Running a Gite in Brittany

Improving weather

The weather in Brittany has been gorgeous the last few days. Baking hot sunshine, in fact so nice that after work yesterday I went to try our our friends new pool they have built. It's only been full of water for about a week and at 20°C it was still a bit chilly - nice tho'

After Caroline finished changing the gites she has also gone for a swim. Hopefully it should be a bit warmer for her today.

Having your own pool, even one you have to share with the guests staying in the gites, sounds lovely, but first impressions are that they are quite expensive, the new French pool regulations are strict and a fair amount of maintenance. I'll have to see how our friends get on with theirs.

|   5:29:48 PM   Improving weather   

Plasterboarding.

Where have you heard that before.

I seem to be spending all my waking hours plasterboarding at the moment. I've taken a few photos but the rooms I've finished - bedroom, bathroom, dining room and lounge area in one gite - but they are just grey boxes. Grey walls and grey concrete floors. Not much to see.

Apart from screwing into my finger a couple of times not very interesting at the moment.

|   7:35:07 PM   Plasterboarding.   

Gite Trap

We had some guests trapped in the gite this weekend because the front door to the gite had somehow got jammed shut. The father had to climb out the window to get our help!

The door has a three point locking mechanism, bolts up and down into the frame and another central pin that interlocks with the other door. For some reason the central pin was not retracting fully so the door couldn't be opened. Eventually after much wiggling, fiddling and a bit of brute force the door opened. Once I'd dismantled the locking mechanism I noticed the head of a internal rivet had come off jamming the mechanism. Removed, repaired and refitted, everything now works perfectly. Well I think it does, I haven't seen our guests for a few days :-)

|   7:46:38 PM   Gite Trap   

Hello Brittany Goodbye Eczema

When we first moved to France both our children had severe eczema that completely  disappeared after about 6 months. Caroline wrote an article that got published in a UK Eczema magazine recounting the story. The eczema article has been picked up and republished in the Brittany section of the French Entree website.

|   6:26:34 PM   Hello Brittany Goodbye Eczema   

Bonnie shopper

Such good progress has been made this week that Carolines has spent the last two days in the van shopping for supplies. Bits of pipe, wood, tiles, adhesive, etc. We used up all the plasterboard finishing the ceilings, so today she bought another 50 sheets for the exterior walls, with 40 more coming tomorrow to dry line the other gite. Plasterboard starts to get very heavy at the end of the day.

Caroline has laid the floor tiles for two of the bathrooms upstairs, my plumber friend is busy connecting up another bathroom and preparing for the first kitchen. In the process we did notice a minor problem with the electric water heater, chauffe-eau or ballon. It doesn't fit under the stairs in it's planned position. Everything is drawn to scale on the plan - and fits - but in 3D reality, things look different. Visualising 3D spaces from 2D plans, especially under the twisting, turning staircase is very difficult.
Our water heaters are about 150 litres in size and run on overnight cheap rate electricity, heures creuses, heating up the water for the day. I haven't bought it yet, but the planned ballon was too high, 1.8m, so we've had to make the downstairs toilet larger and put it in the corner. At least the toilet will stay warm.

|   9:07:43 PM   Bonnie shopper   

Ceilings

With the deadline of the staircase arriving we have pulled our fingers out this week by finishing off the connections into the soil stack for the waste pipes upstairs and constructed three suspended ceilings; one of which has been plasterboarded and had the electrics installed for the lights. I'm very pleased with this weeks work.

The photo shows, quite literally, the suspended ceiling over the 3m by 3m open plan kitchen in the gite. The wooden joists, 200 by 32, running front to back support the metal rail system which the plasterboard is screwed to. The remainder of the downstairs is open plan with the full height of the ceiling exposing the old oak beams. You can just about see above the ceiling where I stopped cleaning the beams.

