FRONT BEDROOM

We have got rid of the horrible blue flowery wallpaper, sorry vintage kitten i know you liked it but it was sooo filthy.
My partner painted the bedroom all white to brighten it up for now

There is quite a few holes in the wall still to fill in from where the old electric plugs where but we just didn't get the time to finish them off.
The front bedroom is really just a single room but until we get the money saved to do up the other room which is in quite a state we have to use this room.
So after the painting in comes Mrs mop that's me with bowls of hot soapy water and after nearly two hours of being down on my hands and knees scrubbing the floor then setting up the bed ,with partners help of course with the bed here is a photo of how far we got on.

I'm quite pleased with the result much cleaner and brighter.
There is still the window to sand and paint and a few touch ups of white but the house was so cold in December the paint took so long to dry but we will finish those jobs in May and hopefully get a few girly bits and pieces for the room.

Around by the window there was water which wouldn't cover up with the paint so we need to repaint with a oil based paint to get rid of the stain and then refill a piece of the window where the water was getting in.

RUSTY HEATER

Well this is the biggest heater we had ,soooo not pretty to look at lol but we were so glad of it , it gave out great heat it was also very noisy.

It was in the house when we bought it and as at the moment we are on a tight budget so tight it squeaks lol we kept it.

We kept this on all day downstairs we were warm enough down there until you moved in to other rooms without heaters then you froze.

We got a quote for oil heating which was over 7000 euros and to be honest we would rather have all the work we want to do first done and then get it in,soooo just summer visits.

Awh ill miss going but it will give us more money for the work rather than paying car hire flights etc

DEFROSTING

Well i am back and as the title says I'm defrosting,we were freezing it was soooo cold in the house ,i really don't think ill go back again in the winter.
I ha vent heated up all week i took the flu on the Wednesday and shivered and coughed and I'm back and still don't feel well.
I never slept at all on the Wednesday night and the church clock chimes on the hour and also on the half hour i heard every dong the whole night long,i thought i was gonna go mad.
I do have trouble with sore legs and feet quite a lot and all my muscles in one leg cramped so bad that i cried most of Thursday morning with the pain.
So paracetamol, muscle rub and cough bottle was the order for the rest off the week instead of paintbrushes and paint for me.
I did help up to Wednesday so i will put up some photos during the week ,I'm watching x factor then off to bed i know i should be supporting Owen from northern Ireland but i really really want Alexandre to win.

OFF TO FRANCE TOMORROW

WELL WE ARE OFF TO FRANCE TOMORROW FOR A WEEK.
I'M SO EXCITED I HOPE IT IS NOT TOO COLD AS WE HAVE NO HEATING IN THE HOUSE.
WE DO HAVE PORTABLE ELECTRIC HEATERS ,TWO SMALL ONES ONE FOR EACH OF THE BEDROOMS AND A REALLY UGLY OIL FILLED ELECTRIC RADIATOR,ITS ALL RUSTY BUT IT WORKS AND I'M SURE WE WILL BE GLAD OF IT.
WE ARE PLANNING ON STRIPPING WALLPAPER OFF THE TWO BEDROOMS AND THE STAIRCASE AND PAINTING THEM ALL WHITE FOR NOW.
OF COURSE I ALSO WANT TO GO OUT TO POITIER'S AND MAYBE A DAY TRIP TO BORDEAUX WE SHALL SEE HOW WE GET ON.
THE CHRISTMAS MARKETS ARE ON IN POITIER'S AND THERE IS ALSO AN ICE RINK,I JUST MIGHT HAVE A GO AT ICE SKATING.
I LOVE SHOPPING IN POITIER'S THE SHOPS ARE GREAT SO I'M HOPING TO FIND SOME BITS AND PIECES FOR MY DAUGHTERS CHRISTMAS STOCKING.
I HAVE A NEW CAMERA SO WILL BE TAKING PLENTY OF PHOTOS.
I WILL BE BLOGGING AS SOON AS I GET BACK
AUREVOIR

