Very good Friday

19 April 2014

As G and I drove towards the barn yesterday, I thought I would burst with anticipation. The countryside is in full Spring glory - trees in leaf, buttercups and clover in the fields, birds swooping and sweetly tweeting, bees busy in the hedgerows.  Suddenly, there she was, standing steadfast, high on the hill.

We stepped over the threshold together, into the quiet space and slowly began to make her acquaintance.  Photos are all well and good, but they fail to convey atmosphere. The chunkiness of the stair treads and poles; the height of the ceilings; the light streaming in (even on an overcast day, as it was yesterday); the textures of wood and stone and plaster; the extraordinary view... It was unbelievable, after all this time, to be able to wander about and examine everything at leisure, and alone.

The engineered oak flooring has been laid upstairs, and it is a great choice. The boards look aged and almost as if they've been there for ever. We really like the rustic effect. Apparently Tom et al. were on hands and knees before our arrival, cleaning the floor (with a mixture of oil and white spirit) in anxious anticipation of our inspection!

I especially like the 'nibbled' edges of the boards, which are about 18 cm wide.

Stair and balustrade detail 

Tom's cupboard, which will lie alongside the bath. The red and blue pipes sticking out of the wall are for the hand basin (L) and radiator (R), respectively; the pipes sticking out of the floor are supply and drainage for the bath.

 The floor is still slightly oily, so we had to be careful not to track oily footprints on the still brut stairs. I made a particularly fetching pair of theatre bootees from rags. Orders taken.

Jean-Marie (son of neighbour) had been busy and had mown the grass around the barn, so it felt very welcoming for our arrival. The apple trees are in bloom, even - I should say especially - the St Germain closest to the barn which I fear has been traumatised by the grading and levelling of the terrasse. Perhaps we will get away with it, after all.

Our cream EDF meter box is visible on the roadside, on the perimeter of the property.

The shower room still has a way to go. The waterproof Wedi board (which Charles will tile) is yet to come, so that corner is unfinished. Happily, the room does not feel like a lift shaft, despite the high ceiling.

The cubby hole above the mass of pipes behind the toilet. The idea is that there will be a manifold and two shut-off taps here, one so we can drain the pipe to the outside tap, and one so that we can shut off the water when we are away. Brian and Tom together wanted to surprise us with a little light fixture set in the roof of the cubby, to show off its secret interior depths. Brian was quite disappointed when we discovered it on our own!

No, not a Miro. A Chas. (For the hotwater tank and basin, though G and I must look shorter than we are, as those basin pipes look remarkably low.)

We have quite a bit to do over the next few days: we want to do another coat of paint on the shutters; choose a hand basin for upstairs and a shower head for downstairs; measure up the kitchenette and perhaps find a kitchen sink...

Today we spent time in the hardware shop, gathering brushes, drop sheets, gloves etc for the painting, and it occurred to me: it's an awfully long way to go to get a Bunnings fix!

Pointing, driveway...

27 March 2014

A few days turned into ten, but it was well worth the wait. Tom emailed us to say that he didn't want to send photos of lots of half-finished jobs and would wait until the barn was looking neat, demonstrating once again his pride in the project.


The digger guy has been on site to dig the drainage trench. He picked a nice day for it.

Apart from that little break in the weather, it's been a wet couple of weeks on site, which has provided a perfect opportunity to do the pointing...

... and the self-levelling flooring, which Tom says is much smoother.

PS. Has it changed inside?

In the end, Tom wasn't happy to leave the shutters with only one coat of paint, given the weather, so Gregg applied a second coat and the shutters are now up and doing their job of protecting those lovely windows. The colour looks a little pale to me, but maybe that's just the photos, and, as G points out, when they are shut, they don't make the room gloomy. Beautiful shutters, aren't they? 

The oak flooring is at the barn now, and acclimatising happily. It is scheduled to be laid in early April, before our arrival.

The little vertical iron bar has been fixed to the casement of the shower room window...

...and the geotextile membrane and gravel has been laid on the driveway and terrace. (The yellowish colour of the dust will wash away in time, revealing the white gravel.)

Forthcoming attraction: the stairs!

The old building continues to assert itself

17 March 2014

The shutters are going up, but not without hassle, because, in the nature of stone walls, nothing is flat or straight.

The digger has been and gone and the site is more or less cleared, ready for the driveway and terrace membrane and gravel.

The downstairs pointing will go ahead this week, I think, and Tom will organise stove flue/vent perforations later on down the track, once the stove has been delivered. This means that the messy pointing work can be done before the self-levelling floor compound is applied, and also before the stairs go in. Also, the pointing will help support the fragile stonework while they knock through the holes, and of course, doing things in this order means that they can achieve the exact positioning of the penetrations. Makes perfect sense.

Tom is heading off to the Lot Department this afternoon to collect the floorboards for the upstairs floor.

