House is nearly complete

We are almost there with the French House. We have spent many weeks their enjoying what we have created. . We have completed the landing and the bedroom that has an ensuite - bathroom

We have also started to tame the garden and started to set out it out with plants. That will be in another update

Planning for 2013

As 2012 came to an end we decided that we really needed to concentrate our efforts on getting the ground floor of the house completed. The floor screed needed to be laid, floor tiling to put down and the purchase and fitting of the kitchen. We also needed the clear the debris and rubble from down the side of house.

As it worked out the temporary kitchen that had served us for our last two visits was stripped out after our September 2012 visit and the sand/cement floor screed laid. We were happy for this as this allowed for the screed to dry out sufficiently for when we needed the floor laying.

So in January 2013 we embarked on the design of the kitchen. The only thing we really knew at the outset was that it needed to stretch out along the back wall as this was were all the services had be installed and where the temporary kitchen had been. Initially we had looked towards purchasing the kitchen from France but soon found this to be difficult because of the amount of time required to get it sorted. With sourcing the right kitchen, obtaining initial designs, re-visits for finalisation of a design and details bearing in mind we are only over in France for a week or two at a time. The exchange rate was also against us at 1.12 Euro to the Pound.  After several weeks of initial planning, re-planning and tweaking we went eventually to see Sam Neal at Sam Neal Kitchens with a design idea. Sam took this on and turned it into something workable. Below are a few images that Sam produced for us.

Here's one of the original design where the hob was placed against the wall.

Here's the design that we eventually chose with the hob moved onto the island unit. We thought this changed the entire the feel of the kitchen area and whilst making  it more user friendly.

Nice perspective of the island unit. Although the this was eventually tweaked again.

As regards the transporting over of the flat pack kitchen, the appliances and the floor tiles we used a man with a van that basically operated between Brighton and France. All the goods were delivered to his store in Brighton.  In fact he lived in a village near ours so it was quite convenient and reasonably economic.

More to follow.......

BLOG UPDATE

Although I haven't updated the blog for a long long time that's not to say that the renovation of our house hasn't progressed somewhat. In reality we are practically complete with last major work being carried out at the beginning of the year. The following posts are a record of what has been happening over the past 36 months or so that bring things right up to date. So please keep coming back over the next few weeks to see how things have changed.

Boarding the bedroom floors

September 2012 update

During the trip to our house in France, the last for this year, we made a little more progress on the final finishing works to upstairs area of the house. This time around we took a couple of enthusiastic volunteers, or son Nic and a friend of our James.

After taking time out on the first day we set about laying parquet flooring to the two smaller bedrooms. James lead on the project teaming up with Nic on laying the boarding. I got the "easy" job of cutting the boards to size. We spent two days completing the bedrooms and into the landing area before running out of material. Off to Leroy Merlin to see if we could get a couple more packs but as is the way in France we left empty handed. Fortunately we were able to order the extra packs for collection next year.

We had decided before going out to France that we would treat all the skirtings and door frames with Danish oil. Di had spent the previous few days doing this so next job was fixing skirtings to the bedrooms and bathroom. James did and another excellent job on whilst Di and Nic painted the main Bedroom. We built up the double bed for the middle sized bedroom and built up a double wardrobe, a chest of drawers and two bed side tables.

Once the door frames were oiled any doubts we had in using it evaporated. The natural look of the skirting and frames against the white walls and doors was exactly the contemporary look we were hoping for.

Having been attacked two nights running by Hornets I decided to PV foam around the new door and window openings which they were managing to squeeze through. That was not before I had captured six of the blighters using a coffee and releasing them.

Last job before we left after seven days was to treat some of the remaining original timbers with wood work treatment and fit the remaining Georgian bars to the windows.

A long and busy week punctuated with a bit of site seeing, swimming in our neighbours pool and evenings spent playing cards that got more serious and competitive as the week wore on.

More fosse fuss

During our holiday in July it became evident that the submersible pump to the fosse wasn't working and constantly tripped out the house electrics We've had a catalogue of issues with shorting out of the electrics within the fosse manhole and has been subject to early blogs. All came to a head when eventually we couldn't re-set the main fuse because it had tripped out so many times that it took out the whole of the ground floor electrics. I decided to take a look in the manhole to see if I could dry out the electrics.

This is where it went went wrong and my day was going to get worse. The concrete manhole lid was cracked and unfortunately I let one piece of it drop into the manhole taking out the riser pipework on the way down. I now was left a problem of how to repair the damage. The first problem was how to lift out the pump as this depended lifting it out by its riser pipe. Unconventional as it may be this also depended on the strength of the connection between the bottom of the riser pipe and the pump casing. So I decided to lift it out by its electric cable whilst guiding its ascent by the riser pipe. Once out I worked out a repair and returned from Bricomarche with the bits and made good the break putting in a removable link so the pump could be separated from the riser pipe for ease of future maintenace. I then found that the connection between the riser pipe and pump had not been made correctly and been taped up to stop the parts separating. This soon came apart when I examined it and try as I may I could get the bits to screw together properly.

