Chamonix studio renovation - build thread

Chamonix studio renovation - build thread

Author
Discussion

silversurfer1

918 posts

135 months

Monday 16th December 2013
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Fantastic job!

The pan connector does not look like the type that come with the grohe frames, they are usually black and are slim enough to clip into the frame so you dont disturb the pipe work behind.

Perhaps that is why is was some grief ?


jinkster

2,235 posts

155 months

Thursday 2nd January 2014
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How you getting on with the build?

Marcellus

7,111 posts

218 months

Thursday 2nd January 2014
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he's too busy boarding to update us... but still within the "SILENCE" period iirc!"

Du1point8

21,604 posts

191 months

Monday 3rd February 2014
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Need updates...

E36GUY

5,906 posts

217 months

Monday 3rd February 2014
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What Marcellus' post. He's too busy skiing and Alpine law states you can't do building work during the season.

MiniMan64

16,860 posts

189 months

Thursday 10th April 2014
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Come on! Must be finished by now?!

Gruffy

Original Poster:

7,212 posts

258 months

Thursday 10th April 2014
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You'd have thought so, wouldn't you?

There was some good progress in January/February, but I have a couple of days work left to do. Right now I'm fully occupied with ski-touring and my design work, but I've got some time booked in next week to finish it before I head back to the UK after Easter. I'll post some tasty snaps at the tail end of next week.

MitchT

15,787 posts

208 months

Thursday 10th April 2014
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You're a designer and you can actually afford property! I must be doing something wrong. Love the web page BTW - very clever hehe

prand

5,910 posts

195 months

Sunday 4th May 2014
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So Gruffy, I'm fed up of seeing this thread sit here in my bookmarks without an update. Now the ski season is good and over, did you manage to finish anything off? smile I'm assuming you had the most outstanding few months in the alps too?

Gruffy

Original Poster:

7,212 posts

258 months

Friday 9th May 2014
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prand said:
So Gruffy, I'm fed up of seeing this thread sit here in my bookmarks without an update. Now the ski season is good and over, did you manage to finish anything off? smile I'm assuming you had the most outstanding few months in the alps too?
Me too. The guilt feels so heavy hehe

It is almost finished. There are a handful of aesthetic things to be tidied. Probably 4 days work to do it all justice. We got lucky and had friends of friends wanting to rent from us indefinitely and they've been in for the past two weeks. My own work got so busy in April that there just wasn't time (or the necessity) to finish everything.

It's so close it's really frustrating, but I have to wait for a few non-stock items to come in (skirting board caps, laminate trim pieces) so it wasn't possible to finish before the end of the season anyway. The phone line needs extending and running through the conduit in the wall (currently trails below the storage area) and the fireplace needs some plastering attention from somebody who knows how to wield a float properly.

I chopped down a friend's silver birch (it was blocking his view of the Aiguille du Chardonnet) and that's currently drying. Later in the summer I'll pop back and install it inside the apartment, on the corner landing of the stairway. It will 'grow' out of the stairway and extend right into the ceiling with some of the branches left in place near the top. I just wanted to soften that corner of the apartment.



Made friends with a gamekeeper from Exeter while I was in Chamonix. He's hooking me up with a big red deer skull and antlers. That'll go on the opposite wall.

I don't have any recent photos of the apartment on account of the last-minute rush and the fact we'd already rented it meant there wasn't an urgent need. I'm back in September to finish it off and get some snaps for winter marketing (the tenants are out in December and we start letting weekly via Airbnb/PH).

So, instead, an update on how great life in Chamonix is:

Each morning I walk the hound in the forest…



…or he comes ski-touring up a mountain with me


This is a great shot to show how amazingly well located the place is. That's the lift for Grand-Montets on the left and on the right you can see Mont-Blanc and the Aiguille du Midi. These are arguably the two best lifts in the world for backcountry skiing.


Rode a lot of pow



When the snow stopped I tried a bit of ice climbing


Then started doing more touring





Sadly I didn't get a weather window for Mont-Blanc, so another season passes without ticking that one off. Next spring!

Then cheated a bit




Found some new office space


Was reborn

Gruffy

Original Poster:

7,212 posts

258 months

Friday 9th May 2014
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MitchT said:
You're a designer and you can actually afford property! I must be doing something wrong. Love the web page BTW - very clever hehe
I'm 'reassuringly expensive', but the toy is also getting sold to fund this. I only intended to rent for a season but the sums made no sense. It was a stretch but with an 85% LTV offer it would have been foolish not to buy. Now that it's rented it pays for itself and I like to think I've added a decent chunk to its value.

As for the website, well, you know what they say about necessity being the mother of invention. I keep promising myself I'll find some time and replace that holding page (much like finishing the apartment then) but those pesky clients keep giving me paying work instead.

Edited by Gruffy on Friday 9th May 10:16

monthefish

20,439 posts

230 months

Friday 9th May 2014
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grumpy
Anyone else really starting to dislike Gruffy?


















( hehe )

DoubleSix

11,691 posts

175 months

Friday 9th May 2014
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yes

Zippee

13,438 posts

233 months

Friday 9th May 2014
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monthefish said:
grumpy
Anyone else really starting to dislike Gruffy?


















( hehe )
I've always disliked the chap.
He's always doing really cool stuff, has the worlds coolest dog, is good looking, popular, a driving god, travels extensively, lives a lifestyle that (albeit busy) others would die for and has absolutely nothing anyone can really say bad about him. Whats to like frown



Hi Darren waveyhehe


Gruffy

Original Poster:

7,212 posts

258 months

Friday 9th May 2014
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The cheque is in the post.

prand

5,910 posts

195 months

Friday 9th May 2014
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I am so pleased I asked now! ragelaugh

Gruffy

Original Poster:

7,212 posts

258 months

Tuesday 16th September 2014
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I was in Chamonix last week attempting to nail the finishing touches and get some nice photos for the airbnb listing. I managed most of them but lost my second pair of hands so couldn't attempt installing the (now-dried) tree on the stairwell.



























The hatch on the stair landing is now finished but I didn't get a photo. That's a shame because it's been a real triumph. 2 cubic metres of extra storage space that would otherwise have been lost and the finish is really neat.

The apartment went up on airbnb last night and we'll be offering it to people from December onwards. Happy to offer better rates to PHers. Here's the listing - comments welcome.

Chamonix apartment rental

DoubleSix

11,691 posts

175 months

Tuesday 16th September 2014
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Absolutely stunning - bravo! clap

I'm sure I'll be enquiring at some point smile

rpguk

4,458 posts

283 months

Tuesday 16th September 2014
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Looks fantastic, well done!

B17NNS

18,506 posts

246 months

Tuesday 16th September 2014
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First class, well done thumbup