Day 30 - Final day of renovations this trip!

 Bonjour!

Well, I'm going to just jump right in.  Today I finished demoing the last two walls around the boiler room and cleaned up all misc. wires hanging from the ceilings and electric panel.  With that being said, my portion of work is done for now. As I locked up the doors today, I must admit I got a little emotional. I've given this house my ALL in the almost 5 weeks.  We look forward to the journey as we enter this new chapter in our lives and the many memories to come.

What a trip....I traveled here to Oloron Sainte Marie https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oloron-Sainte-Marie with expectations of light rehab and possibly start buying furniture. Anytime I work on a project big or small I try to through in a surprise for Jon.  In this case, I was thinking kitchen cabinetry.  Well, as you read along the way, we opened a can of worms and the demo got a bit (okay A LOT) more in depth than originally planned.  It's been a fun, physically straining, sometimes emotional process with literally blood, sweat and tears!  I just weighed myself for the first time since leaving home and I've lost 16 pounds. Woot woot!

At the end of the day, I feel a sense of accomplishment by going to another country and taing on a project of this magnitude on my own. It was truly a learning lesson in many ways.  I've  had to learn so much in regards to building materials, how things are built and rules/regulations here in France.  I've learned more french since being here and now have more ambition to continue when going home.  I've had the opportunity to meet a lot of great people from all over the world and here their stories of landing here.  I look forward to keeping in touch with all of these people and getting together when we as a family come back. More than anything, I have enjoyed learning about the history of our property and on free days visiting some pretty awesome places!  One highlight was the Tour de France.  I want to come back next year with Jon for this and many other cool places to see and eat.

Finally, but by far not by the least, I can not even begin to thank Doug and Mykle for opening up their home and lives to me.  Doug and Mykle were Jon's friends before we meet and I've always enjoyed them as friends throughout the years.  This trip has solidified that they are family!  We could not have done any of the things that I have done while here in France if it wasn't for the both of them.  As much as I'm ready to go home, I will miss these guys A LOT!

As the renovations continue, we will notify everyone so you can continue our journey if you would like.















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