KITCHEN UPDATE

The kitchen door leads out on to a small back yard which has an outdoor sink, i think that will come in handy for washing out all our paintbrushes etc.
From the yard there is a pathway which is quite narrow passing the well and a outhouse down to a gate which then leads onto the side garden.
The door in the kitchen photo outside in the yard is the back door into the bread oven room.
I believe it is hard in France to get a house with your garden attached,sometimes peoples gardens are a bit away from their house so i suppose we are quite lucky in a way.
Unless of course if you are lucky enough to have a bigger budget than us and then you can get an old farmhouse with lots of land all around but we are happy enough just to have our little piece of France.
Even though i love Northern Ireland and there is such lovely places to go and see i feel so much more at home when we land in France .
Roll on Saturday i cant wait ..

I HAVE BEEN TAGGED

I have been tagged to reveal six things my readers dont know about me by Middle way.
1 I am a smoker trying to give it up though its hard.
2 I am a twin i have a twin brother who is half an hour older than me.
3 I love readng.
4 I love to travel whenever i can get cheap flights.
5 I love gardening.
6 I am addicted to the internet

BEFORE PHOTO OF KITCHEN

Well not much of a ktchen here but this was how it looked when we bought it,we have done some changes to it when we were over in july i just wanted to post the before ones first.
Second post today im being really busy today as my daughter was home for the weekend from aberdeen uni and i have just left her back at airport to go back to uni,tears all round but at least ill see her in three weeks for christmas .
The so called kitchen dosent have a kitchen really just a few sheves and sink it really looks sad dosent it .
Click on pcture to see it better.

FLOUR CHUTE

This is the flour chute in the room above the bread oven.
There originally was outside steps up to the door of this room where the baker used to go up and throw the flour down the chute to arrive in the bread oven room.
The outside steps aren't there anymore so in a few years time we are hoping to extend the kitchen out the back so that this room will all be part of the inside of the house.
You can also reach the room from the inside of the house from the back bedroom but would make much more sense to have an entrance from the kitchen end to make the downstairs bigger also.
We really haven't decided what the room will be yet probably an en suite bedroom and then enlarge the back bedroom too as the room is very large .
As you look up from the bread oven room to the chute it stll has an old flour sack tied onto to the bottom we are going to keep the chute there as it adds a bit of interest i think.

Chauvigny

This is a beautiful restaurant in chauvigny about 40 minutes drive from our house.
It is situated up high in the grounds of a medieval area, so beautiful they do a eagle display here.
We had the most gorgeous crepes here and we just love to walk around this area.
The man in the top right window is a dummy ,while i was outside looking up at first i thought he was real silly me.

Bread Oven

Our house used to be a bakery so this is the bread oven room.
It still works although we haven't tried it out yet but i think I'm gonna try out making a pizza when we are there.
The room it is in really needs a good paint and a new floor put down also a good clean up of the bread oven brickwork and some welding done to the bread oven doors as one of the hinges is broken.
The photograph actually looks worse than it really is.

Woop Woop we are going to France again

I'm so excited we are going to France again on 6th December for a week i cant wait.
My partner is gong to work I'm gong to be lazy and supervise ha ha.
Just jesting i will be helping .
We got cheap easy jet flights 82pds return from Belfast then we will drive down from Paris.It will take 5hours from Paris but i treat it like an adventure lol you can tell i don't get out much by that comment.
We just take our time and stop at the air es for plenty of coffee breaks.
The dreaded periphique is what i hate its so nerve wracking driving on it ,once we clear it i breathe a sigh of sheer relief and i am then able to relax.
All my partner gets from me when on periphique is be careful be careful im like a parrot.
Sometimes he passes a few comments to me, not printable lol cos i keep saying it but he knows im just worried
So i hope to have some more new photos then.

LOTS OF WORK TO BE DONE TO THIS HOUSE

This house isn't the prettiest in the street ,its a small terraced House with lots of hard work to be done.
We eventually want to live in France in the next 5 years or so so we are trying our best on a small budget to make it into a nice home.
This is the front bedroom.
The paper has to go along with the old wardrobe ,the wooden floor is in very good condition I'm glad to say.











The most horrible and filthy bathroom ,yuck I'm sorry to say we cant afford to change the sanitary ware so in the meantime its get the marigolds out with buckets of bleach and scrubbing brushes.

