French apartment renovations, Day 489: Framing, drywall, legal headaches

5,625 steps

I like days where I have to figure out how to engineer things in creative ways. That's what I did today, although most of it is hidden. I attached the framed doorway opening to the plaster/rock wall (on the left) and to the iron doorframe (on the right). I then had to build a lip about 10 cm above it that corresponded with the ceiling height so we could have someting to screw the drywall into. The far side of the WC room also needed a lip. Then FINALLY we got that piece of ceiling drywall up.

Then I did some reinforcing of the framed wall in the back. Some of the "studs" (scraps recycled from various demolitions) were thin enough that they curved and moved when pushed on. I also patched in a piece of wood for hanging a heavy mirror on the other wise (WC in Le Catamaran). So we got everything braced and stabilized so that FINALLY we could attach the back piece (green).



A friend came over with some pieces of wood he needed cut. I like being the neighborhood tool shop for our friends! I wish that we had some sort of storage/garage space where we could set up a tool shop and have a neighborhood tool "library." Ah well, keep dreaming...

I spoke with a retired legal assistant today about our heat pump issue. She kept saying "c'est grave" and said that there's really nothing to do except hire an attorney and bring the company to court. Of course we can start with a registered letter setting out all the things done wrong and asking for them to be addressed within a certain date. But, she said, he's very likely to comply.

So maybe in 1-2 years we'll see some closure on this. In the meantime we have to get the compressors taken off fairly soon and then we have to figure out if there's anywhere we can actually mount them...otherwise we have to rip the whole system out and we will have 3 apartments without a heating/cooling system. All due to the installer not putting them where they were supposed to be in the first place and not seeking proper authorization (and not telling us) when he decided to put them somewhere else.

Enjoy these outtakes from yesterday's photos.