I getting the hang of loft hatches now I've finished the fifth one.

|   10:11:56 PM   Ceilings   

Staircase ordered

The staircase man came this week to measure up for the two new staircases. Because of the very high ceilings in the gites we can't buy an off the shelf staircase. Each staircase is made to measure. Both have two quarter turns but each is the mirror image of each other because they are located in opposite corners.
The planned fitting date is the last two weeks in May. Great news, but we do need to lay the floor tiles before the staircase arrives. However before Caroline - I call her Bonnie Tyler when she starts to sing - lays the tiles I need to put up the internal walls. However before the walls go up the plumbing and electrics need to be installed behind the walls and the suspended ceilings need to be fitted.
Suddenly the screw is being tightened and the pressure is building. It wasn't meant to be like this. I came to France to relax, spend more 'quality time' with the family. Ah well, I guess the sooner they are finished the sonner I can get to the beach.
|   7:25:41 PM   Staircase ordered   

Changed website to www.brittanygites.com

We've just brought the domain name, brittanygites.com in a Snapnames auction to replace our old name, brittany-holiday-gites.com. The old one was a bit of a mouthful and cumbersome to spell out to people. Hopefully the new name should make things a little easier.

A bit of DNS magic means our old address automatically redirects to the new web site, however if you currently link to the old name I would appreciate an update to http://www.brittanygites.com/ If you don't link to our blog or gite website then please feel free to add a link.

|   7:51:05 PM   Changed website to www.brittanygites.com   

New wooden patio furniture

We decided to splash out on Saturday and replace the rather tired looking green plastic tables and chairs on each gite patio with some new posh wooden furniture. The local shop had a promotion on which helps, but when you have to buy three of everything it's a little more painful.

We are both really pleased with the improvment and they do look good.

|   8:03:15 PM   New wooden patio furniture   

Gardening

The weather has been lovely the last few days and everything in the garden is really starting to sprout. Grass, plants, flowers and of course weeds. Even the two cherry trees I butchered (pollarded) with a chainsaw last year are blooming. Why do the weeds seem to grow faster than anything else.

Caroline has spent the last two days strimming, mowing and weeding what seems like acres of flower beds. It's nice to have loads of space but at this time of year it can be a bit of a chore. The new gardens are looking very mature and established. It's amazing what she has achieved in just one year.

|   12:17:19 PM   Gardening   

Outside complete

The outside of the new gites is finally finished. The last month or so has been hard physical work, but rewarding. Our aim was to get the outside finished before the start of the season so we are only about a week late, but Easter was early this year. Is that a good enough excuse ?

The last lorry load of gravel was spread yesterday after Ian and I finished laying the new patios. Driving the vibrating wacking machine over the pavers was noisy but quite good fun.

For the gite on the left I've built a ramp - lined with, I think, rather stylish granite edging stones - up to the doorway to allow for wheelchair access. The downstairs of this gite has a downstairs bedroom and bathroom en-suite with planned disabled facilities; wet room style shower, wall bars for the toilet etc.

Carolines painted the railings at the front, made up some trays of pansies and started planting up the flower beds. Hopefully I've given her enough time to get the beds established for the Summer.

|   6:57:11 PM   Outside complete   

Mower woes

On Saturday as Caroline was finishing the gite changeover ready for the new guests I decided to have a major mowing session to smarten the place up. The weather was perfect for mowing and given the time pressure of new arrivals I think I may have worked our rider-on a little too hard. With the front of the house, play field and main 'public' areas finished I tried to tackle the extra long grass in the grotto when bang, the belt snapped. Mower broken. Luckily I was on the home stretch, but still a bit of a pain.

The poor thing has been sat beltless and impotent dismantled in the garage whilst we've been waiting for the new belt to arrive that I ordered Saturday afternoon. I collected the new belt today. 75 euros. Thats 50 quid, for a glorified fan belt. An expensive lesson in taking things steady. I wonder if a pairs of tights will work next time ?

|   7:44:53 PM   Mower woes   

French Capital Gains Tax

Something that isn't often considered when buying a house in France is Capital Gains Tax - the tax that may be levied by the French Government on any increase in value on a property between the time it was bought and sold.

The law regarding Capital Gains Tax changed quite dramatically at the beginning of 2004, updated articles on the Essentials of French Capital Gains Tax and a CGT FAQ are now available.

Please seek professional advice before taking action.

|   9:17:01 PM   French Capital Gains Tax