In Lignieres, Here we are!

Well we left California for Lignieres, FR last Wednesday. American Airlines from SFO to Chicago then on to CDG in Paris.  Furry came along to watch over me as my guardian angel kat.  We both were so damned sore from all the moving and fixing activities at 402 over the last month.  I built or rebuilt to Dining Room deck after Mike did the demo.  That and the pool tiling and cleaning as well as the SPA tub caulking, cleaning out the drawers in the garage/shop of 100's of pounds of tools, screws, fasteners of all kinds and junk beyond description.  Awful!  Then we assigned a property management company to take on the job of getting the place rented this summer to a nice couple who will really pay the damned rent on time and take care of the beloved work of art and labor.  Here? Well Sue and Dave picked us up at St. Amand Station and transported us to Maison Blanc where we quickly found our beds and crashed for the next while or two. Once up and around I discovered as I knew I would, leaks in the plumbing, one major and the others minor by comparison but still capable of flooding a room in 10 minutes flat!  The input water from the street runs through a water meter and that meter was a complete wreck!  Cracked through the bronze housing and sprayed water in every direction in copious amounts.  I had a small brainstorm...go next door to the Proxy man and ask for his assistance at the nomenclature of the valve/meter and then maybe he could call the requisite body to get someone in to repair said problem.  Indeed, he rose to the call and called for me and within an hour a competent gent arrived with the new valve/meter and soon had the works back together and bid me adieu.  Fantastic!  The I tackled the other leaks with my blowtorch and solder to a very leaky result on each and every one...there are three such leaks now, drip, drip, drip and are being held in leaky abeyance by a couple of plastic buckets which we bail into the sink as they get full overnight and flood the blasted floor so much that our house guest Ted left for the hotel across the street rather than stay here and have to trudge thru the lake in the kitchen to pee.  Damn!

Then there is the communication problem...no telephone here, no internet...no email, shit! Merde! So today a WEEK after we arrived I, no WE, tried to get an SFR Dongle 3G device to get us online.  We went to Chateauroux and found one of the SFR shops downtown and began to buy the infernal (beloved!) device BUT...they didn't have one! Shit, shit, shit!  So we left promising to return tomorrow when they would get one for us.  Sure.  Then out to Gr4and Frais market to pick up a few goodies for dinner etc. then across the way Kelly spied an SFR shop...wowee, maybe they have one! Into the store we went, talked with the kindly SFR krew and quickly learned while they DID have one we couldn't have it until we furnished them with a check to prove that we had a French Bank Account! We, of course, didn't have a check with us!  So we drove back on the forest road thru St. Aout (San Too), past the gypsy camp outside Lignieres (1/3rd full this year) and home to relax under the umbrella in the warm afternoon with a cold beer.  So be it...tomorrow is another day!

Back to work! <----Click the Title

The Deck of Nightmares is before me today, only the walking surface now of #2 or better (huh?!) redwood. The old rotten substructure has been rebuilt with pressure treated fir after demolishing the badly rotted and eroded underpinnings. The bloody trellis structure had backed completely away from the house fastenings too...and THAT was a bitch to fix. Finally accomplished two days ago after 2 weeks of rain delay. Then I started on the surface itself, cutting the 2"x6"x10' into suitable lengths and screwing them into the joists one by one. Hard on my injured shoulder from 10 months ago, yes, it still bothers me most days, a little, not a lot. After working hours lifting and tugging and leaning the shoulder gets weaker and more painful...so I quit and go home and collapse. The house is empty and very, very clean after Mannuel got finished scrubbing the floors and painted surfaces. Nice and ready to rent! On the water in Suisun, East view towards Mecca, sunrrom, large deck, 35 foot boat dock, yes you can fish from your own private deck/dock! 3 large bedrooms, 2.5 bathrooms. Oh and theirs an indoor swimming pool and a hot tub, also indoors. Spa tub in the downstairs full bath. Tile floors downstairs, wood floors upstairs. Great neighbors, worth the rent themselves! Quiet and beautiful! A full-time summer home! 707-428-4787 and ask for Kelly, she does all this stuff, I only work here.