OUR KIDS LIFE IN FRANCE, AND OURS - building the swimming pool

We decided to build the pool ourselves as it was much cheaper, although it would take longer and would be very hard work. We had a JCB come in and dig the hole, and what a big pile of earth!!

When we unloaded the pallet and laid all the parts to the pool out in the garden we stood there stunned for about 1/2 an hour. It was like a jigsaw puzzle, and in true kit 'anything' fashion the instructions were as clear as mud. I felt quite fortunate at this point, as I was leaving for work and could leave the men to get on with it...If they could!! First they had to dig a trench around the hole to stand the sides in, fix together and make sure they were level. I make it sound so easy, don't I, but it was very difficult, and the heat of the sun pounding down and reflecting off the metal was almost unbearable. The kids got over excited thinking that as it's a kit it would fit together like a Macdonald's toy and would be ready for them to test drive as soon as they got home from school. So you can imagine their disappointment when they got home, especially as they had invited all their friends to come round and see the new pool. Unfortunately all they got to see was a huge pile of earth and a muddy hole, which filled with water would be the perfect swimming pool.....if you were a hippopotamus!!!

OUR KIDS LIFE IN FRANCE, AND OURS - almost ready for business

Finally it all comes together. Not all the fixtures and fittings are in place yet, but what's left to do are just minor attention to detail. We were so pleased with the finished product, inside and out. The photos don't do it full justice, as you can't see the height of the ceilings so you don't get the feel of quite how large it is. Our very first customers, a little later on, said that it was even better than the photos, which was very encouraging to hear. The children asked if we could move into the gite and rent out our house as a holiday home, clearly they were very impressed.

We took photos of all the rooms and the outside and got on to advertising straight away. In the mean time, the gite needed a test drive to make sure everything worked and that none of the electricals tripped, and also to be sure that we hadn't forgotten anything in the way of every day equipment and comforts our customers would need or like. So my parents-in-law moved in to the gite for a couple of weeks, to give their comfort rating. This really put the kids' noses out of joint, and it took me hours of blackmail and promises that one day our house would be just as nice, before they calmed down. And these weren't empty promises, we just had to get the gite done first before finishing our own house.

So, gite finished, it was now time to start excavating for the swimming pool. Bring on the diggers......

OUR KIDS LIFE IN FRANCE, AND OURS - the outside transformation

We were now juggling the outside and the inside together. We needed to get some photos taken fast so as we could start advertising as soon as possible to get the bookings rolling, hopefully!

As you can see from the photos the gite's garden was trasformed from a mud bath to a pleasant low maintenance garden. Although our grounds are very big, it's nice for the customers to have a place to go right outside their door, and be private. The swimming pool would be situated within the rest of the grounds, so as not to be too close to the gite.

The kids liked helping with the grass seeding, stomping around in their wellies throwing the seed all over. They found it even more fun when it was watered, I think they managed to water themselves more than the grass! We had to water it regularly as the weather was getting hotter and hotter by that time, and we prayed for rain but none came. We were a little concerned that the grass wouldn't grow in time, and with the heat it started to bake as soon as it appeared thus the constant watering. The inside was looking good too with decorating almost finished, it wouldn't be long before we moved the furniture in. It didn't matter if there were still finishing touches to do, we mainly wanted to get the photos done, and my, how good it looked when we finally did, even if I do say so myself.....

OUR KIDS LIFE IN FRANCE, AND OURS - what about the garden

So the inside is shaping up very well, and the decorating was now under way. We decided to leave some of the exposed stone walls, as you can see in the photos, which meant more pointing up, grrrr. The exposed beams were looking good too, they were very old but in really good condition, these together with the stone walls gave a real rustic feel to the place. For the rest of the walls and tiling we opted for soft, neutral colours, then we could mix and match soft furnishings with it more easily. We're quite minimalist and don't like too much clutter.

