Cottage & Countryside Living
Bonjour à tous!
Hope you all had a wonderful week. Well… we are officially moved into the farmhouse! It's been another exhausting week but I have been very careful to take some down time as to not overdo things (thanks for the reminder Shannon). Actually Wednesday I took a 4 hour nap because my body said enough. So here's a recap of this past week…
Lundi (Monday): while standing in the grocery store I get a call that I have a delivery at the new house. Turns out it wasn't Amazon but the movers a day early. So off I went to grab the hubby and get our stuff which we have waited almost 6 months to get. I forgot literally how much stuff we had and I had gotten rid of a bunch too.
Mardi (Tuesday): spent the day moving most of our stuff to the new house from the cottage only to learn that the power had been shut off. They didn't complete the transfer of utilities from the previous owners because it was yet another holiday week last week so I spent a good hour on the phone with EDF getting the new house sorted, the cottage adjusted and our linky meter appointment finally scheduled. So one more night at the cottage with the kitties it was. Then it was off to buy appliances. We got a fridge & a washing machine as those were the 2 most important things on the list. Then it was off to get our internet sorted. Our village finally has broadband so we needed to go in to make an appointment because right now we can hardly get an service at the farmhouse.
Mercredi (Wednesday/my birthday): took the kitties first thing in the morning to the farmhouse after a quick dechetterie (town dump) run. Spent most of the day unpacking boxes but at least I got our bed built and clean sheets on it. Today I also met with someone who is going to til my flower field. We attempted to do this ourselves but we needed this done sooner than later and sometimes you need to hire that out. Especially knowing that I won't need that field tilled again going forward.
(Jeudi)Thursday: spent most of the day finishing up the painting at the cottage & getting it ready for our first guests of the season. I still want to do a second coat on the ceiling but that is a project for another day. Then in the afternoon was our appliance delivery! Yay! So of course it was a run to the marche (market) for the essentials & ice cream of course.
Vendredi (Friday): finishing touches at the cottage and also landscaping. Iain worked on the outside while I fluffed, dusted, vacuumed and added flowers to the cottage. Then it was back to the farmhouse to start digging up all the peonies and irises that were overgrown and needed dividing desperately. Plus they are getting relocated to another place in the field.
Samedi (Saturday): rain, rain and more rain. This means inside stuff was on the agenda. I started the demo in the living room (le salon). The wallpaper is down- well the first layer and the tile baseboard is just about off. We decided to start with this room because it is mainly cosmetic changes in here: paint, trim, floors, decor. Something simple-ish to tackle while we get the flower farm in place.
My inspiration for the decor in here (believe it or not) was my Ladurée advent calendar box the hubby gave me for Christmas last year. I was sitting in here the other day looking at the tall French glass doors thinking I can picture our Christmas tree there. Then the first box I open for the living room had that in it. I knew the deeper blues & antique brass was the direction to go in here.
So this week's to-do list should include:
Tearing down the wallpaper
Installing all the new trim
Prepping the walls for paint
Mapping the flower field
Planting dahlia tubers
Direct seeding annuals
Getting my seedlings planted
Dividing irises
Designing our private garden
We should have internet by Thursday so next week’s newsletter will be filled with lots of links in my Sunday Saves and a favorite recipe that I made with fruit from our cherry tree here at the farm. Eeek … I love saying “our farm”.
À bientôt,
Jenna
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