Dordogne Retreat - a farmhouse tale

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.

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.

It is always good to start with a 'before' picture.... we had collected the new doors and windows from Lapeyre in Brive and decided the order of play was new window, new front door and then new glass doors.

The window was going where a cupboard currently existed so a quick piece of demolition was needed:

Four holes were then drilled to support the stone wall above the new window, steel bars were inserted and then well supported on acros:

Then a wooden frame was positioned where the window should br installed and then a few minutes later the hole was complete:

The outside lintel was then installed, hoisted up on a winch and then slid into position on a temporary frame:

The new oak window surround was then cut and installed before cementing and filling the gaps:

The window was then slid into position and fitted perfectly:

The internal lintel (the walls are over 50cm thick here) was later installed by Ben:

And then cemented securely in place:

One window installed, just a bit of plastering/plasterboarding to be done!

Over the next few months the two front doors (!) will be changed into one front door, one window and one set of glass doors. This has been high on my list of things to do  as it will help keep the house warm (the old doors are draughty and offer little insulation) and stop me and anyone over 5' 10" banging their heads!

We did get a quote to have this done but we thought it very expensive at over 8000 euros. In fact looking in detail at the quote it was quite clear that a 25% English tax had been applied, which unfortunately is fairly common practice. The big give away was that the prices of doors only obtainable from one place (Lapeyre) were exactly 25% higher than from the shop directly!

So with our Dutch neighbours encouragement he and I are doing the work. And the final price will be less than half the quote we got.

First step was to order the oak beams for lintels and the window frame:

This lot of oak cost just over 300 euros! The main beams are 20x25 cms. You realise how heavy oak is when you try and move them!

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.