Dordogne Retreat - a farmhouse tale

It has been a year since the last update to the website, doesn't time pass quickly. After the great improvements we made to the house in 2010, 2011 was a bit disappointing and we unfortunately didn't get the chance to spend much time in France. This was due to a building project in the UK and some work that came along unexpectedly!

We only managed to spend thee and a half weeks in the Dordogne. It should have been longer but we happened to pick the only bad patch of weather (end of July) that they had between April and October so returned home 2 weeks early on our summer trip.

Hopefully we can spend more time in France in 2012 and make more progress on our 10 year plan.

One project that has kept me busy is a series of video podcasts called 'A House In France' that I do with Lloyd Arrow. Lloyd and I have known each other for a long time and he is now having a house built in the Languedoc. On the podcast we share hints and tips about owning property in France. You can find all the episodes on the AHIF website.

From a 'work' perspective 2010 is drawing to a close and what a good year it has been. Being able to spend around 12 weeks in France has allowed us to make great progress. One new bathroom, one bathroom totally re-vamped (just a few finishing touches left), new bathroom window and new doors and window at the front. 

While there is still a lot to be done we are well over half way now. With renovation jobs like this it is always important to look at what you have achieved, rather than what you have left to do. This website has been great in reminding us of just what we have done.

À Bientôt.

Our loir 'count' has reduced over the last few years and having only caught one last year we thought we had fixed the problem. However 'loir cam' spotted activity in the attic a few weeks ago so we had to take action. I created a new attic access hatch to allow the easy placing of traps. Just a few hours later I happened to glance at the computer screen to see a trap being dragged out of camera view by a loir!

While this was in many ways quite amusing we did of course have the last laugh as a few hours later the loir entered the trap.

In case you are not aware loir cause incredible damage to stone walls by burrowing between the stones eventually causing the walls to collapse. So you want to get rid of them!

The (old) front door was the last door/window to be replaced in the house. The height was around 5' 10" so anyone over that (and that includes me) was liable to clout your head if you were not careful. So not only did the door have to go as it had the sealing/insulation properties of a sieve it was dangerous! 

With Bens help we started work on the Tuesday morning with the objective of completing the work in four days.....

Before we started:

To limit the dust going into the house I built a frame and covered it with a tarpaulin. This actually worked very well, not 100% but very close:

The old door were lifted off and the glass removed from above. The beam between the doors and the glass came out with hardly any forcing, we couldn't see what had held it in place for the last hundred plus years!

We decide to build a strong block wall either side, tied into the existing stonework:

In order to make the hole wider to fit the slightly larger door we had to remove the utility sink and cupboard:

Having removed the sink and plaster we discovered the old original sink and decided that the brick and stonework was not up to standard!

So we strengthened the walls with new block work, this unfortunately reduced the size of the cupboard but at least the wall won't fall down.

We then widened the hole ready for another block work pillar and to replace the lintel with a new oak beam:

With the old lintel out the lintel hole was enlarged:

And the new lintel fitted (perfectly):

Allowing the door to be fitted the next day:

There is still plastering and electrical work to be done inside but the new door has made a huge difference to the light in the room and to the heat retention, especially overnight.

We are very pleased with the end result. We plan to put stone around the door frames in the spring.

And the job took.... 4 days. For once we were on schedule, but it did take another day to take all the rubbish to the dump.

Thanks to Ben for his help!

After Ben recovered from flu we started on the door: the old doors and glass were quickly removed:

The old oak uprights were then removed and the first few layers of in fill blocks were laid:

After supporting steel rods were inserted in the wall the old lintel was removed and space made for the new beam:

This was then hoisted into place and cemented in:

The next day the blockwork was finished:

The inside was filled and cemented, leaving room for the inner oak lintels:

The view when you arrive at the house:

I then had to leave to come back to the UK but in the following couple of days Ben installed the two internal lintels:

Fitted the door frame:

Just a reminder of what it looked like 'before':

and now:

Lots more to do but the window and door are both watertight for the winter. The window will be left with its oak frame, the door surround will be covered either with render or perhaps stone.

Ben unfortunately had Flu for a few days so work on the new front door was delayed but this allowed me to get on with an internal project - removing the chimney breast in the current master bedroom (which will become the tv/family room).

There are three parts to this job: Removing the chimney breast, moving the wall between the room and the new hall in to the room by about a metre (making the new hall much bigger), and deciding what to do with the wall behind the chimney breast afterwards! 

This was taken in October 2009:

After carefully taping protective sheeting in place the chimney breast came out in just a couple of hours. Many of the bricks came out whole and have been saved for a future use:

The options for the wall are to plaster it over or to point it, or perhaps a mixture. But for now it was covered with a sheet of plasterboard:

Construction of the new wall got underway, this needed the chimney breast removing to allow it to o in the correct place:

One side was plasterboarded awaiting the electrics to be installed.

Another picture from October 2009:

And now October 2010:

Cant wait to get rid of that wardrobe! We may put a small woodburner in the corner.