St Hugues
It was no April Fool's joke, that's for sure. We started the day bright and - no, wait a minute, forget the bright, but it was early. J-J and his helper Stephane arrived at 8.30 and off-loaded 34 bags of cement. They set to immediately down in the pool and worked hard all day to produce the base of the smaller circle.
Meanwhile, indoors, Jon was ready to make the hole in the lounge ceiling. We've been putting it off for so long waiting for the weather to improve, or at least warm up a bit and today was the designated day for the start of the work.
The ceilings are made of red bricks, cemented together and hung from the rafters by wire. A sort of hung ceiling. Lovely red dust filled the house and it will probably take a while to settle and be disposed of finally.
Jon carefully took the ceiling down in sections, with me underneath in hard hat, goggles and face mask to catch the sections as they fell. The first one came down easily, although it was a little heavier than I had expected. The second was just as simple, which is lucky since my hard hat fell off. The third fell just as I was taking it and landed with a thump on the floor having bounced off the wall, leaving its mark. The fourth was OK. The fifth hadn't been cut through properly but suddenly cracked and landed at my feet - luckily not on them and the sixth was another easy one. Unfortunately the floor was damaged on the fifth section dropping but the intended stairs will cover that bit of the floor.
Later, we 'rescued' a very old ladder that has obviously resided in the loft for many, many a year. It is very sturdy, no signs of woodworm or other damage and will serve as a temporary staircase until such time as we decide what staircase we want up there.
Next job? Cleaning the attic out. It has obviously not been cleaned, well, probably ever and there is all sorts of dust and debris up there to clear up before we even consider treating all the wood and repointing the end walls.
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