Its as well i like cleaning .

BUYING A LAWNMOWER AND PICTURES OF GARDEN

Well we had to go and buy a lawnmower and of course my partner and i cant speak french,although we are trying .
Just as well we had my daughter with us to translate,she is studying English and french at Aberdeen University this is now her second year.
I really miss her but it will be worth it in the end .
We went to the local supermarket called Hyper U in Montmorillon to buy the lawnmower, a great place to shop it has everything you need just like a Tesco supermarket.
And of we went to cut the grass as it had not been cut for 8 months, boy was it long,it took my partner nearly two hours.
This is the side garden that Billy is cutting.

After the grass was cut we brought the car and parked it at the side as there is not much room to park outside the front .
We will have to organise a proper parking area in the garden but to be honest that's the last thing we will be doing as there is so much work to do inside .
We are also on a very tight budget so its mend and make do in this house for a few years.





This is the well just across from the outbuilding.








This is the pathway from side garden leadng to the back of the house very overgrown here .

Second visit to moulismes house

Our second visit to the house was in july 2007 we decided to make it a weeks holiday and explore the area .

As we did not have any beds pots and pans etc in the house and given as my daughter Rebecca was coming with us we decided to rent a gite in montmorillon for the week.
Before we went i organised a visit from an electrician based in our area to give us a price for doing the electrical work.

I found him online at http://www.artisan-anglais.com/.

The gite was really lovely comfortable and spotless .

My daughter Rebecca outside the gite aka my little Irish munchkin lol.

Rebecca and my partner Billy at the lake in the grounds of the gite

this was full of fish which we fed every day.

Montmorillon is a beautiful town about ten minutes drive from our house.

This is the macaroon museum in Montmorillon.

BUYING A HOUSE IN MOULISMES FRANCE

FROM WHEN MY PARTNER AND I WENT ON A LONG WEEKEND TO PARIS WE FELL IN LOVE WITH EVERYTHING FRENCH AND DREAMED OF BUYING A HOUSE .
IT TOOK NEARLY FIVE YEARS FOR THAT DREAM TO BECOME A REALITY
WE SEARCHED THE INTERNET FOR MONTHS LOOKING FOR A HOUSE TO RENOVATE AND WE FOUND A HOUSE WITHIN OUR BUDGET.
WE TOOK A HUGE RISK AND WITHOUT EVEN VIEWING IT WE PUT IN AN OFFER,WE COULDENT BELIEVE IT WHEN THE OFFER WAS ACCEPTED AND THEN THOUGHT "OH MY WORD DID WE REALLY JUST DO THAT"SO,TELEPHONE CALLS WITH AGENCY PRINCE NOIR IN LUSSAC LES CHATEAU TOOK PLACE AND ALL THE PAPERWORK WAS DONE BY POST,WE WERE FINALLY GOING TO SIGN AND VIEW THE HOUSE.
THAT WAS IN NOVEMBER 2006,WE BOOKED TO STAY IN HOTEL DE FRANCE IN MONTMORILLON.
WE WENT TO THE BANK TO OPEN OUR FRENCH BANK ACCOUNT WITH LAURA FROM THE ESTATE AGENT WHO ACTED AS OUR TRANSLATOR AND AGAIN AT THE NOTARIES OFFICE.
THEN ON TO VIEW THE HOUSE FOR THE FIRST TIME.
WE WERE REALLY NERVOUS AS TO WHAT WE WOULD THINK OF IT .
BUT IT LOOKED EXACTLY AS IT DID ON THE WEBSITE ,IT WAS EVEN BETTER AS WE DID NOT REALISE WE HAD A MUCH BIGGER GARDEN .
WE WERE VERY PLEASED
THE PREVIOUS OWNERS SON INVITED US TO HIS HOUSE AND WE HAD COFFEE WITH THEM ,THEY HAD A BEAUTIFUL HOME .
WE THEN WENT SHOPPING IN MONTMORILLON AND THE NEXT DAY DROVE BACK TO PARIS FOR OUR FLIGHT HOME TO BELFAST