1986: My Happy Life in Provence

Chapter 114: Valuable Ass

Ronan plans to undertake a second round of renovations on the house.

There are two main aspects of this part of the work. One is to make a new set of furniture, and the other is to renovate a total of three bathrooms upstairs and downstairs.

The furniture can be made after the parents arrive, there is no rush, and the wood has already been bought.

After returning from Aix, Ronan was most anxious to renovate the bathroom.

This is a small job and does not require a professional craftsman.

Any farmer in the village can boast about the number of renovations or repairs he has done, and even those who have not done these things must have struggled with Turkish toilets.

Ronan just casually mentioned in the old tavern that he wanted to renovate the bathroom, and countless "experts" came out.

"Bathroom renovation? Didn't you just replace the toilet?"

Lourmarin is a small place, with only a few hundred villagers. It is difficult for anything that happens in a family to escape the eyes of the villagers. Even if it escapes their eyes by chance, it cannot escape the gossips of the gossipers.

Everyone knows that Ronan's house has three high-end toilets, but the versions everyone hears are different.

Some of them heard the correct version, while others heard that Pierre Cardin went to Ronan's bathroom and signed for him.

Some people also heard that Ronan bought a toilet designed by a man named Michael Jordan. There may be more outrageous stories, but none of them reached Ronan's ears.

But in any case, they couldn't connect Pierre Cardin with designer toilets, just as they couldn't understand why there was any need to renovate the bathroom.

"I want to redo the waterproofing and then lay tiles on the floor and walls." Ronan told his plan.

In the Provence countryside, residents do not pay attention to the equipment and appearance of the bathroom, thinking it is just a place for excretion. This can be seen from the fact that they have used the horrible Turkish toilets for decades and have never thought of changing them.

Even the toilets in many public places are not decorated, and the toilets in villagers' homes are in a completely primitive state.

"Does it have to be so complicated?" Fatty Cornell looked at Ronan and asked.

Ronan doesn't want to compare his life in Paris, but the bathroom does cause him a lot of trouble:

"There's mold on the bathroom walls, which is not good for the building."

"Just wipe it with hot water or alcohol and it will be gone." Fabian gave Ronan advice enthusiastically.

Ronan spread his hands helplessly. He knew it would be hard for the people of Provence to understand:
"Well, I also want to make them look a little more presentable."

The higher the comfort level, the higher the "happiness level" given by the system, and the comfort level must include the feeling it brings to the senses.

Pierre was more knowledgeable than the other villagers and could understand Ronan's thoughts:

"Old Charlie's living room was tiled last year, and there are a lot of leftover tiles piled up at the door. Go say hello to him and take some away. The bathrooms won't need many."

Ronan took a sip of pink wine:

"No, no, no, those are not suitable for the bathroom. They are not the same size and the style is not suitable."

He had seen the floor tiles at the door of old Charlie's house. They were all large tiles of 600*600 size. The bathroom needed smaller ones. Although they could be cut into smaller sizes, the color was too ugly. Like vomit.

Ronan plans to design several bathrooms well!
"Then let's go to Mena Village. It should be there," Pierre continued to suggest.

"I plan to buy it in Apt. There are more styles there, and there are mosaics to choose from." Ronan did his homework in advance.

The farmers were shocked. It's just a toilet, is it necessary to make it so troublesome?
They only put some thought into areas like the living room, bedroom, and yard.

Theo, who was shaking his hips to the music, hugged Ronan's neck with a giggle:
"That's going to cost a lot of money, man. I bought mosaics for Lucas, and they're more expensive than regular tiles. You have a 'valuable' ass."

The news that Ronan was going to do a major bathroom renovation spread throughout Lourmarin.

A large truck crashing into a telephone pole could attract dozens of people to watch for an entire afternoon. This rare "big news" immediately became the focus of the village of Lourmarin.

During those two days, every time Ronan met a villager, he would be asked questions such as "When will it start?" and "Have you bought the materials?"

When we really started working on it, someone started poking his head at the door at dawn.

Ronan's family had never held a party, and very few people had come. Most people had only come to say hello during the first few days after he moved in, and had not seen what Ronan's house looked like after the first round of renovations and upgrades.

"Man, your house is pretty nice." Theo walked around the kitchen and dining room area that Ronan was most satisfied with. "It's just that there are too few chairs."

Ronan made many clever moves when renovating the kitchen, and later added a lot of soft furnishings, putting a lot of effort into this area.

"I'll make the chairs as soon as I finish renovating the bathroom." There was a lot of wood in the donkey shed, so Ronan could make the chairs himself.

Cornell was here to help, but he was also attracted by the style:

"Very different, is this the Parisian style?"