Charles has been in touch and estimates that he needs about three working weeks to complete his side of things. Apart from the hot water tank, which could go in any time now, he has to wait until first the upstairs flooring is down and then the screed is painted before he can hoist all his sails and get moving.

G and I are heading over to see the progress 17 April - 3 May... It's a pity that we can't stay in the barn, but we will stay nearby and make sure that we get under everyone's feet.

Next batch of photos expected today or tomorrow.

Floor paint, shutters, schedules

13 March 2014

Since the weekend, and the latest round of photos, we have plunged into a world of schedules and 'if this, then that...' etc. and lots of emails back and forth as we try and get our heads around the myriad last things that must be done, in logical order, and without compromising the workmanship or sanity on site.

This week, the men are busy pointing the gable end wall upstairs; downstairs can only be done once the stove flue penetration is done. (Cue Charles. Charles? Can you read me? Charles!)

Gregg has completed the shutters and has been painting them on site with a thinned-down layer of our dove-grey colour as a base coat. G and I will have the job of applying the topcoats in the summer. By the end of this week, the men should have begun hanging the shutters.

Shutters under construction

The digger was due to come this week also, to clear the site around the barn to make way for the driveway and terrace. That should be done by the end of this week too, and by the end of next week, weather permitting, the geotextile membrane and gravel should be down...If it rains, then the downstairs pointing will be done (That means you again, Charles.)

Phil is on track with his stairs, and says they should be installed (complete with forge-blackened steel rods from the blacksmith) by the end of March. He is also almost ready to hang the bathroom door (the only internal door in the barn).

Next up after the stairs will be the upstairs floor boarding,  and once we have agreed on widths and prices etc., Tom will order the boards and get them into the barn to allow them to acclimatise. Apparently the engineered boards need only about 2 weeks to acclimatise, whereas the solid boards need 4 weeks, so we are gaining some time there. The plan is to lay the upstairs boards mid to end of April, once Charles has brought the bath and sink pipework up from the floor void. (I'm not saying anything.)

While he is upstairs doing the floor, Tom will also finish off the cupboard/storage areas.

The last thing on Tom's list is painting the concrete floor downstairs. The screed is drying 'lovely', to quote him, but is not particularly smooth underfoot, so we've asked him to apply a 2mm self-levelling layer which will be very smooth. This means that we won't have to rely on the paint to give us the desirable smooth texture. Talking of paint. The manufacturer (Farrow & Ball), suggests a 3-month delay before painting new concrete, no matter its thickness, which means that we will only be able to paint it on or about the 2 May. It will require a primer and at least two coats...

Once the floor is ready to walk on (after 24 hours), it will only be the plumbing in of the sanitaryware to do, and the commissioning of the stove and heating system. Only.

In the meantime, all G and I have to do is choose and order online a paint colour, using only the printed catalogue, a wing and a prayer.

Oh, and try and plan a trip over for handover, snag list assessment and final payment, preferably when all the workmen have left, there's running water, electricity, a flushable toilet and a shower. It has to be sometime in May...but not the third week (G has to go to the Philippines on business) and it can't be the end of May (year-end)...

Too hard basket.

Shutters, barn doors, stairs and electrics

7 March 2014

While Tom has been away, Gregg has been busy working on the shutters, which he is making from scratch in Douglas fir, and on the original barn doors, which he is renovating. Gregg will apply one coat of our chosen paint colour to the shutters, as an undercoat, and G and I will apply the second coat when we are in France next. We chose dove grey, as it is very traditional and complements the stone beautifully.

In his latest email, Gregg says the shutters will be ready this week, and by the end of the week, the guys should be under way with hanging them.  The barn doors are also almost finished and the plan is to hang them on either the 16th or 22nd March, depending on when he can get some help (they're very heavy). In a nice twist, Gregg has ended up using some reclaimed wood from his property (next door), which he is busy gutting, and which was built by the same man as the barn (uncle of the fellow who sold to us). We're rather pleased about this bit of continuity.

Next update, we'll have photos from Tom, who is back from holiday and raring to go on the final stages of the project.

Phil has been back to the barn to measure up for the stairs, which he planned to make a start on in Tom's absence.  The stairs will be 'floating', with open treads and only one lateral limon (stringer) on the wall.

We have had to make a decision on the upstairs flooring so as to give Phil final measurements, and we have decided to go with engineered oak boards, i.e. not solid oak, but a thick oak veneer. According to Tom, engineered boards are less susceptible to warping when moisture levels vary, and that is an important consideration if we are not going to be there year round.

After much to-ing and fro-ing of emails and discussions around energy-saving light bulbs, dimmer switches and uplighter options, Brian has started his second fix. He also reports that EDF (the electricity people de France) have done their bit and we now have 'a nice cabinet at the border of (the) property!!'