The dining room end of the salon starting to take shapeI am sure you have heard the expression “ A heavy sleeper”. Well I was a heavy waker-upper, because although I can’t quite work out what happened, the much-hated baseboard of the double bed fell apart on one side, revealing a mass of worm holes. This put us in a bit of a quandary. There was no way that we could repair the bed and return it to its former state, and since half the base-board was already adrift, it seemed like a good time to try and get rid of it altogether.
The last time I saw Jean lying on his back peering up at something with a worried expression, he was under the farm truck, and oil was dripping around his ears. “Hmm” he said in a thoughtful manner, and I felt a bit like the relative of a patient awaiting the decision of a surgeon. “It’s solid oak” was his next comment, followed by “and it’s hand built”.
None of this was filling me with confidence, but he was up and running. “Tape measure, pencil and paper, electric screw driver, drill”
I ran around like a theatre sister collecting up all the tools of his trade, and then helped him strip the bed down to the bare essentials. The headboard, and solid oak frame stood there, sadly lopsided on the one side, while the offending baseboard which had so cruelly bruised my toes glared at me as if it knew its fate. I was now in a position of power and the thumb went down.
“Get rid of it” I decreed.
My wonderful master carpenter got to work and dismantled the frame but it was clear that a trip to Leroy Merlin was on the cards so that we could replace the base board with something a lot lower. To cut a long story short, we finally made it out of the shop with what seemed like a very long plank of Douglas pine which we managed to squeeze into the car by dint of lowering the back seats, and an hour after we got home, the bed was as good as new.
Of course this has played havoc with our schedule and the curtains will now have to be done tomorrow.
I find is fascinating to see what people wear to go to Leroy Merlin. The place is now like the Mother Ship for us and today they offered us a special loyalty card as we seem to be in and out of there every day. You can almost tell what sort of job people are doing by what they are dressed in. Today we stood in the queue behind a very chic couple who are definitely primping up their weekend home and seemed to be working from a list handed them by their builder. Behind us stood a man in a pair of shorts that positively shrieked at the shirt he was wearing. A bewildered look on his face made it clear that he had no guiding hand in either his choice of wardrobe or his decision making in the plumbing department. A young couple waited patiently, billing and cooing and discussing the paint that they had picked out. Was it for a first home or for a baby’s room? I rather admired the woman dressed in denim dungarees in her mid thirties who pushed a large trolley around laden with sheets of shower glass, timber, wood glue, screws and a very determined look on her face. She certainly was wearing the trousers in her household and I was quite surprised that she had slipped off her carpentry belt for the trip to Leroy’s.
It would be really nice tomorrow if we could get on with what we have planned without the daily trip back to the green emporium. Thank heavens it is only about ten miles down the road and stocks everything that a person moving into a rather elderly village house would need. But now it’s late and I think it is high time that I went and tried out the bed. Dormez bien!
The last time I saw Jean lying on his back peering up at something with a worried expression, he was under the farm truck, and oil was dripping around his ears. “Hmm” he said in a thoughtful manner, and I felt a bit like the relative of a patient awaiting the decision of a surgeon. “It’s solid oak” was his next comment, followed by “and it’s hand built”.
None of this was filling me with confidence, but he was up and running. “Tape measure, pencil and paper, electric screw driver, drill”
I ran around like a theatre sister collecting up all the tools of his trade, and then helped him strip the bed down to the bare essentials. The headboard, and solid oak frame stood there, sadly lopsided on the one side, while the offending baseboard which had so cruelly bruised my toes glared at me as if it knew its fate. I was now in a position of power and the thumb went down.
“Get rid of it” I decreed.
My wonderful master carpenter got to work and dismantled the frame but it was clear that a trip to Leroy Merlin was on the cards so that we could replace the base board with something a lot lower. To cut a long story short, we finally made it out of the shop with what seemed like a very long plank of Douglas pine which we managed to squeeze into the car by dint of lowering the back seats, and an hour after we got home, the bed was as good as new.
Of course this has played havoc with our schedule and the curtains will now have to be done tomorrow.
I find is fascinating to see what people wear to go to Leroy Merlin. The place is now like the Mother Ship for us and today they offered us a special loyalty card as we seem to be in and out of there every day. You can almost tell what sort of job people are doing by what they are dressed in. Today we stood in the queue behind a very chic couple who are definitely primping up their weekend home and seemed to be working from a list handed them by their builder. Behind us stood a man in a pair of shorts that positively shrieked at the shirt he was wearing. A bewildered look on his face made it clear that he had no guiding hand in either his choice of wardrobe or his decision making in the plumbing department. A young couple waited patiently, billing and cooing and discussing the paint that they had picked out. Was it for a first home or for a baby’s room? I rather admired the woman dressed in denim dungarees in her mid thirties who pushed a large trolley around laden with sheets of shower glass, timber, wood glue, screws and a very determined look on her face. She certainly was wearing the trousers in her household and I was quite surprised that she had slipped off her carpentry belt for the trip to Leroy’s.
It would be really nice tomorrow if we could get on with what we have planned without the daily trip back to the green emporium. Thank heavens it is only about ten miles down the road and stocks everything that a person moving into a rather elderly village house would need. But now it’s late and I think it is high time that I went and tried out the bed. Dormez bien!
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