Renovating a derelict property - Lost in France 19.02.13

Renovating a derelict property - Lost in France 19.02.13

Time for the remaining wall to come down, this is a momentous occasion as it will be the last bit of demolition, I know I have said that once before, but that was before we decided on the new layout of the house.

The wall is made of wooden planks and the wood is in excellent condition, apart from a few boards.

Once all the walls are down, we can see what an amazing room this is going to be, I think I may have a new favourite, which will mean that every one of the rooms is a favourite, I maybe need to readdress this and pick just one.

We can now see the floor properly and this causes new dilemma’s, we had intended to remove the floorboards and replace them as we thought many were rotten, the good ones were going to make our new kitchen, but now that we can see them there aren’t that many that need replacing, also the boards that we were going to replace with would not be big enough, the joists are over a metre apart, this means that they would not support the narrower floorboards, which would result in having to put in many more joists, not a good option, the next option is to only replace the rotten floorboards, which would result in not enough boards to make the matching table and kitchen, again not a good option.

We ponder what to do for quite some time, and drink lots of tea and suck our teeth, we are builders after all!

I decide to give Theresa and Craig a call, we met this couple when we first moved to Huelgoat and they gave us their contact details, we couldn’t swap contact details as at that point we had none. Unfortunately the address that they gave us was in the sat nav that was stolen.

We get their number from the Sue and Peter at the Tregont Restaurant, and call them, to find out that they had burnt their old floorboards, I could cry at this moment, but they did say they were rotten, so it’s maybe not that bad. We arrange to go and visit them later.

John gets on with some finishing touches, such as tiling around the new bath, I have the joy of pricing a job in the UK, I had intended not to work again, but it may be useful to have some income when we can get it.

I also do a lot more work on the blog and the new look design is almost ready.

We visit Theresa and Craig that night and have some excellent directions, Head to Carhaix and pass the sign to Plouye, then take the next turning past the white house on the bend going down the hill and it’s about half a mile (not all roads have names!!!!!!) once its dark, we also realise not all roads have street lights and there are a hell of a lot of white houses in France (which also happen to be on bends going down hills!).

After driving for about 10 miles and down lots of hills, past lots of white houses on bends to a house that is only 3 miles away from us we find them, we have a fabulous night and I finally get to talk to someone who understands exactly what we are going through, they also still have no heating or a finished house, I have a feeling I will be talking to Theresa a lot!

We swap lots of tips and John finds out lots about available floorboards and places to go, eventually we realise that it is the same shop that we have been going to all along that has the correct floor boards we need!