Meanwhile it was time to think about the gardens to the rear, front and end of the property. We would build a ceramic tiled terrace out the back and plant grass for the lawn beyond, that would turn out to be such a nice spot for having a bbq and relaxing in the sun. We have a very large driveway and planned to have it covered in shingle or gravel whatever you call it, we also planned to do the front of the gite in the same with a rock border and some plant pots. At the end, we decided to keep the original old wood shutters, as you can see in the photo above at the top, for pure decoration, again for the rustic look. That is a picture of that part finished, but as you can see the rest is yet to be tackled and the big mud bath in the last photo was what was to be the terrace and lawn....

OUR KIDS LIFE IN FRANCE, AND OURS - bathrooms, kitchens & lights

Things are starting to shape up now. Installing the bathrooms went quite quickly once all the plumbing was sorted, and we managed to get some really smart bathroom equipment. Our aim for the decoration of the gite was to be modern with a rustic feel, so as not to lose the character of the place. We had a steady stream of neighbours eager to get a sneak preview of the progress of the works, and the children constantly brought home friends and proudly showed them around. I guess coming from a small 2 bed apartment, with no garden, to this was a dream for them, so any opportunity they had of showing off they grabbed with eager hands. Not that we were any better off than their friends, it just appeared that way, in reality we were working just as hard as anyone else except that we would have extra benefits after.

The kitchen was looking particularly good and we were pleased with the layout we had chosen. The kitchen /dining room leading off to the lounge, with double glass doors leading to the terrace, or what would soon be the terrace...At that time it was just a tip and mud bath!!

The kids came home from school and announced that there was to be a meal and a knees up at the local village hall at the weekend and could we go? We said that we would and bought tickets for us all, little did we know that this was to be an evening that would stay with us for a long time.......

OUR KIDS LIFE IN FRANCE, AND OURS, up with the walls

Tiling over, knees sore. Time to do a bit of standing work. Next came the walls and as you can see from the pictures, things were beginning to shape up. Rooms were beginning to appear, although it was still pretty difficult to imagine it a proper place yet. This part of the renovation particularly amused the children, a bit like in and out the dusty bluebells, (I think that's what it was called).

We sat down with the kids to try to decide on a name for the gite. We had lots of amusing response like; "Cowshed", "Ye Old Grange", "The Renovation Rooms", but mostly they all wanted it to be called after their own names. We finally decided on the name "Tournesol", French for sunflower, as there was, at the time, a huge field of sunflowers right opposite. This worked very well for the first year after we opened, but sadly the harvester came and chopped them all down and the farmer never replanted sunflowers again! But hey, it's still a nice name.

The kids were becoming more and more French every day, by that I mean little habits and things they do in the same annoying way the French do. Example, total misuse of the English language in amongst their french phrases, this is something the French do frequently, like; "Je vais faire du SHOPPING", and "On y GO", and "Le magasin HARD DISCOUNT". The one that makes me cringe the most is, "Rock 'n' roll", said in a very bad French/US twang and supposedly means, "That's great". Maybe I'm just getting old.......

OUR KIDS LIFE IN FRANCE, AND OURS - the floor covering

Things were beginning to shape up now that it was time to lay the floor tiles. We decided to do this before putting the walls up, as we would use the same tiles throughout to make things more uniform and clean looking. Then came the gruelling task of laying roughly 1200 tiles on the floor, and I can safely say that the men had very sore knees when that was over. It looked very smart after, all new & shiny, and it got more of a gleam later when the kids got home from school, took off their shoes and slid all across them in their socks as if they were ice skating.

From the outside, things were looking better too. Our eldest son had been helping with the pointing of the exterior stone walls, which is a very long and boring job, so I think the men were quite happy he wanted to help. It was a bit strange for me, being away all day I really noticed all the changes when I got home from work, and sometimes didn't really feel a part of it all. But someone had to keep the money coming in, and that someone had to be me...At least, for now..