Dordogne Retreat - a farmhouse tale

Caught these two 'at it' in the garden........

Snakes in Dordogne - 28 June 2010 from Mark Johnson on Vimeo.

The snakes have been confirmed as being Western Whip snakes. Found a very useful website here.

With high temperatures and the help of the pool heater the pool went from 16 to 26 degrees in 2 days. The water was clear and the pool was very inviting. I did manage to swim three times and lie on the lilo for 30 minutes or so each time. It was wonderful!

Five of the last 6 days have been spent in the guest bathroom. This bathroom has been a challenge from the start, with the main problem being overcoming the plumbing challenge of getting water and waste connected. The toilet waste conection was the last great challenge and on this trip half of it was completed in that the run from the toilets (there will be another in the en suite just the other side of the right hand wall in the photo below) to the downstairs bathroom was made.

With the required drop of 2cm per metre there was just enough rise to make it over the total 5 metre run.

The waste appears in the ceiling of the downstairs bathroom and awaits connecting to current stack and Fosse Septique. This however requires taking out the bath so next trip!

Once the pipe was run it needed to be enclosed:

The velux window was then framed. The wall pointing department will work their magic on the wall over the summer.

The tiling on two walls finished:

And after grouting - voila! The grouting is not great, it was so hot (nearly 40 degrees) that the grout was drying before it could be smoothed, remedial work will be required when it is cooler.

The sink was connected up, well nearly. The waste was run but I could not connect the tap as I needed a 1/2" to 3/8" adapter which I couldn't find in my plumbing kit. But it looks good at least.

The last wall had been covered with pasterboard and was then filled, rubbed down and painted, with a heated towel radiator then fitted.

Still left to do: painting the ceiling, treating the wood, laying the PVC floor, connecting the taps, connecting the waste in the downstairs bathroom, connecting water to the toilet and pointing the wall. Just a couple of hours then...........

The downstairs bedroom did not have a mosquito blind fitted to the window (unlike the other bedrooms) so last year we purchased one, and like several projects it sat there waiting to be fitted. Well in the last week with the temperature soaring into the 30's and muggy nights I decided the time had come. It of course ended up being a slightly bigger job as I decided that it would be easier to paint the window before fitting it!

So the window frame is now green (which I like!) rather than off pink. The blind is very effective and I bought another for the kitchen, this is of course sitting there unfitted awaiting a suitable work slot!

Our Dutch Neighbour Ben did another great job for us by making some more railings for around the pool.  These are on the far side of the pool (from the house) and protect errant kids (and adults) from the nearly 2 metre drop in fromt of the equipment room!

They had only been up for a couple of weeks and were already sporting a lovely brown mottle finish. One of my tasks in the past week was to have primed them. However I ran out of time and only managed to paint the top rail and some of the bottom rail before dashing to the airport yersterday!

On this trip down I was joined for the first four days by Paul, who despite having been made to work hard on at least four previous visits still willingly joined me again! Thanks to Pauls assistance we made great progress on the guest bathroom.

The first job was to clear the area, two bathrooms are going into this space:

 Next we took up the floor to create a flatter and firmer new floor:

 A new sub-frame was then constructed:

 and the plumbing run to the wall:

 Then after treating the wood, insulation was added and waterproof chipboard laid over the top:

 This created a flat and much firmer floor. This took nearly three days and while we were pleased with the results it was two steps back then two forward to end up with just a different floor!

We then did the same to the floor under what will be the shower in the master en-suite:

 At last we could then start creating something new and the framing of walls was much more rewarding:

 The water feed comes up from the cave and will then be distributed to the batrooms, with seperate feeds for each shower and the sinks:

 The mess was suddenly a lot neater once the manifolds were installed:

 Paul then had to return home (for a rest I suspect!) so did not see the plasterboard installed:

 The waste for the shower had been installed ready for the shower base:

And then the shower base was installed and tiling was soon underway:

 The water distribution will be under the sink with each pipe having a shut off valve:

 The tiling was completed around the shower:

 And finally after grouting, masticing and taking two hours to fit the shower enclosure (it was a three handed job and I was on my own. It should have taken about 15 minutes!) we had a working shower:

 The sink needs to be plumbed in ( only a couple of hours work but I ran out of time) and the toilet needs the waste pipes running which requires the downstairs bathroom to be ripped out! But it is looking good: