Thursday 27 September 2012

Some photos of the the ruin attached to my little maison, the roof fell in only 2 two years ago. When I have the little house done I may get around to doing this one.


As it was two years ago with the roof intact.


Wednesday 26 September 2012

My father and I burnt all the vegetation I'd hacked down last week, just before the rains came. You can see the house from the road now.








I also removed all the oak beams that had been stored in the little house. Had some difficulty with the larger ones on my own, (no help today) I had to devise a little rolling rig type thing to get them out the rear window. 



Electricity finally arrived at la Borie on Thursday. I just have to attach an earth and then I can put the kettle on! Had to go back to the UK for a bit of photography work though, I'll be back at la Borie to start work at the beginning of October.





On the Saturday before I left for the UK I bought an old Peugoet 504 pick up truck,  I'll collect it on Tuesday/Wednesday when I get back. It looks like something out of 'Life on Mars', should come in handy for work on the house though.



I also removed the wooden cladding that had been on the stairs. It's starting to look better already. Outside and in. Now the electricity is on I should really be able to get stuck in. 












Saturday 15 September 2012

 Roughly determining the angle of the roof I intend to put on. The chair is stood on the existing wall and will need to be built up about 2 feet. The roof will continue down from the main roof at roughly the same angle as it is now. Submitting the plans to the Marie (the Mayor) in the next week. I'll let you know how it goes. Assuming I can get planning permission, this will be the kitchen,
 This will be the living room.
Cut back some more of the brambles today too, slowly getting there. Thinking of making the middle window into a door out in to the back garden. We'll see.

Tuesday 11 September 2012

My Wee Maison, so far so good.

This is my new house in the Midi Pyrenees in the south of France. I hired two Romanian guys who moved the entire contents of my house in the UK to France. Currently it's stored at my parents place, who fortunately for me, live 10 minutes from my new home to be. 
All of the pictures here are of the place as it is now, prior to any work being done.
 I will post photos as the work progresses, this may be some time as the entire budget I have left after the purchase of the wee maison is £5000. I have already sold most of my possesions that were worth anything. I'm not a wealthy man, this is not a holiday home it is my home.
 I intend to do all of the work myself with help from friends who have kindly offered their services in return for free holidays.
 There is a lot to do. I don't have electricity or a water supply. Trying to arrange for the temporary electricity supply (compteur de chantier ) to enable me to do the work. Proving difficult with my French (lack of). A neighbour has offered to let me use their water until the source is connected some time in October.
 I don't parle le fracais beucoup. Hopefully this will improve as time goes on. But at the moment my French needs about as much work as my house.

 The little slit window on the ground floor was blocked up, one of the first things I did was unblock it, as you can see from the two photos. So far so good. I'll let you know what happens next, it's actually very exciting for me. even the window thing!