Dordogne Retreat - a farmhouse tale

When we bought the house the roof was in a lot better shape than others we had seen but not great. We had hoped to make repairs, rather than replace it.

Perhaps we were being a bit optimistic, especially when looking at the chimney:

In the end we decided that a total replacement (keeping just the A-frames) was the best approach. The pool got put back a year or two and we got 2 quotes, one from a local French roofer (recommended by a neighbour) and the other from an English builder. The quotes were within a few thousand Euro of each other and we decided to go with the higher quote from the French roofer as we felt he had been working on these roofs for 25 plus years!

The work should have started on 16 Jan so we called on the Tuesday evening and 'A problem', we were told. Expecting some lame story we were surprised, and in fact pleased, with the ‘problem’.

Turns out the lorry delivering all the new materials could not get down the track (chemin) to the house. So without the materials they couldn’t do the work.

In France the local mayor has the responsibility to maintain all these tracks. The roofer (apparently a friend of the mayor) called the mayor, who came and inspected and said the problems (poor surface and trees growing into the track) would be fixed within the week - and they were!

So work started and on 26 January we received this photo to prove it:

I visited a few days later and took the following two pictures:

In the photo above you can see the 'space age' insulation we had fitted. This is equivalent to 25cm of fibreglass insulation! The underside of the roof will be fitted with plasterboard with 40cm of insulation. So the roof will be tiles / air gaps / insulation / air gap / insulation.

The a week or so later the roofer emailed a few more:

At the beginning of March Sue and I went out for another visit and while the roof should have been finished due to the weather it was delayed but good progress had been made:

Then we had confirmation at the end of March that it was finished!

On April 4th we arrived for a 10 day visit and were very pleased with the result:

Apart from the light being let in by the 8 Velux windows (3 bedrooms and 2 baths to follow) the other big difference was to the temperature of the house - it was much warmer and the heat retention was significantly better than before. We had frosts most nights but the house (with no central heating) didn't drop below 15 degrees and quickly warmed up to 20 with the electric heaters switched on and to 25 with the woodburner in full swing!

We are very please with the results.

With the new roof in place it was time to start the work on the attic coversion. The plan is for three bedrooms and two bathrooms (one en-suite to the new master bedroom).

On this trip in early April the targter was to build at least one of the smaller bedrooms over a 10 day period.

Well plans are good but you have to be flexible, especially when trying to get building materials delivered! So in the end we lost 3 days but did manage to get wood, doors and bricks delivered.

The plaster booard (all 120 sheets of it) had been delivered before the roof was completed and safely put in the attic by the roofers.

With Izzie as my helper we started the framing:

Generally the framing went well, the battery going flat on the Paslode nail gun slowed us down a lot and we had to drill and screw much of the framing. Now before you ask I had ordered a new charging lead for the Paslode to be sent to France, it never arrived!

Once the framing was finished we installed the cabling for lighting and power:

Then the plasterboarding started and this is where the plan went out of the window! Now I am just a keen DIYer, not a builder, so while I have done small plasterboarding jobs applying plasterboard with 40mm of insulation on the back to a slopng ceiling with angled beams was not a simple task! To just do the roof for this room took a day, the walls another day.
In the end we managed to finish the room enough to get lights and sockets installed and connected. There are still a few gaps between the A-frame and the wall to fill in, and of course the plasterboard needs taping, the screw holes covering, the velux frame fitting and then the whole lot plastering, BUT it is a room and in fact Izzie slept up there on the last night:

The fireplace has now received its final makeover (at least for now). The art of re-pointing old stonework has not been mastered, but at least the basic theory and practice have been learnt!

This is the picture from the estate agent in July 2005:

The first thing we did when we bought the house in October 2005 was to throw out a lot of the clutter and give various areas a lick of paint. So after a few days this is what the fireplace looked like:

Then in November 2005 Paul and I visited and (due to the cold!) removed the fireplace and installed a woodburning stove:

Then back in early March 2006 Sue and I removed the plaster exposing the stone:

And now on to the final tranformation. Sue and Alex removed the old lime mortar (not difficult but very time consuming) and then with expert tuition from our Dutch Neighbour Inez (who has repointed the outside and inside of their HUGE barn) they repointed the stonework. This is a two stage process with the first being to plaster the mortar on, and then 2 days later brush it away from around the stones. The result was very impressive:

Now with this experience behind them we can start taking off the plaster from the main walls!

Arrived at the house at 7pm on Sunday evening, the journey was eventful with the last 5 kilometres being through 4 - 6 inches of snow!

As you can see good progress on the roof, the large velux windows will allow us to take advantage of the views....

First the good news, work is well underway on the new roof. This picture was taken yesterday:

and now the bad news.... this picture was taken this morning:

guess work might have to stop for a few days......!

Just had an email from our Dutch neighbours to say that there is no roof on the house and that snow is expected tomorrow!

Good to know work has started, I may be in for a cold couple of days next week!