Old barn floor attacked once more to create another vanity unit for the bathroom
La Table c’est tres Joli
got to turn this old larder into a shelf area
oak frame to the rescue & some more metal studwork up
shelves in and some oak architraves employed to add some depth.
stud work & in bathroom we’re flattening this part of the ceiling off so as to encompass doorway and create some flow through to shower area, the lowered section will continue into shower area
like this
through to other sides dropped ceiling, shower to right, entrance to bathroom will be double doors
metal studs up at same time
this pic shows the wall that tapers back to feature wall by TV area, through the entrance to bathroom you can see another doorway on left, this will be a cupboard to make use of void behind main wall
standing in bedroom looking through to lounge
its that time for sand blasting the beams again..
before
and after
this beam i’ve decided will straddle the inside / outside of bedroom, should look nice with wall underneath it
did all the lentils within feature walls
got some walls to expose & first up was the TV corner, to the right of doorway will be a stud wall built coming out at an angle but allowing the dressed stone of the doorway to be exposed.
next was a wall within the shower, a false ceiling will bring the height down to meet top of doorway
and the other side where the bath will sit
resin shower tray picked up 1600 x 900 should see plenty of room to move around, weight 50 bloody kilos though 
template made up from box that it came in, pipe all lined up and held in place whilst I concreted it and then screeded, leaving just shy of the height I wanted
then 8 dollops of screed, cover of plastic for each (stop the tray sticking) then lower tray gently and then tap to level, that was my way anyway, it came with feet for the job but i wanted it as low as possible
part of floor plate for bedroom wall laid to give correct position for tray
front wall of bedroom exposed, some lovely big stones to 
you never know until you start uncovering, some nice edge tiled areas to top of window surround as well
exposed an old fireplace in the bedroom to, would love an open fire in the bedroom but there’d be nowhere to put the bed 
so we’ll use it for the elecs and consumer unit
will sit behind the bed headboard
tackled the drainage in the bathroom, 50mm takes shower, bath and both sinks in vanity unit, running feeds to bath along side for freestanding taps that are to be used, closest cuts were for waste pipe to shower, I say ‘were’ because I found later on that there was no way I was getting through that wall with a 50mm cutter so had to divert
continuing the other side of wall, it’ll run separate to the soil pipe this time, underneath it which in turn is under the decking
cut out, two channels to left, one nearest is to be abandoned, the other one goes through doorway and turns left to wet room
50 &100mm through
all filled in & thats it for now.
been putting this off as I feared the worse, trouble is, nobody else is going to do it
floor boards in bedroom have been a bit ‘floaty’ in certain areas since we bought the place so it was time to see how far things had gone…
I start with the perimeter, removing boards as I go, not good, dry rot has left end joist completely shagged, needs to come out and be replaced, next joist back is fine though (or at least i thought)
moved onto the joist ends to see what they were resting on, seems the ends have been cut back before then half jointed and new small joist used to fill to end, no bad thing if done right which these were but the end joist pieces had rotted away again so I will just replace again with some more oak, I’d say this was last done a fair time ago, padstones are all fine with new padstones having been laid under the half joints so base for new joists are very good.
here you can see one of the half joints, in very good condition
his padstone was not so effective, this was underneath the joist that was completely rotten, expanda foam!
Gill said she wanted a centre island 
the whole floor has intermediate padstones under each joist so a pretty solid base, no rot whatsoever in the middle of the floor, just the perimeter
new joist in sat on cement bed, one of the new half joists in, weirdly, the oak used for these I only removed 3 days ago from outside the framework on outside of bathroom, keeping them thinking they’d come in handy at some point, wasn’t expecting it to be this quick! they’re a perfect size 
plenty to keep me warm as things get colder
concreted in some double folded mesh to keep critters out from entering vents beneath floor
all boarded up again
another familiar job to me now, Masonary.
This house will be the hardest for me, one; its very similar to the last so not much new is being learnt and two, I’m totally on my own apart from Tia and sharing our adventure was the biggest part of this new life, anyone who’s been and done something special but found themselves experiencing it alone will surely understand how ‘un’ special that thing soon becomes without someone to share it with, this is no different, hey ho…
knocked out one of the window openings that is to be lengthened, again used the original stone cill cut in half to make up the length.
much more confident in the lack of support needed whilst working
the mantel, 4’6″ long and in one piece, undecided wether to use it in uprights or as a threshold, depends what I can find lying around..
