Where has January gone?! It seems like only a few days ago we had the Christmas decorations up. Thankfully however, we have avoided the very cold snap and snow that we see the UK has been experiencing last week and today has been almost warm.
Last week’s blog was the first of the year that started with the ‘wasn’t a very productive week’ phrase. While this week won’t be the second, having set myself a deadline of mid-February to complete the project, I haven’t made as much progress as I would have liked and I can’t lay all of the blame on the start of the 6 Nations tournament – and what a great start.
All of the above said, I have made some progress on the shed. I have now completed the wiring which I wanted to do before fitting out so it can be hidden behind the boarding that I will put up. This took quite a bit longer than I wanted as I wanted to make sure I did it safely and, while we are not demanding any more power than we did before, I will have more sockets and lights.
I haven’t made any further progress on clearing the space out nor have I managed to get rid of the old roofing sheets that I mentioned least week. Sadly, the quarry we were told accepted them no longer has a licence so we are investigating alternative methods of disposal …
Having completed the wiring I have made a start on insulating and covering the ceiling. As the garage bays, we have chosen to use white plastic lambris as it’s cheap and easy to install. The insulation is less to make the building comfortable – it is only a shed – but to minimise the condensation which occurs on the cold metal roof and drips into the shed. Half done.
During the week I have also started some major spring cleaning in our own house and began clearing my desk. The state of my desk has become a bit of a running joke among friends and family. While I don’t consider myself a hoarder exactly, I do admit that I don’t like throwing anything away which may come in useful at some point in the future – such as the old shower screens which we have used as windows in the new shed. I also wouldn’t consider myself a procrastinator normally, after a long day working non-essential admin often gets put off which resulted in my desk being lost under lots of stuff!
During one of the wetter and colder days I started to sort through the ‘stuff’ which would also assist me to compile our dossiers for our residency permit application and interview at the end of March. During the clear out I made an A4 paper sized pile of things to be recycled much of which were the vast amount of shop marketing material the French receive – at the end it was almost a metre tall! The shame! Phase 2 will be filing the ‘stuff’ which will probably generate more recycling (although not a metre’s worth!)
Otherwise the week has been other routine things. We did visit our new dentist in Morlaix who is a good friend of David’s who attends most of his gym classes. He is a nice guy and, I’m sure a good dentist, but (as this seems to be a blog of confessions) I also admit to being one of the millions who hates visiting the dentist. No matter how good they are it always feels like being waterboarded by Dr. Orin Scrivello D.D.S.
All being well I should be in a position to start filling the man shed by this time next week.
Salut.