France – Page 3 – At Home in France

Paint samples: comments please?

August 30, 2014Posted in UncategorizedTagged France, paint18 Comments

When you live alone, you can get away with almost anything. This may not be a bonus. I have just blotched my living room wall with these paint colors. There are so many of them that I had to do a little sketch with a legend. My justification is that the apartment needs a new coat of paint but really, this stuff is for Nalliers. I have to give some thought to what I can live with. Right now I like all the colors but I have my doubts about which I will still like after a year of daily exposure. That nice blue off to the right, Borrowed Light (all these are Farrow & Ball), that could be most of the ceilings. But then would I need to paint the walls a nice, clear color? Most of the "stone" colors go with the Oval Room Blue, the darker blue, but I don't know that I want that blue on anything. My office in California was a Benjamin Moore variation on the green, Lichen, so I know I can live with that. There will be a place for that but what goes with it? Maybe that little square off to its right, Purbeck Stone, or should I keep looking for a ceiling color? That one to the left of it, Elephant's Breath, that's all-round pleasant, a super-light grayed lavendar. Maybe I should bag all this testing and just paint everything that color. I'll be looking at these for weeks and probably adding a few blotches. I don't know. Any opinions out there? — When you live alone, you can get away with almost anything. This may not be a bonus.
I have just blotched my living room wall with these paint colors. There are so many of them that I had to do a little sketch with a legend. My justification is that the apartment needs a new coat of paint but really, this stuff is for the house. I have to give some thought to what I can live with. Right now I like all the colors but I have my doubts about which I will still like after a year of daily exposure.
That nice blue off to the right, Borrowed Light (all these are Farrow & Ball), that could be most of the ceilings. But then would I need to paint the walls a nice, clear color? Most of the “stone” colors go with the Oval Room Blue, the darker blue, but I don’t know that I want that blue on anything.
My office in California was a Benjamin Moore variation on the green, Lichen, so I know I can live with that. There will be a place for that but what goes with it? Maybe that little square off to its right, Purbeck Stone, or should I keep looking for a ceiling color? That one to the left of it, Elephant’s Breath, that’s all-round pleasant, a super-light grayed lavender. Maybe I should bag all this testing and just paint everything that color.
I’ll be looking at these for weeks and probably adding a few blotches. I don’t know. Any opinions out there?

A stroll through the neighborhood

August 30, 2014Posted in UncategorizedTagged France, Invalides, Paris3 Comments

I got this new phone, a Samsung Galaxy. It has an app that tracks your health habits. It says mine are good, which is a relief, though a little hard to believe. Nobody is perfect, though, so even as Samsung was patting me on the back it was saying, so, how about walking 10,000 steps each day. I'm out with jumpy little Jacques a couple of times each day anyway. Sure, how about it? 10,000 steps gives you a lot of time to think. Me? I was thinking about the number of times I have heard, just in the last couple of weeks, "When are you coming back to the States?" How nice, my friends want to see me. At first my answer was "never" but that upset people. I have modified my response to "I don't know. Right now my stay is indefinite." That seems to be the diplomatic way to go. So, nattering over, I looked up and saw this, less than 5,000 steps from my front door. If I had looked the other way I'd have seen the gilded horses of the Pont Alexandre and the glazed roof of the Grand Palais. If I had wanted to drown my progress in a little apero, L'Esplanade, a fashionable little cafe, was just across the street and ready to welcome me. Honestly, guys, the answer to the question is, I don't know. I may well return to the States -- never say never -- but this life is good. — I got this new phone, a Samsung Galaxy. It has an app that tracks your health habits. It says mine are good, which is a relief, though a little hard to believe. Nobody is perfect, though, so even as Samsung was patting me on the back it was saying, so, how about walking 10,000 steps each day. I’m out with jumpy little Jacques a couple of times each day anyway. Sure, how about it? 10,000 steps gives you a lot of time to think. Me? I was thinking about the number of times I have heard, just in the last couple of weeks, “When are you coming back to the States?” How nice, my friends want to see me. At first my answer was “never” but that upset people. I have modified my response to “I don’t know. Right now my stay is indefinite.” That seems to be the diplomatic way to go. So, nattering over, I looked up and saw this, less than 5,000 steps from my front door. If I had looked the other way I’d have seen the gilded horses of the Pont Alexandre and the glazed roof of the Grand Palais. If I had wanted to drown my progress in a little apero, L’Esplanade, a fashionable little cafe, was just across the street and ready to welcome me. Honestly, guys, the answer to the question is, I don’t know. I may well return to the States — never say never — but this life is good.

