Dordogne Retreat - a farmhouse tale

There were several items in 'plan' for this visit but the list didn't include working on the outside of the house! Not sure why we started on this but it seemed like a good idea! We started to paint the front of the house, paint the second front door frame (the first was done last year) and all the old external hatches to the attic (now non functional):

We ran out of paint (brought over from England so not easy to pop out and buy an extra can or two) so we also started another of the external jobs that needs doing - pointing the end wall. This is a 4 stage process:

1 - removing the old render (or in the case of below the window the bodged cement repair by the previous owner)

2- cleaning out between the stones to a depth of around 2 cms where possible

3 - applying the pointing material

4 - 24 hours later brushing the excess off from the stones

Before:

Phases 1 and 2 completed:

Phase 3 completed:

Phase 4 completed:

We used 'Monocouche' (manufactured by Saint-Astier) for the pointing. This is sold as a single coat render material but is ideal for pointing as well. The type we use is lime based so allows for some flexibility and 'breathing' as well as coming in a variety of colours.

The first colour (code 21) appeared very yellow (yes I chose it without supervision)  so 'we' went to get a different colour (code 23) that appears to be perfect. It does dry much lighter so perhaps '21' would have been ok after all!

With a couple of bags of '21' spare an attempt was made at rendering some of the breeze block wall on the terrace. The results were good so they will be put to use rendering later in the year, along with another 20 or so bags:

The side of the house (north facing) is now starting to look a lot better and will look great when finished.

It's been a cool but pleasant morning, threatening to become warmer later.  We've taken advantage to make some use of the tin of Hammerite we were asked to bring.

My favourite photo of the house from last year, and the background on my laptop until now, was this photo:

Now a lot has changed in the past 12 months so I tried to re-create the photo this year.....

Not quite taken in the same place but it certainly shows the changes!

Crawling through the photo archives it was intersting to come across a picture of the back of the house before we bought it. Today it certainly looks very different but perhaps in some ways not as quaint or charming.

The last remaining areas of the rear wall were painted today and after 7 cans of paint we are finished! Its difficult to remember what it looked like before but it is a big improvement.

This was taken earlier in the year....

and now....

After finishing the wall today had to tidy the 'yard' up a bit as it was getting progressively messier during the week. With the spare blocks constructed a 'bunker' for the remaining aggregate which will help keep things tidy. Didn't cement the blocks as its only a temporary structure. All that remains is to move the couple of tons of aggregate from a 'pile' to its new home.....

The whitish pile is the gravel for the drive, the aggregate pile is to the left of the picture and the edge of it can just be seen.