Getting really excited now by the whole project - feels like we are 'in sight' of achieving what we planned for Phase 1. The next few days will see the laying of the wooden flooring and the design of the fireplace.
Two days into Stage 4 we have made really good progress - the final paneling work has been done, with the reverse side of the long wall adjoining what will be the Phase 2 space has been insulated and paneled; and David has done a great job cutting out very eccentric shapes to create the cupboard space under the stairs that go to the top floor of the barn: And in the hall/lobby area, all the beam painting has been completed - this required four coats of 'mono couche' (single coat!) paint .... this has been necessary to cover the strength of colour coming through from the old beams: But this area is now almost complete, just awaiting the hand-made doors, the skirting and floor tiles. Yesterday evening the floor tiler artisan we were recommended visited - to look at the work and agree a price. He was a nice guy, and after thorough discussion with him we are are confident of his professionalism - helped by a ten year guarantee on the work. So, we have agreed the date for the work - the third week of November - and the price for the job ... a bit more than we had planned, but this has been balanced by a good price on the tiles and fixing materials ... and the assurance of the 10 year cover.
Getting really excited now by the whole project - feels like we are 'in sight' of achieving what we planned for Phase 1. The next few days will see the laying of the wooden flooring and the design of the fireplace.
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Tomorrow we start Stage 4 of the barn development. Since the last Post we have not been idle: all the beams have now been scraped and wire-brushed; and we have done most of the first-coat painting on those beams that we're having white. Further filling and finishing work has been done on the wall boarding ... (we seem to keep on saying this - but it is a very long job): Over the past week we have been trying to finally sort out the wood for the skirting, door liners and architraves; we have also been looking at wood for making the 4 interior doors that have to be hand-made to fit the variable width/height doorways that have been created. We were looking for fully-planed wood - but not only is this expensive, but it also looks and feels rather 'flimsy' somehow. We decided to go for something more substantial, with more of a 'barn-feel and look' - and when looking for our fireplace beam, we visited a very large wood processing enterprise, only 15 kilometres away. The wood they process is all oak and chestnut. We found an excellent weathered chestnut beam and also found half-planed chestnut planking and have now decided to use this for all the skirting and door wood-work, developing the 'barn-feel' and bringing together the weight and colour of the wood we are adding to the existing beams. Tomorrow we will measure up all the wood required and go to place the order. The immediate work in Stage 4 will be completing the remaining wall and door boarding; fitting the large interior french door that enables full wheelchair access; and carrying on with the filling and sanding and undercoat painting. But the priority is the flooring, laying and leveling this: - ready to take the tiling that will run throughout the whole area (around 80 square metres). We have found the tiles we want, a light creamy-grey colour to lighten the rooms, and they are anti-slip to assist wheelchair use. The tiles are due to be laid the third week of November. So, with the overall space beginning to look like the accommodation we envisaged Stage 4 will be crucial in taking this from the 'renovation/construction' process to the interior design phase: Meanwhile, outside, the weather has been beautiful, with bright, warm Autumn days:
As we've said, the development work is organised in a number of Stages - the next Stage (4) starting up at the end of October. But in-between Stages there has increasingly been a lot of work - not just the ordering of materials for the next Stage, but also ensuring that all the work from the previous Stage is fully completed and things are ready for the next one. As we have described, Stage 3 involved a lot of plaster-boarding, all of which had to be joined and cut up to fit against irregular-shaped beams. Also, as we are painting a number of the beams, these have had to have a sealing undercoat, together with the undercoat applied to the plaster-board. This has proved to be far more work than we anticipated - not only because the plaster-board gaps have been particularly difficult, but all the beams needed wire-brushing and treating prior to their undercoats. So, lots of filling work, shaping and sanding ... and a great deal of muck and dust to be removed and cleaned up: We are placing a large order for all the remaining wood work - so, skirting boards, boarding for making 5 interior doors, and shelving ... so, tomorrow we are visiting our nearest materials supplier to negotiate this. We are also sourcing our flooring tiles - 72 square metres of them, which need to blend in with our colour schemes and be suitable for taking heavy wheel-chairs and to be as non-slip as possible. Also, we are looking for an oak or chesnut beam for the top of the inglenook fireplace - this needs to be about 2 metres long and to match with the other beams we have exposed. We think we have found the woodstove we want - it needed to be around 10-12 kilowatt output and we want it as eco-efficient as possible .... the one we've found is a beautiful grey-enameled Invicta Modena stove that we think will be just the job - excellent! Now we need to find a fitter who can work with our fireplace design, and we think our good neighbours, Marie-Claud and Jean-Pierre know of someone ... so, we'll follow this up. So, in a way, there are no separate Stages - it is a continuum of work, moving from preparation phases into implementation and so on. We are learning a lot! Yesterday, our other immediate neighbour, Madame Cucq (she is the widow of the longest-serving mayor in France, and is a sharp, bright lady in her early 90's), paid us a visit to look at what we were doing - it was a great boost when she was hugely approving ... it meant a lot and we were very happy!
