"Before"

We had to clear the "salon d'été" as the floor is going to be replaced; apparently the joists are just too far apart to hold the weight of the floor above, safely

I had wanted to leave it as it is, as I loved the old, uneven, much patched look, but the project manager and carpenter won this argument!

All our belongings needed to be out of the way, so we had a couple of tiring days getting everything away from the "larch lap" wall, and then putting it back again.

Neatly!
The floor above the shower room and laundry needed to be replaced...

I'm looking forward to that; I'm hoping it will be rodent-proof!

It's going to be a bit weird...

Not having a shower cabinet in the kitchen!

Mind you, I suppose we could get used to that ;-)


The fireplace has already been stripped of its tiles...

And the fireback is in the stable, waiting to be re-installed.

Whilst we were there the bricks above the mantel went - looking to see how deep the recess is; we were hoping for a prefabricated metal hood (rather than a brick one).

Already the door from the bedroom (and its frame) have gone.

But we don't yet have the hole into the cellar "restored"!



I'm looking forward to the new stairs...

And having the really strong old front door on the landing to close off the grenier.

I don't feel very nervous staying at the house on my own, but know that a strong door will help with that!



M. Huguenot's workmen managed to remove all the fittings without mishap.

Although we have got another cracked stone slab.

Still, that's nothing compared to the damage Dominique's workmen managed!

Watch this space for some "during" photos!

Work starts at last!

During a fairly intense week, I managed to trim about €150,000 off the estimates. Which shows firstly how "ouchy" the figures were, and secondly how many flights of fancy the project managers had succumbed to! This meant we had brought the cost down to a level where we could afford to go ahead.

On June 23 we had a meeting at the house with all the trades involved to discuss all the bits that we had "trimmed" from the job specification, and agreed to officially start the project, with a meeting planned for yesterday to sign the revised estimates.

M. Huguenot (the builder) had agreed to start work before the estimate was signed (both sides being comforted by the project manager being involved), so we arrived to a new, improved pile of rubble (either they had removed Dominique's rubbish, or buried it) in front of the house.

During the course of our meeting (3 hours), a second pile of rubble started in a different place!

Sadly, because the work on the floors was of such poor quality, everything has had to be ripped out of the house (all the wall insulation was mounted between rails screwed to the floors).

We are basically starting again from scratch...

All our sanitary fittings and other materials we intend to re-use (doors/frames, huge stone floor slabs, kitchen sink, etc) had been neatly (and cleanly) taken out and stocked on site to be re-fitted later, and all the plasterboard, insulation and rails had been removed.

The workmen we digging up the concrete in the kitchen. And lowering the soil to provide sufficient depth to properly insulate!

The whole place looked quite naked!

I didn't take any photos (the workmen looked as though they were waiting for us to leave before going for their lunch), but am hoping M. Boyer will email me copies of the ones he took, so I can post those.

We're very excited; it feels as though work will really happen this time.

And for the cynics amongst us who have asked "which Christmas?" when I said it should be finished in time for Christmas: 2008!