More work on the bedroom

The bedroom ceiling was insulated with 23 layer silver foil insulation which should provide very good heat retention:

Job done:

The ceiling was then battened out and boarded:

Next was the studwork for the end wall...

Then the studwall was insulated with 200mm fibre glass insulation, should keep the cold out!

Flooring in Gite

New concrete floor as the original floor was just earth and stones:

Next was to create a floor for the bedroom as we have removed the original beams which were too low for a 2 storey building.

Joists going in, they were hung from joists bolted into the granite stones in the wall. 

These were then stained underneath as they will be visible in the kitchen.

Finished job viewed from the bedroom:

Next job was to fit a new pine floor to the joists in the bedroom:

Plastic sheeting was laid over the floor at the back as the roof was leaking from the ridge beam into the bedroom!

New photos

we have some new updated accommodation photos of the main house, you can view them here:

http://www.ridelimousin.com/accom_gallery.html

Making windows

We are making the majority of our windows (7 home made) as they are not standard off the shelf sizes and we dont need all of them to open.

We started with some pressure treated roofing timbers which were sanded and treated for woodworm prevention.







When the double glazing panels arrived we dropped them into the frames and glued them in place:





Some of the windows have also been fitted with stained glass film to create privacy and obscure less scenic outlooks. The windows were wedged in place with temporary wedges and then sealed in place with expanding foam:

we are still waiting for delivery of most of the factory made windows (8 weeks!) so this is the only one ready:

Making openings for windows /doors

We needed to make some openings for more windows and a door to get to the patio without having to walk all round the building. There was a small window next to the patio so we just had to make it longer in order to fit a door. I chopped out the stone work with a large grinder fitted with a diamond disc, it goes through the granite very quickly but creates a lot of nasty dust. Later on we will fit a large double glazed window to be used as a door for the patio as it is too low for a standard door.

 At the front of the gite the kitchen window openings need some attention. The left hand opening is currently a door so is to be filled in and a window fitted at the top. To the right is a window that is not properly supported and the brickwork is collapsing. First job is to remove the brick pillar and rebuild with bricks salvaged from the dismantled bread oven.

Removing the Iron grill from the window opening with a grinder :


Some handsome chap ;) 


The dodgy column:



The acro props we have are far too long to support the wall whilst we remove the bricks so we had to make an improvised support from a step ladder and some blocks. Wouldnt normally reccomed this as the ladders not very strong but it is only supporting a small amount of stonework so is OK:

 

The rebuilt column finished in the dark :(



And a visit from the building inspector AKA womble:

Next we built a wall from breeze blocks inside the doorway:

This was then faced with reclaimed bricks for aesthetic appeal. Later a window will be added in the gap above.

The door way between the kitchen and living room was never properly supported with a decent lintel and wasn't high enough anyway so I made it higher and used new lintels . Akro props were used with a beam to support the stonework. Was crapping my pants a tad as I removed a lot more stones to get the lintels in as there was potential for the wall to come down = instant death and no more gite!

The new stone work built up around the new lintels:

Once the mortar is set you can then fill in the hole left by the temporary supports:

Later this wall will be pointed.

 We decided to enlarge the below opening to create a large window in the living room as it has a nice view of the rear garden.

First job was to use some vertical beams to support the joist as it was resting on about 1 inch of stone either side! (becoming a familiar story)

One for the other side:

Then I cut through the stone work to create the opening for the window frame, unfortunately a large section of  the stonework collapsed at the side whilst I was doing this as the stonework had previously been infilled poorly. So we had to improvised and used another oak beam on the outside to create the wall edge for the window frame:

Then we filled the gap between the beams with broken salvaged bricks, this will be rendered over later.

Getting services into the building

The cottage currently has no water mains or electrics so we had to dig a trench between the main house and the gite so we could run the cabling and water mains a metre under the ground to prevent freezing. The mains enters the cellar which is conveniently next to the side of the gite. There is a chimney in the cellar that we aim to drill into as it runs down the wall and will save breaking through a metre thick wall.

First job was to dig under the house wall below the render and make some test holes to try and enter through the chimney: 2nd hole was good.

 Digging a trench between the 2 buildings

Running the water mains pipe and the electrical cabling in a conduit:

 Into the gite where the kitchen will be:

We hit a drainage pipe but luckily it wasnt breached and we were able to continue digging underneath it to run the pipework