Yes, today we laid the first of the floor tiles in the new kitchen. We had planned to start yesterday but after pulling through the four water pipes for the radiators I noticed that they needed to pas through the walls at the same junction as the electric conduits.
There was not enough space to get the tubes through so I had to take out a stone adjacent to accommodate
the water pipes. To complicate things the oil pip[e that feeds the boiler passes just below where I had to break the wall out so it was a little delicate. The stone was bigger than a football and it took two hours to drill around it to loosen the mud mortar.
After this I chased the tubes under the electric cables by cutting out a channel into the concrete. So today we were all systems go to start laying.
We have opted for a new terra cuit (terracotta) with a hand finished edge which softens the look.
Unfortunately, we could not find any second hand tiles which would have been our first choice. However, it still does not feel as though we have 'dumbed down' and they do look nice.
Marking out was fun because the room is not square so I have decided to make a focal point in the centre which is dead square and then work back to the walls. This is designed to attract the eye to the points which are easy to relate to the surroundings.
The kitchen door
I forgot to add a photo of the completed kitchen door which has now been hung. I am really chuffed with it, especially as I have basically made it out of scraps of wood.
I hope that at the end of this week I can visit Thierry's workshop with my door and finish off the profiles.
So, fingers crossed, by the middle of next week we shall have a floor and new doors so we will be weather proof and ready to open up the internal door down into the new kitchen.
Click on the picture of the door to enlarge it and see much better detail.
In the meantime, we have had all of the fields drilled with the wheat (and some grass seed). All we need now is some rain. It has been really dry here for well over a month (although we did have some rain overnight last Thursday).
The weather is due to turn rather chilly this week with -4 overnight and bring to an end this great spell of warm(ish) weather.
The reason for the grass seed? - well we have acquired another horse. This was necessary so that we could bring Izzy back here. It was such a shame that we have all of this land and yet have to pay to keep the horse elsewhere.
Jazz as he is called was living on his own and was rather sad. His owner, a French lady had had him for the last ten years but felt he needed to be put with other horses so that he would not be so lonely.
We went to see him and then agreed to take him on and we paid a small fee.
I need to do a bit of fencing to make the top field secure and Donna and Fleur have cleared out the lean too barn in readiness
.
Watch this space as they say.
