Coup de Cœur – Part Three: I beg your pardon …
An occasional series chronicling the tale of the renovation of a former medieval watch-tower in southern France …. what do you call a beastly illusionist? If there is a word. That ….
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Very gòod read.☺
Thank you @EgyptionAdventures … it’s really kind of you to take the time to read and comment. I hope you will drop by again – the more the merrier! 🙂
You are Welcome. ☺
Check out Orvillewrong Malcolm Marsh author.
I couldn’t imagine how were you able to fix all those clutter Osyth…but i bet at this point in time the place is in a much better position now…i cant wait to see a photo of you smiling in with the fully renovated house…
You will have to wait a couple more years for the fully renovated house but I do smile more often now …..
A good swap…the city can use it for their tourist office…and they clear out the junk for you. Good old systeme D.
What a long process, I remember this well
Still a long way to go but I will catch everyone up with weekly installments from next Monday bringing us to where we are now. After that it will be dormant for a while as we have put the house in mothballs for a year or two whilst we attend to a few other things. I must email you.
As good as the first time around.. But I take exception in that you’ve stuck that rosey song in my head again !!!
💛
I am SO sorry …. if it makes any difference, I ran everything before I reposted and caught my neighbours (it’s an office of very quiet accountants) bopping in the hallway!!!
😂 That’s just how I was both times listening to the video but then the tune creeps in and settles in the brain and doesn’t leave.. Hmmm, watch your back, those nice quiet neighbors may be throwing tomatoes at you soon .. 😮
It’s funny, I used to sing it all the time..
They are pulling lemon faces as they leave the office – I think the damage is done 😉 Watch the video at the end … the Joy Division track is really infectious too – one of my all time faves 🙂
Ha ha, I have reconnected! I was no longer subscribed, I wonder how does that happen, who has the right to say, “hey she had a hiccup with emails, (because of the server, not even my own fault) and so in the process we’ll just randomly choose which things she should now be unsubscribed from.” In truth, I do not understand at all, but all is well that ends well I guess, and now I can continue to bug you with comments and read your musings which are always a pure delight. xxx
Its God – God is the giver of all deals and decides who and what we are connected to – this has happened with my FaceBook more than once and on one occasion caused dreadful offence to my husband’s trickiest sister!!!! Lovely to have you back but the same rules apply – only read when you have time xxx
I live with a packrat, I know clutter and I am merciless 🙂
Oh believe me in a previous incarnation I was Queen of the declutter and still woe betide any that disturb my carefully janiteured interiors but this was honestly beyond anything I had every seen in my whole life except at a municipal dump …. your ways are correct. Packrats beware 😉
We lost everything we had a few years ago, what turned my husband into a packrat. He brings stuff home he finds in resale shops and we would be cluttered in no time.
Interesting enough losing everything showed me that I don’t need that much and turned me into the Queen of declutter. I suppose we are indeed the perfect couple. 🙂
How interesting. I lost everything too and it was the turning point from hoarder to declutterer. It’s not the way one would want things to be but there are silver linings to all bad things, I truly believe 🙂
Holy piles of stufffffff!!!!! Does look like a few treasures in there though – lol – I think we are all eyeing up those wine crates! 🙂
Thing is – he was a total nutter and we all decided (town and us) that is was better to not keep anything lest he come back with a sharpened axe to slay us in our sleep. And I do not joke. So sadly we let him take it all and the town deal with the rest. Which means we can collect our own things in time …. such fun! Silver linings. reminder to self – always a silver lining!!
Yikes!!
Actually actually
Really, really enjoying this Osyth. I know a friendly assassin if you ever need one! What a lovely city folk you have there, and the French system of Mayors is something we could all learn from. Looking forward to more.
I’m so happy that you are enjoying it Pete! The people have been beyond wonderful … just delightfully kind and accommodating. I hope they are never foolish enough in the Élysée Palace to try and change the local government system. Speaking as a British girl I wholeheartedly agree … we could learn so much. Thanks so much for your thoughtful (and often amusing) comments… I really enjoy them 😊
PS: Hold the thought about the assassin … it could still come to that 😉
One does not need an assassin to achieve justice or retribution; one needs two overstimulated but underutilised little minds with a wicked little plan…!