Well, it has been another full week - so, quite a lot to 'report. As usual with building developments at this stage, some things take longer than expected, and some things go faster - and also, new things appear unplanned! Anyway, the window is now fully fitted, with the stonework surrounds - at the moment the window frame is white primer finished, but we'll be painting this with the same colour as all the other windows and shutters: Inside, by the new window, there has been some fiddly plaster-boarding work around the area that will be our 'information space' for guests ... a sort of 'technology bar' - a WiFi hub, PC and large monitor, as well as printed information about the area, brochures and maps, which has to be planned so it is wheelchair accessible: The stonework in this area is not particularly attractive, quite 'bitty', so this has been cladded .... and you'll see from the photo above that we're running electric cables into the area, to provide LED lighting above the information table. We are making use of the existing cattle troughs, so they can provide worktop bases. There has also been a huge amount of work to finish off more plaster boarding, making good all the 'joints' with tape and 'enduit' (light plaster) and then these have to be sanded down, so they'll be completely smooth for any painting. The next big job has been fitting the external door. First of all the area that was dug out to level the floor and also bury the swimming pool's heat exchanger pipe needed to be leveled and concreted. We also needed to lay the soil pipe that will be feed from the shower room/bathroom that will be part of our Phase 2 development - this goes across this area and under the new door to the septic tanks outside: While I was preparing a small trench across the area to lay the pipe, using an impact chisel, I punctured the heat exchanger pipe that I totally forgot we had buried there. Excellent! So, dig it up, rush off to the big swimming pool supply place that has all the pipe fittings in the world, and get a pipe joiner piece and pipe cutter - rush back, cut the pipe and then join it up and test that it is entirely watertight when the heat exchanger system is run. Then finally we can mix the concrete and fill the dug out area, butting up to the external door sill: While this concrete is drying there is more plaster-board work to be done and finished off, constructing the large dividing wall between the new living/dining room and what will be the Phase 2 area. Once the concreted area has dried off, the large external french door can be moved into place, fully wide enough for large wheelchair access - it is then temporarily fixed while its height is maneuvered to fit against the new floor level, inclusive of estimating the additional height there will be when the flooring tiles are laid: From discussions with Nollie about keeping a balance of original wood and stone features, alongside the new fittings like the window and doors, David has built up stone pillar work either side of the external french door: - and we have found in one of the other barns a fine oak plank that will be used above the french door as a 'false beam':
Have saved this post until the end of the week, as although we've been working since Tuesday on Stage 3, quite a lot of the work has been 'unseen' (mainly the electrics) - so, cannot show photos of any interest. Anyway, David has done a great job of rationalising the electrics - although the barns had been recently rewired (2010), there had been various additions wired in after that and the ways in which these were brought back to the electrics boxes needed tidying up. Also, we are adding a number of sockets and lights. There have been issues like fitting the smoke alarms to conform to new Regulations, so that the alarms are now linked .... in one place this has been difficult, as it the supply needed to come out of the barn and into the house's main entrance hall/corridor - and the wall is over two feet thick ... so, this meant trying to find a channel used by the existing heating system and worming the electric cable along this: The main work has been to complete plaster-boarding all the wall framework, insulating as heavily as possible. The wiring for new sockets is finalised as part of this process ... and again, in some places, this has not been as simple as one might think ... because where we are using existing sockets, their wiring has been so tightly drawn that they cannot be moved to the front of the new insulation and boarding - so, David had a very cunning plan of building recesses: This is the sort of thing that takes extra time, but is really worth the additional work. The large neon light fittings have been removed, ready to take the LED lighting that we will be using throughout the new rooms - to cut costs and be as 'environmentally friendly' as possible: Gradually the plasterboard is put into place, with any cracks etc filled with mastic and made good ..... and by yesterday we have our new larder and entrance lobby area (overall an area of around 40 square metres) ready to paint with plasterboard undercoating, after final finishing and sanding. So then it will be ready to place the skirting boards and battens for shelving (in the larder) - brilliant!:
We were quite worried about these units - being the right measurements and of good quality (they are double-glazed, solid wood, with white undercoat finish in preparation for painting) ..... but they are really excellent, very solid and well-finished - hooray! ... as they are the single most expensive item in the building development!!
