And work continues

It has been a long time between blog posts.
Our last post ended in mid-September with our party and visitors. Between then and
when Deb flew home (early October) work and fun continued.

 ...as always, click on the pictures to enlarge...

As we have found with many of our tradespeople on this project,
they tend to have abilities in more than one area.

Little did we know that our plasterer was also a stone mason, but boy, did we have a job for him … Time for a couple of new gate posts to match the stonework of the house!!

He arrived each day in his leather sandals (safety edition of course), polo shirt and stubbies (even though the mornings were definitely getting nippy), worked solidly with plenty of huffing and grunting, and brought his own packed lunch (including a full baguette).

Where possible, we have tried to commission work locally, which not only supports local trades and artisans but can also yield great results and originality. Our new gate (to fill in the gap between the new posts) is a great example. We were able to create a custom design with a local ironmonger who created a very impressive, sturdy and beautiful gate with a very fast turn around.

The girls hand painting the fence in dark Forest Green. Despite being advised by certain other well-learned people that spray painting was the norm for steel structures, Jess and Deb decided they were confident in their choice. Well, they had a fun couple of days.

Another important development has been the laying of a "chape fluide" or self-levelling concrete, over our underfloor heating pipes in the downstairs kitchen and living area. This is the stuff you often see in shows such as Grand Designs (in countries that are cold enough to warrant it!), a very very wet mixture that is poured over the pipes to create a level surface that can be polished, tiled etc.

The start of the pour, with the 'tripods' that are calibrated by laser to show
the finishing height of the floor across the space.

And 15 minutes later the pouring is complete! Very impressive.

Agitate, agitate!!

Wet, wet, wet. Not polished.

Give us a ceiling and she'll be right to go!

Work has continued upstairs in the continuing effort to make the space livable (by someone's standards). Much to the amusement of the French who prefer metal studwork, Michael knocked up insect-resistant cedar stud walls with insulation and double-thickness plasterboard to create the bedrooms, sitting room and bathrooms.
Dylan proved particularly adept at fitting fragile plasterboard into the angled window alcoves.

Dylan cutting plasterboard.

Master and apprentice. Installing boards in the tricky angled window spaces.

End result - bathroom window with some fresh waterproof plasterboard.

And the other rooms are also taking shape!


Master bedroom.

Second bedroom.

Salle de jour

While the house is the focus, time out is taken for workers' maintenance.

And time for other fun activities.

Patrick's birthday

Dylan and Jess went to Barcelona for the weekend - mainly to have fun but also on a mission to buy tiles for the bathroom. Not only did they find some great tiles, but also showed-off their Spanish.

 Dylan in Gaudi's La Sagrada Familia.
The last time we visited here was in 1998 when we lived in France for a year. Boy, has it changed!

Back to Work!

Jess taking the paint off the school's old door handles.  The beanie was a present Dylan brought from South America, but was later stolen when our car was broken into in Toulouse.
 

Michael spraying the doors to prevent woodworm.
(not my favourite job!)

 An old school door, stripped by Deb, sprayed by Michael and adorned with the
original handle de-painted by Jess.

Pointing the stones of outside walls using different methods.

Dylan throwing the lime mortar.

Nick and Dylan carefully applying the mortar.

Deb's final night – family dinner at the Abbaye de Camon
A beautiful setting, delicious degustation meal and great company.

The girls being silly.. Can't take them anywhere!

xo
The Team