Yes indeedy 😉
Enjoyed (although not the right word for what happened to you) this again. Still can’t believe the realestate system there. A blogger friend in Germany told me that when someone leaves their rented place they take everything right down to the kitchen cupboards and lightbulbs, – seems really weird to me.
They do the same here though my apartment in Champs did have it’s kitchen and the palace in Grenoble too but no light bulbs in that one … so glad your enjoying the re-run. We start afresh in Monday ☺
Looking forward to it.
“. . . I never promised you a Rose garden.” 🌹
This would overwhelm me at times but I can tell you are getting motivated and so happy you shared your blue phase with us. It helped me to relate so much more on a personal level. I know raising kids on our own was something we had in common. This house project reminds me of my younger years with a good renovation friend, Amy. We took huge sledgehammers and knocked down walls of her rental homes. She was a cracker jack, spitfire friend who did sometimes get my energy sparked up to her level.
Her life has changed and has an office job far away, but I imagine her creative juices still flow. . . hugs xo 💐 ❤
if Amy ever feels like revisiting those days …. 😉 Seriously, I was quite overwhelmed by the support of friends here when I wrote that piece. We have much in common, Robin …. the most important thing is a respect and love of humanity and decent hearts xo
I say again, what a wonderful house! Having grown up the way I did I can’t help but notice the old school physics in the way the roof supports were built. Modern “Trusses” use cross ties to hold the walls from bowing with the weight of the roof, but the carpenters that rebuilt this house used an ingenious method of the center truss to hold all. The basement walls still look strong and the windows are divine. I can see past the clutter and envision the charm and character you and your hubby will bring to this house and the village.
As you can imagine, my husband too is a fan of the roof engineering. In fact the whole roof was replaced about 15 years ago but the firm (who are in the village) followed the original pattern to the letter. The walls in the cellar ar 8 feet thick ….. the windows on the first floor have a mechanism that we have never seen before but turns out to be authentic to the period of the rebuild. Some of the glass is original and has that wonderful wavy patina to it. When we eventually get to sorting the frames it will be a matter of preserving them and the glass. Although the constraints of the historic monument listing only apply to the outside, it is extremely important to us to retain as much as possible that was put in place by those people over 150 years ago and in the case of much of the house over 900 years ago. That fact takes my breath away …..
9 centuries…WOW!
Despite the devastation of the detritus and the wretched wonk who took his time releasing things from his grubby fingers, you at least had the support of a town that yearns for your success, along with the Assistant Angel. (The tended roses are a nice touch as well.) On a personal note, I have a lingering fear that, once I pass on, ensuing owners or at least my relatives will be mortified at what they discover in my own dwelling. I have a tendency to collect things with a zealousness that is not always appreciated by others, so I’m sure there will be rending of hair as they assess my clutter. I try to be tidy about my obsessions and I think I have succeeded, but I suppose Grubby Fingers thought the same.
Now, this mash-up video of Moira and Joy. If one didn’t know the details, one could easily think the entire thing had been produced circa 1981. The surrealism of the movie and the atmosphere of the song seem a perfect match. Great find!
I don’t wish you could have seen for yourself because it would have left you scarred but honestly there was NO thinking behind the mess at all and absolutely no attempt to order the chaos. He was a hoarder on steroids and we all know what steroids can do if abused. I am sure your fears regarding your own collections are unfounded and that there will be many of those wistful smiles on the faces of those that love you as they meander through them – and delight that you are perpetuating the smiles of remembrance for SO long because there is SO much of it 😉 The village is really a delight and the beatified assistant is in my Will ….
The video was added for the re-runs. Originally, I had a clip from the movie au naturel but when I found this …. oh my heart! I’m so glad you agree …. so far you are the only one – may I say this has made me very happy? That it is Ian Curtis singing makes it all the more appropriate given the darkness lurking in his own mind as he performed. I thought so anyway and I am so in awe of the editors who produce things like this. So beyond me clever – but then I can’t even use the tools on iPhoto so the bar is quite low here ….