Lynn Sullivan’s Day Off

August 9, 2014August 30, 2014Posted in UncategorizedTagged Chateau de la Goujeonnerie, France, Vendee3 Comments

Goujonnerie — Well, so, the hiccup. Sorry about the technical difficulties. We had our first unforeseen condition, a thing with the subfloor being different than we expected. As you can tell by the photo, I have moved on.
This is the standard by which I will judge my own decorating schemes. Zach is visiting, right when too many technical difficulties are hitting. It’s been all work and little play for him, not much of a vacation at all. We need a break. Fortunately for both of us, I found this crazy hotel, the Chateau Goujeonnerie, something like that (lestroisgarcons.com/chateau/). In 2006 someone bought the place and renovated it, turning it into a hotel. They are not the first to have this idea but few do it so well. There is no sign, no restaurant, no nothing, really, that would tell you it is other than a very nice house. My room is not numbered. My shower is in a turret.
As you can see, the furniture is haute brocante, celebrating what they have and adding a touch of theater and a dab of irreverence. Think Addison Mizner meets Napoleon III and you’ll get the idea — and if you get those references, come on over! We’ll have lots to talk about.

Jacques Report

July 2, 2014Posted in UncategorizedTagged France, Jacques, Westie5 Comments

Messy Jacques — As there is absolutely nothing going on at the house, I will give you an update on Jacques.
He is six months old now and is making his move into adulthood. In a couple of days we’ll be cutting that short, so to speak. Still, I expect him to keep busy in his newly self-appointed role of house guardian. He does his best to be where he can keep an eye on both me and the door. At night he generally chooses the door. Basically he walks on me until I let him move downstairs.
You can see what’s going on outside. He is perpetually covered in burrs. He smells from rolling in dubious substances. He patrols the yard, keeping the ducks out of his pond and the leaves on his trees absolutely still. He flattens molehills; I can’t wait to see what will happen if he actually finds a mole. The other day he had a great time with our pond rat, almost caught him, too.
He gets tougher by the day but still is devoted to me and to Hortense, his big drink of water on the other side of town.

Spalling

June 10, 2014Posted in UncategorizedTagged before, France, spalling, wall

This is a close-up of one of the things that can happen when a house is left to rot. Fortunately this house was left for just a couple of years, so things haven’t gotten too bad.

The house was built of the smaller stones that you see, then covered with a kind of heavy, 19th-century equivalent of stucco. As with contemporary stucco, it can crack. Water seeps between the structure and the stucco, then it freezes, expanding in the process. It can pop that stucco right off – and has done so on this house, in quite a few places.

My contractor will have to remove all the damaged wall coating. Then he will replaster the house with new stuff, all smooth and gold-colored. Some day soon, my house will be beautiful again. Then we will keep it that way with the floor heating, which will evaporate stray seepage and end the freeze-thaw cycle for a good, long time.

Demolition derby

June 5, 2014Posted in UncategorizedTagged barn, before, demolition, France, garage, renovation, roof6 Comments

rear facade before — So this is the back of the house. Notice the wild oats growing up to shoulder height. I am standing in the field as I take this photo. I have lovely roses , those pink dots, and fruit trees: cherries and apricots, I think. I have a lot of work in my future

greenhouse — I think this was a sort of winter garden. It would have let in some afternoon sun and allowed folks to start seedlings with just a little protection from the elements. It’s in pretty bad shape, now. The windows were never good and the roof is going. The only question is whether it will go before we take it down. We may take out the back wall, as well, to open the space to the back yard — garden, must call it garden. Over here a yard is paved, like a prison yard. Anyway, if we want to develop this space it will be nice to have it open to the view. We shall see.

garage before — Some previous owner kept pigs here, lots of pigs. I’m a California girl myself, which is to say I prefer cars to pigs. So the pipe rails, the concrete that holds them in place and the paving below them — cobblestones in places and not much in the way of drainage — will all make way for parking. Too bad I have only one car.

Attic Stairs

June 4, 2014Posted in UncategorizedTagged attic, France, stairs6 Comments

That’s enough depressing stuff for now. There will be plenty more to come. Let’s take a break. Let me show you something that I hope will give you an idea of why I got myself into this.

This is the upstairs landing, showing the stairs to the attic. Notice the light coming from below? Notice that they have walled off the access to above, so it’s relatively dark there? I’m sure that was for climate control but it looks dreadful. My plan is to rip out the walls and that green door. (Green Door, really: for San Franciscans of a certain age, depending on your interests in such matters, this either definitely goes or definitely stays. In my house, it goes.) This will leave a fairly nice staircase leading to the attic. We will insulate the attic and put a skylight over these stairs. This house has big windows anyway, so we don’t need a light well, but I think the visual effect will be quite nice.

Can you see the cracks in the ceiling? It is possible that this indicates structural damage, but I don’t think so. When you walk on the attic floor, it is solid. I think those are expansion cracks. There is significant heat gain at the roof. Of course when we insulate, that won’t be an issue, so I expect that the cracks will not return.

And then? My plan, of course, is to become the crazy lady who lives in the attic; Jacques is even learning how to get his stubby little legs to climb the stairs. This floor will be an office for me, guest rooms for you. One of you may have to share your room with a piano — not until my funding recovers, of course.