Stairs and plumbing update and paint logistics

3 April 2014

The blacksmith had all the metalwork ready for collection on Monday, so the stairs are going in this week. I'm looking forward to seeing them in situ, after all the designing and cogitating over months and months...

Chas says that he has begun receiving the sanitaryware, and is expecting the rest soon. He has yet to order the stove.

Paint for the downstairs concrete floor has been top-of-mind this week. G ad I have chosen a colour - Farrow's Cream # 67 - which gets good reviews on the Farrow & Ball website, and is not unlike the colour of our laundry floor here in Sydney. A warm, buttery colour with a dash of honey, which should be good even on the dreariest of days, and lovely at night under artificial light.

Having chosen the colour, we thought hey hey, just hit the online shopping tab and it'll be a breeze. Well, it was easy enough, but unfortunately the French prices were almost double the UK prices, with delivery to France on top of that. G was galvanised into action and found a very handy company (http://www.sterlingshopping.co.uk) that has a depot in the UK and delivers stuff to depots all round France. They would be able to deliver to Thiviers for GBP15 - not bad at all. But, in the end, my dishonesty won the day and I simply rang the company and gave them my UK address - G's aunt's address ;) - and voila! Farrow's Cream at UK prices.

The paint will now be delivered to Tom's home next week, and now all we have to do is hold thumbs that someone will be home to receive it.

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!!'

The Screed

9 February 2014

On Sunday night, a brief update on La Fromagerie.

Chas left on Thursday at noon, allowing Tom to get in and set up for the screed, which was scheduled for Friday. Tom had decided to use the plasterer's labourers ("getting the screed mix right is quite tricky, they have more experience at mixing traditional screeds (... and also...) that allows me to help level and float-finish the floor with the plasterer). 

"... all the heights worked out exactly how I wanted them to. Four of us screeded all day on Friday, it was hard work but all went according to plan. I’m looking forward to going onto the screed and sweeping it down and tidying up the edges."

Tom is now off on a two-week holiday. In the meantime, Phil will be in to measure up for the stairs and will begin their construction, Brian will return for second electrical fix, and Gregg will get on with making the shutters.

Perfect timing for my little holiday in Brisbane and Bribie Island!

"(We) have become irrationally protective of your stone walls :)"

24 January 2014

That's a quote from Tom again.

The pace is hotting up and G and I are spending lots of hours every evening poring over the plans, discussing detail, and composing email after email to one or other of the main players in the build.
It's all good; the devil, as they say, is in the detail, and we want to get it right.

The walls are being plaster boarded and now the stone gable is coming into its own...

 That's the kitchen window, under which will go the sink. Brian has been busy with the first electrical fix.

That tiny window is an original that Tom and Gregg have carefully renovated. We love its quirkiness.

Upstairs, the privacy wall  - behind which will be the toilet - has been built.

We are making use of every nook and cranny under the eaves for storage.

 The shelving is made of oak.

 The uneven purlins make the white ceiling look squiggly...

 The stairs will take just a small bite out of the top floor...

The major pressure now is to get all the plumbing sorted out in time for the plasterers to start on Monday. If we miss that window, Tom says he can't be sure when they will next be available, and that throws out the whole schedule... So we have had to nip at the heels of the plumber somewhat, but he assures us that he will be finished by Friday afternoon. Don't imagine that he would work over the weekend, as Tom has been doing.

The big issue of the moment is the design of the stove flue. We have all balked at putting it through the beautiful tiling on the roof (not easy with the clip system), and have chosen instead to put it through the stone of the gable wall.

Watch that space.