Well, next week will see the doors and window being fitted and the remaining flooring being laid - plus some painting; and we must put in a big wood order for the skirting boards. There is also a lot to do in the garden - harvesting some of the produce from the vegetable garden and also 'from the hedgerows' ... as the blackberry, damsons and sloes are waiting to be picked and bottled ..... and in the the next week I will try to get a new Category on this Blog set up - to tell a bit of the story of how the garden is coming along, and also some glimpses of the wildlife and the weather we have here. Tomorrow we start Stage 3 of the building work - focusing on fitting the french doors and the new window, completing stud walls, and preparing the floor cladding: quite a schedule. David has flown into Toulouse this afternoon; so, we're all ready to go! The materials for this stage are, we hope, all in place: - with two tonnes of mixed ballast and another tonne of sand, 250 kilos of white cement, and 350 kilos of grey cement, plus some more battening and various other bits and pieces. The french doors and window arrive mid-week (we hope!), having been made to order.
The weather looks like staying pretty much fine for the next couple of weeks, with temperatures in the mid-20's and beyond ... so, good to work in. Well, rather a gap since our last post - but our Internet services have been down, with the prognosis that we would be without them until early September - but Orange.fr (now 'the wonderful ...') has actually moved very speedily, dug up the lane and fixed the broken cables and we are back online. Hooray! So, this post covers work over the past week or so ... hence its length, as we have been busy bees!! The work on the doorway has been completed, with the framework edging finished off, ready to take the doors that arrive in September: , The next big job has been the window on the opposite (east-facing) wall. There is no concrete tie or supporting lintel around the small window we are enlarging - and there is a mixture of small stones and some very large ones: The first main task is to fit a lintel on the exterior wall side, gradually removing the stonework at the top of the window (the window size is one metre square) and then making flat areas either end of the space so the lintel can rest evenly and level - and this worked well. Then the gap on the exterior side is enlarged (the wall is half a metre plus thick, so there is actually external and internal layers of stone that means that both an exterior and interior lintel are required). Once as much as possible of the exterior side stone is removed (including some very large stones!), work starts on the internal side, again very gingerly, and space prepared for the interior lintel - again, this works well and the lintel goes into place. Once both lintels are in, then the remainder of the stonework can be taken out and, as with the doorway, the finishing work is done so that all is ready to take the frame and window: All this has resulted in our collection of stones, for the fireplace, growing considerably - we will now have enough for the rockery that we’re planning as well as the fireplace … the rockery will be in the garden area view from the new window (without the washing line!): Now, with the doorway and window opened up, light is flooding into the barn and what will be the new sitting/dining room - with the window lighting up the planned breakfast area and the doorway lighting the rest of the room and providing those views out to the garden and the sunsets. Excellent! Then it is back to the studwork - the long wall frame is constructed, ready to take the plasterboard; and at the other end of the development area, studwork is put in place to cover pipes and electricals: At this point we can also plan for later work - mainly connected with the room and facilities being suitable for wheelchair users - such as height of wall sockets and switches, height and depth of work-surface tops. We have also used studwork to cover the double doorway from the barn to the courtyard - this doorway is not in use, but lets in a lot of draught , and so insulation and then sealed plasterboard will be a big improvement. On the external-facing side of the door we are leaving things as they are, as the arch and old door are an attractive, original feature: The remainder of the work in this stage has been completing the studwork and placing as much of the plasterboard as we can. It is now the close of stage 2 - and work starts again in mid-September. We are ‘on target’ and the whole shape of the new area has come into being and we can start to plan more of the detail.
