Blue windows

No, I am not blue but the windows are. Don't they look lovely? It's such a good colour.

The painters are also going to come in and finish off the interior house painting and then thats it. La maison est fini. So whats the next project ?

If you want to have a holiday in France and rent a house. Rent ours!!


Here is a close up

  and then finally, hidden under the eaves, the owl hole.

The house revealed

The scaffolding is down and the house is revealed in all it's beauty.

Here it is again.

Did I tell you about the Blacksmiths Cottage behind our barn....?

Maybe not. Along with 2 barns and the cellar and the land with 2 building plots we also have what was the Blacksmiths Cottage. It's small, it's run down. It's more of studio than a  cottage. No toilet, bathroom, cooking facilities as we know them. The usual story.

John and I have been dreaming....,  what this might look like and how fabulous it might be with the new french windows leading out onto the small, walled garden.

And how it could be the perfect office or a small holiday let, or a dreaming studio for those audacious dreams of how to change the world. Oops... lots of real work to be done.



So I think the first conversation is with the stonemason to see what the problem with the bulging wall at the other end might be. Always a good start.

That shorter bit in the photo is where the chickens used to sleep apparently as it's right over the bread oven (nice and cosy warm). I would be quite happy to sleep over the bread oven on some of those cold nights.

The back of the house which could have windows added 

If we take the tree down and make some windows then we could build an enclosed garden for those  quiet times we never seem to get.

Oh and remove that asbestos roof which for some reason is just on one side of the building.

One bright suggestion from a french workman was to take it down and bury it in the garden. Oh I don't think so. I think it's get the specialist in, with all the necessary masks and equipment, take it off, cart it away, clean out the whole upstairs and then we start the next phase!

Nearly finished and we have chairs with seats in them

After 5 months of waiting and cajoling  we finally got the chairs upholstered. A miracle. Do these people want our business or not. They nearly didn't and it was only a final threat (in French)  that got the move on. Weird.

The finally finished chairs. No one was murdered in this process, but could have been.

However one person who never slacked off was the stonemason. Here in all its scaffolding glory is the house - repointed, repainted to a less glaring colour, with the little patio at the front. Well done everyone.

And apparently the vegetable garden is going gang busters too. How exciting.

All the pointing has been done and the scaffolding about to be removed.

We have had a lot of visitors this year and hopefully.. many more to come to share our little bit of heaven in France

The red paint has been changed. What a relief

Hi, after seeing how startled the house looked with its painted red brickwork, the stonemason got more paint and toned it down. What a relief. He has cleared out all the old cement, taken out a row of bricks which were originally to the right of the front door and replaced them with stone and is now repointing the whole front. This includes the brickwork around the windows and cools it even further. It's going to look absolutely fantastic, with the little patio at the front and the car space. Haven't we done well?  Yes we have. A big pat on the back for everyone concerned I say.


The new look house

  .....  and this , my friends is how it started off, over three years ago. That is Andrew the estate agent in the picture.

You can now officially call me Stephanie Moore PMP

On the 2nd July 2010 I finally and I mean finally , passed the 4 hour exam and gained my Project Management Professional  (PMP) accreditation.  Check it out at www.pmi.org

Was it for lack of trying? No ... I had actually gone back (thanks Kevin) and redone the workshops again.....just a huge case of exam paralysis coupled with the knowledge that certification is of a high standard so very rigorous ( no breeze-through-this-here-with-no-work-whatsoever-sort-of exam) . This tells employers that I have achieved a world wide professional  standard plus one where we all subscribe to the professional ethics that go alongside it.

I am going to join the International Development forum now.

Strangely I was looking at the Business Analysis course earlier today. Am I mad? Yep. Its good to have goals, because its fantastic when you achieve them.

Can anyone remember why I embarked on this course of action where I had to learn a whole new technical language and  processes I don't use in my current job on a daily basis? Well if you scroll back some 2 years ago (March 16th 2008)  I think I said "Always check professional credentials".

Even my husband had forgotten what spurred me onto to do this. Remember we had a dodgy "project manager". Well it was his unethical,and downright outrageous behaviour which was the catalyst for me to say "No-one will go through that if they work with us" (not that they would anyway) but I wanted to be able to say, hand on heart, if I was offering that service, that I had actually invested in my professional life and was able to do what I said I could, and be able to back that up.

So if you are looking for a PM to renovate your  small house in France ( not at the chateau stage yet)  I am that person. In fact it is already opening doors to business opportunities so will keep you posted on the blog.

In the meantime have a look at our new bright red windows. For some reason the stone mason decided to paint our lovely faded brick work bright red.  The house looks startled! So he is going to get other paint to tone it down. Thank goodness. It looks like someone has gone mad with a red crayon and scribbled on the front.

Remember the wall, John and Ernie were making 2 blogs ago? Now John has almost finished  the patio at the front where the rubble is now so we can have our table and chairs in the summer, and below that is the place we can park the car.

