The doors

Not the rock band.   We have some nice doors finished in oak on the ground floor of the gîte.   They aren't solid oak, but what the carpenter did was fix some thin, shaped, solid oak planks onto the fronts of cheap stock doors, so creating, at relatively low cost, a solid oak effect when the doors are shut.  They look very nice, in my view.

I thought it would be a good plan to have doors with the same finish in the house, so as part of the renovation project I got in touch with the outfit that made the gîte doors, for a quote for the house.  I got on well with the guy who ran the business before, but he has sold up and I was dealing with the new owner.  I showed him the original doors, and asked for a quote to supply and fit, with frames, three internal doors in the same finish.  Guess how much.

Well there's what we call in the trade "taking the Mick" and I reckon that €4,500 for three doors is doing just that.  Four thousand five hundred euros.   That's not even close, and is so far from a reasonable price that negotiation down to something sensible wouldn't be possible without us both knowing that he was having a go.  So having told him that his price was too high and turning down the proferred negotiation, I sanded down the old doors and rejigged them to our own design.  Two tones of grey to match the tiles and stone wall, central panel in a yellow/beige to match the painted walls.  A bit severe in style perhaps, but probably better in the hallway than oak, since it gives a lighter effect.

Two more doors to go.