Get the balloons, party poppers & the orange juice as we are about to have ourselves a wrap part!

Introducing little Miss “Petite Assistante” your personal French renovation dictionary, translater and all round life saver.

The app is a dedicated English to French to English translation dictionary however this IS NOT your normal batch of French words. You’re not going to be flirting with the ladies or buying groceries but these
6,000+ dedicated building/renovating words covering everything from fractions in English to French to tools, materials and so so much more.

We’ve even gone the other way and you can search French words (by alphabetically scrolling if you’re that way inclined or using the search function) so if you come across a word you’re not sure about when you’re out and about then you’re not lost. We don’t think there is any point in just having the English to French translator as when you actually have no idea what the French words are on their own. All that is now a thing of the past.

Here comes the some FAQ’s :

• Where can I get it?
  iTunes App Store. As soon as they approve it we’ll post the link here and on @Twitter.
  Petite Assistante will work on ALL generations of iPhones & iPod Touch’s.

• When can I get it?
  Apple say about 2 weeks from submission if we’ve managed not to break any rules.

• How much is it?
  NOW FREE (see post as to why) £1.79 or €2.00 depending what iTunes store you are connected to.

• How many words do you have & are you adding more?
  At launch we have over 6,000 translations in both English & French and YES we are adding more. We are going to keep it tight to renovating, renovation and building as this app is here to help you with these types of terms so we’ll not be cheating by swelling the word base by putting in basic French conversational words.

• Is there a “free” or “lite” version to try?
  Since we can’t do time limited trials we “may”  release a “lite” version for you to try. This will have around 500 words maximum and will just be a taster. This app will not be updated with all the extra words we are adding week on week.

• What do you mean English to French to English ?
  Simple … You look up the word “Paint” in English and you’ll see “Peinture” in French. But if you’re out and about and you see the word “Peinture” then how do you go about finding what that means.. With “Petite Assistante ” app you simply either drop into “Français à l’anglais” mode and search to word or scroll to it and that of course will bring up “Paint” in English.

If you have any questions about the app at all please either get in touch or drop us a comment and we’ll answer each and every one of you.

We are recording a demo video for you now and will post it shortly however here are some screen shots of the final layout and graphics. Enjoy

]]> http://www.montpillard.com/2009/08/french-renovation-there-is-an-app-for-that/feed/ 4 http://www.montpillard.com/2009/08/iphone-app/ http://www.montpillard.com/2009/08/iphone-app/#comments Tue, 04 Aug 2009 18:24:39 +0000 Lee http://www.montpillard.com/?p=1930 I did mention a while back that we are trying to put an iPhone app together to help with renovation & that wasn’t very specific so it’s time to put some flesh on the bones now we’ve started the project (as if we didn’t have enough on the go).

“Petit Assistant” is a nice and simple app, we’ll to be honest it’s more of a dictionary than an application however the ability to have 1000′s of renovation terms in French and English with a look up between the two of them in your pocket is going to be priceless.

Why?
Currently i have to carry a book around with me no matter where i go to constantly do word look ups & it gets cumbersome, also i guarantee the one time i don’t have it on me i think of something i need to know, so with it all in your pocket this will be no more.

But aren’t there online translators?
There are indeed, but all these require a data connection where your requests is sent and processed by a server. In France we constantly find no data connection and when I’m in Brico Depot & I’m looking up a word it takes ages to send it out to the server and return it plus it costs me a small fortune using data while roaming. My last data bill was over £100 in 2 days just with this type of use. “Petit Assistant” will be a pocket tool which will do an internal lookup of over 10,000 words (to start) to give you quicker and much much cheaper results.

How much will it cost?
Nothing.. It’ll be a free app and that’s because we want your help. This really is for everyone French or English. We’ll start to build the word list shortly and we’ll be publishing it on the site, we’ll then be opening it up so everyone can add words and their translation. This will then be placed into an online file that can be updated instantly by the app should you want to.

When will it be available?
A few weeks… The actual coding and UI design isn’t the hardest thing since we are keeping version 1 very simple, the longest task is to build the word lists, if i can find a way of opening up the submission page sooner for your help then i will do.

So that’s it.. We are really trying to do something very simple and put it in your pocket so when you’re in a lumber yard, paint store or a tool hire shop you’ll be able to get exactly what you’re after.

If you want to help then drop us an email we’ll love to hear from you, and if you want to sponsor the app even better.

More soon….

With the water off, the wall trimmed by 8 inches and the sink gone it was time to start to putting up some carcasses and see how it all starts sitting together. One thing to note is that due to plumbing issues on the opposite wall the kitchen is now in this location as opposed to it’s original place of against the main wall. I say this because this was a last minute find and this explains why the kitchen DOESN’T BLOODY FIT!

Originally we purchased the kitchen units to fill up 2500mm made up of 1 x 1000mm carcass for the sink, 1x600mm carcass for the gas hob and 3x300mm small cupboards to allow for storage and by having to flip the kitchen it was 500mm over which meant I had to lose 2x300mm cabinets. Not the start i wanted.

Luckily the solid wood (untreated) work top was 2000mm long as was always going to be cut down, so with a small layout change we had something looking like this now.

1x1000mm, 1x600mm, 1x300mm and a 250mm gap between the last cupboard and the uncovered stone wall. This wasn’t the end of the world as I now have room for my 200mm wine cooler so it was time to assemble the parts and cut the worktop.

