Renovation project - Dinard airport

Renovation project - Dinard airport

Today is the best day so far, my daughter and granddaughter arrive, we are collecting them from Dinard airport. I am so excited I cannot settle to anything and want to set off a few hours before we need too.

But the time arrives quickly enough and we are sat at arrivals waiting for them to come through. I hear my granddaughter first and she runs up to us with arms outstretched, my heart could burst at this moment.

We have a big week planned; we are off to Paris tomorrow and then Euro Disney the day after, followed by rest of the week relaxing at our house.

Dinard airport is approximately 200 kms from Huelgoat, but it does have very cheap flights with Ryannair, when booked in advance you can get flights for as little as 12 Euros from East Midlands in the UK.

However the flights only run between April and November.

There is an airport at Brest which is a lot closer, but the flights to Manchester are only operational during July and August, there are flights to Southern UK, but this would not be convenient for us with the cost of UK travel.

If you are looking at moving to France, check your local airports and be aware that flights can change and stop completely.

Dinard airport is not a big airport; there are only 4 check-in desks, a waiting room with vending machines, toilets and a restaurant upstairs. There is car hire available here and there are help desks. Once through customs there is a larger waiting room, with vending machines and no shops.

Wi-Fi is available with your log in details.

It is not a well equipped airport, but the flights are very cheap.

There is a good sized car park, and the payment machine is just inside the door of the airport, and accepts cash and cards, the cost is:

1 euro for the first 30 minutes

And 50 cents for every 15 minutes after

A full day is 18 Euros and each day after is 8 Euros.

You can pay for a month, 3 months or annually

There is no where to park for free nearby, as there are no parking signs along the road to the airport.

Approx 1 kilometre away is a large Super U (French supermarket with petrol pumps) and a small pretty town with bars and cafes. Called Pleurtit

Renovation project - Recycling marble

Renovation project - Recycling marble

We found an old piece of marble in the little house and wondered if we could use it in any way.

John has suggested making a window sill with it for the bathroom, I am really not sure about this, but often John will have an idea that sounds dreadful, but works out fantastic, so I leave him to it.

He measures the size he needs and puts the outline in masking tape, he then uses a large grinder to cut the shape.

He removes the tiles he had put on the window sill and fits the new marble in place, I am now glad I didn't say what I really thought about it, as it does look fantastic.

He also adds a bit to the end of the bath, and again this improves the look of the bathroom but also improves the functionality as there are no little cuts required in the tiles.

I have been chatting to somebody new on the blog, they have just bought a property in our village and we have arranged to meet up.

They call to visit and have a look around our house and because I am so nosey, I make sure that I can go and have a look at their house.

We spend a couple of hours chatting about renovations and blogs, Jane and Mike have one of the most popular blogs I have ever come across and they are so nice, they are also the same age as we are, so we will have some new friends with plenty in common. This is one of the things I love about blogging, I get to meet some fantastic people and here in France some of our closest friends have been met through the blog, even John does not Freak any more about me inviting strangers from the internet to our house.

The blog  FRUGAL QUEEN  is all about Frugal living based in Cornwall and Huelgoat, this is not something that I knew a lot about, but the blog has some really informative posts and advice and the most fantastic recipes.

That evening we go for dinner with the people who bought our old house, we have a great time and it is nice to know that nearly a year later they still are friends and are happy to go for dinner with us

Renovation project - Tiling a French kitchen

Renovation project - Tiling a French kitchen

John has found some jobs he can do without causing too much mess.

The kitchen units are in place and will definitely not be moving again! So he can now tile. The only problem is that we now have the completely wrong amount of tiles, we measured and bought them for our original kitchen idea.

We discuss whether or not to tile the opposite wall above the worktop, but both agree that this will be too much, I also think it could end up looking like a public toilet because of the style of tiles we have bought!

So we decide to leave it as it is, the other tiles will be needed for the kitchen corner in the little house so will not go to waste.