Now we have completed the ceiling insulation and boarding, we are moving on to planning the dividing walls. Where possible we want to integrate the use of modern materials with the barn's original features and, in particular, the oak and chestnut beams. The picture here shows a chestnut beam, taken from one of the out-buildings' first floor. Planning the dividing walls means laying out the stud-work and seeing how this can fit around the huge ceiling beams. The main dividing wall will be that dividing the lobby and larder from the living/dining room - so, as you enter the whole space from the main house this is the wall that will be immediately facing you ... so, it would be good to make an interesting impression. It is also going to run along one of the finest beams. Here is what David has done, shaping the stud-work to the beam and matching the pillar beam that is already in place, with the chestnut beam pictured above: The first element of the work on the ground floor has been to treat the beams for bugs, beetles and all manner of fungii etc etc (not a nice job at all) , and to insulate and board between the beams. The current barn area is made up of the original barn and then a further barn that was added we are not quite sure when. These are agricultural working barns, where the animals were on the lower floor and the hay and feed-stuffs above, with trapdoors to send these down to the animals below ...... .... outside the barn you can see the ramp used to bring the food-stuffs in - typical of the Tarn region, coming in all shapes and sizes. On the right-hand side you'll see some 'sails' - these cover the outside eating area, where use has been made of the space under the barn ramp, with a large window, so there is shade, shelter and views to the garden. You can see some photos of this in the Photo Album. Anyway, inside the barn we have been placing insulation between all the beams and then pinning boarding (placoplatre) to hold this in place. Many of the beams are huge, basically whole tree-trunks - but with very irregular shaping, so cutting the insulation and boarding is time-consuming and demanding. Once the main lengths are laid and screwed into place, all the edge spaces need to be filled in with tailored boarding, often allowing some of the more eccentric pieces of beam to feature: So, who is that glimpse of a person in the photograph above? That is our very good friend and builder, David, without whom we would not be progressing the development so well .... more of him later! Before the insulation and boarding are in place, all the electrics wiring has been put in place .... careful planning and labeling required. We've made good progress in the first 10 days - next week we start work on the walls and flooring and this will really start to create a sense of the overall layout that we're aiming for. More news next week then ........... Well, hello - such a busy day yesterday I did not get round to a post. So, I wanted to give a quick description of the barn development: the barn is attached to the main house, built around 1800 and originally there were two farm houses, along with various outbuildings, including a forge, bakery, and well house - you can see various pictures of these in the Photo Album on main site. The main barn that we are developing is quite large, 420 square metres across its two floors. Here's a couple of photos of the outside, to give you an idea: The inside of the barn is on two floors and we are developing the ground floor, in two stages. Here's a photo of the barn ground floor to give an idea of the space we're working on. Stage 1 will be to create a hallway, larder, utility room, and then a large living/dining room for guests, with a doorway out to the garden barbecue area and swimming pool. All spaces are being designed to be fully 'wheelchair-user friendly' and accessible. Stage 2 will develop specialist bedroom and bathroom accommodation for people with psychical handicaps, to add to the guest accommodation we already have in the main house. Before we could start work on the ground floor, the first floor had to be made good - with wood treatment, insulation, a waterproof membrane and then battening and a false floor. Stage 1 is taking about half the available barn space, so it meant this was around 100 square metres to prepare on the first floor, which now looks like this: Work has now started in earnest on the ground floor - and I will write some more posts on how this is progressing.
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AuthorSimon lives at Nichoir, Le Bruel, with his wife Noella. They moved here in May 2013, with their Newfoundland dog, Oska, and their cat, Snufkin. Together they have set out on an adventure to create what they hope will be home from home for family and a rather special Chambres D'Hotes for guests. Categories
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