Les Fleurs

(Minnie Riperton, 1970)



As works inside the house creep towards the August (we hope...) start date, the garden is changing on a weekly basis. Here’s how it's looking at the moment.

It might not look like much, but there are few things to point out.

First, all that green is not just weeds. There is admittedly a bit of that, but mostly it’s the ‘green manure’ doing its stuff. Rather than lay down a perfect lawn and watch it get mashed up by the builders, or let the weeds take over entirely, we sprinkled clover and alfafa seeds to improve the soil while we wait. No toxic fertilizers, no smelly manure or lugging around new top soil– just letting mother nature do her thing.

Second, the far elder/compost corner is now beginning to look quite scenic, with two clematis racing though its branches (one a native Belgian and the other a Wisley pedigree – let’s see which one wins), and a few allium bulbs adding a splash of colour.

Third, the bee house is installed and waiting for its first guests (the result of a weekend's handywork earlier this year, playing with C's new power drill).

Fourth, mum’s hydrangea has come back to life, and seems to be at home it its shady corner, with some bits of old wood to keep the undergrowth at bay.

Finally (and Is, I hope you’re reading), the jasmine has made a comeback. Quite a surprise as it was totally frazzled by the frost, but this week we noticed a few shoots had emerged from the roots. Clearly tougher than we’d thought. Also doing well are the honeysuckle/sage combo, some resident pansies and the sweet peas (again, Is these were yours).

Of course it remains to be seen whether any of this survives i) the back of the house being dug out to the foundations and rebuilt, and ii) the garden walls being stripped and repainted. I do have a cunning plan involving lino and old carpets, but in the meantime, we have a few months to enjoy the sunshine and to get a better idea of what the garden could become.

Ch ch ch changes

(David Bowie, 1972)



It's been a while since we've updated you on the news, but that's not to say that nothing has happened. On the contrary, we have been bounding forwards.

First of all, we received the planning permission from the Commune. In record time in fact: we received it within two months of filing the application. Another reason why Schaerbeek rocks (and further confirmation that Belgian works quite well without a government).

So now we are waiting for the architect to finish drawing up the Cahier de Charges (the building specs) and the Metré (the list of quantities) and then we can start getting quotes from builders. The plan is still that they start work in August, but it all depends on whether the right man is free for the job.

Second, we've spent a few weekends at the house and can really see the difference. So here are a few before & after pictures of a couple of rooms.

Guest bathroom (second floor). You've seen this room before - it's the one at the front of the house with the leaking cornice, which explains the damp. The cornice has been fixed, and we've taken it back to the brick to dry out. The bathtub stays though.


Dressing room/ main bathroom to be (first floor). This is the lovely big room at the front of the house, which will have a bathroom box on the left hand side (hard to explain but you'll find out what that means in due course). The rest of the room will be dressing room, though could potentially become a bedroom.

Here is how we found it...


And here it is with a hundred years of lino and wallpaper steamed off.



Adjoining this room, through the double doors, will be the main bedroom. It seems to have previously been used as a kitchen, so that had to be dismantled, as well as the many layers of wallpaper and lino.




And here it is now:



So that's the first floor pretty much ready for the works to start. There is still some more wallpaper peeling to be done on the ground floor, and some plaster/ceilings to take off/down in the basement and the second floor, which will keep us occupied for another few weekends.

Oh and I haven't even started telling you about what we are doing in the way of energy efficiency.. As I mentioned before, we are aiming for the house to be officially 'Low Energy' (meaning that we will consume less than 60 KWH/m2/year), so there's a whole world of PEBs, PHPPs, Blower Door Tests to discover. That will have to wait for another time.

Back to Life

Winter is so over.

Just a week ago, the ground was frozen solid. Grey clouds and drizzle are still lingering on, and we are still some way off balmy evenings, but look what we found today...


The clover seeds we scattered over the ground we'd cleared, to provide some green manure. It was done bit too late, more like October than August, so it had just a month to settle in before the big freeze started. So I'm pleased that some of them survived.

The honeysuckle came from one of C's colleague, while the daffodil and crocus bulbs went in last autumn and also seem to be doing what they should.

Mum's Villosa hydrangea is another story. This is what it looked liked in September when it went in.


And this is what it looked like today... rather ravaged by the frost. Maybe it was a bit little to be left out in such a cold winter.


However, I am sure those are new leaves at the end of the branches, admittedly more brown than green, but I'm hopeful...