While we are waiting for the grout to dry, john fits the new plug socket, I really do not like to see plug sockets, don’t ask me why, it is just one of those things, so we bought a tower socket from Brico Depot (called Bloc Encastrable 4 Prises) that will fit in the work top. When needed it pops up and when finished with it, tucks back into the work top. It takes up very little space, but does mean we do not have to have plug sockets dotted along the wall.

These can be bought from many shops or on line and you can also buy them with usb connectors

It feels like we really have a kitchen now and cooking is so much better it’s hard to believe we had no kitchen at all only a few months ago and now we are onto the decorating aspects

Renovation project - Shopping in Brest, Brittany

Renovation project - Shopping in Brest, Brittany 

The new beds that we ordered on line arrive for the spare room and I have the joy of putting them together as John continues trying to get downstairs ready.

The doors are added to the kitchen and it looks great, it is not finished by a long way, but it is completely usable.

During the day I receive a phone call from my brother, the ferries have been cancelled over Easter, as there is a large storm due. They can get to us, but will not be able to leave in time to return to work. So everything is in place but we now have no visitors.

I am not sure who is more gutted them, as they love this area of France or us as we were really looking forward to spending some time with the family.

But there is nothing we can do about it, we cannot control the weather. It is just so unfortunate that the weather is bad over the Easter break, as my brother and family had time off from work.

We are also a little bit stuck as we had done something we do not normally do we had ordered a load of cheap bedding from Tesco, which my brother was bringing over, now we won’t have it and we still have my daughter and granddaughter coming in a few days.

We are also stuck on what to do next, we had planned on not really working for a few days, but now we have time on our hands, we don't want to start any big jobs as we need the house to be clean and ready for my daughter to come.

We decide to take a day off and go out for some retail therapy in Brest, which is the largest city near us. There are plenty of shops and there is tram line that goes through the city, parking is relatively easy and there are plenty of car parks and on road parking, though all parking must be paid for.

There is a large IKEA there and we go to look for lights. IKEA always amazes me, as no matter what you go for you cannot leave without spending at least a couple of hundred Euros.

But we do have the lights for most of the rooms and lots of bits and pieces for the kitchen, we are knackered when we get home, neither of us are big shoppers and a day like today is actually more tiring than a day working on the house!

Renovation project - Lost in translation

Renovation project - Lost in translation

We have to go shopping again today to get the new cupboard doors so head off. As we are going into Morlaix we stop off and have a look at a furniture store as we have not found a suite on line that we both like

We go in to Conforama and John sees a leather recliner suite, he is insistent that we buy a comfortable suite this time, I would still prefer something small, but seeing as he has not had anything big enough for him to relax on for over 4 years, I relent and let him try out the recliner suite. (it is very comfortable!) and as it is the display model it has a discount of 40% we really can't let it go.

We arrange to buy it and ask about the use of the van from the shop, we are doing quite well but the assistant immediately recognises we are English and keeps trying to speak in English, this is really helpful but her English is not that good and she keeps using wrong words, her French was much easier to understand!

We eventually buy it and arrange to hire the van, we will be picking it up in two days. We have to pay at the cash desk and she explains to one of the tellers that we are English, so he does not want to serve us, the other person can speak some English so she agrees, again very nice, but not necessary.

They speak to each other before we are served and I explain that I can understand and speak French, just slowly. I am not sure what they said to each other, but at least now I know it will be polite!


The living room will not be ready but we have our first guests coming in three days so we need something for us all to sit on.

Renovation project - Problem solving on a budget

Renovation project - Problem solving on a budget

Now for the big brain wave of what to do with the boxing in, rather than just boxing in the pipes John is going to make the boxing in big enough to be seats, this would mean fixed seats in the kitchen, so that a small table can be added if required or we can just place some French style cushions on it so
that the kitchen will be a really sociable room!

This will be made by adding some strong batons to the wall and making a frame, the seats will be made from floorboards, John will be able to use his router to make a decorative edge but for now they will just be left unfinished.

We have removed some old internal doors from upstairs and these will be the fronts of the seats so this will be a very inexpensive solution to our dilemma.

The wood will be stained the same colour as the worktops and the fronts will be painted white to match the rest of the kitchen.

