Dordogne Retreat - a farmhouse tale

After the opening for the window was made the sides were rebuilt with a slight curve and the oak window sill installed. This gives a much nicer appearance than just having straight sides:

 The tiling was started with the shower completed first:

 Then the long job of pointing the walls, both inside and out:

 Once completed (nearly 3 days!) the window was installed to complete the job:

 We are very pleased with the result:

 The rest of the tiling was then started with the floor, and the areas behind the toilet and sink:

 Grouting was completed and the toilet, shower and sink installed:

There is still work to be finished off with painting, skirting and trim to be fitted, but this won't take long on our next visit.

The outside looks great as well, we just need to finish off the rest of the wall:

With extra work for the window we ran out of time, as we do every year, so other projects didn't get completed. But we now have two very good bathrooms and this has been progress indeed.

While the end may not be quite in sight we do feel that we have at least climbed the summit and are on our way to finishing.

With the original walls being so uneven (over 2 inches difference top to bottom) we installed plasterboard on partition framing to get good flat surfaces for the shower, enabling easy tiling.

Once fitted the plumbing for the tray and mixer taps was planned and installed.

A strange thing then happened! Once we had the shower all partitioned I realised that we had lots of room for a window (in fact there had been a window in this room at some point) so I cut out the profile of a proposed window:

Then with help from Alan (master carpenter and all round good egg) and Ben (neighbour and fountain of knowledge) we started the 6 day long process of installing a new window.

With Ben's help (and his workshop) Alan put the finishing touches to the oak frame (from a local woodyard, cut to order at an amazingly low price!):

The under Ben's supervision we installed 3 20mm steel rods and joined then with wooden beams, bolted tightly each side and supported with braces before knocking a hole for the lintils.

the hole was quickly filled with two 1 metre long, 26cm wide, 13 cm high oak beams, with concrete packing:

The 2 days later we started exposing the window area, firstly on the outside:

As with many projects there are hurdles to overcome, on this project it was a couple of very large rocks. The rock on the right we removed and left the very large rock on the left for later!

The window frame was installed and the wall rebuilt either side:

The next day we then had to deal with the large remaining rock/ The angle grinder wasn't big enough so we drilled  7 holes in a line through the rock and with the SDS plus chisel hammered it until it split, with much relief, down the holes:

The window area was now exposed and ready for finishing off.

The downstairs (and up until recently, the only) bathroom had to be changed as the WC waste for the new bathroom had to be installed via this room. It also needed updating as there hd always been a damp smell and we wanted to change the bath for a proper shower unit.

Before we started:

We then took out the old bath (Peter swiniging the sledge hammer!) and discovered that the pipework was not correctly fitted and had been leaking for years! No wonder the room smelt damp.

We excavalted the floor (concrete) to take the new WC waste:

Created a hole in the wall (nearly 2 feet thick at this point) for the waste:

Connected the waste to the previouly laid pipework to the fosse:

The downpipe from the upstairs bathroom was them boxed in and insulated:

This all took under 2 days, and in the end was much simpler than we had expected.

So with the new bathroom now fully working we could go about destroying this one.

In the last article on the guest bathroom (here) there were a few jobs left to be done during this trip. So with help from Peter these were fairly quickly completed.

The pointing of the wall was the most time consuming but it made a huge difference to the room.

After application:

After brushing and cleaning the next day:

It was then just a matter of applying danish oil to the beams, painting, installing mosquito blind, adding trims and then cutting and laying a vinyl floor.

Sprinkle a few decorative ornaments and the result was fantastic:

There was the slight issue of connecting up the WC waste though the downstairs bathroom and this is covered in another article!

Five of the last 6 days have been spent in the guest bathroom. This bathroom has been a challenge from the start, with the main problem being overcoming the plumbing challenge of getting water and waste connected. The toilet waste conection was the last great challenge and on this trip half of it was completed in that the run from the toilets (there will be another in the en suite just the other side of the right hand wall in the photo below) to the downstairs bathroom was made.

With the required drop of 2cm per metre there was just enough rise to make it over the total 5 metre run.

The waste appears in the ceiling of the downstairs bathroom and awaits connecting to current stack and Fosse Septique. This however requires taking out the bath so next trip!

Once the pipe was run it needed to be enclosed:

The velux window was then framed. The wall pointing department will work their magic on the wall over the summer.

The tiling on two walls finished:

And after grouting - voila! The grouting is not great, it was so hot (nearly 40 degrees) that the grout was drying before it could be smoothed, remedial work will be required when it is cooler.

The sink was connected up, well nearly. The waste was run but I could not connect the tap as I needed a 1/2" to 3/8" adapter which I couldn't find in my plumbing kit. But it looks good at least.

The last wall had been covered with pasterboard and was then filled, rubbed down and painted, with a heated towel radiator then fitted.

Still left to do: painting the ceiling, treating the wood, laying the PVC floor, connecting the taps, connecting the waste in the downstairs bathroom, connecting water to the toilet and pointing the wall. Just a couple of hours then...........

On this trip down I was joined for the first four days by Paul, who despite having been made to work hard on at least four previous visits still willingly joined me again! Thanks to Pauls assistance we made great progress on the guest bathroom.

The first job was to clear the area, two bathrooms are going into this space:

 Next we took up the floor to create a flatter and firmer new floor:

 A new sub-frame was then constructed:

 and the plumbing run to the wall:

 Then after treating the wood, insulation was added and waterproof chipboard laid over the top:

 This created a flat and much firmer floor. This took nearly three days and while we were pleased with the results it was two steps back then two forward to end up with just a different floor!

We then did the same to the floor under what will be the shower in the master en-suite:

 At last we could then start creating something new and the framing of walls was much more rewarding:

 The water feed comes up from the cave and will then be distributed to the batrooms, with seperate feeds for each shower and the sinks:

 The mess was suddenly a lot neater once the manifolds were installed:

 Paul then had to return home (for a rest I suspect!) so did not see the plasterboard installed:

 The waste for the shower had been installed ready for the shower base:

And then the shower base was installed and tiling was soon underway:

 The water distribution will be under the sink with each pipe having a shut off valve:

 The tiling was completed around the shower:

 And finally after grouting, masticing and taking two hours to fit the shower enclosure (it was a three handed job and I was on my own. It should have taken about 15 minutes!) we had a working shower:

 The sink needs to be plumbed in ( only a couple of hours work but I ran out of time) and the toilet needs the waste pipes running which requires the downstairs bathroom to be ripped out! But it is looking good: