Chamonix studio renovation - build thread
Discussion
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.
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.
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? I'm assuming you had the most outstanding few months in the alps too?
Me too. The guilt feels so heavy 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
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
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 said:
Anyone else really starting to dislike Gruffy?
( )
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
Hi Darren
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
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
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