M. Senta

M. Senta has to be one of the hardest working guys I've ever met. He has single handed in lightning speed installed new suspended ceilings, prepared walls for decoration, replaced the skirting boards (happening at the time of this post) and will ultimately apply Danielle's colour choices on to the walls.

Fixing the Height

 First M.Senta marks out the height for the rail system. The using a 360 LASER light, he mounts the outside frame work up first. As can be seen in the next picture he then cuts the lateral pieces and attaches the to the outside frame.

 Cutting the Frame

Using the LASER level

Framework in place

With the framework in place it was fascinating the way the next step happened. Given M.Senta was working on his own how do you hold a piece of board that size in place and accurately screw it to the frame? With one of these!

  

Once the boards are hoisted into place it was amazing to me how quickly he managed to get the boards in place. I should also point out that it was absolutely freezing as well with no heating in the house.

Once the boards are in place then the finishing tape and skimming takes place prior to painting

The Making of Danielle's Kitchen

For those of you who don't know, Danielle is an amazing cook!! We both really enjoy cooking, so it was clear to us that this room was going to be the most important one in the house. So how do you create the perfect kitchen? It is actually much tougher than it sounds and when you look at a blank piece of paper your mind goes blank for an instant! We approached it by listing all the appliances, fixtures and fittings we wanted then worked out how to make them fit in the space provided. It was glaringly evident from day one that the existing kitchen was nowhere near big enough. So what do you do? amend your list of units? nope you knock down the adjoining wall to give more space!

From the kitchen looking at front of the house

Wall Props

Looking at the kitchen

With the wall down the new space was amazing. The windows in the dining room and the kitchen are over 2m wide and  1.8m tall so with light flooding in from both sides it has made the perfect room for us, an open plan kitchen/dining room.

Taken from under the cooker hood

Looking out the kitchen window

We have gone with a Godin wood burning stove and a Falcon Range for under  the hood. During my last trip home we drove to Montlucon and bought the kitchen units (which at this time are still boxed up and in the garage).  Once M. Kosubay, the stone mason has completed the floor then all the appliances can be fitted. Here are a few CAD drawings I have done of what it should look like (and no its not going to be grassed!)

The island with wine cooler

Island showing the dishwasher and sink

Units on the long wall

So how do you make a fantastic kitchen even better? The kitchen and dining room run the full width of the house so its quite a large space. We have decided to fit a bi-fold door instead of a new kitchen window which will open out onto a deck. If you remember during the first blog, the living floor as it were is actually on the first floor. So our plans to build a deck have been accelerated somewhat. This means that the space with the doors open will be from the Dining room window all the way out onto the deck

CAD drawing of Kitchen with Bi-fold door open onto deck

Now I know Danielle would want you all to know that the colours shown in the CAD Drawing were not of her choosing! but you get the idea.

The ceiling is now complete, the walls are ready for painting, its all wired and plumbed, the old kitchen door has been blocked off and we eagerly await the floor tiles going down then it can be outfitted. Exciting times!

Fosse Septique

Well as we found out very early on we are the first to do many things in the hamlet for no other reason than many rules have changed recently. One of which is that houses in rural areas such as hours have to be off the mains sewage grid by the end of 2012.


The size of the fosse septique is dependant on the size of the property so even though it will just be Danielle and me using the system most of the time it still had to be huge! Fergal did the works and what an undertaking. Unfortunately there are very specific rules regarding trees & vegetation  near the system so we lost a lot of the trees from the garden.

Full System

Gravel Bed

Tank

Replacing the Windows

One of the first jobs to be tackled was the replacement of all the windows in the house with the exception of the Kitchen window as this will eventually be replaced with a Bi-Fold door out onto the deck. The existing windows I think were the originals and were completely rotted away.

A local company from Aubusson, Herminette did the job. It was a long lead time on the windows but well worth it in the end they did a really good job of them.

Front Lower Windows

Front

Rear Windows

All the windows are now replaced and look fantastic. With the attic being insulated with high grade insulation and the new double glazed window units the house is now as thermally protected as we can make it. Here are a few pictures of the new windows in place.

All Done!

Living Room

Basement Stairwell Window

Stairwell from the outside

Before it went in

In the Beginning

Hello to all our family and friends.


As all of you know Danielle and I bought what will be our dream home in one of the most beautiful regions in France. Epagnat is a small hamlet in department 23, the Creuse in the Limousin. We are roughly 15 km from the nearest town of Aubusson, famous for its tapestries. Here is a picture from downtown:

We bought the house in the September of 2009. The house is actually not very old given many of the surrounding properties. It was built in the 1940's and was originally a 2 story building. When the house needed to be extended as is typical of the region they add a 3rd story rather than extending out the ground floor. As a result we have an unusual layout. The house has not had much use since we are told it has been around 13 years since the owners lived in the property with a few rental tenants in between time so lets just say it needed complete renovation and leave it at that!

Danielle and I have spent around a year designing the work to be carried out, everything from new electrical layout to colours for the walls. After we had the basic idea down, we went through all kinds of issues trying to find the right tradesmen for the job. 


I am an engineer as you know, with 32 years experience, a BSc in Avionics, multiple engineering and pilots licenses and a strong background in troubleshooting and solutions which normally have to be right first time and extremely accurate such is the world of aviation. I went into this project feeling very confident (and overly so it turns out) that my organizational skills, engineering background and attention to the smallest detail that this was going to be a smooth renovation. There is a reason professionals are called professionals! I have learned that all my experience counted for 'Jack @#$%!!!!!! The shear volume of everything that's involved in a renovation of this size, from 3000 miles away in a language  you don't understand coupled with what I choose to call local factors has been a unique experience which is as polite as I can write on here and is something I will never tackle again. Leave it to the Professionals!!!!!


We tasked the PM with finding the artisans for the works to be carried out. My remit to him was price was not the deciding factor and that since we were inserting ourselves into a small local commune we felt it was only right to use the best local artisans possible. The artisans we went with were all hand picked by the PM through personal knowledge and experience of them. This whilst in retrospect has been the best decision we made gave us our first 'hiccup'. These artisans are mostly one man shows or at least very small local firms and as such are in extremely high demand so it took as you can imagine a considerable amount of time to show them all the plans and get their estimates or devis as they call them. Once we approved them and gave them the go ahead to start work we found out that it was going to be in some cases 9 months before they could start. Well for one reason or another mostly due to lead times for materials, trying to coordinate a schedule where each artisan was available and last but not least Danielle and I changing plans on several occasions has resulted in work starting Q4 of last year.


I am sure you can appreciate that the level of frustration of having this fantastic property and not being able to live in it has had its challenges and in November last year Danielle moved to France to be on site to help choose the appliances, colours, tiles......the list was long. The good news we are well on the way to completion by the end of February. I would like to point out at this time that the standard of work carried out by the local artisans has been second to none! 


Over the next few days I will start to post pictures of the house from how it looked at the beginning, the CAD concept drawings I made, the artisans at work and finally the finished home.


This has been a roller-coaster of an adventure and something I am glad to have done once (and I mean just once!!!) in my life. Just as is the tale of how Danielle and I met, finding the house, new friendships forged and a home we are truly proud of, the best things in life happen when you least expect them.