Filling the gap

....one big gap in particular.

You see, One of the things I really like about my office is that I can sit at my desk, and look out the window, and see the vines just across our garden from the house. Particularly at this time of year, when the harvest is going on, and there's activity over there. It reminds me that we're in France, and that it's beautiful.

But one of the problems with my office is that, despite its view, it's dark in here. At the northeast corner of the house, I get good light while the sun is rising, but anyone reading this probably already knows that early mornings aren't really my thing. And the rest of the day I'm in shadow, tucked away in my little cave, tapping away on my keyboard, and no doubt suffering vitamin D deficiencies even as my body fights against the ravages of scurvy.

And so, a few months ago, we got Nicolas, our trusty and diligent local stone mason, to punch a hole in the side wall of the house, in order to let a little light pass through. ...And it's quite a hole he made, too.

It was fascinating to watch, how carefully he removed the stones one by one, making sure the house stayed standing, until he could start propping bits up along the way. First he carved through the sides, and built cement columns where the doorframe would someday be. Then he went to work on the remaining column of wall in the middle. He did it in layers, so that the outside 10" of the wall had full support before he started scratching away at the interior wall. Then he built forms, filled them with cement, and boom: a doorway.

That was back in August. If you're French, or have ever tried to do anything in France, you may recognize a problem there. Because August, round these parts, is holiday time. And that's not just for kids and teachers: nearly everyone goes on holiday at the same time. Something doctrinaire about the spirit of capitalism not interfering with family togetherness. Nicolas is Italian, you see. But the people who make doors: they're French. And they weren't anywhere to be found. So there we were, with a giant hole in the house, and no way of filling it.

The work ground to a halt, Nicolas boarded up his creation with some very nice plywood, and we had no choice but to put the rest of the project on hold.

August finally ended. The commercial world sprung back to life. I visited the carpenter, he visited the house, and we agreed on a price. His chef d'atelier came round and took minute and precise measurements of both the intra-mural hole and the doors we wished to copy. And they got to work.

And it took a while.

But today, not a minute too soon (since we need to be able to lock our house when we go to the States in 2 weeks), the doors have arrived. And even as I sit here typing, wearing a jacket because there's still a giant hole in the wall of my office, two guys are busily installing my new view.

This picture is a bit of a ways along; they actually started with the shutters. Which are not like the other shutters in the house. Which the boss, when I just called him, was not at all happy with. Which is not my problem. So they're installing the wrong ones ones temporarily, and they'll replace them when the correct ones are finished. The issue is the shutters they've made are lacking decorative holes in the tops, which are really very pretty, especially when the shutters are closed and the light shines through. Here's what they're supposed to look like:

But that aside, the new doors look great. The entire character of the room changes when the biggest view is looking in a totally different direction, up toward Kepler's Wood, so green and quiet. It also makes some difference that we've barely another window in the house with a northward view. All the northern windows are purely about light and aperture, not about looking, not about witnessing time passing among the oaks. It's really special.

The next step starts monday: Nicolas will return to conceal all the cement beneath a layer of stone, and to finish pointing the northern wall. Then the entire exterior surface of the house will be have been redone since we moved in (except for the verandah of course). After that, it's our turn: to move all the furniture out of the office, to steam off the remains of the wallpaper, to replaster, -paint, and -light, and then to move back in. And another room will be complete.

Slowly slowly, we get it done. But so slowly! Still, progress is progress, and my new view is a marvel.