The story of the total renovation of one of our houses

The story of the total renovation of one of our houses.

The front of the house as we found it

The house has not been lived in for a very long time. It dates from 16c and was an interesting project.

The first job was to get water and electricity connected. Then I can run a temporary water and mains 220v supply to all parts of the house as required. Now we can start work.!

The house has a good facade and a nice cast iron balcony.

The 1st floor kitchen? well it was once. It does have a nice old stone sink that I will try and keep.

On the ground floor all the old render has been removed, the walls have been knocked down and the ceiling plaster work got off. Now we can see what we have to work with and make our plans!

Starting work on the 2nd floor all the dividing walls need to come down as does this false ceiling.

Here Sue is hacking off the old render to expose the original basalt stonework.

Well after all that I decided it was time for a day off and what better way to spend it than having a massive "Fruit de mer" washed down with a local bottle of Picpol in one of the many riverside restaurants. Bon appetit!

	This is the top floor with most of the old rendering removed. The suspended ceiling and the dividing wall have also been removed giving the room back it's original and much grander proportions . We have removed about 5 tons of rubble per floor. and haven't finished yet as there is always more! The horrid toilet will have to go soon.
Here we are on the tip for the umpteenth time with trusty Citron 2cv. Rubble removal is a major operation
	Once the main demolition is over I do like to establish an area for the storage of tools and the hundreds of things that get accumulated and need keeping safe Where did I put those extra long screws? Using scrap wood I have built a good workbench and shelf that will more than repay the time and effort. Note the large pile of sand, getting sand is the second heaviest job after rubble removal. Sue has her concrete mixer ready to go mixing is just like baking apparently picture soon.

Saturday morning 3 tons of sand arrive poor Sue! Time for tea.

On the 1st floor the plaster lath ceiling lining was taken down to reveal a beautiful old wood panel one, which we may be able to restore to it's former glory. A lot of work but the end result should be worth it.

Some changes were made to the lay out during the week! Before After (open plan)

Some times I wonder if the demolition will ever stop! Here I have removed a raised floor in order to give a good head height in the down stairs bathroom. Things can quickly get out of hand and a few runs to the tip will be needed this week.
	A good discovery this week are these beams that have been shaped and have joints cut out of them that have nothing to do with the ceiling. There is a good chance that they were recycled from an old ship given the close proximity of the old port.
Originally the house had two front doors, one leading to the stairs and so up to the living accommodation and a second that lead into the work shop. A lot of houses were built this way and you can find many examples in Agde. Here you can see I have changed the work shop door into a window.

At last production rather than destruction.

I have a delivery of planking and here I am using a hand plane to create a tongue and grooves to get the width I need to make stair treads.

The original staircase to the top floor was in what will be a bedroom so we decided to knock that one down and build a spiral staircase instead in a better location.

Here is the downstairs bathroom all plumbed and in working order, it may need a few finishing touches but at least nothing is leaking.

Here is view looking towards the front of the house where the old staircase was.	The new bathroom door frame and wall. On the middle floor
	The curved stair wall takes shape it will enclose the spiral stair case and all so help to support it.


Here we are converting the sand we collected earlier into lovely cement.

	First Sue mixes, tips then shovels the cement into builders buckets.
	Then she hauls the cement through the trap door where Ted can render the walls.
	This is all really hard work but we enjoy it as it means the end is in sight

The mid floor rendered and drying out ready for the finishing coat, more about that later.

Meanwhile we have moved operations up to the top floor and started work on our roof terrace. First we hauled up 2 big beams and fastened them to the wall .Then covered them over with floor boards ready to take a cement screed.

This week things have moved on a pace all rendering work is done and we are starting to put up plasterboard and paint walls.



The roof has come of the terrace and we are delighted it is much nicer than we expected including a view of the Cathedral wow. I am starting to whitewash the house. Rather than plaster and paint this is a great finish we have discovered. We leave the render work fairly rough than I buy unslaked lime which is a white powder when you mix it with water it bubbles for a few minutes when it has calmed down it is slaked then I just slap it on the walls which is fun

So here we are the inside is all painted and plaster board is put up and the carpentry starts.

Above a specially angled stair has been built to fit the space.

Right the fitted kitchen takes shape.


	Well I am delighted to say we are very nearly finished. As you can see I am putting the finishing touches to the woodwork we just need furniture and the top 2 floors will be over It seems to have taken a long time but it is pulling together quickly now another 2 weeks and I reckon we will be done. Ted is getting up close and personal to the toilets plumbing. Of the 4 copper joints 3 leak so that represents a 25% success rate Ted's plumbing is improving no end

The first meal cooked in the kitchen the first of many !

A splash of paint and the whole thing is finished!