Greenhouse progress

We thought it would be done by now, but we're not there yet. As I mentioned yesterday, installing the glass panels was a little trickier than expected, and the guys worked painstakingly slow all day Saturday. But I think they've got the hang of it now and I'm hopeful that they will be able to finish up on Tuesday.

Progress as of Sunday morning. Glass panels are installed on the right side, part of the top and part of the front.

I just barely remembered to get a "before" shot. The awning over the back door was already removed by the time I got down there with the camera. No matter; I have plenty of photos of the back of the house in my archives.

The "before" shot, after the awning over the door was removed. The wisteria got cut back some after this was taken.

The frame went together relatively quickly, including assembling the base, digging holes for the concrete footings, and bolting the thing to the back of the house. I really think we're going to like it once it's ready for plants. I'll post more photos when it's done and we get some plants in there.

The "during" shot from the same spot as the "before" photo. The watering can and bucket are there so we won't walk into the glass.

Work should be starting on Wednesday for replacing our shower stall. Which reminds me, I've got to take some "before" photos in the bathroom!

The castle at the end of the street

Here's my last photo from Châtillon-sur-Indre. We walked up the main street into the center of the old town toward the ruins of the castle and keep. You can just glimpse it in the back, with the national flag flying over the donjon (keep).

This street leads to the main square below the castle keep.

The assembly of our greenhouse slowed down to a snail's pace on Saturday. The guys were having a lot of trouble installing the glass windows. Apparently the rubber joint strips that hold the glass in the aluminum frames were very difficult to manipulate in the chilly autumn weather. They got fewer than half the window panels in, and will be back on Tuesday to, hopefully, finish up. I'm keeping the rubber gasket strips indoors at their request, so they will be warm and more malleable when the guys start up again.

Let's have another

This is another photo from Châtillon-sur-Indre that I took last week during our brief post-lunch walk around town. I didn't take nearly as many photos as Ken did, so be sure to check out his blog if you want to see more.

The paving stones are amazing!

As I mentioned in the "Newsiness" section, we're expecting the garden contractor back this morning to complete the assembly of the new greenhouse. The frame has been up since last weekend. Today they will be installing the glass panels and making whatever final adjustments need to be made. It's getting to be time to start bringing plants in for the winter, so we're very excited about it all!

Change

This photo is about a week old. It's been way too foggy in recent days to get the same shot showing how much more orange and yellow the leaves are now. I'm hoping to get some shots before it all goes brown and the leaves drop, but it will depend on the fog.

Looking generally eastwards, toward the Cher River valley.

We had some minor computer issues on Thursday that took a couple of hours to mess with. First, my inkjet printer is on the outs. It's producing an error message telling me it needs to be looked at by a service technician. That's something that will likely cost more than a new printer and, given the printer's age, may not be worth it. Then, the laser printer seems to have died. After much trial and error, we think we figured out that the printer was interfering with our internal network, causing all kinds of little headaches. It's now been removed from the circuit and the network seems to be working normally again. We have a third printer that's working, so that's ok. Ken is looking on line for a new color printer. The question: inkjet or laser? We shall see.

Did someone say, "Halloween?"

Bert the black cat is doing his best to get into the Halloween spirit. Here he is posing next to one of the pumpkins from our garden. You can tell he's into it. After two or three photos, he high-tailed it out of there.

Bert says, "Happy Halloween!" Can I go now?

Halloween is not celebrated here like it is in the US. The holiday is November 1, called la Toussaint, or All Saints Day. It's a day off from work, and many people will take a long weekend, or even a week, for vacation. Kids are off from school for two weeks. It's the last gasp before the big holiday season coming up.

Pigeon wire

The window openings in this old building in Châtillon-sur-Indre are lined with what we in the US call "chicken wire." I'm assuming that it was put there to keep wild birds out and not to keep chickens in. Pigeons and other birds can really make a mess of empty building if they find their way in.

There look to be some breaches in the bird defense network.

Our contractor has finished his work until Monday. In addition to installing the towel drier, he also replaced the faucets and drain on the bidet and installed a second outdoor spigot on the back of the house. We wanted a new spigot because the existing one will be inside the new greenhouse, which is impractical for outdoor use, so a second one outside the greenhouse made sense. On Monday, he'll start the plumbing work for the new shower.

Work on the greenhouse is expected to conclude on Saturday with the installation of the glass panels. Fortunately, our weather forecast is for dry days through the weekend.

Le seche-serviette

I've been calling it a towel warmer, but in French it's called a towel drier, and rightly so. The goal is to have dry towels on cold winter mornings. Nothing is worse than a cold and clammy towel, right? And now the new towel drier is installed and working. Yay! The plumber finished up the hard work on Monday.

Before photo. The old radiator.

There were some unforeseen issues, like a leak in the main line after he had to mess with it. It's "only" fifty years old, so some problems are to be expected. He had to replace a section of the main line with new pipe. If you're wondering why the time on the second photo is earlier than the first, I took the second photo on a different day. Ha!

During photo. The old radiator is gone.

But all seems to be well. Next, he started on replacing the hardware on our bidet, which you can see on the left in the photo. The new faucet handles are fabulous. Where once the water trickled, it now flows. We still have a little problem with the drain plug, but he's working on that.

Installed and working! The supply & return pipes on the bottom will eventually be painted white.

Work on the shower will start on Monday next. The plumber's truck had a little problem last week when the transmission failed. So he's getting that fixed on Thursday. He doesn't want to start the shower until he has the full use of his truck (with all the supplies and tools inside). So Monday it is.