Friday and we're still working

Another hot sunny day, and after a trip into town, I've been working on the interior - I laid a hearth of terra-cotta tiles yesterday, and today I treated them with a lot of coats of linseed oil (to seal them) with a view to getting them grouted on Sunday. The last time we worked with similar tiles which we hadn't treated enough, the grout stained the tiles which were still very porous.

The trip into town was to ask at the bank why the money I had transferred to pay my year's French taxes - due next Tuesday - hadn't arrived. An unhelpful man said he had no idea. I asked whether it was being held up so they could do their "money-laundering" checks (a phone call asking me what I intend to spend the money on) - this has happened half a dozen times before. No, he said. But mysteriously the cash arrived in my account later in the day. As it turns out, I wouldn't have been able to pay the tax bill - the Tresor Public is only open Monday to Thursday, so the Republique will have to wait until Monday for my money.

Here are some pictures of the barn interior, complete with builders bric-a-brac and cartons, bathroom fittings, tile cement etc.

The first shows the downstairs entrance, with the shower for people using the pool on the right - the only bathroom tiled so far - and our bedroom door on the left.



The next shows the interior of the bedroom, with the tiler's equipment (and his trousers) waiting for his return after a month's break, hopefully this coming Monday.



The next is a view of the main floor, looking towards the kitchen area (the whole floor is open plan, and we hope it isn't too drafty)



The next shows a view further round to what will be the dining area, and also the hearth that has just been tiled (lots of plastic to protect the floor from cement stains)



Then a view across the balcony: there is no handrail yet but we are hoping that we'll get something fairly soon. It will probably be a bit of rope netting fixed to those temporary builders' posts, but eventually it should be mostly glass.



Finally the upstairs landing. I haven't posted any pictures of the upstairs bedrooms as they are hard to photograph, and they look pretty odd as the eaves slope right down to the floor and none of the walls look as if they are vertical. Stacked along by the rail over the lightwell are tiles and bathroom fittings, which one day, maybe soon, will be in the bathrooms.



The electrician has put in all the switches and plug points, but they are all protected against paint by temporary red plastic covers. The lights and sockets will probably be working early next week: the electrician (Claude) has been getting the distribution board organised today. He expects it all to work first off. I have never seen quite so many wires, but hopefully he does actually know which is which.