On May 28, 2019 - So far... Sunday til Tuesday transformations. 1. Vinegar gets soot off of chimney surround 2. Take an old rubbish kitchen out and repurpose some bookcases you find in one of the other buildings. There were pictures painted on the back of them which we’ve tried to preserve (very sweet and hopefully indicative of some happy times).
Still to come— completion of the shower and repurposing some old student wardrobes and hopefully the start of the barn door installation.
So yesterday we met another lovely human. Olivier drove up the drive and rung the bell. It turns out that he is the son of the lovely couple we met a while back who were able to give us some history of our castle. His family lived at the Chateau at one point.
We gave him a tour, he took pictures for his family and he’s definitely as committed to this area as we are. He was lovely.
And he brought great news. The commune had an original mirror which belonged to the Chateau. They sold it to his mother a while back but kept it in their storage facility. He has just come to ask if we wanted it back. The answer was of course yes... and we pick it up tomorrow. It’s apparently huge... like 8 ft x 5 ft. Ben’s trailer will now pay for itself.
As with most people we meet.. he is now a fast friend and has just left after joining us for a lovely meal. He’s also taken a picture of a painting that sits in his house so that we can add to the collection of Chateau memorabilia.
Looks like we will be running some art courses in the future Jennifer Diglio-Poliseno.
On June 1, 2019 - Anyone know what kind of tree this is... ? I’ve never seen such perfect flower teacups... it’s like Willy Wonka invited us in! A whole tree (well over 100 ft tall!) filled with these wonderful flowers...
From this ...
... To this ...
Another trip wrapped up... Thanks to our helper guest Diana, who most definitely earned her keep. I met Diana during jury service. I’m inspired by the people who come to help — they don’t really know us— but they come anyway. They have to believe in us and our vision which feels like a big responsibility. The pictures of our beauty don’t hurt .
The shower is 90% done. The only thing left to do is put up some skirting. We repurposed some dormitory wardrobes and made them into linen cupboards which helps with organisation! We measured the entire 5 bedroom gite which we needed to do to give to the heating contractors (we measured the other two but that’s not as impressive because they are basically boxes). We assembled the treadmill and that’s now ready to go (for those of us who will not take advantage of the most beautiful running trails in France) and two electric bikes are now sorted and ready to go.
Remaining projects to complete phase 1 of the Chateau Project— make a gite liveable— is almost complete. - finish the skirting in the shower room - put the cupboard door on in the kitchen - make sure all bedrooms have sinks that do not leak
This took 1 year and 5 months...
We are debating phase 2...
And now we wait at Calais for the train...
Till next week!
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