Now what? Life in rural Ariege

Burblings about adjusting to life in the deep south west of France or "la France profonde" as they call it here and the challenges of restoring a ramshackle collection of tumbledown buildings. I mainly write about local festivals, events and celebrations and, most of all, the weekly ritual of combing vide greniers and brocantes for pre-loved vintage treasures.

28 February 2012

Progress!

At last I can write about REAL progress on our massive project turning a motley collection of agricultural buildings into a comfortable, efficient and (hopefully) beautiful home.

We battled torrential rain and high winds last year and eventually finished the roof ealier this year. The painful process of fitting the hugeTrilatte roofing panels to the crooked stone walls and wavy beams is now just a bad memory. All that remains is cladding the underside of the panels and fitting the zinc guttering.

We decided to focus our attention on the "new barn" (that's the ugly concrete block building on the end) and have now fitted wall insulation and constructed the inner walls. The pipework for plumbing and the electrics are in place.



But here's the most thrilling progress to date.


This is the new barn before work started. There were 4 enormous openings covered with metal doors and panels.


These had to be blocked in to support the new roof structure and window openings were formed (left hand side ground floor).


This is Harry (left) and Gareth installing the first window frame. And here is the final result... we have windows!


Thanks to our current builders for their hard work and loyalty. There's still a long way to go but I know we can, and will, complete this project.

4 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. Yes looking at the pics makes me realise how far we have got :)

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  2. Nice builders , but they do have a problem understanding how to wash a cup after usage !!!!!

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  3. but Willy - you're the boss - this means the washing up is YOUR job ;)

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