Now we have the owl hole window in too. And it looks great.  All the woodwork is going to be that beautiful french blue which is so soft and gorgeous you just want to eat it off a spoon. Thats what colour does for me, I am an artist after all!!

Well done little house for being so patient as we dressed you up and powdered your nose. You feel great. Loved. Because it has been an absolute privilege to bring a little house back to life and bring so much joy not only to us, but the elderly french neighbours who sold it to us ( amongst many tears - as a childhood home) but they love it and are always around. What can be better than that?

Come and stay

Not only do we now have a lovely cosy warm house with a great kitchen in a sweet little hamlet surrounded by great countryside,and good french neighbours ...BUT you could have a slice of the french life too. We are thinking we would love to share the house and will consider renting it out to friends and colleagues. A word of mouth arrangement only at this stage. We want to build relationships with people.

So if you are feeling a bit bold, feel like immersing yourself in a small hamlet -  no shops, no cafes.. ..you have to make the effort to meet the hamleteers ( if there is such a word)  and yet still want to know more, you can contact our website at www.peoplepotential.eu or if you know me, just have a chat. Bon courage mes amis

Hey... just as a taster... did I show you our lovely kitchen ? That window has just been put in and is double gazed. Toasty warm, but now needs to be painted.

And if you live in Melbourne and want to improve your French, I got a lovely contact from Dan Ednie at Global Heart Tours here in Melbourne for this group - http://www.meetup.com/frenchinmelbourne to help you meet up with french speakers

Half of us here, half of us there... and launching our NEW European website.Meet us at www.peoplepotential.eu

John has been over there for one month and will be there for some time more. We have launched our new website for the European market and you can find out all that we do  through this. Put www.peoplepotential.eu  in the "Q" bar at the top, not in Google. We are not at the top of their list yet!!

The stonemason is finishing off replacing old red bricks out of the front wall of the house (How does he do that without the whole wall falling down?) and replacing it with stone to match the house. Then the whole front will be repointed to match the side and the back.

The gable end of the barn is coming down and a sort of "walled" garden being built.

A small dry stone wall has been built outside. A big thank you to Ernie for coming over from the UK to do this. This will be our sitting area in the summer and a place to park the car. (Thats Ernie in the picture)

A veggie garden has been planted. I am also about to do my "Square Foot Gardening " training to  make small manageable gardens that are also productive.

So whilst John is telling me how warm it is in France, I sit here listening to the rain come down and have the gas fire blazing because its so cold. Yes folks it actually gets cold in Melbourne and no we don't have kangaroos hopping down the street. Though WE actually do have kangaroos in a Reserve 2 blocks away  and we are only 12 kms from the CBD.

I am enclosing a picture of the walling and hope you get inspired by what one can do if one has the will and the desire for an "Audacious Dream" More about that in my next entry.

Our Business:  www.peoplepotential.eu

I too enjoyed the snow

I had forgotten what cold weather where you have to rug up and wear a million clothes feels like. Well... like the Michelin Man actually. In fact you have to put so many layers on, its almost impossible to move. I decided even if I fell,  I couldn't actually hurt myself as I would just gently bounce on my side for a while and then wait for help,as the snow slowly drifted around me. Ok I exaggerate. However, the good bit about the putting-on-another-hundred-kilos-look, was that I thought I wasn't that keen on it and I must diet!

After a while, I got used to the cold, and was finally going around in less and less layers. The house was snuggly warm even when the fire hadn't been on. It was always much warmer inside that outside.

John finished off the kitchen waiting for the plasterer to come and do the tiling. Now done and looking good. The new double glazed, extra secure kitchen window was fitted. Looking good. The new double glazed windows and door panels ordered and about to be fitted. And as an added bonus...the owl hole window, also double glazed has been ordered and again about to be fitted.

John built me a shelf in the bathroom to put my glass fish collection on  - not as naff as it sounds, and built in wardrobes in both bedrooms.

And outside the snow continued to drift down

In the summer I had bought some wooden chairs with cloth seats that needed replacing.

I lugged a whole load of upholstery material from Australia to France to do this. In my minds eye, I could see the neutral taupe looking very chic and elegant. In fact with the northern hemisphere light, it looked dull and boring and quite frankly rather yuk. The light had a cool blueness to it, unlike the warm orangey sunlit of here. So much too cool. Much too.....nothing.  So we spent a fortune  on some snazzy French upholstery material with velvety pinks and greens and something else. I am sure it will look fabulous. It is warm.

The elusive chairs

Here are the chairs. See later August 6th entry. It took 5 months to get them upholstered even when she had had the material for a month. Zoot Alors (whatever that means) And because it took so long to get them done, I had forgotten there weren't any greens in the material.We would have been stuck if we were having a dinner party. Bums through holes look. Not attractive, but the chairs now are.






I wont be going back to France for a while as I have been accepted into the School for Social Entrepreneurs course here in Melbourne. But John will be over fairly soon, as we tackle .. the dry stone walling. And begin to build a small wall round the front of the house  to park vehicles and also to relook at the garden wall and see if we can do a bit of work round there.  Its all happening and all is good.