The work top appears to be the best priece of wood in France. Seriously it was solid, so solid it took 2hours to cut the holes into the work top for the sink & hob. It really was a case of measure once, measure again, and again and then once more then cut. Things were slowed down by the fact the hob didn’t have any sort of cutting template so a lot of patience, swearing and team work between my father and I and we had the wholes in and cut to size. Finally a bit of a breakthrough.

After sleeping on it for the night and feeling positive it was now time to tackle getting cabinets built, leveled and joined together. While I built the cabinets, Dad sorted out the waste and the pluming to the sink while making sure the final cabinets were lined up and then we finally dropped the top in and got our first look at what we could expect the kitchen to start to look like and we liked what we saw.

As we put the doors on to complete the kitchen there are a few small jobs outstanding that needed to be done. Firstly the work top needed to be sealed to protect it against water, oil and usual cooking wear and tear. This was done later but due to the cold there was a 12 hour wait between coats as the sealant wouldn’t go off. This typifies everything that is happening with the house at the moment, one step forward two steps back.

Talking of two steps back – the gas hob is missing a fitting (am I’m still trying to find it on sale) and the wall needs to have a tiled splash-back fitted and then the sink sealed.  However with the doors on, the water on and the waste working there was a huge sense of pleasure and relief that the main part was now finished and what we almost had was a fixed position and working kitchen, but I can’t underplay how nice it is to have hot and cold running water on tap again…

And without further ado ladies and gentlemen here is our temporary kitchen, almost ready to go but the fruits of some solid work in zero degrees. Personally I’m extremely happy considering the kitchen location had to be flipped at the last moment and of course a chunk of the wall fell down.

There is a full set on flickr HERE with all the images from the kitchen build in it’s various stages that you might enjoy seeing and of course not forgetting PART 1 of this eventful bit of DIY.

Small Update: I found a picture that shows the amount of wall we had to trip off to compensate for the bits that fell down. The bit that actually fell off was on the right hand side of the picture but to the left of the sander as you see it you can see a bit of wall we’d not yet trimmed off. Personally while the wall top may not be super smooth, when you have to trim 6 to 8 inches off a plaster brick wall this isn’t too shabby at all. Dad & Me 1 – House 0

Well Dawns been busy reading and now writing up her views on 4 excellent books we have got. Most are excellent, 1 is indispensable and one is now giving her sleepless nights.

Click on the Books & Reference section above to get to these MUST READ reviews.

Enjoy

It is split into 2 sections: French to English and then English to French

I REALLY wish we’d had this book with us the last time we went over as it would have been so useful – instead I was carrying around with me my dictionary which didn’t have any of the words I was looking for.

Here’s why this book would have saved us time and money:
We took back 3 tins of paint at one point on 3 different occasions and each tin was completely different and certainly not what we were looking for. We wasted over 6 hours going back and forth to the towns to change the products, along with this lost time I’d say we lost €30 in petrol costs.

I will definitely be taking this one out with me.

It even has 35 different definitions for any type of glue you could wish for! Amazing!

5 out of 5

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Purchase Note: To purchase any of these books simply click the image of the book and it’ll take you to Amazon using our reference. By doing this we’ll get 5% of the sale cost to help towards our renovation. Many thanks Dawn & Lee

I found it useful even though I had lived in France periodically since I was very young. There is a lot of information here you take for granted, some of the most important is what you need to do to open a bank account, how the health care and social security works and everything in between.

While this book is a FANTASTIC start I would say that your best source of information are the people you meet in France and on your journey. We are very fortunate that we have friends who live close by and they are a wealth of information. Not only that but one of them is a pharmacist – this is the best person in France to know as they are held in very high regard in any village/town/city since they dispense all medication and are a fountain of biological knowledge. However in the event you don’t have a “Pascale” this book comes a close second.

3 out of 5 for this one.

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Purchase Note: To purchase any of these books simply click the image of the book and it’ll take you to Amazon using our reference. By doing this we’ll get 5% of the sale cost to help towards our renovation. Many thanks Dawn & Lee

This book is GREAT! It describes everything from how to go about getting planning permission to what sorts of plaster are the best to use for certain types of houses. It gives a little bit of information about everything and its certainly the type of book you read and then re-read the bits that are relevant at the time.

If you don’t know already, the biggest thing you can learn about France is to play the system. Fill in their forms, wait in their queues, don’t be impatient. If you become impatient you will soon learn that they don’t tolerate it and you will be ostracised from any small community, NOT the way forward. So this book will help you on your way – therefore its invaluable!

5 out of 5!

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Purchase Note: To purchase any of these books simply click the image of the book and it’ll take you to Amazon using our reference. By doing this we’ll get 5% of the sale cost to help towards our renovation. Many thanks Dawn & Lee

Each house details how much was spent on it, with floor plans too and useful contacts relating to the build.

Despite there not being any French conversions in it we both found that it gives us plenty of ideas and food for thought. We found some good ideas for use of glass for our big barn door and possibilities for how to turn the upstairs into bedrooms and bathroom.

All in all I’d give it a 4 out of 5. Not 5 out of 5 only because it made me realise just how much these conversions cost and I had a sleepless night.

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Purchase Note: To purchase any of these books simply click the image of the book and it’ll take you to Amazon using our reference. By doing this we’ll get 5% of the sale cost to help towards our renovation. Many thanks Dawn & Lee