At the front of the two gites I was going to put a 60cm wide oak post to separate the two windows. After the macons left I changed my mind and decided a cast concrete post covered in the same render as the breeze blocks would look nicer and be easier The pictures are self-explanatory, clamp on shuttering, insert wire reinforcement, fill with concrete nailing extra boards on the way up.

The morning started fairly windy when my friend Ian and I knocked up the shuttering with scrap wood and French masonry clamps. Ian took charge of the concrete mixer and I started shovelling it in, nailing additional boards as it filled up. By this time the wind has really picked up and was blowing a 'gale'. Just as I was adding a second barrow load of concrete one of the boards started to work loose oozing concrete. I hadn't banged the nails fully home so I could remove them more easily later and the weight was pulling them out. Just then BANG. One of the ridge tiles blew off the roof of another gite. It landed between Ian and I.

Change of priority. Saving the roof was more important than concrete on my boots. We could see a second ridge tile lifting in the wind and was worried the wind would get under the slates and rip the roof off. We filled an old fertiliser sack with sand and I planned to climb up onto the ridge and straddle the 'sand bag' across the loose tiles to prevent further damage. Fortunately my ladders were too short and so we decided to call a roofer. It was very windy and would have been fairly dangerous. It also meant we could get back to the concreting. With luck on our side the wind didn't cause anymore damage to the roof, it just blew a fence panel out and snapped one of the fence posts round the back of the house !

The rest of the operation went without further incident apart from a bit of dust blowing in our eyes, horizontal rain and leaves in the concrete. You can see by the mess I managed to rescue the shuttering and use extra nail and clamps to keep everything together.

Spent the day sandblasting some of the internal stone walls in the two new gites yesterday. I hired a sandblaster and compressor from Loxam in Dinan along with 20 bags of abrasive sand. The plan was to clean up the walls surrounding the two staircases along with smaller portions of stonework on an opposite wall. Depending on how much sand was left I was also going to clean up the exposed beams.

I picked up the compressor and sandblaster at 8 'o'clock in the morning (that's the earliest I think I've started work for about a year) from Dinan. I'd picked up the sand in the van the previous day (700 kg) and had to use the car for the compressor because it's the only vehicle with a towbar, even then they changed the towbar on the car to a different style to accomodate the compressor/trailer. Heavy duty ?

As a side issue, I believe you have to register trailers/caravans over 500 kg separately. I.e. with it's own number plate. The compressor was registered on a 92 plate (Paris) whereas our car is on a 22 plate (Cotes'D'Armor). If you move house you need to get a new number plate that reflects the new department number, if applicable.

The whole sandblasting process is very noisy and very hard work. The compressor is thumping away outside, there are various hissing noises from the sableuse (red drum sandblasting machine), several valves and dials to fiddle about with to get the pressure and sand flow rate right, plus several hefty bits of tube to lug about. On top of all that you need to wear a helmet (reminiscent of an old deep-sea diving helmet) with it's own air supply. I suspect the air supply in the helmet creates a positive pressure to prevent dust and muck getting inside. There is alot of dust. Within seconds it's almost impossible to see anything. The dirt and sand is thrown everywhere, much of it back into your face, and as I found out later, into your boots.

Every couple of bags or so (each bag does about 2 to 3 m²) you need to change the disposible plastic visor. It gets all pitted and very dirty with the spray back.

Life is not that easy for any helper you have. It's impossible for anyone else to stand in the same room, neither of you can see each other let alone communicate via voice, especially with the helmet on. It's possible with a series of bizzare hand signals and gestures you could save time, but in the end I just left the room after each bag load, removed my helmet and took a breather whilst the sableuse was refilled.

It was a very tough days work, but worth it. The stonework has come up really well and is ready for pointing. I didn't do the beams, partly because of the cost of another days hire, more sand would be needed and I was dead on my feet. I did test a small patch on one of the beams with a pressure washer and it worked fine. The beams only have a white lime wash/paint covering whereas the stones have much more stubborn dirt.

By the time I'd returned the equipment to Loxam I was completely done in, and tucked up in bed by 8 'o'clock.

A slight delay posting because our computer failed. The maçons left on Tuesday morning after pouring the concrete floor for the new kitchen. That's the new breeze block part on the left hand side. The rest is up to us, apart from the carpenter and roofer for the two new lucarnes. The breeze block parts will have a cream coloured enduit (lime based render) applied once the windows are fitted. It's a very typical finish on the exterior of French houses. The gites look a bit grey at the moment but once the windows and doors are fitted, Caroline finishes the pointing, the enduit is applied and a few wall plants grow it will look very different.

Caroline and I went to Rennes on Tuesday morning whilst the maçons finished up to order the new windows and doors. In France all the windows open inwards, unlike in the UK where they open outwards. In France it is much easier to clean or paint any windows because you have easy access to the outside without climbing up a ladder. You do lose your window sill as a storage item, but I think it's a small price to pay. Consequently the windows and doors are fitted differently. They are just mastic'ed and screwed to the inside of the wall rather than between the walls. It gives you a bit of room to manoeuvre.