Monday 11th April

I am painting the toilet, the hardest room to paint.  Because it is so small and fiddly.  Hardly any nice blank wall to paint and even the ceiling is small and awkward.  The real problem is that there is barely any room to put a ladder; the toilet bowl itself gets in the way.  You end up having to try and balance on a folded upright ladder and stretch across with your foot on the window ledge; the ceilings are all quite high in this house.  We also have the original 1960’s cistern high up near the ceiling, disconnected but it will be very hard to remove as the pipes are cemented into the wall so we are going to have to box this in.  The toilet bowl itself is always a problem too, you end up on your knees, hugging the bowl and painting almost blind with one hand and peering round the bend to see how well you are painting, not that anyone will check my handiwork there I am sure.  You also have to be careful turning round as you invariably touch the opposite wall you have just painted. Anyway, one coat done and it doesn’t look too bad.

Another peculiarity about France is that until recently they never had sinks in the toilet, or toilets in the bathroom, so you have to come out of the toilet and into another room to wash your hands. We are having a plumber coming soon to see if there is room to have a small hand sink fitted in the toilet.  So, gradually we are getting the house done.  I reckon it will be a two or maybe even three year job altogether, by which time it may all need doing again…hahaha.