So what went wrong? Is the timber wrong or the concrete? My guess is that the concrete is wrong. I will not know for sure until I measure up the kitchen but my guess is that the concrete wall is about 300 mm out and when the carpenters tried to put the column in it wouldn't fit. When I saw this corner on the plans I recognized it as a major feature of the house. I was going to ask for it to be timber all the way from floor to roof and that the concrete be poured to it. I didn't as time and cost was against me. As it is it has worked out quite well, I have the feature I wanted plus a bit more and maybe I have a slightly bigger kitchen.

This is the two chalets together. Mine will look a bit less tall and skinny when the ground is back filled and the balconies will also help. A second balcony is going on just above the garage and below the pair of French windows. (aren't they actually all French windows)







Hervè has changed the front page of his invoices so that the have my name on them so these can go to the bank to be paid.
He assures me that the windows will be in and the building backfilled before Christmas. Whilst Andy the electrician was around I pummeled him for information about how best to wire up my chalet. He was a mine of useful information. Especially about the earth system in my chalet or rather the lack of any earth in my chalet. Putting in the earth cable does not look that difficult just running a 25mm2 cable around the building and burying the cable about meter deep. As the builder wants to back fill before Christmas and I have no free weekends before then I asked Hervè to organize an electrician to install the earth for me. In back filling around the building the builders will sort out the slopes and attempt to stabilize the steep slopes using some of the rocks discovered whilst digging the foundations.
The water is apparently connected to the mains, and he assures me that the is a stop tap for each connection in the road. Rob and I could only find one stop tap lid so I wonder what is happening there?
The sewage will be connected temporarily to the septic tank.
The carpenters will complete the T&G at my convenience, although with the roof on and the windows in they can finish this winter if I like. So my plan is to get the gaine in as soon as possible and hopefully the wires with it as it it much easier to thread the cable while the gaine is straight rather than fixed on the wall. So January may well see me wiring the chalet or at least the top floors. As it is I need to sit down and design my circuits. Andy had a very good book which was up to date on the latest French regs, L'installation électrique which I will be getting and using to help.

My next trip out to see Hervè will be in January, but I might get out between Christmas and new year for a day trip, maybe?

No Pain, No Gaine

Just got back from a flying visit to the Chalet. I timed this trip to coincide with a visit from Rob to his chalet. He was getting advise and help from a friendly English electrician, Andy, who is well versed in the ways of French electrics. All was remarkably well with Robs wiring and it could have been a whole lot worse, but basically Rob had wired to a slightly out of date book and the new regulations required some simple changes. That and the gaine. Gaine (pronounced "gain"), yes this strange word is what I was attempting to describe earlier here and I have finally found out its official name. Gaine is the name of the small plastic tubes that the French electricians have to run there new installed cables through. These are the same plastic tubes that were omitted from the building of my chalet. These are very important if you wish to pass the EDF's official inspection (called the consuel) and actually be allowed to connect your power up properly. I am sure they will figure quite prominently in the next few months.

I have learnt quite a lot about the French official attitude to electric installations and, as it happens, they seem to be a darn site safer than the English in this respect.

Well, I have a beautiful chalet which is no where near finished but is just about waterproof and according to Hervè, the windows will be in by Christmas and the tiles and chimney could be in by Easter. Whilst I remain cautiously optimistic, I know how reliable Hervè's time scales have been in the past.

I will upload the photos this evening.

Time to Pay the Ferryman (partly)

I have been in touch with Hervè to arrange a meeting. It got moved from late November to early December due to family emergencies. I have a meeting set for 6th December with Hervè on site. Another reason for postponing the trip or only doing the trip once is that Rob is meeting a tame electrician to give his wiring the once over. Sounded like a useful contact and I haven't seen Rob for a while so we are taking this opportunity to meet up.

Matt has left the building. He has some appointments in the UK and my "spy on site" has had to leave. I wonder how much work he got done for Rob? It would have been good to meet up again before he left but no matter. On the plus side it means I may receive his photo diary of the construction. He took many photos on his cell phone (not certain of the quality but should be OK for the web) but could not send them as his phone never got a strong enough signal for long enough. I have never had a problem with signal strength out there so I don't know what sort of dodgy phone he owns. So dodgy in fact there was no other interface to get at the photos. You would have thought that in these days there would be another way of getting at this content. Blue tooth or infra-red or even USB, maybe its actually designed that way to ensure you have to send any photos you do take by MMS that way the phone companies make more money.

Where was I, ah yes talked to Hervè. He has sent me 2 new invoices/bills. What he does is take the bill from the concrete guys and put his own header page on top which gives me a clue as to how much to pay. For some reason Hervè has sent me the wrong header page, Mr Wilson and Mrs Wright apparently owe my concrete guy (BERGOEND S.A.S) quite a lot of money (as do I). Fine no problem I can this sorted, but it is just kind of careless to send two invoices both with the wrong headers.
He sent another today, this time for the woodwork. 53000 Euro's.
Lot of money.
Too late now.

It is interesting to try and work out the state of the building from the invoices. It shouldn't have any windows or balconies. It shouldn't have a chimney. No door/s. No tiles on the roof.
Pretty basic really. I am concerned to leave it like that over the winter. I wonder what Hervè will say? ("no problem, don't worry, it will be fine.")

Anyway looking forward to seeing it and meeting up with Rob on the 6th.