The confidence expressed in the last posting has been met, sort of! We have just returned from a short visit to Arné and as the pictures above demonstrate we now have a complete roof over the whole of the house so it is now weatherproof and the inside can really dry out. But as you can see from the picture of the back there is no window in the roof; neither a dormer, which is what the plans demand, nor a velux, which is what Jean Claude says we can get away with. It is also the case that the internal structure holding the roof up at the north eastern end has not been altered radically. Which means that we have a real problem with the levels inside the house, and if it stayed that way we could not put in the rooms that we plan. We spent a very worried 24 hours contemplating all this until I managed to talk it through with Jean Claude. He was quite insouciant – yes he knew that there were things that need to be done and he would do them in this way, etc. So no problems at all and we could stop our worrying.
With the roof in this state we can move to deal with the inside now and we have started to demolish the wall to create the large room at the south western end of the house. Not as easy as it sounds as concrete has been used quite extensively and therefore a great deal of effort to achieve little change – you can see the position as we left it in the third picture above.
Jean Claude will take on the next phase of construction which entails clearing all the floors in the south western part of the house, building a wall to replace the earth wall that has fallen down (see the post for 28 February 2007), forming the upstairs’ bedroom and en suite and the downstairs’ loo and putting in all the widows and doors. To that end we visited a builders’ merchant and bought 13 windows, two sets of external glazed double doors, eight internal doors, two wash hand-basins and two loos. Given the speed at which Jean Claude works we fully expect that there will be a functional bedroom with loo and wash hand-basin by the time we arrive in early April.
That last comment is based on the fact that we also have received a permit to dig up the road to install the septic tank. The contractor who is to do all the installation wishes to do the work immediately, and indeed is due to start on Monday 17 March, as the local authority is planning to resurface the road at the end of March. Which means that we will be able to let the local authority’s workmen do the top surfacing which will save some money and effort. Together with the sewerage pipe work we shall also put in pipe work to bring the electricity supply under the road and put in a pipe in case France Telecom also wishes to go underground. For this latter we visited their offices and it would appear that a connexion might be made above ground, but we are taking no chances in putting the pipe under the road.
So considerable progress this time and we feel very confident that we shall have a habitable house in time to face the rigours of winter.
With the roof in this state we can move to deal with the inside now and we have started to demolish the wall to create the large room at the south western end of the house. Not as easy as it sounds as concrete has been used quite extensively and therefore a great deal of effort to achieve little change – you can see the position as we left it in the third picture above.
Jean Claude will take on the next phase of construction which entails clearing all the floors in the south western part of the house, building a wall to replace the earth wall that has fallen down (see the post for 28 February 2007), forming the upstairs’ bedroom and en suite and the downstairs’ loo and putting in all the widows and doors. To that end we visited a builders’ merchant and bought 13 windows, two sets of external glazed double doors, eight internal doors, two wash hand-basins and two loos. Given the speed at which Jean Claude works we fully expect that there will be a functional bedroom with loo and wash hand-basin by the time we arrive in early April.
That last comment is based on the fact that we also have received a permit to dig up the road to install the septic tank. The contractor who is to do all the installation wishes to do the work immediately, and indeed is due to start on Monday 17 March, as the local authority is planning to resurface the road at the end of March. Which means that we will be able to let the local authority’s workmen do the top surfacing which will save some money and effort. Together with the sewerage pipe work we shall also put in pipe work to bring the electricity supply under the road and put in a pipe in case France Telecom also wishes to go underground. For this latter we visited their offices and it would appear that a connexion might be made above ground, but we are taking no chances in putting the pipe under the road.
So considerable progress this time and we feel very confident that we shall have a habitable house in time to face the rigours of winter.