Reaching the pointy end

16 January 2014

Of the project, that is. Since the work began on site after the Christmas break, there has been a flurry of emails (you knew, didn't you, that 'flurry' is the collective noun for emails?) back and forth between Tom, Brian, Phil, Gregg and us. The ten-hour time difference means that we wake up to find an email loaded with detailed questions and requiring Decisions to be made, preferably in time for the email to reach T, B or P before they leave home to head to the barn for the day on site (late afternoon, Sydney time). Which means that there has been a lot of phone calls between G and I (the collective noun for phone calls being 'a lot') during the working day... :)

Once again, we've spent hours poring over our detailed electrical plans and have confirmed or amended earlier decisions about the positions of light switches/light fixtures/power points. The drawings had to be updated and scanned and emailed off before a loooong Skype call with Brian, who is powering ahead (sorry) with his side of things.

After much deliberation, we have decided to go back to Plan A and have a ceiling downstairs. It was either that or live with the look of an ugly Sterling board (a really coarse chipboard) subfloor between the beams. Neither electrician nor plumber were disappointed about the ceiling U-turn; it makes life much easier for them.

One surprise since the last update was that Tom rendered the gable end wall on the driveway side upstairs. We had planned to have both gable walls pointed stone, but he misunderstood and had rendered it in readiness for framing and plaster boarding before we spotted it in a photo and realised. Give him his due, Tom accepted responsibility and offered to remove the render (several days' worth of work), but we decided to go with the flow. It's not as if we lack for stone, and it will make the end gable wall that much more special. And it will make upstairs brighter. And, well, we have justified the change such that we now wish we'd planned it all along.

Phil is busy constructing the stairs, and according to Tom, they should be installed mid-Feb. For some reason, I'm incredibly excited about the stairs! Tom has fixed a sturdy wooden structure to the stone wall (which will be hidden behind the plastered wall) to which Phil will attach his lateral (and only) stringer.

Gregg is progressing well with the job of salvaging and repairing the old barn doors, which will close over the new barn doors like giant 'shutters'. He is our 'shutters guy', and will be making all the window and door shutters for the barn. He is also going to be our 'cup-of-sugar guy': he and his wife have bought the empty and unloved house next door! They plan to renovate, and it's lucky - G and I happen to know of a good building team...and we've reason to believe that the neighbours are nice.

Charles is...well, he's plumbing the depths of everyone's patience. Sorry. Unforgivable, but a bit of levity is called for, when feathers on site  - and as far away as Sydney - have been ruffled. Suffice it to say that Tom has been required to move a stud wall, and he's not happy. A couple of extra-long phone calls to T, then C and then T again, and I think we're on track.

Where to place the hot water tank; where to situate the pressure reducing valve, main stopcock, stop valve for the outside tap and the hot and cold distribution manifolds; where to place the room thermostat; whether the underfloor heating in the shower room is worth the bother; how to manage the pellet boiler flue; whether there is headroom for the loo and bath upstairs under the eaves...all these and other practicalities to consider this week.

It's a rock 'n' roll life.

'The days seem to fly by'

29 November 2013

A bumper crop of photos this week, as Tom and his team make good progress:

             "The view from the upstairs window is fantastic, the photos don’t do it justice ... It's been cold and crisp here all week, with low temperatures overnight. Its been very enjoyable  working on the barn, your planning is coming together nicely. The days seem to fly by."

When the builder is happy, and even he comments on the scenery, that has to be a good thing, right?

The kitchen window proved to be tricky and they lost a fair bit of stone work above the lintel. 

The lintel will be cleaned up later on.

The teeny shower room window with its oversized lintel :). It's centrally placed on the wall when you are inside, but because of the thickness of the stone walls, looks off-centre here.

Upstairs, work has begun on the French door overlooking the valley. We were sad to see the small existing window go, but in order to get a reasonable height on the door, we had to sacrifice it. The gable stonework will be replaced; it's not going to be a Grand Designs special, with an all-glass gable end. Sorry to disappoint, folks.

This morning in my inbox, more photos, taken yesterday morning and evening...

The cladding of the right hand wall is underway. The stairs will rise along this wall and turn just short of the central beam.

But don't take my word for it; come and see for yourself. Only not yet. The beds aren't made and I have to Hoover.