Mostly pictures
Summer girls are here and out for the day to Albi – I was going to go with them but when I saw the temperature was going to be 35º C I decided staying home with the shutters closed was a better option. Being in a compact car for an hour and getting arm tan in the process doesn’t bring out the best in me.
The house is clean, we’ve had some beautiful moonlit nights. The garden is green, the outdoor cushions are in place. We received gorgeous gifts (as usual) with the highlight being a set of glorious cut crystal Tiffany & Co. low tumblers. Much alcohol has been consumed. I’m feeling great.
Last night we went to the producer’s market, but then ate at a restaurant instead 😀
My Mazamet 
Everything looks sooo lovely, Mr. M. The opposite of here. Here’s a ‘for instance’. I spent the last two days painting outdoor furniture – everything’s nice and white and we had acquired a new little wooden rocker, which I put three coats of white high-gloss paint on. Our three grandchildren are around (they have a cottage next door – the old church) and it’s difficult to keep them all occupied. This morning, the youngest fellow came in and asked if I had a marker to paint on a board that his grandfather had given him. I gave him the lecture about markers and how they bleed onto things and offered to give him a pencil and paper. Nothing doing, his older brother had a marker (making signs) and he wanted one. You know where this is going, don’t you? Well, it was only a few minutes and in came the older grandchild — “Nannie, _______ has marked on that rocker!” 😦
Can I beam myself over there and drink with you – I think I’d prefer your company??? It’s not even 10 in the morning here. . .and the temperature is going up to 30 degrees. (by the shore!)
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Thank you 🙂
Coincidentally yesterday Mike had just finished painting the skirting in the dining room and was washing the brushes when two dogs went in and laid side by side *against the skirting* 😀
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Summertime and the living is easy seems to sum up this lovely post … all is as it should be!
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Speaking of which, here’s a wonderful version I came across the other day:
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My day is complete! Thank you 🙂
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This has always been my favourite version!
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Gorgeous.
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As landscapes go, this one isn’t too bad 🙂
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Did they hastily lick off their new henna? 😉
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Not a chance – nightmare scenario. Getting them into the kitchen, using cotton balls and white spirits to get the paint off so they don’t go around the house “re-painting” more things – and then getting the smell of white spirits off them…
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I think I got the better disaster. . 🙂
What a place to relax after all that commotion, though – those fantastic surroundings!
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Muy bien mi amigo. Me gusta
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Muchas gracias 🙂
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Ooooh!! Looks immaculate and very cosy too
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The cleanliness lasts about 5 minutes after vacuuming – then there’s dog hair, sticks and whatever else they drag in!
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What, no photo of the Tiffany & Co. low tumblers? As a drinking glass aficionado, I am severely disappointed.
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I’ll take pictures for you tomorrow 🙂
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1st picture Tiffany & Co, 2nd picture other random glassware
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Magnificent! Oh, how I wish I could be there! 🙂
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In this heat? It’s excruciating!
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It’s hot just about everywhere, Pink! Besides, I always carry my Sicilian air conditioning system with me at all times – a bucket of water poured over my head – lol! 😀
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Thanks for sharing. I can see why you would, or rather, who wouldn’t enjoy sharing such an obviously pleasurable environment.
Summer Girls? What about Autumn Boys?
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Am I not the Autumn Boy?
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No doubt. But is that an exclusive club?
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I hope you look back at past blogposts of Summer Girls to see how much progress you’ve made on the house! It really looks fabulous and so glad you are enjoying it with others.
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It does feel very different to when we first arrived 🙂
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You have done a simply marvelous job. If I get to visit France again before I pop off I shall definitely pop around to say hello.
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You’re always welcome. We can sit and not smoke together
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Thank you. A wonderful idea for sure.
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I love seeing your home Everything is perfectly placed and very elegant. Even the dogs pose beautifully. Staying at home in 35c heat is very wise – the high 20’s makes me feel ill, though I do envy people who can cope with extreme heat.
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Thank you 🙂 I know what you mean about the heat. I walked into town today and felt awful on the walk back home.
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Bravo, Pinky. The house looks divine. The only that’s missing is a nice pool between the house and the area where you have the chairs. I’ve never seen that particular angle of the house before and there really is a lot of lawn. :p
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We’ve been talking about some sort of water thing in the garden – but Mike is reticent. One of his conditions on our house buying list was no pool because he found the maintenance of the pool in Spain tiresome. But you’re right, it would transform the look. I’d be happy with something like what they have at the Alhambra 😀
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Oh yes…oh god yes!
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Everything looks so nice, you and Mike should feel very proud, you have created a lovely home. The wood floors in the bedroom are fabulous. LOVE the tapestry on the bedroom wall. Really like your choice of a simple clothes stand in that bedroom instead of an amoir, it keeps the room more open, less crowded.
Was that a picture of the dining room with the table and 4 cream colored chairs? I was wondering because it has drapes.
Most of the patio looks nice and shaded at the time of day you took the pick. looks inviting.
Look how great that oversized mirror you got for a dime looks in that upper hallway.
The tiles really sparkle in the bathroom, so clean looking.
Ha-ha-ha about the dogs.
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Thanks! We’re quietly confident that a major corner has been turned – and we can finally relax a little bit. Did you notice the picture of the under-window panelling in the dining room with the noisette colour framing the gris ancien?
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Yes I did notice that. I still so love the noisette color. But gris ancien? Looks like white to me. You mean this pic, right?
https://justmerveilleux.files.wordpress.com/2018/07/052.jpg?w=269&h=269&crop=1
I do like tan and white and althought the noisette isnot a tradional straight up tan, it is in that family, which is probably whay I like it so much.
I tell ya what i am going to get next. A vacuum robot. My friend received one as a gift from some house guests she & her husband hosted for an extended stay. It was a crowd, our friends are so generous. She liked that vacuum robot so much she bought a second one for the upper story. That is going to be my next big purchase. I was thinking of you and all that flooring you have, the wood floors are so smashing. I haven’t pulled the trigger yet but I’m looking at them.
I definitely would test the pergola prior to building. Get it the right height and width. There can not be something much more annoying than have something custom built and it doesn’t do what you envisioned. I think I would pull ropes between the trees and then two long pieces of lumbar and pull a bedsheet. I know you lived in Spain so you absolutely have to know this. It is the height and the angle that counts and no way to get that perfect without testing. I think you would have a hard time testing that with an umbrella but I could be wrong.
I was thinking how much money you guys have spent in painters tape by now, ha-ha-ha.
Your house has really come along, I remember the early pics stripping the wood floor. Oh Lawd what a job. And the lawn, the lawn makes a huge difference.
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Check the colours on your screen, here’s the before in white and then the after (and in the 3rd pic the gris ancien next to white):
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+ the dining table is still in the grey room. It’ll go into the dining room in a couple of weeks. The dining room is almost all painted, and the wallpaper should be going up as soon as this awful heatwave is over. They’re predicting +38º C for this weekend!!!
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Lovely place from which to sit in the shade and contemplate the house.
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… and now we’re worried the pergola might cut the view in a way we’d no longer see the skyline
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Depends how wide it is, I suppose, but it would be a shame to have that particular view cut short.
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We’re going to do a test with the umbrella soon to test the effect.
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Ah finished rooms! A delight. Hopefully next year we will be completing our renovations and getting out more to the local markets and finding beautiful things for home.
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