An American in Provence

A few Sundays ago, Alain and I decided to put up the rolls of sound insulation that had been sitting in our living room for weeks. I bought eight rolls of 5 meters each, for about 22€ each, and two pots of glue, which the guy at the hardware store assured me was definitely enough. (lesson for next time: ask the guy if he has actually done this himself. No? Okay, get twice what he just said.)

We slowly shoved all of our furniture away from the Infernal Wall (no, not that infernal wall, the infernal wall separating us and our elderly neighbor's blasting tv). We cleaned off the wall, then got prepared to put the glue on the wall, then place the rolls of thick foam. Except the glue was really goopy and it was impossible to cover well the wall. After one miserable attempt, we quickly realized that the best was to lay the roll on the floor, cover it in goop, and then place it against the wall. (hey, we don't have advanced engineering degrees for nothing!)

That worked much better. Except that we got about halfway through the project and ran out of glue (which would SURELY be enough). One frantic call to his parents later, and they were able to stop by the store and bring over not one, not two, but three pots of glue. Except that the new glue wasn't the same. Sigh. It was actually much gluyier, and I had several painful "ripping my skin off the handle of the spatula" moments. We finally finished, cleaned up, put the furniture back, and waited for 7pm (the time of normal tv-blasting). And we heard--- almost nothing. I was so pleased- it was beyond my expectations. I told Alain we should put up another layer on her side, but he said no way.

Eventually, we will have to do something to cover up the grey squishy strips on our wall. But maybe after the holidays.

Unfortunately, after several days it is now less effective. Bummer!!!!! On to plan two- offer her TV headphones for Christmas. Plan C is to pay someone to break in and steal her TV....

And I am only slightly joking....