So we are starting to learn FAST that thing in France are ALWAYS more expensive and take forever to get done, even then they aren’t necessarily done right. Here’s our story of trying to use our first French tradesman :

As you can see from the photo on the right the “Grange” is missing some shutters and this is causing loss of tiles on the roof during storms and in the past has lead to complete loss of the roof (this is something we are keen to avoid again as you can imagine) so the task was simple, find a shutter builder to quote on replacing the shutters on the grange and on the house to for good measure.

Number of shutters needed : 9
Number of shutters actually quoted for : 6

Number of doors needed : 2
Number of doors quoted for : 1

Number of windows needed : 0
Number of windows quoted : 3 (he actually missed a whole window)

Now that’s not all. Before I give you the price I need to explain that this quote took 3 MONTHS to arrive. It actually arrived the night BEFORE we were due to arrive for a weeks renovation, it did however come with a nice note to say that he could complete the work in September for €6,000… Needless to say I went bonkers, this wasn’t just ineptitude and laziness (getting the quote wrong) it was down right insulting. If he didn’t want to do the work then he should have just said so and we would have started down our DIY route earlier.

So we went from a quote for 9 shutters, no windows, 2 doors to 6 shutters, 1 door and 3 windows.. Time to get down to Weldom and buy some wood I think and that is exactly what we decided to do.

See the post HERE on how we ended up building the shutters for the grange and the house. They may not be professional but they will see us through this winter and cost a whole lot less. Sometimes you really are better off doing things yourself. I fear this is going to be our renovation moto.