140kg, which made my toe wince a little
modify the cill by cutting a channel to accommodate the upcoming shutters
pretty awkward to get in, still quite a lump, ignore mortar it’ll be face with right pointing colour
stone for other side was left a little short so had to take a bare lime rock and shape it, a combination of the stihl cutter which cuts 6″ deep so can tackle a 12″ stone if cut from both sides then dress with grinder & finally cut rebate with Rage circular saw (handy bit of kit for not much money)
before
after
in place, will wait for things to go off before sliding in final stone, which sounds like some pyramids door opening in a film 
two more openings like that and I move on..
onto the floor inside Ma Chaleur..
once again, all the original tiles are just laid on top of the earth, this time though the floor cannot be raised with all the hardcore, insulation & concrete as the front door lintel height governs our finished floor level. otherwise you’d have to be pretty damn short to get through the front door, so we’ll need to excavate a fair bit of soil to get enough space to work with, fortunately i think the mice and moles have already started the work for us which was nice of them
so first off I lift all the tiles, saving whole ones to use at a later date with the others going back down as some of the hardcore.
all up & about 50/50 on the save front so got about 200 tiles (18m2) & a BIG pile of bits to go back down as a jigsaw which you can see the edge of to the right (handy to have the mended bedroom floor to put things on, well, planned)
a very docile grass snake was nestling under our food larder, biggest one i’ve found to date, about the size of my wrist and about 4ft long, they dont bite with any kind seriousness, lots of little serrated teeth
good load of tiles for reuse somewhere
I did contemplate digging this out by hand, a true example of my pure idiocy toward some tasks, I’d have been fit for nothing by the end of it, so rented a digger (that hurts) and did some big shifts under light to get it knocked out in 2 days.
done, digger returned, cash for deposit returned to me, visited a gym (for a change) & had ALL the deposit of 1200 euros stolen from my bag along with all my cards thanks for that someone! have a lovely christmas on it wont you!
best if i just work on eh….
cut and mark up some pegs for levels, bottom of tape is hardcore level, top of tape is sand level
went across it hitting all the whole tiles with the sledge hammer to break them up so they sit firm, actually I quite like it, I think we should just grout it now 
(did i make that joke last time? probably not, this was Gills job last time, awwwww)
made a shute to deliver 0-20 hardcore
time for a wacker plate before another layer to get to finished level
decided on an MTB ride round the larger of our two lakes this morning on the way to pick up the thwacker plate, ground rock hard after a heavy frost, needed to see the beauty in the place again for obvious reasons
back to reality
more tiles and then hardcore
ready for a layer of sand before the damp course
250g membrane, hard to get hold of it this thick here as the french seem to want to use 100g-150g 
will all be smoothed out as I put down the 100mm insulation
dont want to concrete this area yet as I dont have the shower tray to hand so have boxed it off for now, you can also see battens running round the perimeter of the room, these are for expansion and to give me a level to wok to with the concrete
left insulation shy of where it meets suspended wooden as I want to back fill the stones that support the joists to give them better support, 8″ thick beam of concrete should do the trick, the wall for the bedroom will sit on top of this beam but the damp proof membrane will fold back underneath the wall before I fit the floor plate.
I have never done this before & have not read up on it, just using a bit of practical thinking, it should be pretty solid I think…
then fill in the other side which sandwiches the membrane, leaving enough to fold back under the walls floor plate (reinforcing mesh in as well)
all down & a far more level and flat surface than we achieved on Mon Coeur, I was determined to get it better on this one after having to spend a day with an angle grinder taking high spots off the other floor
this side you can see the plastic expansion bar running the width of the house, I set this up and level before pouring so I can use it as a datum point to drag my leveling timber across which achieved a good result, 3m wide is max for me though.
