Room nearly finished

Most of the new room is complete apart from the flooring. It needs a door, and I'm being awkward and insisting on a glazed door because I want to be able to watch the sunlight on the barn walls (Hey, this is important. If I wanted to be surrounded only by modern walls I could have bought a new bungalow. In fact, I would have liked a window under the stairs; but that would have been very awkward.) The trip to the secondhand and recovered building and furniture place in Royan was sadly fruitless. They had some beautiful wooden glazed doors in stock, but all too big. I briefly wondered what Benoit and Camille would say if I demanded that the wall be re-built with a bigger doorway. Only briefly. Anyway, Camille found this
http://www.bricodepot.fr/saintes-saint-georges-des-coteaux/node/493 which looks good and isn't very expensive.

Today I've varnished half the stairs, topside only, and I'm shattered. Also, it might be cheaper if I didn't get so much varnish on the floor and in my hair. The varnish sold by the man in the hugely expensive trade supplies place (did he look at me and think "female AND English!"?) turned out to be darker and not as red as the sample we showed him. I bought some more varnish of the same brand in a hypermarket while I was in Royan, but chose a lighter colour. There was "blond oak" which looked rather yellow, so I got "light oak" which was a pleasant light nondescript wood colour - on the tin. On the stairs, it glows like a marigold. Ah well, it should fade.

There's a local decorator and pointing expert, an Anglo immigrant called James, who is setting up in business. He will fix up the old walls with pointing, attempt to cover the dreadful dark grey concrete that some previous owner applied to damaged stones, and apply sealant to stop the saltpetre leaking all over the place. He'll also paint the new walls, or at least he'll paint those parts I can't reach, because although 100 euros a day is a good price for the work, I'm running out of money. He starts on Monday so I'd like to get as much done as possible this weekend. There's a brocante tomorrow, and that will take up some time. hmm.

As for the flooring, the supplier of reasonably-priced bamboo parquet is in Paris and charges 205 euros plus tax for delivery. There are more local suppliers, but much more expensive. You can get it in UK much cheaper, so I've emailed a UK firm who will deliver in Europe and asked for a quotation for delivery but they haven't replied. grump. I may have to pay the c.200 quid for delivery.