Hot Water problem.

Our water heater is a 300 litre Sauter vertical cylinder mounted on the floor. 

For a few weeks now the hot water has appeared to be too hot and the safety valve has been putting out a little too much expansion water such that the drain would not take it and we have had to put a bowl under it. The heater only comes on when the electricity is cheap rate i.e. 14:30 to 16:30 and 02:30 to 08:30 so it never occurred to me to test it... 

However when we returned from the UK and switched the heater back on manually it was obvious something was not correct. A quick test identified a faulty thermostat, the heater is 3 phase star connected with the thermostat switching all 3 phases.

A quick internet search found a replacement (on Amazon.fr of all places) at €65 with free delivery... It was duly ordered and arrived this morning, a surprise on two counts, delivery was given as Monday and it is not very large... The box it came in was very large!!

It was carefully installed...

Ready for the afternoon cheap rate... 

Pleased to say things are back to normal with the new thermostat cutting the power after about 45 minutes heating...

A recycled access door...

The sides of our grenier are lined with terracotta bricks as part of the house insulation and there was no access to the 60cm space under the eaves. There are a couple of reasons why we now need to access this area and the ideal would be to install a small access door.

Can you buy a cheap small door in France? We have not found one suitable but thanks to Jean, who is having a new kitchen, one was available.

During the showery weather we have been installing the door. The worst part was cutting the hole... Despite making a small dust tent the terracotta dust went everywhere and the whole grenier was covered. 

 The door frame.

Expanded foam applied.

 Cleaned and with door attached

 A bit of added insulation.

 The completed access door.

So thank you very much Jean and Nick, your old kitchen unit door has been recycled. 

We have not used it yet...

It needs a good clean out of several years of cobwebs...

postscript: We now have a slightly better photo of our Long-eared Owl..

Guess our willow tree is its favourite place to sit. Today I got a bit of video of it preening itself.

Drive and parking resurfaced...

At the beginning of April we had the three tonnes of 4/10mm Mignonnettes delivered...

Well, at ten shovelfuls to the barrow load and numerous barrow loads together with an even greater number of strokes with the soil rake, it now looks like this...

It was a good guess at the quantity required, it was only just enough...   Now,take a good look as it will not stay like this for long... The weeds will be back despite being sprayed with a one year weedkiller that I needed a bank loan to buy!!

Such is life!

Winter Fuel...

Our winter fuel supply arrived on Saturday, courtesy of the multi-talented Monsieur Bourreau...

Interestingly it was three weeks later than we have received it for the last two years and had increased in price slightly. BUT...

When you think M Bourreau, who is in his eighties, has cut down, sawn up, transported and matured the wood. He has then re-cut it into 50cm lengths and split where necessary and then loaded the trailer and driven it to our house... All on his own!!! He certainly has earned his money.

We get the same trailer load of six steres, which generally sees us through the winter. We are fortunate that the house is well insulated and maintains its heat for long periods. 

All the remains now is to stack it up. Elizabeth!!!!

At least it keeps you fit and works up an appetite. I like to think we will still be doing it into our eighties!!!

All completed and sheeted in about an hour and a half...

With a brew in between of course.

To see a comparison follow the links to - Wood 2011 and Wood 2012

Note... Elizabeth begs to differ about wood stacking in her eighties... Ahhh Well.

Not what you expect in June!

We awoke this morning to a sea of water. We will take you on a photographic journey around our house...

Yes ripe strawberries float!!!

Our cellar air vent turned into a field drain!

And Tim's willow cuttings did not escape either... It's a good job they like water!

We have never seen it so bad at any time of year, let alone in the middle of June...

At the time of posting the sun is shining!!!

Montagu's Harrier

We have seen a pair of Montagu's Harrier every year since we have been in Braye but never managed to get any photographs... Until this afternoon. This female was hunting in the field adjacent to our house and JUST about in camera range.

She was not very successful, after diving to the ground several times she gave up and went off the try elsewhere. Lets hope her male partner comes and gives the area a try...

Note to self! I need a longer telephoto lens.

Trimming the Leylandii...2

We trimmed one half of our Leylandii hedge in May 2012. Shown here. Unfortunately we never got around to doing the other half.

I wish we had!!!  The picture below shows the size of the ******* .

We used the repaired long reach hedge cutter and it performed a treat, cutting and hacking through branches up to 2.0cm in diameter.

For the higher branches we employed the long reach pruner.

Tomorrow is another day and we have the other side yet to do. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh

It does look much better though.

Small shower room update 3...

Well, its been going on since the beginning of November 2012 but at least now the end is in sight... At the beginning of February it was as here.

We wanted some 50mm  plastic finishing strip to cover the two sides of the shower tray... Can you buy it in France?  We think the answer is no. Its normal use is for finishing around PVC windows but the French design differs and such strip is not necessary. We did many kilometres looking, so if you do know differently please get in touch.

The plastic finishing strip was obtained whilst in the UK but as it apparently only comes in 45 and 65 mm, we bought some of each. The 45 mm did the job perfectly. This allowed us to complete the tiling  and the grouting (as yesterdays post).

We picked up the door from Leroy Merlin on Monday after ordering it  and waiting for the one month supply time... That should be a post in itself, but it went in the car on its end, NOT flat! And under the supervision of the man from Leroy's.

It got to Braye in one piece but the assembly was a different story! It fell over and but for a miracle only damaged the bedroom wall and skirting board... Well it is toughened glass!!

Today we fitted it...

It is designed for a room width of between 122 and 128cms and achieves this by sliding in the two wall channels shown above.  Our room is 126.5cms wide now it has been re-tiled.

It's looking good and all that is now required to finish it is some silicon in various places and some more of the 45mm plastic finishing strip at either of the external ends... To cover the bit of blue tanking still visible...

We look forward to the opening ceremony in the very near future. 

Small shower room update 2...

With all the wet weather we have been having it has been an opportunity to get on with the small shower room. Things are progressing well and since our last post the new shower tray has been installed and cemented in position and the small floor area re-tiled.

One of the main reasons for the upgrading was that the existing shower walls had not been tanked (waterproofed) and damp patches appeared in the adjacent bedroom and toilet.  It was now time for the waterproofing!!!

We had seen the waterproofing kits in Leroy Merlin but were not sure they would be suitable to cover existing tiles. "No problem" said the very helpful chaps, "just wash the old tiles down apply the primer and then two coats of sealer"...

Whoever thought of the colour!!! Can you see where I've been?  It is great stuff to use and both the primer and the top coat leave a gritty coating. The top coat has the consistency of pancake batter and can be applied with brush or roller. I used a 3" brush. 

It was a productive trip to Leroy Merlin. As well as buying the waterproofing we also noticed the shower door assembly we wanted was on offer (-15%) in the soldes, so that was ordered. On our way back we called at Brico Depot and bought the tiles.

No excuse now then Colin...

I don't mind tiling at all; you can see the progress of your work and the end result is always so much better. What I don't like is cutting, especially holes...

This will probably be the worst cut of the job... where the shower valve fits.
Fortunately I had measured it correctly.

Overall the tiling looks OK but its like every job you do... You know all the little errors and there are one or two!! Grout will make them invisible ( I hope!!!)

This is the point where I stopped work this afternoon.

Trouble is, I still have + 6 m² of tiles still to put on and many of those will involve cutting!!!