John is now just upset that he has to install a new electric lead to the fridge which will be on the opposite side of the room and the ceiling is finished so he cannot hide the wire!

Somehow this becomes my fault, as apparently it was me that said we definitely were not having the kitchen on both sides!

We also now have an extra shopping trip to buy the new extra kitchen cupboard doors.

Renovation project - Laying adhesive tile flooring

Renovation project - Laying adhesive tile flooring

Every where is given a second coat of paint and the room is cleared and cleaned ready for the floor to be laid.

John chooses his line for the tiles, this is very important, especially when you have a property where the walls do not run straight. You need to choose a line that will be most obvious when you look at the room. John is going to use the run of units. But as we lay the tiles we realise just how out of line the property is.

The dividing wall between the kitchen and living room is straight and as the tiles will be going in to the living room we need both rooms to look straight.

We also have a problem with our new cooker, it is lower than the units, we can not change the height of the units as they would be too low, but we cannot alter the height of the cooker as the feet do not extend.

There is no option but to build a small platform to put the cooker on, this needs to be done before the floor is laid fully.

John lays most of the tiles upto where the units will go, when laying adhesive tiles the floor needs to be completely free from dust or they will start to peel up. A spray can of contact adhesive is always a handy tool to have.

It's at this point that we start to discuss the kitchen lay out again.

We are once again not sure there will be enough work top, so we rearrange the units and worktops that we have and we both think that the alternative layout will be better.

The only problem is that the electrics are in place and there is a waste pipe that will be on show!

We are also not sure if the dining table and chairs will fit in the kitchen, so many dilemmas!

We discuss that the table can be cut down if it is too big, or that we can get rid of it completely and make a smaller table.


John then comes up with a brain wave that is perfect but thats a story for tomorrow

Renovation project - Renovating an old French kitchen on a budget

Renovation project - Renovating an old French kitchen on a budget

it's another day and John makes all the cupboards for the kitchen, and we set it out as it will be, yes we still like this arrangement (we have not changed our mind again!)

It is time too decide on the order of the jobs, the first was to fit the plaster board to the ceiling, next is to fill the joints, as we will be fitting an adhesive tiled floor we want all of the dusty jobs out of the way.

We finally settled on our flooring and we choose grey slate effect adhesive tiles, at first I would not even consider these, I remember the tiles from the 70's and cannot get this image out of my mind.

But we did not find laminate or engineered wood flooring in the style we wanted, if we had used floor boards it would've meant staining every floor and the stairs to get a matching colour and ceramic tiles would be too cold under foot (yes we are getting old and now want comfort!)

The adhesive tiles were the easiest option giving us what we wanted. They are also a lot warmer than ceramic tiles, which is important as they will be used in the living room as well.

John fills the joints and finishes the window frame. He also has a lot of filling to do on the walls.

Once everything is dry we give it a coat of white paint.

 We have decided to paint the beams white. Normally we would not do this but as they were already painted, (in a dark mucky brown colour) it was not such a problem, and being painted white instead of dark brown it will lift the room and make it much brighter.

Renovation project - Original French ceramic sink

Renovation project - Original French ceramic sink

We start on the kitchen and the first big job is to remove the old kitchen sink, we want to keep this as it is a fantastic original French ceramic sink unit, it is just unfortunate that it has been cemented into the wall.

John has already managed to loosen it and move it slightly to install the water pipes, but now we need to remove it completely, it is so heavy and there are only the two of us.

We place a big piece of folded cardboard on the floor with some pieces of plaster board over it, so that we can hopefully put it straight on here with out dropping it or damaging it.

The doors need to be removed from the old unit, these come off quite easily, one just lifts off and the other falls off due to the rotten wood.

Next it is removing the frame, this is where it gets tricky, if it is removed wrong, the sink unit can just fall, but John manages to remove the frame and the sink is now precariously in place.

It is time to lift it off and move it to the floor, fingers crossed everybody.

John takes the lions share and we manage to get it on the plaster board with no damage. We have saved the sink.

