The last view of the barn as a garage...;D

We are off to UK for Xmas and the car is ****** so in the barn it goes for rest...

More plasterboard & building the girls 'upper level' ;D

Warm fleecy jumper in place on the stone gable..

Followed by the plasterboard...

Studwork to separate the bathroom from the girls pad...in wood

this time as it will also form part of the structure for their mezzanine...

Girls bedroom wall in...the joists above will form their mezzanine

above their beds...it will all become clear in time :D

And the bathroom starts to take shape on the opposite side...

Starting on the girls bedroom...rail, insulation, plasterboard, rail, insulation, plasterboard!!

This bedroom is also being known by its designers I&A as the 'Split level apartment'....we have been presented with various versions of drawings & now a 'modele'/3D model complete with paint colour references for the pair of treasures dream pad...

Excited..they are just a bit! More of how this becomes a split-level apartment in the weeks to come!

Ok...could get a bit samey for a bit ;D

More insulation, railing and plasterboard.....it has to go on just about every surface in every room so we could be gone a while...

December 2010 dawns.....cold, snow, icy wind....on we go.....indoors at least teehee!

What will eventually be the kitchen wall, all picked out & ready for a coat of lime mortar (chaux), we will then still see the outer faces of the stones.....big stack of wood & plasterboard...more of that to come ;D

This is our landing/mezzanine to be...
Before After (ongoing ;D)

The 'bridge' between one side of the barn and the other - the middle is open to the top of the roof.

It was offering a scary 4m drop but now the half height wall is in throws of being built..

slightly better for visiting vertigo sufferers!

More insulation, railing & plasterboard.....it has to go on just about every surface in every room so we could be gone a while...

Giving the barn a warm coat to match its cosy hat...

The 'bacofoil effect' ;D fixed to the existing crumbly rendered stone wall.

Then the metal rail system (instead of wood stud work) holds in the 100mm insulation.
Then plasterboard added to front....then the fun of taping and filling starts..
Alex has 'picked out' the old render above the south facing barn doors (which will eventually be glass doors..April 2011 in fact if all goes well).

Underneath he found some very pretty stonework...so he will be re-rendering it with chaux (lime mortar) so we get to see them. (saves horrible boxing in by plasterboard... 'pig of a job' to quote the 'chef' ;D)

Bon weekend

Autumn...walls & windows

le temp va vite...We moved out of our summer of camping in the barn on 29th September 2010 and moved back into our Noix gite for the last time ;D

A local dry lining firm moved in the week after to join all the plasterboard and fill around the oak roof frames in all the places where wings are required ;D...

So although we probably still have two thirds of the plasterboarding, insultation & jointing to do we won't now need to do so at 8m-11m high with nothing but fresh air below us...a daunting prospect which would have taken us weeks....Parasote and his team were in and out in a week...

The question of painting these high up awkward areas will be considered at a later date..firmly in the worry about the spelling later file at present.



Next...Having ordered a house worth of windows & doors Alex set to work making holes in the exterior walls (50cm thick rubble) and by Halloween we have 8 more views, one in progress and the final two will be made to order and installed by local firm late in Spring 2011.

View east from living area 'to be'

Velux & two south facing windows in the girls bedroom 'to be'...

Recycling...decorative & effective bounce reduction...

3m long old oak beam winched into place (help of friend & his block & tackle..) Pinned into beam above & into concrete foundation below, the prop was then cranked up to minimize any spring in the mezzanine above.

Draught exclusion...

While the girls were away, the parents will play! We did also ensure we got to have a small holiday of our own but in our usual style we had a list of things we wanted to get done in their absense....

One of the things on the list of things to do was to knock down the old north facing barn doors and block up in concrete block. It would mean at least one night when our open plan camping 'floor' upstairs would become a convertible....no 4 legged critters joined us during the night but we were visited by bats and an owl as well asa half of France's mosquitos...aaargh!

The Craigs helping us to 'deck the doors!'

June 2010 Aug 2010

Also barrier to deter owls, bat, cat, lizard, insect & birds of all varieties and in years to come cold winter North Easterlies.

The glass door will eventually be access to our wood pile and a nice spot outside the to enjoy morning coffee in privacy & shade in the summer.

The concrete block will be clad in planks (with plenty of insulation behind ;D) to resemble a wooden barn door again, the glass door will have a 'shutter' made of the same. Closing the north side of the barn will also stop the barn being too much of a gold fish bowl when the downstairs will be our kitchen, living & dining room.

Less 'Grand Designs' more 'plus practique et moins cher!'