Dordogne Retreat - a farmhouse tale

While the garden was the main focus of the work activity on this visit we did manage to make progress on a few other items. The most significant was the signing of a contract to have the three windows at the back of the house changed to doors. So observe this picture, it should soon look very different!

As you look at the picture the windows on the left and right will be made into 1.4m wide double doors and the window in the centre into smaller 1m wide double doors. The wall you can see in front of the house will be built up by one more row of blocks and a large patio made between the wall and the house. The doors should be done in the next month but the wall and patio work is down to me (and a mini digger).

Work on the two bedrooms in the attic progressed and all the plasterboard is now taped and filled. In the back bedroom we have continued putting 'Crepi' on the walls and ceiling and slowly it is coming together. By the time we finish the house we will probably be able to put in on quickly but for now it takes a long time. The finish is like artex and we have been trying to get it flat rather than stippled but so far our skills haven't developed enough.

Looking at this angle it is looking good, but all you need to do is to glance up to see we are not yet finished!

The front bedroom is now taped and filled and a coat of light plaster (a key coat for the crepi) applied to most of the room (where Sue could reach!) and while not as well progressed as the back bedroom it now more homely without the gaps everywhere.

While filling the joints in the plasterboard I realised that the type of plaster being used would work well to fill the gap between the old plaster and the new windows in the kitchen. So even though it is only about 2 years since installing the windows (you cant rush these things after all) the gaps were plastered and it has made a big difference.

So thats it for this trip, roll on April when we hopefully make another visit.

The kitchen is looking very good after the upgrades over the last year or so. There were just a few jobs left and two of them have been completed, with the plastering around the windows now the only outstanding item (until of course something else is added to the list).

A new small area of worktop was installed over the tumble drier:

And then the veneer was put on the end of the wall cupboard to give it the finishing touches:

Lets see if I can get the plastering done before the list gets bigger!

Following a few disasters while cooking it was 'requested' that a new cooker be provided so during this brief trip visited our local friendly (but not cheap) electrical shop and arranged for a delivery that afternoon. So a few hours later the delivery arrived complete with 2 men to do the installation, the jets were changed to match the gas we have and 30 minutes later we had a new cooker! The old cooker was also taken away saving a trip to the dump.

So a gourmet meal was cooked that evening to check all was working as it should, all I can say is the pizza tasted ok to me!

The only plan for the kitchen this week (I thought) was a lick of paint and new pelmets above the windows.... so after the tumble drier was ordered (haven't paid yet, they said just pop in sometime in the next week) I had to make a stable flat platform for it as the kitchen floor is far from level. So this took up a morning but the result was pleasing:

So the tumble drier then arrived and apparently the wall didn't look right so off to Bricot Depot at the crack of dawn yesterday and the required units were purchased so the afternoon today was spent fitting them along with cornice etc.

The worktop still has to be fitted above the tumble drier but the overall effect is very pleasing. Have also nearly mastered drilling into the stone walls, all it takes is practice, patience and a BIG SDS drill!

The 'simple' job of installing the second new window in the kitchen was undertaken today. A new main oak beam was required just like the first window.

The electic wall heater had to be removed from below the window as the wall below the sill had to be rebuilt.....

And from the outside the next morning:

I mentioned in the post on the window saga that the main oak beam under the window was a little on the rotten side. Just so you can appreciate the joy I felt when I saw it here is a picture:

And to show what the nearly finished ( filling, sanding, painting to go....) product looks like from the outside: