At Last!

Yes, it is finished. Well, enough to move into. No, no, it's not our house, but I'll explain.

It all started with a casual coffee conversation. " Why don't you use ours?" Those words, or words to that effect, were spoken by Mrs Swenglish nearly two years ago. Ours what? House, was what she referred to.

We were talking to some friends of ours in France, an English couple, and they were selling their big house to build something smaller, more easily maintained. They had not organised where to live in the meantime yet, so we offered them to live in ours while they were building. We don't spend many weeks there in a year, especially since we go to Sweden quite often these days for family reasons. They planned on building a wooden house, which comes in a kit almost, but that came to nothing, so they opted for a more traditionally modern house, French style. Building time was estimated to about six months.

They hired an English builder to oversee everything and to be the one to co-ordinate with French specialists, like plumber and electrician. Our friends speak only a little French, and did probably not feel confident enough to take on a French builder. Today I believe they regret that decision. They have been through all sorts of trouble with this builder, and things dragged on and on and on. In the end they sacked him and finished some of the remaining work themselves. They are very hands-on and not afraid of putting the hours in, as well as ache and pain and worry. You see, they are in their early seventies and not much for a lie-in. They have achieved a lot in their lives through hard work.

A few times during the building process we have shared our house with them when we have been there. They had stored many of their belongings with other friends, in their barns and garages, and also our house was full to the brim with their furniture as well as ours. We even had guests in the summer for a few days. No major problems. Amazing, isn't it?

But when we got to our beloved house in Normandy last week, they had eventually managed to move into their new house, basically just the phone and a few pots and pans were left. The six months had in the end turned into 17 months! Yes, nearly a year and a half. Now you will understand better how the title of this post should be spoken, with a great sigh of relief and a smile.

So in the last week we have enjoyed having our house back, doing a lot of nothing and sitting in front of the wood-burning stove. Home sweet home, at last!