Our new home

(Here is a new view into our house without the hedges. It brings in a lot more sunlight into the house and completely changes the look.)
I have been a little slow in posting out pics but thought you might enjoy a few from our latest trip to France. After we closed on the house on October 13th we both deciding we would do as much as possible before we had to leave for the winter. We have our english friends, John and Jane, that live about 30 miles away that we have stayed with the last couple of times we were there. They are very much outdoorsy, gardening people with all the cool toys. So, we ask them to tackle taking down the bushes that form the hedge around the house. They had been neglected for at least the last ten years and were so overgrown that they were encroaching on the front yard. Andrew's guess was they were about 25-30 feet tall and around 5-6 feet wide. We talked to several people about the possibility of just trimming them back and seeing if we could get them under control but apparently this breed of cyprus bush doesn't like that. So our only option was to completely remove them. The only challenge was once the guys got in and started cutting them down we realized that they were the size of tree trunks and it was going to be a major job! John soon realized that he would need more help to accomplish the task. He spoke with his neighboor, Jean, and they came over to see how far they could get. Jean only speaks french so he did a lot of smiling and was one of the hardest working guys you could ever meet. He had the bigger chain saw so he went at the big trunks and then would climb up the branches to attach ropes for guides and began to cut down the upper parts. Here is a pic of him in the trees (actually bushes but we call them trees).

They had only taken down about a fourth of the hedge before we left but look at the difference in our view from the front windows now.

We will most likely take down a couple of these pine trees as well. Not only do they obstruct our view but they are also growing into our electricity wires so they have to go.
Andrew worked really hard with the guys and helped them fell the trees and cut the grass but by far his favorite part was overseeing the wood burning!

Our friend Jane loves working in the garden 'dug' right in and started clearing away years of overgrown weeds and found out that we have these wonderful planting boxes all around the house. I think on the side of the house I will plant flowers with the rose bushes that are already there but on the back of the house the boxes will have our mediterrean herbs for cooking.

So that pretty much left the inside of the house to me. I attacked the old wallpaper with zeal and for the most part it didn't fight me. There were some rooms that had layers of paper and that will definitely take some time. But for the most part the rooms were happy to give up the old and as a bonus we found that all the hardwood floors are in really good condition just need a bit of TLC. The old damp that you see on the walls was from a roof leak but that was repaired and it rained while we are there so know that we can seal the walls and there should be no more problems from that.

And if you think we are crazy and wonder if it will all be worth it one day....I would say the look on this man's face says it all for me already!