Ronan shook his head:

"That's not the Parisian style. It's just plain country style."

After seeing Ronan's refreshing kitchen area, the onlookers were full of expectations for the bathroom renovation.

Will the bathroom look as good as the kitchen?

The foundations of several bathrooms do not have stone or other building materials, so nothing needs to be demolished. The water and electrical circuits are also exposed, so decoration is not difficult.

Ronan had completed the preliminary work of slope treatment, waterproofing, leveling, marking, etc. a few days ago. Today's task was just to lay the tiles on the wall and the floor. He chose to lay the wall tiles first and then the floor tiles. The area of the bathroom was limited, so only Cornell could help inside, and the others gathered at the door.

Ronan laid the first black 100*400 tile, and Henry's exclamation came from the door immediately:
"Mr. Ronan, you want to use black tiles? It will be very dark in here."

In those days, the capacity and range of lighting equipment were limited, and villagers did not like anything too dark in their homes.

After Ronan hammered the first tile firmly, he picked up a yellow tile and laid it next to the first one:

“This is my design.”

There was another cry from outside the door:
"Not the same color?"

Everyone saw that there were tiles of many colors in the bathroom and guessed that Ronan would use multiple colors, but they didn’t expect it to be arranged like this.

Next, Ronan laid green and light gray paint one after another. After a small area was covered on the wall, it looked much more intuitive.

"As expected of Parisians, even the tiling of the bathroom is so particular."

"Like the bar at Mrs. Mitchell's."

"We should let Como (the owner of the old pub) come and have a look. Ronan's bathroom is better looking than the pub."

Ordinary people in Provence don't have the concept of "design". When looking for craftsmen to decorate their houses, they mainly talk about practicality, and aesthetics are rarely taken into consideration. Everyone unanimously attributed Ronan's meticulous "design" to the knowledgeable identity of Parisians.

Theo took the cigarette off his ear, put it in his mouth and said with a smile:
"You ignorant fellows, the Lucas family also posted it like this."

The entire Provence region was under Roman rule in the early years, and its architecture and decoration were deeply influenced by Romanesque architecture. The main colors were yellow and stone. Bright colors only appeared on glass, religious occasions and murals, and were rarely used in private homes.

Unless you are a rich person like Lucas, who bought land and built his own house, he would incorporate many emerging trends when renovating it.

"Lucas never invited us to visit his bathroom." Pierre said with a smile, "If you have seen it, then go in and help Ronan to change Cornell out."

"I'll do it--" Theo said as he was about to go in.

Ronan pushed him out:
"We need to let this air out for a while, so go lay the two wall tiles upstairs first."

"I'll take care of the upstairs." Theo rolled up the sleeves of his shirt, wanting to show off his skills to everyone.

Ronan wiped his sweat.

“You’ve seen this one, but you may not have seen the next one.”

The second floor that Ronan laid was his parents' bathroom.

Everyone noticed that the tiles stacked here had changed color again.

Not only did the color change, Ronan's laying method also changed to diagonal laying.

"Why did you change the style and color?" Pierre crossed his arms, he was really enlightened today.

Ronan said as he worked:

"This is the bathroom my parents will use. My mom likes this color and I want her to feel better when she uses the bathroom."

Theo kept smacking his lips:
"Do I need to consider my mood when going to the toilet?"

"Of course, this is a skill that a mature designer must have, to tailor the design according to the needs of the client." Ronan looked up and asked him, "Can you do it? If you can, come in and help."

“No, no, no.” Theo shook his head frantically. “I’m afraid of ruining your ‘client’s’ mood when he goes to the bathroom.”

As expected.

The pattern of tiles in the last bathroom in Ronan's house changed again, and they were replaced with small square tiles of 100*100.

However, they have seen this style many times, and it is a basic style in the Provence region.

Many restaurants have similar styles of tiles in their bathrooms.

"Ronan, why is this 'designed'?" Ronan kept talking about 'design' all day long, and Cornell learned the word.

Cornell could tell you the characteristics and cultivation methods of each type of grape, but he couldn't understand the three bathrooms in Ronan's house.

Is this the charm of 'design'?
"Ah, this." Ronan stood up and twisted his waist a few times, "Because this style of tile is on sale."

"Discount? Not designed?" Theo asked, touching his chin.

Ronan laughed awkwardly a few times:
“A good designer should not only know how to tailor a plan for the client, but also know how to save money for the client.”

This is his bedroom, of course I can get it as cheap as I can!

In the days that followed, similar conversations could be heard in every corner of Lourmarin.

"Have you seen Ronan's bathroom?"

"Look! The bathroom has been messed up!"

"My God, are Parisian butts so valuable? Why design so many designs?"

　There is still time at 7pm.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)