Sleep Over

Our architect, stayed over Friday night.

He lives in Bordeaux, about 2 hours drive away. We had builders coming to look at our house on Friday afternoon and more on Saturday morning; so staying over seemed sensible.

It also meant that we got some "quality time" with him on Friday evening to go through the plans. We've been struggling with where to put the fridge in the kitchen. It's a big brute of an American fridge (seemed like a good idea when we bought it) and dominates the space. Fun to watch him drawing on his laptop; lines, arcs and rectangles appear, are pulled in and flicked around the kitchen outlined on his screen. What seemed initially like a problem has led to a creative solution and an improvement to the plans: move the kitchen door over, change the circulation, create a longer work surface and voilà, the fridge fits in better.

His staying over meant I had to tidy the gîte/apartment/thingy where he would be sleeping. We'd used it to dump the stuff that we'd moved out of the loft when we insulated back in the winter and we'd just never got round to sorting it out. As well I did! A mouse had made its nest in one of the beds, which had to be stripped back to the base, with the mattress and the linen going to the local tip. Reminder never to leave unused beds made up!

As I tidied stuff away, cleaned and hoovered, a redstart flew in through the gap round the old hay door half way up the wall to the loft. She circled round clicking anxiously at my presence, but finally calmed down enough to show me that she had a nest behind the boards that cover the ceiling, way above my head.

He assured me Saturday morning that he'd had a good night's sleep, despite the wildlife.