Thursday, August 07, 2008

Back to the Rockpile

This section of the rockpile was the dining room in an earlier iteration of 35 Rue whatshisname. We don't know what it is now besides one very complete mess. We have been AT this room for at least 6 weeks and there is no end in sight. First it had to be sealed as the interior of parts of the outer wall was lying on the floor as dry red dust, horsehair and lime. Rot. Lots of rock rot. Upon inspection I decided the best course was to do as little as possible to retain the existing wall (no longer 18" thick but a mere 14") and by hook and by crook create a semblance of a flat surface once again. So I used the fibreglas mat material that is used here to prepare rough walls for paint and glued it over the existing hole's border...a vertical trampoline sort of. Then I fastened the chaor rail across and glued it to the fibreglas matting as well. It started to act and look like a wall! Then I glued thin strips of pine that I ripped from the finest French knotless pine 40cm X 70cm X 2.4meter board(s). This took some doing as my Ryobi Table Saw while quite powerful has a blade wobble problem that makes it take a wider cut than you may want on a particular pass. Several trys were made before I could create the necessary pieces.
Grrrrrr. Lot's of sawdust. Lots. Then I took these strips back into the dining room and edge and back glued them to the top and bottom of said chair rail. Now there was a place to staple the material to when we got to that step in this nearly endless project. I tested my construct with one whack of the electric staple/nail gun. Oops, that won't work, too flexible still. Blast! So back to the drawing board(s).
So I drilled a 10mm hole thru the thin wood strips and inserted and glued 10mm dowels to the rock surfaces below as a way of getting the stiffness I needed, sort of Viagra for the fibreglass mat. If all of this seems uncraftsman like well...it is but it is THERE now and while the dear reader would rather have torn down the entire three hundred year old, 17 tons of rock, lime, horsehair and common mud I chose not to. One day I MAY have to rebuild that wall and I know it but in the meantime it's what it is. Good enough. Just.
___
Today more itching, aoutat again on all (well not ALL) tender parts. We tore away the sheets, pillow cases and washed them in hot water trying to eliminate these invisible bastards. Remade both beds and sprayed them with finest French Perfume...Insect Killer! Sprayed self with the Aoutat Repellant we bought at the Pharmacia downtown and lied down for a nice peaceful nights sleep. Sure.
2 am, huh? What the hell?! Flash, KA-BOOM! Lightning, thunder, repeatedly and nearby.
Then a downpour and the sound of wind ripping through the house! Uh oh...up and turn on the lights, no lights, electricity is out too! Merde! Oh well just another summer storm in the foothills of the Massif Central. Then I feel an itch, oh noooo...oh yes, my left forearm has a thousand bites in it! What? Large reddened welts, awful, hot and boy do they itch! Damn! Salves, creams, oil and grease, fingernail polish (yes) to the rescue. All it does is lube me up, something I do NOT like! Back to bed after finding the downstairs dining room window flapping back and forth while torrential rain pours down the walls. Boy isn't this fun!? Grrrrrr.
Asleep now dreaming of AOUTATS crawling over me, eating freely of my precious skin cells...ohhhhhh. Awake at 7. The aforementioned bites on my arm are GONE! What? There were a thousand of them!? Wrong diagnosis by my addled brain? Not Aoutat? The cats have them too...that's why we changed out the linens last night and sprayed enough French Perfume to drown most insects. Gads this IS complicated. So maybe NOT Aoutat? I itch under my arms allong both sides, I lift my T shirt to show Doc Kelly and she says Ooooh. Oh no...more bites! Good greif but where are the ones that were on my arm? now I have a thousand on each side of my precious body instead.
HIVES! I have HIVES! So off to the computer to GOOGLE "Hives". Cool! And sure enough while the EXACT cause is unknown it can be set off by INSECT BITES! Anto-histamines are recommended for relief. Don't you just love this stuff online?! GOOGLE to the rescue again and again!
By for now, I have a wall to attend to.