2020 - progress
2020 - progress
2020, january
As in 2019 I've worked mainly in the workshop during the really cold parts of the winter, I can work in relative comfort in the workshop, so that's what I've been doing.
The timber for the new front door and the north side windows has been prepared and a good part of the joinery done.
Here is the new window for the ground floor during the final stages in the workshop.
2020, february/march/april
LOCKDOWN !!! Covid 19 has struck and we are all confined to the house except for essential shopping.
You would think that would allow lots of time to work on the house - yes and no... Plenty of time, but no materials. Just about everything I tried to do came to a halt for lack of materials before I could finish. So : lots of jobs part done, nothning much that could be called finiished. Isabelle has plastered up the joints of most of the ground floor plasterboard. I've completed and tested the plumbing - one small leak in the kitchen area, quickly fixed. The toilet is installed but no water for the moment so we are not using it. The false ceiling is installed in the entrance hall and stairs.
As well as the above difficulties, work was affected by the weather in april - it was glorious, with the result that we stayed outside and worked mainly on the garden.
2020, may 11th
Back to work on the 11th when we were finally allowed out for other than food shopping. Started with a trip to the council waste site to get rid of a huge accumulation of rubbish. Rain threatened later so too risky to go to the builders merchants for plasterboard using an open trailer - that will have to wait for tomorrow.
2020, may/june/july
Mainly catching up as materials could be bought. The big job has been fitting the ceilings, to make this more managable I bought a plaster board lifter for 160€ and plan to resell it once the work is finished. It has been a brilliant device.
These photos are from mid july :
Left : the sink and tap are fitted in the kitchen
Right : vanity unit progressing in the bathroom
Left : Downstairs bedroom plasterboarded and the window fitted but boarded up for security, awaiting the double glazing panels
Right : the front door is finally fitted, also awaiting double glazing panels. Fitting it was a terrible job as the masonry was too irregular to fit the frame and too fragile to attack with a hammer and chisel. The irregular stones had to be cut with a grinder to level things up. A blast of foam sealant to fill the gaps !
left : the inside
Later, the old doorstep was removed and a new one cast in place. Amazed to find lino under the old doorstep
right : the outside overview
2020, august
Exhausted by fitting plasterboard and big heavy oak doors and windows, took a few days holiday - Paris and the Loire - then did a bit of tiling and painting in the kitchen and the bathroom :
Also thought about television and internet and ran aerial cables from the sitting room to the roof area, plus telephone cables from the old point outside to the cupboard in the hallway.
2020, september
Fitted glass in front door, also installed ply panels to hide ugly masonry.
Applied a coat of primer to ext. woodwork.
Built and installed doors for cupboard in hall, also built half wall to divide kitchen and living space.
Cleared out laundry area which had become a store, to permit fitting out ceilings and sloping areas around stairs. Built support for sink, using the old ceramic one from the kitchen.
Installed a drain from the cellar to the laundry area for overflow drip from hot water system. Had to drill through 60cm stone wall.
End september the water authority dug up the road outside to replace the mains - quite an exciting week or so with the road closed and diggers working away. This shot via the front door :
2020, october
Completed the fit out of the laundry room, all plasterboard and insulation done and took the first steps to installing the old stone sink.
A lot of work done on celings, refining plasterboard joints and painting, mostly done. Also made and installed the loft access hatch. Just the downstairs bedroom to finish.
Made and fitted oak lower panel in front door (it had been a temporary chipboard panel to keep stray cats and neighbours out).
2020, november
Another lockdown !!! This time I got in quick and bought quite a lot of materials to allow me to keep working.
Notable among these was wall paper for the upstairs bedroom. This was duly hung, not a bad result, but in certain light you can just see a difference in shade between the white plasterboard joints and the grey plasterboard. Will need to run a quick coat of white primer for the other rooms to avoid this.