Category Archives: Ad Lib Artisans

UPDATES on the Ad Lib Artisans website

Interesting how quickly time slides away — and we’re a bit shocked to realise that we are leaving the house that Mark has been working on since November in TWO WEEKS!

We’re headed over to the other side of Normandy for another reno — but it also looks like we’ll be leaving France in mid-June to have some adventures in other countries. Sooooo — it was time to update Mark’s online work portfolio with a LOT of pictures.

Gallery 1 has the images from here in Normandy over the last 5 months. And Gallery 2 is full of the pictures from that huge renovation he did on the Mid Century ranch house in Australia in 2014 through mid-2016.

Want a peek? Then go to Ad Lib Artisans to see what I’m talking about. DOZENS of photos showing the range of the work that Mark does.

Mark inside the Calvados house from the 1400s.

Refresh — Regroup — Relaunch

You may have noticed a significant absence of posts for the last three months — and that’s because Mark has been working away like a busy little bee over in the 1400s house. And I’ve been carefully building a base of clients for my writing and editing business.

We took a much-needed weekend escape at the end of February — over to the far western side of Normandy in beachside Brehal. We didn’t do a lot — ate, slept, read, watched movies, and had a few outings in the icy cold weather. But it was a good break and we came back feeling refreshed.

Mark looking out to sea in Brehal, Normandy, France

A moules (mussels) farm at the seaside in Normandy, France.

On an afternoon drive along the seacoast, we stumbled upon this medieval chateau ruin from the 14th Century in Regneville sur Mer and had a quick walk around. It’s a tiny but very pretty village facing the sea.

The corner of a 14th Century chateau ruin in the seaside village of Regneville sur Mer, Normandy, France.

What was meant to be a short hop back over to England for Mark’s parents’ 40th anniversary party ended up being a two week visit instead. It’s always wonderful to visit with them and see all of the other assorted family and friends, but everyone in the house ended up sick as could be with whatever lurghi was hanging around England at the time and I ended up in A&E getting meds for a chest infection when our local GP couldn’t see me. Aarrgghh!

Margaret & Brian Harmes at 40th Anniversary Party

We arrived back in France exactly 4 weeks after our icy cold visit to the seaside in Brehal — and everything here at the farmhouse in Notre Dame de Fresnay had burst into bloom!

View of the Normandy countryside through the bedroom window in Notre Dame de Fresnay.

Daffodils beside the old well.

Down by the duck pond.

We’re preparing to move on from here in three very compressed weeks. But we’re headed to the OTHER large house belonging to the owners of this house — and we’ll be there for 6 weeks whilst Mark does renovation work on it. I’ll send pictures of that project as it progresses.

The REGROUP and RELAUNCH part of the title refers to us regrouping, going over to England for several weeks at the end of June, and trying to decide if we want to settle down or continue to work and travel for awhile longer. That’s a longer stand-alone post about the turbulent social and political factors at play here in Europe right now, so we’ll save that for another time.

I have to be truthful, it’s one of those things that sneaks up on you a bit as you get older — the mental cushion of a home base. And right now our ‘home base’ is a huge storage unit full of our possessions in England — one we refer to far too often when we reach for something and then realise that it’s in the $%^&£@! storage unit!

In the next couple of months, we will be relaunching ourselves away from here. And I have ALSO just relaunched my personal website — but I’ll leave that for a follow-up post.

Back soonish!

Expanding Our Options for Work and Travel

Staying out on the road, enjoying the travel between countries, meeting new people, seeing new places, and not spending too much money out of our own savings has always been the goal ever since our departure from Australia in December of 2010.

Back in June, our friend Becky down in the Midi-Pyrenees of France recommended that I look into a website called Mind My House as a potential way to travel and have lovely houses to live in for free whilst house sitting and pet sitting. But it has taken me all of these months to get around to doing that because of our intense work schedule and travel back and forth across the English Channel.

A Client's Keys

This afternoon I created a new profile for us and you can find that at Deborah and Mark’s Mind My House Profile.

There are so many people who have caught on to this idea and who are travelling inexpensively by doing house sitting, but I am hoping that what will differentiate us from the masses is that we are not simply looking for cheap accommodation in foreign countries. We are following a carefully chosen path and we provide professional services along with the more standard house sitting and pet sitting.

In future posts I will keep you up to date on how it all works out!

Working Our Way Around The World as Ad Lib Artisans

I’m proud to announce that the new website for our around-the-world building, decoration, and renovation company, AD LIB ARTISANS, is now live at http://www.adlibartisans.com

Please enjoy the FIVE galleries which are full of pictures of our work on various projects in England, France, Scotland, Germany, and Australia.

Mark enameling custom cabinetry that he built in a period home in London

In a future post I will explain how this work has allowed us to work our way across the world over the last 10 and 1/2 months!

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Cozy on a Cold Day in France

I won’t lie — it took awhile to get the hot water flowing through the radiators efficiently — especially since the source of the hot water was the water jacket attached to the fireplace woodburner. Also, the nature of stone houses means that they might stay wonderfully cool in summer, but they are a bit of a challenge to get warm and KEEP warm in the winter. Constantly tending the fire is essential.

But here we are, almost 20 hours after our very late arrival back in France last night following a ferry trip across the English Channel — and we’ve enjoyed the most restorative day in front of the crackling flames with cheese and pate and a bottle of red wine.

Fireplace in our French gite.

We’re here to do another restoration and redecoration project in this marvelous corner of Normandy. The 5 bedroom gite we are staying in is one of two at the back of a historic but crumbling chateau. I’ll discuss that in greater depth in a future post.

Sitting room in the large gite

We’ve just finished a wonderful roast chicken dinner and are enjoying our quiet day of total rest. I’ll be back in a few days to document more of our adventures in France, so make sure to come back for more!

Last Days In London — Not What We Expected To Be Doing!

VERY short post today as a quick catch-up. It’s our last weekend in England and we’re still in London. But we certainly aren’t out in the steamy heat of the day seeing the sights.

We are WORKING all day — finishing up the renovation work on our latest commission. I’m enameling the front of a newly built wardrobe and Mark is refinishing the music room floors. We’re both so tired, but we’re also very proud of the work we have done here.

Deborah enameling the front of a newly built wardrobe

And just wait — you’ll be seeing the photo documentation online at our NEW website in a few days!

Those paragraphs above are going to come as a bit of a surprise for anyone who thinks that I am always a photographer and journalist and marketing consultant. Nope! Part of the time I work with my husband in our building and design company.

We’re leaving London tomorrow afternoon, going up to Norfolk to visit with Mark’s parents for a few days, and then next weekend we’ll be taking a ferry back to France with our new diesel van. And our first stop will be at a chateau in Normandy.

More soon — and a long post will be coming in the next week or two that explains just how we have been able to keep travelling for the last 10 months without settling down and getting ‘proper jobs’ again.

Bye for now!

Coming Soon: A NEW Page On This Site

COMING SOON
A NEW Page On This Site!

Coming Soon: AD LIB ARTISANS

We have registered a new business name — Ad Lib Artisans — and I will be posting pictures of the building and renovation work and the public relations work we are doing as we travel from country to country in Europe and other parts of the world. It’s been an exciting 9 months so far, so there are lots of pictures and information to share.

Come back soon and see what we’ve been up to!