Hot

Good and hot today...at last. Today was all about clearing up - spare thatch to the barn, waste thatch burned, waste wood cut and stacked for the the fire, lawn cut and raked, rubbish to the tip, scaffolding back to Ian's, grass cut, house cleaned, thatcher back to Toulouse airport.

En route I took Daniel to Joubac to admire the view and take photo's for his wife.

All done! Dormer day 7 (and a bit)

A long hot day for Daniel today (and slightly less for me).

In the morning I excavated the new path, finished the shuttering and mixed half a tonne of concrete in barrow loads. Then in the afternoon, headed off the site meeting in La Trappe.

Meanwhile, Daniel worked all day on the dormer and finished at 7.00pm. It was a long hot day in the sun for him, but the work of the last 11 days is finally over and it looks great!

The new thatch will slowly change colour over the next 12-18 months to match the existing.

Thatching starts

Bit of a palava this morning, first of all the thatcher's flight was delayed by 1hr 45mins. Daniel (the thatcher) said they got on board and there was a really strong smell of fuel then they were all evacuated to another plane. Then just as he disembarked at Toulouse, after several public address messages about an abandoned piece of luggage in Hall D, we were all evacuated before we heard the explosion as the offending article was destroyed! Was gone three before we eventually got to Quélébu. 

Daniel made a start with some more dethatching and the first line of reed, whilst I made a start on the last piece of path to the front door (more later).

Dormer day 6

Interesting angles in a dormer window!!

After the big tidy up!

Still some details to do around the window seat, but mostly finished (including some electrics).

Slow work re-cladding the inside of the bedroom - I have a crick in my neck from working upside down!
Managed to get out for an hour or so this afternoon to look for mushrooms - found three...have I lost my mushroom mojo? Or are they just a bit thin on the ground at the moment?

Found the most enormous badger set in the woods. About 20 entrances, a vast area trampled free of vegetation and the area was noticeable hollow under foot.

Dormer day 5

Having moved the bedroom around I awoke this morning for the first time with a view of the mountains from the bed - bliss! A hot blustery day so set to at 7.00am.

I soon had the remaining rafters up...

...but it took the rest of the day (until 7.30pm) to get the felt, framing and battens fixed. Thatcher arrives Monday to add 30cm of thatch.

Weather looks much better now - 20 degrees this week and 30 degrees next so hopefully I can get a day on the hill. The inside of course all needs doing at some point!

Rain

Rainy today, so a forced rest day - no bad thing as I'm knackered! Sorted out what I'm going to do with the bedroom internal finishes, went to St Girons for provisions and materials and progressed the window seat/storage units in Jasper and Ruby's bedrooms.

Weather better tomorrow.

Dormer day 4

Back to good weather today, so after sorting out a planning permission at the Mairie, Ii resumed work on the dormer. First job was to finish making the opening in the roof.

Next job was to insert new rafters to frame the opening (the old rafters aren't in the right place or even square to the roof). The rafters have to be threaded between the existing battens, the purlins and some internal finishes which I can't remove. It's a tight squeeze!

First problem was that I realised the space formed by the existing rafters isn't regular. The old rafters are tree trunks - they taper along their length, they are also bent (sagging). I don't have my circular saw here so had to use the chainsaw to rip the new rafters into shape.

Second problem was getting them in. The projected line of the rafters doesn't clear the top of the wall, so when I threaded the rafters into their new location they got stuck with about a foot to go on top of the wall! nothing for it but brute force.

Third problem was that because the roof sags, although the upper part of the new rafter was perfectly aligned with the old one, at the bottom the new rafter continued the pitch line of the upper roof and ended up way to low relative to the wall plate. As in the photo below.

Again brute force seemed to be the only option. the roof is certainly stiffer now!

 Before the end of the day I got the first dormer rafter up too.

If the weather behaves tomorrow I should get the remaining roof structure up and watertight - just in time as the eyelets on the tarpaulin are ripping out.

Rain!

The heavens opened last night (and most of today). The tarpaulin kept the rain out but the drumming of the heavy rain made for little sleep - even when I retreated to bedrooms in the new part of the house.

Today was all about fetching materials. Two trips to St Girons, the second in John and Sandrine's Peugeot Partner to get the 5m rafters - too long for my tiny Suzuki Jimny.

