"Warm and dry"

October 2011-April 2012
The next phase of the project involved designing our little barn; turning it into a cosy home-from-home. G 's mantra over several months (there are still faint echoes) was "it must be warm and dry". That was our baseline.

We were determined to keep costs and the impact on the external appearance to a minimum, so, to that end,  we kept the footprint exactly the same. Essentially, we wanted a ground floor with an open-plan lounge/eat-in kitchen and a small shower room. Upstairs, an open-plan bedroom and bathroom. We chose a stove/boiler for the back corner of the lounge and we decided to go for underfloor heating, double glazing everywhere and masses of insulation in walls and under the roof. We wanted polished concrete downstairs, wooden flooring upstairs. And we wanted windows, windows, windows - oh, and skylights too.

We chose to keep the massive barn doorway as our entrance, although, of course, we had to design a front door that would both make use of the height and width, and yet retain the potentially generous source of light. A tough one, and not a case of picking a door from a catalogue. Did I say we would keep costs to a minimum? Same deal for the stairs, though we figured they would have to wait: a ladder would suffice until further notice. The niceties of a real kitchen would be on the back burner too. With running water, a sink and a camp stove, we'll be fine for a few holidays. After all, this is our stone tent!

G got stuck in and taught himself to use Google SketchUp. What a great program. It allows you to see everything in 3D; to "walk around" or "into" the building. We spent hours and hours, and hours that summer, poring over the plans as they developed on-screen. It felt like we had been possessed. But in a nice way. Luckily G is a natural with things like precision drawing and measurements, practical details and thinking in 3D. If I'd had to design it, we would have ended a mound of papers, lots of rubbings out and maybe a rickety balsa wood-and-wool model on the dining-room table. As it was, after months of (literally) turning the design around, this way and that, we had a set of drawings for potential building contractors to view and base their devis on.

Using various websites aimed at English-speaking people living in France, G and I found some names of builders and a plumber. Thomas gave us the name of an electrician and a carpenter. It seems like there is a relatively small 'gene-pool' or network and they all seem to know each other... So, the next stage of the process was to email these guys and get an expression of interest from them.

Emails with the developing Google SketchUp plans flew back and forth to Eleanor, who began to work up the plans for submission to the council. G and I spent hours trying to choose the style, sizes and position of windows, skylights and doors, using the online catalogues of Lapeyre and Mr Brico. Latterly, we phoned Eleanor and discussed the finer details in real time. Much easier. 

In the weeks before our next trip (Spring 2012), we set up meetings on site with the builders, electrician, plumber and carpenter. Jet Lag was at every meeting, taking the minutes.