Monthly Archives: October 2011

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!

Prepping For A Winter In Europe

Just in case, mind you — just in case we can’t find steel cut porridge oats or my particular brand of shampoo or Mark’s all important wholefoods peanut butter in France or Italy or wherever we might be in Europe, we have done a bit (!) of shopping and placed almost all of it into stackable snap lid bins. Add a bicycle, a ladder, a few wooden boxes of tools, all of our luggage, clothing on hangers, and our bedding (we do love our own Egyptian cotton bed linens and down filled pillows) — and we are going to have a very full van! But now we can head back across the English Channel on the ferry this weekend in a much more organized manner.

Snap lid bins to help us organise what we travel with

Mark has spent part of the last 2 days lining the back of the newly purchased diesel van with a hardboard-plywood decking followed by new carpeting. That should make everything quieter and easier to load in and out of the back in the months to come.

Back of the van lined and carpeted and ready for travel

I’ve finally broken down and purchased an iPhone as a work tool whilst travelling and writing/photographing. And until I explored the APPS area of the iTunes store, I really had no idea how comprehensive the programs on offer were. I have spent a couple of days loading my selection onto the phone — so I’m ready to go.

Selection of APPS for iPhone

Need to run — my label-maker is about to get a workout!

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!