14 January 2014

Happy New Year everyone!  Lets hope it is a peaceful one world wide. The greatest wish I have is for greater world support for the Palestinian cause - that Israel's illegal occupation of Palestine is stopped. A very big wish I know. But 2014 had been declared by the General Assembly of the United Nations as  " International Year of Solidarity with the Palestinian People". A good start! 18th of Januray are demonstrations through too. I'll be there!

Back in France and to a very wet building site.  There must have been a huge amount of rain falling in the last few days. Glad to say - no signs of any leaks in the roof!  The next series of photos are all a bit 'white' and boring. Pierrot has finished the plastering and everything is now ready for the plumber Jerome to start on the 6th.  Amazing to see the 'shapes' and volumes of the rooms. The plasterer has done a good job.

View from my bedroom door.

View towards the kitchen.

Across the living area towards doors leading to guest bedroom.

And into living area showing the nice 'arch'.

Photo taken from the living room window.

 Little for me to do at the moment. I need to do some foundations for the retainer wall at the top near the entrance gate - but it's raining and - the quarry (for the ballast) is closed until the 6th.


Weather dried up nicely and I was finally able to borrow the builders' lorry to do my shopping! One load was of washed special sand for the top layer to the reed beds. These are now complete and ready to have the reeds and other water plants put in next month.

My end already finished waiting to be rendered

Next trip was to get the ballast for the foundations of the wall at the top. The remaining wall to be built is 10m. Half of this is in Bruno and Christel's side. I'll be stone facing only their half with the stones we have on site because there wont be enough stones to do the entire length.  It would be more important for the wall to be stone on their side - tying in with the existing stone wall - than at my end where the gates are rendered.  Later I'll build a stone wall sticking out from this retaining wall to mark the property limits.

The newly raised wall - sitting on 1 ton of concrete. My cement mixer gave-up the ghost but fortunately the builders lent me theirs.  The limit of my property is about where the blocks are on the ground. So I was standing at Bruno & Christel's end.  I certainly found that preparing well meant the wall went up easier and straighter!

 I had originally thought to get Stephane with his bulldozer to come and do the hardcore laying after I'd built the block wall but then realised I'd have to move the stones I'd rescued from the bank twice. Once away for him to lay the hardcore - then back again to build the wall. It seemed better to get on with building the wall. Not easy - with a broken toe and not the best of health this week! But - as always the work makes you feel better.

I had to aim to tie in with the old stone wall (I'd built 9 years ago)  joining onto the piggery. 4 rows of blocks brought me nicely up to the same level as the old wall. And the stones laying was good. Now the remaining stones can be cleared ready for surfacing this area.
I've stopped the stone work exactly on the boundary between properties. From here later will stick-out a dividing wall at 90 degrees which will be in stone.

 Plenty of stones left - but most of them 'rubbishy' or too big for walls. So my end of the wall will be just rendered.

This last week Jerome has been busy doing the plumbing and laying the under-floor heating.  I'm trying to remember to photograph every room to ensure I know where all the tubes are. Not that I would dare to drill down anyway!

Tomorrow, 16th Jan the liquid cement floor will be poured. And then we have to wait a good 3 weeks before the floor tiles can be laid.  In this time the builders will be back to complete the electricity (wow I'll have lights!).

For me the next job will be laying the parquet flooring for the mezzanine and attic room. I have decided to do this myself. Budget is getting tight and this is a job I can do on my own. I think I'll do the attic room first to get the technique right!




16th Jan. the Chape liquide (liquid cement) was poured!  For 48 hours the house had to be sealed to ensure even drying. And today I was able to walk around! It really is amazing - the rooms seem to have changed proportions again. It looks even larger - more spacious.

 Really feels like I am almost there!
The place was streaming with water - and it seems we have a wet week ahead weather-wise.  Jerome (plumber) will set up the Heat Pump (PAC) in a few days time and connect it to the flooring circuits to warm and help dry the house.  Saving a week in the delay before being able to lay the floor tiles is not as important as avoiding the mold on the wood framing (already starting) and possibly plaster too.

You can see how incredibly flat/smooth the surface is. Perfect for tiling.  All the tiles have been ordered and all being well will go down 3rd week of February.

 

27th January

Finally after quite a wet start to the new year it has been dry for a few days - dry enough to get Stephane and his bulldozer back to put in the well and landscape the lower field. The well will be at the lowest point of the field, 2m deep and encased in chippings for improved 'feed'. The well form is the 2 rings I managed to salvage from a skip some months ago, 90cm in diameter.  We needed to chase a trench down to the well for the power  (electric pump), water pipe back up to the house and a 100mm drain pipe to carry rain water from the roof down to the well.  The distance was about 24m.

 

 

There didn't seem to be too much water when we got to the 2 m depth. Bit worrying. But there was signs of a trickle starting to enter at the bottom.   Once the trench was filled in Stephane finished the mega task of levelling out the lower field before returning to the top entrance to spread out 18tons of hardcore on the drive area.

 The lower field is now pretty much its final form. Ready for lawn planting and defining where will be the veg patch, shrubs and trees.

Just as I was finishing with the raking, Stephane came down to announce we had a problem. As he had been spreading the hardcore, the digger had suddenly dropped into a 'hole' .  When we looked down - the hole was 2m deep and actually a tunnel!!!  The old water mine to the right of this photo (just out of site), actually continues across the grounds to the spring (just below the little wall you can see at a distance to the left in the photo).  

Leaning down into the hole I managed to get a photo of the part of the tunnel roof, left and right, probably dug some 250 - 300 years ago.

There is no way we can easily 'fill' this hole - it would take one hell of a lot of material!  Stephane suggested digging away about 20cm deep and 1m wide across the top in line with the mine and pouring a re-enforced concrete slab.   Amazing that we didn't have a problem earlier with a collapse, considering the size of some of the lorries that have driven over that area.



 While the landscaping was being done outside, I managed to install the new window for the kitchen. It is now a single pane and sooo much nicer!  Top opening and side hinged. Now all I need to do is finish off the plaster surround. So glad I decided to change it!


The rain is back now - noting else will be done the next few days outside - inside hopefully the underfloor heating will be installed to help continue drying the plaster and flooring. Looks like we are in for a week of rain so it will be needed.