Poor photo but you can see the cut bars which hold down the thatch wired back to the battens, new rafter to insert under the cut battens when I get closer to the ridge.

As rain has halted thatch progress I've made a start on the desk/window seat/storage units in Jasper and ruby's bedrooms

Back in the UK, Susie found us a new house! Tomorrow is her driving test - good luck love xx

Dormer day 3

After rebuilding and generally tidying up the stone reveals to the window (inside and out) I went to Ian's. He's lent me the scaffolding for the thatcher. Lunch here together and good long chat, sandrine joined us later and after putting the world and our lives to right, I'm heading over to see Justin, Emily, Thea and Mila - it's the twins birthday.

Back in Totnes, susie is trying to find us a new house to rent as our landlady is selling. Good luck love.

Dormer day 2

An early start and good weather.

Getting the first thatch out took some pulling.

All the removed thatch is carefully sorted and tied into bundles.

As the thatch is removed the steel bars holding it all down are exposed, these have to be cut with bolt croppers. The ends left are razor sharp as I soon found out - two really deep cuts across the back of my fingers and right through the nail of my "unlucky" little finger - yet again.

First view out to Mont Valier - it's been about 8 years since I saw this from the bedroom.

Dormer frame in place...still a lot to do.

From inside and a good deep window seat.

The view from the dormer : )

Dormer day 1

 Through the cladding and concrete blocks to the original wall...50cm to go!

 All the way through and wall plate removed

Wall mortared up and grounds in for fixing the window seat

Pyrenees...yippee!

Back to France, the weather in Toulouse was horrible (wet and cold) but here at Quélébu it is sunny and warm though it obviously rained earlier today. My return was greeted with a hare, a tiny serin (photo above) and an old caravan on the corner of the road before the house!! - I'm guessing it's the same travellers who stayed there about 6 years ago before eventually being booted off by the mayor.  

The thatch arrives tomorrow morning and hopefully in the afternoon I can get the scaffolding, timber and roof felt.

Leaving France just as normal weather resumes - but the weather in the UK is nearly as hot so no worries. Back in a week or so to build the new dormer and hopefully find some time to get into the mountains!!

Dormer window taking shape

A surprise visit from Paul this morning - he's 92 but still came on foot, he's as fit as a fiddle! After a brief search for mushrooms (none yet, too early) I finished off topping the big field. The snows came early last year so it went without its annual short back and sides - it was much needed.

At breakfast I watched a pine martin in the cherry tree in the field in front of the house. He was chasing birds and no doubt looking for chicks in their nests. Obviously a male he was the size of a large cat!

After a trip to St Girons to unload at the SMDEA (who after nearly 6 months have failed to install the water supply for the project at La trappe), I returned to La Trappe to find that the water had been installed on Friday!

A site progress meeting all afternoon, then I returned Quelebu to burn some branches and top about half the field in front of the house with the tractor.

Back in France

Back in France for a site meeting with the contractor (RDM) who is building Gilbert Coron's Barn. The SMDEA are causing me lots of problems as I've been trying to get the water connected there since last February and all I get is excuses. Hopefully I can progress things tomorrow.

Yesterday I went to Pamiers to buy the new window for the dormer and stopped in to see Donna en route. When I got back I split and stacked the wood from the fallen tree that I cleared up on my last visit and in the evening met our new neighbour Virginie who has bought the house next to John and Sandrine's. She seems very nice.

Today I built the new oak frame (cadrement) for the dormer window that I'll be building in July and stained the new window.

And finally...some birdies.

 get that worm!

 yummy!

Building all this week for friends in Totnes. I finished the substructure and slab before my recent trip to France and this week I've built and insulated this timber frame single storey extension. next week we'll start knocking down the two existing walls to open up the ground floor into the new space.

Also been fighting with Three Mobile, who have just done a deal with Bouygues in France and so I can no longer use Orange France's mobile network when in Aleu. This means my mobile phone no longer works unless I'm in St Girons! It's taken many hours on the phone to be released from my contract early at a not too exorbitant price. I won't bore you with the details but as a UK network provider Three's overseas network services are 'a perk' and not guaranteed by the contract - so tough!