28.10.06

STOP PRESS ... STOP PRESS

The Daily Mail newspaper printed an article yesterday (Friday 27th October) about my involvement in the region and the work I do.

Due to the influx of e-mails in the past 24hrs. I would just like to point out that the journalist interviewed me in May 2006, the Mail then edited the piece and despite my best efforts to re-edit it; they've made me sound like an immobilier or estate agent. I am not an estate agent, but assist people with moving to France due to the language difficulties whether it's re-registering your car or interpreting for building needs. I do have estate agent friends who I can put you in touch with in the Limoux area however, namely Ludovic at Adret Immobilier; please mention the blog when you send him an e-mail!

The modern house in the article (European edition) is not through VEF but via the owner (who's also contacted me regarding a mix-up) and can be contacted direct: LFeay@wanadoo.fr - that house is considerably LESS THAN HALF the price tag the Mail has put on it even if it was in euros!

14.10.06

Big changes

Two of the teams that I work with are still plugging away at a variety of jobs. One team is up in the Castelnaudary area on a large barn that is being converted into living accomodation. They're doing a fine job and the structural engineer has been out to advise on metal bars to go into the framework due to a few cracks that have become enlarged during the initial demolition process. This was expected and everyone's very happy that the renovation is heading in the right direction.

The other team are busy with a variety of jobs, between Limoux & Carcassonne. We hope to have a small renovation of a fairly 'new' (16 year old house) getting underway in the near future for clients living in Africa. An addition to the team has been in the shape of Patrick, a gem, works very well & doesn't hang around. He's just painted the outside of one clients house and has been asked by the same client to do the interior of another of his houses. Thierry, the plumber & I are working well together which is great news - he's under pressure at the moment with the onset of winter and endless calls to repair boilers!

Plumbing

Having been working with Thierry the plumber is a revelation in itself; he never ceases to amaze me with his knowledge of the economies of plumbing & heating.

The latest revelation was a LPG tank to be installed underground. We were talking to a client and I wanted to make sure I had it right when he told me that the tank would initially cost 1000euros but the client would only end up paying 200! I was sure that before I interpretated this to the client that I had it right, sounded fishy to me!!! Sure enough there's an incentive at the moment to switch people onto LPG (is this an environment issue by the government?) and that the owner would receive 800euros back ...

He's very methodical about getting everything spot on in terms of room sizes; making sure that the room will heat to a certain temperature but without money falling out of clients pockets when paying the bills!

We've been talking about a boiler I saw the other day, not the one in the picture, but a large blue affair that operates on wheat. It smells good too, the only problem is that you need a good few hectares put down to wheat to make it economically efficient.