More plumbing and kitchen

The plumber turned up again and when I said that he’d never get finished today, as was the original plan, he said that he’d be back again tomorrow. As I thought I might be continuing to work in the kitchen I moved all of the flat-packs out of the bedroom where I’d stored them into the living room and kitchen as I knew he’d be walking up and down the corridor connecting up the heat pump and I didn’t want to get in his way.

As it happens, I didn’t do any work at all in the house today because afterwards I decided to check the prices and availability of the kitchen equipment that I decided to go for a few weeks ago. I was shocked to find by how much many items had increased in price. I had originally spent ages looking for a range of the same brand to install in the kitchen and I didn’t much fancy doing the whole exercise again.

But I didn’t have to, because when I checked the prices of other manufacturers’ items they had also gone up in price by at least the same amount, and some by a lot more. I’d chosen to go for Indesit products, not because I’m an especially great fan but because they are the ONLY manufacturer offering a free-standing fridge of a suitable height for my kitchen layout – 142 centimetres. So the exercise became all about searching again for the most competitive suppliers of the items I want and biting the bullet when prices of some (most) of them had increased in the meantime.

Given the upward price trend, there seemed to me to be no point in not buying the items that I need now, especially now the floor is down in the house and they can be stored in the living room when they arrive. So I ordered a hot plate, a dishwasher (ouch!), a fridge and an oven. The hot plate and the dishwasher will be delivered in a few days time but the fridge and the oven I ordered to be picked up from local stores, the fridge from Conforama in Périgueux and the oven from Electro Depot in Brive.

The fridge also will not be available for a few days but the oven was available for pick up today, so that’s what I decided to do come late afternoon after I’d got all of the purchases organised. I have to say, the Electro Depot ‘drive’ system worked incredibly well.

They sent a text message for me to confirm when I’d be arriving to pick the item up with a link for me to click on arrival adding which parking bay I’d be in. I then went to the door and within a minute or so a young lady arrived wheeling a parcel on a trolley. I asked her which bay she was going to and she told me ‘number 3’. That’s me I said and she gave me a hand to load it into my car. Great system.

I checked what the plumber had been up to while I’d been gone, starting with the exterior heat pump unit that’s now attached, but not connected, on the house’s northern wall.

Next was the corner handbasin in the separate toilet. I think that the mixer tap that I bought from the same manufacturer for the main hand basin in the bathroom could be slightly smaller than the one the builder has supplied but I’ll have to check. If so, I’ll probably end up swapping them over as the mechanism for operating the plug on this one is a bit too tight against the wall.

I notice that the plumber had cut the pipe off that’s now no longer needed for the external tap. It looks rather unsightly but it probably won’t look too bad when I’ve filled the hole and topped it off with brilliant white grout. I’ll know not to make the mistake again in my next lifetime when I decide to design and build another house…

Now the WC in the little toilet. I’m appalled by the huge vent coming out of the floor next to the toilet itself but there’s nothing I can do about it. The current regulations say that you must have secondary air inlets for the waste pipes going into the ‘fosse septique’.

The alternative would have been to have huge pipes going right up the wall, out through the ceiling and joining in the roof space to connect to an external roof air inlet, which would have looked even worse than it does now. I just wish that white plastic tubing had been used though rather than the hideous dark grey stuff that is now in full view 🙁

Similar comments to the above apply for the WC in the bathroom. Although it appears to be in the following shot, the WC hasn’t been fixed to the wall and floor. That’s because it will have to come out again to allow the dark tiles to be removed and replaced.

Here’s the shower unit, connected up but not usable until the mosaic floor tiles have been laid and the outlet made good.

Now a couple of shots of the heat pump unit nearly fully installed in the utility room. As can be seen, the plumbing on and around it is quite complex and my big regret is that I didn’t paint the walls and ceiling in there the same as I did in the kitchen. It’ll be impossible to do them properly now and if there’s one thing that I detest, it’s visible unpainted plasterboard walls 😐

The exterior heat pump connections will be punched through from outside into the back corner of the alcove in bedroom two in which there will be a built-in cupboard. That hasn’t been done yet as can be seen in the next shot.

Finally, the Indesit oven that I picked up this afternoon from Brive. More about that when I come to install it.

The final upside to the day – there’s a cherry orchard just the other side of Terrasson that sells the most delicious dark red cherries. I’ve been there a few times since I came to France but not since Covid and today was the first opportunity I’ve had to drop in again. And lucky actually, as the season will soon be over.

I treated myself to 2 kilos at 6€ a kilo, half the supermarket price and twice the quality. I’ll make a pig of myself for a few days and probably end up regretting it when I put on weight. But you’ve got to have some pleasures in life, haven’t you 😉