I’ll be glad to see the back of this job, we had a lorry deliver the last lot of mix for the floor at Mon Coeur but being a novice we couldn’t really work it accurately enough at the speed the lorry was dispensing so ended up with a less than even floor to work with, so this time (being on my own as well) I plumped for mixing it all by hand to get a nice even surface, when I come to tile it’ll pay dividends 7t of gravel and 30 bags of cement, 15 bags of SIKA reinforcement fibre.
I’m not sure its any cheaper, certainly harder work and takes longer (3days) but happy with the result which is the most important thing (my happiness not the result 
)
2nd bay with mesh laid
all three bays done, wooden suspended floor where I’m stood is next up for attention
now some rest, tidy Mon Coeur and fill the hot tub Gill arrives tomorrow for Christmas, our first in Mon Couer, she should dress up well for the festive cheer (the house that is), mulled wine a top the burner
!!MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!! (2013)
Sun’s out so I feel compelled to do some more roofing, it seems to be in my blood now..
just an ickle roof on the ‘to be’ luxury bathroom, hard to believe seeing this, all tiles off
knocked down some walls to open it up a bit
having taken down the dividing wall which was supporting this central beam slightly, we’ll need to install a BIG beam instead, there’s one i’ve been eyeing up for a while over in the gym, the one pictured here is far to spindly to be exposed and look any good, never mind being insufficient, the replacement should look far more appropriate
this is it, pretty much doing nothing but looking pretty
I know its the gym & I really should have practiced my clean & jerk with it but I was tired so enlisted on Big Birtha (JCB)
jet washed, turns out the longer of the two & the one I shall be using, is in fact Beech (very light) but still very attractive grain to look at whilst lying in bath
already has a great arc to it after years of supporting itself & not much else that i could see, its got some cut outs and mortices that need attention so give it a couple of days in the sun and I’ll tackle them
et voila! worked area should dull back down given time to match the rest of the beam
back at bathroom & readying things to take the beam
as it turned out it was easier to remove EVERYTHING, it needed all planing back to natural timber anyway, much easier at ground level, supports will be cut off and header will be planed back and sit atop new posts/uprights that go all the way to the floor
ply removed reveals old metal window, this comes out and will be replaced with a timber frame that’ll be clad on the outside with err ‘cladding’
onto the new uprights & a need to recess them into existing wall, they’ll sit on top of a limestone pad, stops rot & termites, so cutting out wall…
not gone all the way to the bottom as this is the height the stone will sit at, post will sit half on wall half on stone
recon on the farm to find things is always good fun, Tia likes to help, she found some great stone cutting them is very similar to working with wood, quite like masonary work, even if it does leave you looking like a ghost! well, its Halloween
a shelf on wall needs removing to make things flush for render
foot stones in place, decking should come about halfway up
centre beam in place & one of the new uprights sat on stone, it looks like its sat on top of upright, its not, just an illusion…
this gives better perspective front header in place now and offered up one of the rafters to get centre beam height right
all rafters in place, I’ve cut them back to only have 1″ overhang as I want to see header etc when guttering is installed
there was enough length on upright to allow me leave have a lip for header to sit behind, I shall the drill through front too back and use an oak peg for an authentic look.
pleased with how its transforming so far, should actually be something interesting to look at when sat on decking
onto roof, boarded overhangs, under felt will go over the top of this but under the battens as these will be seen from underneath outside
air bricks to fill in recess on wall ready for render
concrete blocks for building up and filling doorway
et voila!
cement panels added to roof, we’ll then stick old roman tiles (of which we have more than a fair share) on top but not in the valleys, looks really authentic but fully sealed with no movement underneath, looks nicer than the mechanical tiles even like this, there is a window (obviously) to left and you might be able to see the padstone for the third centre support post, this’ll also have 45º supports branching off to meet header.
clad the ends
original ‘hand made’ canal / roman tiles added to cover cement boards
added some decorative supports to the beams and the window.
this is it for now, vast improvement
wall lights up, should look nice at night..
so here she is in all her glory, from abandoned to loved
If you’d like to see this restoration from the start then Click Here
got the external lights up, used Bell gold lantern bulbs as we’d used them before on our old property, they give out a beautiful warm light that’s not to harsh to look at
fitted some LEDs in the tub
Our build 