Fortunately, I was able to get hold of the Contractor that fitted the fosse and he attended that evening and installed the correct fitting and approved the repair I had carried out. He also installed a water proof electrical connection and even used the piece of rope I tied to the lifting handle on the pump to lower the pump back into position. Privately I think he was impressed with the modifications I had made to the installation !! At least now I can disconnect the pump form the riser pipe and lift the pump out with a rope instead of the cable and above all my insistence on using a waterproof electrical connection has resolved the problem with the electric tripping out.

So all is well and I bless my good fortune in breaking the pipe in the first place as otherwise I would still be writing about this in months to come.

Our first stay in the house

Its been far too long since I last wrote a blog about our renovation project in France and I have been thinking that I should put this right. The last blog talked about our viewing of the house in March and reported what had been done up to then. Since, the builders were asked to make the house habitable for us in readiness for our two week vacation in the middle of July. Basically we wanted all of the first floor fully plastered out and the bathroom complete, all the second fixes carrying out upstairs and a temporary kitchen installed. On top of that we asked for all of  the new doors and windows to be fitted. Also at the last moment we instructed a company to sand blast the oak beams and the stone quoins.

 
All of the work was completed only hours before our arrival. There air was full of dust with the builders just having finished cleaning out from the sand blasting. The temporary kitchen had been fitted complete with a sink with hot and cold running water, microwave, mini fridge and oven.
We arrived with a trailer and a car boot  laden with a double bed, tables, chairs and all manner of small kitchen appliances,crockery, kitchen utensils, bedding, towels,  tools, paints etc. It was really like setting up a new home. Having arrived at the house after 9pm we slept on the mattress not having time to set up the bed frame.

Although it was great to stay in the house it soon became apparent that this wasn't going to be holiday. Every thing you touched was covered in grit and building dust and only after few hours we both had dry and sore throats.There was no chance of keeping your clothes clean and after a few days our hands also became dry. The floorboards to the bedroom were covered in plaster dust as was everywhere else. Having said that the bathroom was complete and looked great, and the new doors and windows transformed the whole property.

Having had a meal - a salad that we had brought over with us and a glass of wine we threw down a few dust sheets and pieces of cardboard over the bedroom floor and retired to spend our first night sleep in the house.
We spent the next two weeks painting up the shutters, decorating the bathroom and the two smallest bedrooms and landing and carrying out a few odd jobs. As the two weeks wore on the comfort level increased and we found that after a few days the dust had settled and after a coat of paint on the walls things seemed far better, The temporary kitchen worked really well and we had an endless supply of hot water. The weather hadn't been great but it didn't matter as we were working in the house most of the two weeks.

Not much of a vacation but we left the house having achieved everything we set out to do and above all we actually stayed  in it albeit rather less comfortably than we would have liked. However, having talked to other Brits that have moved out to France they recall exactly the same experiences of living in partially completed properties.

 

Nearing completion

We have just got back from a week in France having inspected the work carried out to our little house. Last time we saw it was last July when it didn’t have a roof on. So with so much work completed it was amazing to see the transformation. There are now three bedrooms, a bathroom and an en-suite shower room. All the first fix electrics and plumbing work is complete together with the plaster boarding work.

Some of the exposed stonework has been pointed and both the new window openings formed. Although alot had been done there remained second fixes to the electrics and joinery works the fitting of the bathroom equipment, tiling and floor finishes as well as the last major structural alterations of forming two external door openings and the fitting of the kitchen.

It has became evident but to no great surprise that we aren't going to be able to finish the work within our budget. Unfortunately having to fit an entire new roof and renewing the whole of the first floor coupled with a poor exchange rate has taken its toll on the bank account. We always set out on this project with a budget “set in concrete” so we agreed with our builders to finish off the first floor works and all the second fixes including the staircase together with the plumbing, hot and cold water and heating services. 

A temporary kitchen will be fitted so we will be able to use the house from the end of June. The remaining work will be carried out by ourselves which will be the tiling work to the ground floor, remainder of the pointing work to the ground floor and painting throughout. We shall take the flat pack kitchen over to France ourselves build it up and pay the builder to fit it, hopefully towards the end of the year. The installation of the doors will be done next year.

We don’t see this as a set back but as an opportunity to do a few things ourselves, something that we have not been able to do so far. This will also save us a bit of money and help with overall costs.

Super foil insulation

Reflective foil insulation for roofs has been around for a few years and is something that has been used in our new roof.  Generally in England for roofs to comply with the U values laid down in part L1A of the Building Regulations using fibre glass based material requires thickness's up  to 250mm.

In our roof because of the raised tie the area where there is a slope in the ceiling there is only the full depth of the 70mm deep rafter were insulation can be placed. Bearing in mind that a 25mm air gap is required over the insulation then there is only a maximum of 50mm available for insulation, well short of what is required.

The answer for us was to use reflective insulation fixed to the underside of the rafters prior to fixing of the plaster board.

So what makes reflective foil insulation so high performing when compared with glass fibre materials. The answer is radiation and conduction. Reflective insulation is made from layers aluminium foil, wadding and air bubbles and works by reflecting radiant heat and is around 95% efficient. Whereas traditional materials such as fibreglass blankets relies on its ability to resist the passage of heat by the trapping of air in its mass. Reflective foil is may times more efficient  as a insulator and does this with far less material.