Stawberries in a bowl of red wine and caster suger is a very nice French dessert. Its called (and please forgive my spelling) Miegae, Pronounced mee jay. The poor version is just bread in red wine and sugar.

Nice door by the way.

thanks for the tip magoo, will give it a go, Raspberries are ready becoming ready to

just a quickie...

back end of last year we finished the roof on the little house, part of the roof was creating the dormers but on finishing we were not happy with the way they looked.

After looking around at all the local perigord houses it was obvious why, the cill for the windows disappears completely into the roof to give a much longer window in keeping with all the other windows & doors in the house & goes with the very the tall roofs synonymous with the perigord region.

So this job has been hanging over me for a while, remove window & part of roof & create longer window tiz all done now & all the better for it, undecided on wether to divide the glass into four sections or not, will wait until downstairs windows and doors are before deciding but have done a PS to give an idea.


this is how it looked when we finished last year, looks like it's wearing a couple of spectacles


DSC01604_2 by pvapour, on Flickr

elongated


DSC02571 by pvapour, on Flickr

and PS division added


DSC02571b by pvapour, on Flickr

some of the doors are coming off Gills production line now, so glass &* fitting being installed, the colour was hard thought on and a load that had been mixed incorrectly had to be returned to UK but the final finish is spot on, Gill looked into the paint and although expensive, superdek by sadolin came up very well regarded, it leaves the grain exposed which gives a lovely texture to the look, satin in finish, will see if I can do a macro photo of the finish.

it is in fact a cream but looks white in these images


DSC02562 by pvapour, on Flickr


DSC02573 by pvapour, on Flickr


stainless flush bolts


DSC02574 by pvapour, on Flickr

Stainless steel ball bearing hinges used, believe it or not, it makes a big difference to the action and maintenance of a door.


DSC02563 by pvapour, on Flickr

Boxes for new underground electrics going on as the BIG day lumes for the switch over


DSC02565 by pvapour, on Flickr


DSC02564 by pvapour, on Flickr

took me nearly 2 hours to pull the 35mm cable through 90º bend of 12" sodding concrete took me back to my nail bending days


DSC02572 by pvapour, on Flickr

did a say a quickie?

wanted to get top windows altered as we're getting excited about the front door and windows going in shortly & want to get the full effect

think you're right, we've already bought the mouldings to create them so they'll probably happen

1 year into the project in total & although the 1st house is not finished we have slotted in LOTS of other things that were meant to be done later so think we're still on target for 5 years.

It does seem like only yesterday we started though, a good thing in many ways, one being that our passion & enthusiasm is as bright as the day we started, no signs of any boredom creeping in whatsoever.

I guess excitement builds as we approach the finish of our first, it'll be interesting to see how we feel once it is finished & we hit winter again & have to start doing the roof on 'D' but hten we'll be tucked up in the new little house for Christmas, which will be (we love Christmas)

But then we await two big decisions from other parties at the moment that could effect the project big time, fingers x that its positive, enjoy the journey, they cant take away yesterday

eta: yes and how much for the hot tub then ???

Always look forward to your updates. For what its worth, I prefer the windows with the division.

Wondering about the pylons...
1. How will you get their tops to be at a uniform height so that the deck is level?
2. How will you prevent them from settling to different depths over time?

How did you get the wall plate/beam attached to the wall?

Looks great!

1. How will you get their tops to be at a uniform height so that the deck is level?
using wall plate to bring level off, use a concrete block/s (see below) at each end of pylon to adjust to right level then just strike a straight line from one to the other (beams although differ in size are straight as a dye) inserting a conc. block every 600

2. How will you prevent them from settling to different depths over time?
we're on clay and the ground at this point is high & has a drainage ditch to the front so very little damp ground where I'll be laying, in fact, even the ditch I've never seen access water, drainage on the whole site is very good.

each block will sit in 4" of compacted harcore, sand & then block, I will allow an inch for settling & I'm laying 2 months before we'll be decking which should show up any probs, ground is in a good state for the job at the moment, as soft as it will ever be.

3.How did you get the wall plate/beam attached to the wall?
normally I'd have used rawbolts but the expansion on limestone I think would be to great so went for 150 x 6 screws with fischer plugs at 300 ctres, it wont take masses of load tbh, doorways more so but even so, the first beam is only 600 away and the 1" thick boards sit on 3 x2 so they'd probably support with no wall plate at all.

the pylons are overkill but I'm looking to get rid of them out of one of our fields & the height I need to make up at one end of house is allot, support posts would waiver I think, Its not difficult with the JCB tbh, it'd be more difficult to go and get materials and start mixing concrete etc.

eta - another reason we want the height is because i'll be hiding the Air exchange units beneath the decking with a trap door for access. keeps the rear aspect clean and clutter free.

cheers BT, did as you said although I made my own type 1
carrots are a little less impressive, as a guy, I felt a little sorry for them but Gill was impatient to see what they looked like, she's happy that they are straight


DSC02584 by pvapour, on Flickr

A big part of this project is doing it on a tight budget, any situation I tackle I look for what we already have on the farm that I can recycle, the pylons fitted this scenario perfectly, the wood & concrete normally used to create the height would have cost far more than nothing

managed to do a couple yesterday, traversing the dip just in front of the house with the pylon balancing is a little hairy, backhoe extended fully to rear helps balance out the weight but it a big strain on the old girl.

you can just see the recesses for the AC units, drainage pipes for condensation installed but cant be seen.


IMG_0380 by pvapour, on Flickr


IMG_0381 by pvapour, on Flickr

more bushes planted for gardens borders


DSC02577 by pvapour, on Flickr

sand blasting the internal oak beams this w/e, its a heavily suited & booted job & we have 33º temps forecast better get the water ready.....

eta weather

I have been following this and you have a lifestyle I would love.

The farm, the location and the dog. Truly magical.

Shouldn't you be at work?

knew what we had to do this w/e & not been looking forward to it, not done it before but all who had gave warning

sand blasting, one of those jobs that makes you wish you had the money to pay someone

we've picked a particularly difficult one to start with, one end of the little house had been used to smoke meat by the looks of things, the beams are incased in a black coating born from this of the last 100 years or so, it cannot be scratched off with a screwdriver, its tough! luckily only two of the beams are effected


DSC02588 by pvapour, on Flickr

the culprit fireplace is just as bad


DSC02589 by pvapour, on Flickr

it takes 10 bags (250kg) of the specially dried & treated sand, just for these two beams


DSC02587 by pvapour, on Flickr

1 x compressor


DSC02590 by pvapour, on Flickr

a load of pipes & one venturi sand blaster


DSC02591 by pvapour, on Flickr

complete with diving bell head gear which gets fed with clean air


DSC02592 by pvapour, on Flickr

in action just as started, 2 mins later nothing could be seen for dust, debries & sand & its 33º


DSC02599 by pvapour, on Flickr


DSC02603 by pvapour, on Flickr

its not a two man job but its easier as one can operate the valve for amount of sand while the other gives thumbs up, our machinery was awful, old & tired and bits falling off.

if anyone else hires one, be sure to get plenty of spare plastic panels for the helmet viewing section, we didn't & I spent a long time with 3000 grit wet n dry

just about managed woodwork & brickwork with 40 bags of sand, we now have a fair bit of sand to sweep up but it was worth it, even if pics dont really show it, after god knows how many years, the wood breathes once more, not gone above the joist line as it will be boarded under the joists.


DSC02605 by pvapour, on Flickr


DSC02605 by pvapour, on Flickr