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Writer's pictureRhiannon Wirth

Week of June 24, 2019

On June 26, 2019 - We are exploring trying to find some lovely spots for our August holiday. And good grief is it hot! Suggestions from the lovely Margaret.


Etang de courtille in Guéret. Very large lake you can walk all round. Lots to do. Swimming, boat and pedalo hire, inflatables, small water fountain area, road set up for kids bikes, archery, mini golf and summer activities for kids. Bar restaurant. Quite a few play areas around the lake.

 

On June 27, 2019 - Never in my wildest dreams would I think that I would be posting pictures of guttering... and be excited about it... But... here I am. It is extra cool because it’s the first thing we’ve done to the Chateau.


Naturally, all of our effort has been directed at establishing a home base. The Chateau has been this museum sitting in the background; the centrepiece of the tour which we use to try and convince our family and friends that we are not crazy... It’s also useful for summer evening games of hide and seek, with kids scaring themselves silly as they run up and down the stairs getting lost. But whilst contemplating where we should direct our efforts and our money, it became apparent that in order to save ourselves a massive headache later down the road, we needed to ensure the integrity of the roof and the Chateau’s beautiful render.


We found a builder and he’s been spending time inspecting the roof, replacing missing and cracked slates. He’s had to replace quite a few of the down pipes and clean the guttering out from years (decades?) of sludge and muck. A lot of the flashing has had to be replaced as well (in this awful heat). Outside of the sludge, the guttering is in great shape. The downpipes were not so great and there were way more missing and cracked roof tiles than anticipated.


The cherry picker is pretty cool, but even he admits it’s scary up there. There are also unreachable places that would require scaffolding to access.


So the roof. We have 10 years left on the North side. Ack. The south side is in surprisingly amazing condition— thank you hot summer sun. But we need to start thinking about how we mitigate a great big bill in 10 years.


Fortunately, the builder agrees that a staged approach makes sense. Over the next 5 years we can potentially redo the roof in stages, budget allowing. This will allow us to add needed insulation which will help reflect the heat. And based on these few days... 100 degree (Fahrenheit) days...


Look at the beautiful, shiny, silver down pipes....


Till next week!

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