46) Building work continues

Our wonderful intrepid white van men hard at work

Good progress has been made over the past week or so, and we have been so lucky with the weather (particularly bearing in mind we have no heating apart from one open fire in the salon).

The citerne, where the new oil tank is going

The latest task has been to make a concrete base for the new oil tank in the old citerne.   Yours truly completed the massive task of clearing it out of forty odd years of leaves, dead trees, weeds and goodness know what else had fallen into it over the years. We are still living in hope that our new boiler is imminent (no news yet from the plombier despite my increasingly desperate emails to him).

The reinforced concrete base being formed for the new oil tank

I reckon we could build a life size replica of the Empire State building on this.  Still, as the blokes pointed out, when it is full of oil, the tank will weigh over two tons (Empire State Building = 365,000 tons) - but better safe than sorry.

My studio showing the chimney for the wood burning stove

Several people have asked us to keep the pictures of the building work coming (I think it makes them feel good to see how much chaos somebody else is in).  Now that most of the destruction phase is complete, there will be less dramatic change, and the photos may tend to look rather similar.

I thought, therefore, I would do a walk round every room of the house as a sort of guided tour.  We start above with my studio.  I am hoping to link a wood-burning stove to the existing chimney which currently comes from the kitchen.

The opening for the new stone staircase

I have been planning the stone for the staircase which comes up from the hall to just outside my studio.  We think we now have everything sorted and are on the point of agreeing the devis with the stone yard.

The luxurious new spare bedroom with the new bathroom beyond

This is a new bedroom, and the ceiling has been exercising our minds of late.  Again, we think we may have cracked it.

The new family bathroom (before the walls have gone up)

On the floor in this photo you can just make out the masking tape lines which indicate where the shower, bath etc are going.

Looking back from the upper tower bedroom to the new family bathroom

The en-suite shower room to the upper tower bedroom

All our loos and bathrooms (all two of them) are rather open-plan and draughty at the moment.  This one has one doorway with a door, and one doorway without a door, as well as a strange internal window without any glass.                                                  

The upper tower bedroom/current store/place where we sleep

The top tower bedroom is probably the only room in the house where no walls are either coming down, being built, or having doors moved round.  It does have this bizarre paisley patterned fabric on the ceiling in between the exposed rafters, and despite all our feelings for conservation, this will almost certainly have to go.

The salon . 

Down the wooden staircase (which is going to come out) in the corner of the salon to the only room we can really use during the day.  Even this can get pretty noisy and dusty so we spend most of our time outside on the terrace (luckily the weather has been exceptionally warm and sunny).  The dust sheets go on each morning and then off in the evening once the builders have gone.

The lower tower bedroom which will become our bathroom

The current downstairs bathroom which will become our dressing room

Our luxurious new bedroom (which still has some way to go)

At the moment our new bedroom has a loo in it and an open staircase down to the basement.  When the builders are here G has to be a bit careful using the loos as this one has no door to the basement stairs (where the guys keep their tools), and the upstairs one has a door opening which, as yet, has only been half bricked up (as well a the strange internal window which has no glass).  Loud whistling is essential.

Looking from the front door to where the new stone staircase will go (kitchen door to the right) 

The future utility room (currently storing several packing cases) looking towards what will be the under stairs cupboard

Our beautiful kitchen with its beautiful fake wood units and (now) un-matching  floor tiles

 
Out of the void...............