10 September - essential works (Patreon)

Today has been a busy day vlogging - and I also finally took some proper photos of my art to show on a few upcoming vlogs. Here is one of them which is Camilla and Ophelia on the bridge at Chateau de La Lande my friend Stephanie Jarvis's wonderful house.

I promised I would update you on why the man came round yesterday to give us a quote for works.

We are getting quotes for tanking at least one of the cisterns (i.e. making it waterproof using a special membrane) so that we can still keep it but it no longer makes the house damp.

Part of the problem is that the tree that was there before has a huge root system which has also grown into the system and is causing general havoc.

We have to get the roots dug out. This is made more complicated because it is next to the historic planter - so it will to be done very carefully with a pneumatic drill rather than a big excavator. And things are made even more complicated because next to the planter is an ASBESTOS (eek! ) pipe that the tree roots have lifted. This will have to be professionally removed along with lots of other dangerous asbestos including the flue pipe you can see here.

This is all important but not glamorous renovation work that I think might be very expensive. It would be more exciting to spend that money on things in the house but this preparatory work is very important and we want to do the renovation properly. The cisterns stretch like spring onions under the house and unless we deal the damp any future renovation work on the house will only get ruined over time.