We would recommend that at least two people do a job like this as it is very heavy and if not supported correctly will fall and break.

John has started to fit the new waste pipe from the utility as this will have to connect under the sink, this means breaking a bigger hole through the wall into the kitchen.

As we do this we realise the new style of kitchen we have just planned will have the waste pipe and the water pipes on show, we can box these in, but the boxing in will be high and all the way around the room due to the different heights of the rooms.

We would also have to rethink the plug sockets.

On reflection this would ruin the look of the kitchen and we now go back too our original idea of having the kitchen all along one wall.

I cannot say this enough, do not have set ideas on what you want to do, the house will always let you know what needs to be done.

We set about making the new cupboard for the sink unit, but as we are going to buy cupboard doors this time, we cannot work out the size of them. It is not worth making the unit until we know for definite, so we have no choice but to go and buy them.

The doors are fantastic value at Brico Depot and cost 26 euros for a full size white high gloss door, we buy the handles at 6 euros each (it is only when we get home we realise that the handles come with the doors) this means that the door and handle only cost 26 euros each. John is a happy bunny, provided we can find the receipt to take the spare handles back!

Renovation Project - Plaster board in France

Renovation Project - Plaster board in France

It is time to move downstairs and make a start on the kitchen.

The first Job is to empty the kitchen into the living room, so now we have most of our belongings in one room, overcrowded is an understatement!

We have beams on the ceiling at the moment but because we have installed all new electric cables and the new soil pipe we need to cover these, we do not want to lose the beams entirely so John will be plaster boarding in between the beams. These means we can cover everything but not lose the beams entirely.

John covers the ceiling in insulation, insulation was on special offer, so always shop around for deals.

The insulation is as much for noise reduction from upstairs, due to having wooden floors, rather than just for heat, though, the insulation will make a big difference to the temperature in the downstairs of the house, and hopefully to our heating bills.

Once ready we start to fit the plaster board.

We had already covered a section in the living room, where the soil pipe is, and found out that it is very difficult to use a large piece of plaster board without a plaster board lift.

It consisted of John trying to hold it in place on a ladder and me using the broom to hold the other end in place, this is when we found out the beams were not square so whilst perched like this John was also having to shave bits of plaster board off.

Plaster board in France comes in a larger size than the UK, it is 8 foot by 4 foot (yes we are still in old measures) but the metric size is 2.5 metres by 1.2 metres.

This time we have bought smaller pieces and will be cutting them to size, it will mean more work covering joints but will make life mush easier.

The smaller boards are 2.5 metres by 0.60 metres, the smaller sized boards also meant we could pick them up in the car and did not require a van. We also had very little waste. So the cost of the smaller boards were more than the larger boards, overall, but the lack of waste and ease made it more cost effective.

We found Brico Depot to be the cheapest place to buy plaster board. It is called Plaque de platre

As we are near to finishing Sheila telephones to see if I want to go for a walk, John says he will finish off and I go for a stroll around the lake, when I get back John has changed everything. He has put the temporary cupboards back on the other side of the room, the kitchen looks so much bigger and better.

Once again our plans have changed, we will be having the kitchen units on both sides of the kitchen, and if the table and chairs are too big, we will deal with that at a later date.

Renovation project - We have another bedroom

Renovation project - We have another bedroom

The bedroom walls have finally dried out and this means that John can finish the bedroom. He has had to build a new wall for the bathroom which took the L shape from the bedroom.

It has not made a big difference to the overall size of the room and it is still a good size double.

We have ordered two single beds to go in here, these were ordered from a German site on e-bay as beds are quite expensive in France.


Here is a photo story of the bedroom

the first photo of the room as it was

the painting starts

the bathroom is measured out

the ceiling is painted

the new door is started

the new doorways are in place

the bathroom wall goes up

the new window is installed

the walls are now dry

the plaster board joints are filled

The plaster is sanded ready for painting

The final touches are still required, such as skirting boards and the touch ups around the window and the floors will get another coat of stain and varnish.

But we are now ready for guests and of course the room has the same fantastic view as the other bedroom.