Mail From Morzine

Arrived Friday night for a quick weekend visit determined to get a lot done. I had a list, I was on my own, no interruptions, I was going to get a load of stuff done. This new determination arises as a result of inviting my brother and his family to the chalet for Christmas. My mum is invited too (although as I haven't actually talked to her about this, she is on holiday, she may well read this before we talk, well, Hello Mum, Your invited to the chalet for Christmas. Let me know if you want to come!) My sister will be invited as well but unfortunately if she decides to come she and her family will have to stay elsewhere as my brother has three kids I have 2 and with my mum makes 10 people in a chalet that officially sleeps 6/7! My sisters family would be another four which we just don't have room for. Maybe Robs chaet is available, I will have to ask.

Anyway I figured I had about 15 weekends before Christmas which didn't sound to many and with all the work ahead of me I thought I needed to get cracking. In order to have all these people here I need the electrics all certified and I need that done soon. Hopefully I can get Robs electrician to fix this up for me.

So Saturday morning and before the traditional trip down to the DIY shop in Morzine to fetch the required gear.  I had to unload the car. 20 packs of laminate flooring, about 250 kg and that is only half of what I need had to come out of the car and be stacked in the salon. When I finally made it down to Voiron's I managed to get a letter box. Arrived back and started work on the third and fourth bedroom doors.
I fixed the uprights to either side of the doorway after extensive calculations and determining the gap between the uprights should be just enough for the door frame, only to discover that the timber is not exactly the desired dimensions. 50 by 70 mm timber when rough sawn is only nominally that size it varies. It varies quite a lot, so much so that my careful calculations were completely useless. The door frame would not fit.

Shiny toys to the rescue. Rob had brought with him from the UK a new electric planer, just the job. It took a while to get the hang of the thing and figure out just how to get the best out of it. You have to apply most of the pressure at the front of the plane and it really helps if you go with the grain and don't use the silly shavings collection bag. It just gets full very quickly, as it is far too small, and this somehow stops the plane planing off any more wood. It took a couple of hours of some quite hard work to get the timber down to the right size and ready for the frames. as well as reducing the size I had to chop out notches for the hinges and at the top for the fixings that keep the frame square. Once the frame would fit I had to pad out all the edges with plaster board which is pretty easy, just nail up the board then run the hand saw down the frame to trim the edge. Glue up the frame and glue the uprights then slide the frame in. Fix the other side of the frame together and slide that into the frame. Make suer its all squashed in together as far as it will go and the frame touches the paster board all around then brace:

While that was setting I was looking at the door next door. After having to mess about with the plane I was a bit more careful with this side and quickly spotted there was not enough room for the uprights on this side either! I only had 40 mm to play with so that meant either cutting down a 50 by 70 plank or getting 40mm some other way. I ended up taking 2 strips of 19mm chipboard and gluing them together and gluing that to the wall. Brace it off and let it set. Then i would hang the frame on that.

While I was waiting for this to dry I was thinking about the stairway tiles. I was on my own which was a perfect opportunity to do the steps as only I would be walking and I would be the only one to blame if I stepped on the wet tiles. I started to figure out what I would need.

Rob invited me to dinner and before I could really start we were eating freshly caught trout from the trout farm down the road caught and killed that very morning, They were delicious. Anyway after the meal, Rob went to put his kids to bed and I started on the step tiling, I thought I would just do the risers and leave the treads for another day but when Rob turned up after about an hour we progressed on to do the whole thing. About 2 in the morning we had all the tiles for the first flight of steps cut (all except one) and Rob, who was driving back to the UK the next day, decided he had to get some sleep. So about an hour and a half later I had fixed all the bits on the steps and left them to clean up.

Sunday morning and a bit of grouting later:

Not bad but took ages to do.

Sunday was also the day I out the post box up.

And finally got round to putting up my official number. Well, not actually the number I thought I was. I received, via Rob another number!

 

4215? where does that come from? Now, last time we were here we told the mayor of Morzine that Rob owned 4235 and I owned 4225. So where does 4215 come into this? There is a rumor that these numbers are supposed to be the distance from the mayor of Morzine's office in the square, but this is not strictly true as many places the numbers do not run in sequence. Anyhow its a bit weird and How I ended up with 4215 I dont know. I somehow do not think this is the last we shall hear of this. So I putthe new number on the house:

I also found out that the huge bill I got last weekend was for tax Froncier and tax habitation . The habitation part I should not be paying so I will write to them and explain and ask for some money back!