Towards the end of 2016 French Property News contacted us to ask if we would like to appear in a follow up feature about new builds in their magazine. W of course jumped at the chance to appear again. The result was published in February 2017 and can be seen above. Hopefully our ‘top tips’ for potential self-builders will be useful to some people!
We are always keen to hear from other people embarking on self-builds, especially those in France so please feel free to contact us if you are.
We will be heading out for another 2 weeks in the Summer and we can’t wait. We’ve not been able to get there for a while, so are keen to see the works that have been done in our absence – such as the new footpath. Our next plans are for gates at the entrance and more work on the garden!
Watch this space!
If you would like to book La Maison Bois for yourselves, please visit our website for more details. You can book through Gite de France, where you will also find up to date availability.
In early July 2016, we went over to La Maison Bois, to spend our first proper holiday there, i.e. one that didn’t involve a lot of work. This meant that for the first time we were really able to enjoy the house and use as a holiday home. We only had 2 weeks because our first guest were due to arrive on 16th July. Unfortunately, there was a few bits and bobs that we needed to do to satisfy Gite de France and to get it ready for the first guests. One of the most important things was to get the entrance to the house looking more welcoming. We started this by creating a flower bed at the front, which we then planted with lavender. The creamy stone and lavender combination is seen throughout France, but probably because it works so well!
Hard work in the Charente heat
Digging over the beds
Lavender is planted!
Tom also put up our sign a number, 11 bis is official. The lovely blue number is a great improvement on the piece of wood that we had before. Hopefully, it will be easier to find now as well.
Screwing in our number
The new entrance
Well, it just had to be didn’t? It was all about finding a decent version!
The house is finished and ready to rent! We already have 6 weeks worth of bookings so far, which is very exciting for our first year. Tom has been back to the house a few times to meet with Sawdays and Gite de France to discuss our ratings and advertising.
We have also added a balustrade to the terrace. We felt that the drop was just a little too high. Tom designed it to match the house and we found a great local guy called Chris to build it for us. Despite this not being something we wanted but realised that we needed, we feel that it has turned out really well and Chris did a great job.
The new balustrade
As you can see from the image above the grass is doing nicely. It still has a little bit of growing to do and we need to tidy up the posts that can be seen, but there will definitely be a useable garden space in time for our first guests. There is also still some planting to do and I think at the front of the house we will go with lavender. The purple of the lavender and the cream of the stone will always be a winning combination! We had the trees at the front of the house pollarded. Whenn they grow back they will have a much thicker look and give the house some more privacy from the road.
The front of the house
Chris also did a lot of the snagging works inside the house. We know have wardrobes in all the rooms and the architraves and skirting have been finished. It is amazing what a difference these little touches make to the house.
We will be back in the Summer and I for one can’t wait. It will be almost a year since I was last there and so much has changed. If you are interested in renting the house, please visit our website where there are a lot more photos and information about the house.
Tom explains the design of the house (in French!).
Although we didn’t want to Il ne faut pas vendre la peau de L’Ours avant de l’avoir tué we were quite hopeful of success when we saw that our house had been used as the main image for the marketing of Prix Regional Construction Bois. As luck would have it, we won first prize in the Maison Individuelle category! Tom had to go to Niort to pick up the award and then give a speech in French to the other winners, runners up and judges! He said that everyone was very complementary about the house and the design.
All the winners
As winners of the Poitous Charente regional award we are automatically entered in to the national awards. There is no date for when these will be, but we will probably be up against houses in Provence and Cote d’azur! But hey, I’m not to sat that this will happen quand les poules auront des dents – because you never know.
Présentation des projets du Prix Régional Construction bois 2015
We have written about the organisation Futurobois a few times on this blog. It was recommended to us but the regional Architect that we contact them to talk about our build. The Architect also thought that they could help with suggesting a builder who could build to the specifications that Tom has designed. For those that don’t know Futurobois is an inter-professional association of timber companies in the Poitou-Charentes region, including all firms, from logging, to architects, to sawmills, coopers and carpenters. They also assist professionals in the responsible and sustainable development of their business, through collective or individual actions.
The also happen to hold a Regional Wood Awards which celebrates buildings made of timber that have been built over the last year. Now in its 11th Year, the event, ‘Building with wood;’ is being held on 29th January 2016 in Niort. Tom and our builders Marandat entered the competition, but are yet to hear if they’ve been short listed. However, the programme for the day has been released and we are chuffed to see that Tom’s building has been used on the front cover! Even if the house is not short listed, this is great advertising, everyone who attends the conference will see his design and you can’t get much better than that!
Here we are in France, 3 weeks of putting the (hopefully) finishing touches to the house. So much had happened since I last the house that I was very excited to see it. The week before we were there, my sister and her family stayed for a week. They had to do a bit of indoor camping because unfortunately the kitchen hadn’t been fitted in time for their arrival. I hope they still enjoyed themselves though – at least they were able to have a hot shower! Sadly for them, the kitchen started to go in just as they were about to leave and was ready to use by the time that we arrived. The kitchen may be have been delayed, but it is well worth the wait. It is much nicer than the kitchen we have at home and is great fun to use. We were lucky to find our kitchen fitter because he was able to help out with a lot of the other jobs that we needed to do. There was no way that we would have been able to work on the flooring, skirting, wall cladding and other bits and bobs if he hadn’t helped us out. We are very grateful to Matt for all his hard work.
Setting out for shelving
The shelving is up!
Always check your IKEA bits
Helping with the flat pack
Helping with the flat pack
Checking the screws are tight enough!
During our first week, Tom spent a lot of time fixing lighting in the rooms. It is all well and good having a shower or going to the loo with the door open when it is just the two of you, but when there are a lot of builders around, it is a good idea to have the door shut! My DIY skills amount to painting and fixing towel rails and it was a little too early for that, so I was on Supermarket runs and Lego building with Molly. Neither of these things are particular hardships, although letting me loose in a French supermarket may not necessarily be the best idea.
I was able to help Tom with the storage for the living area. He had worked this all out very precisely on IKEAs design page which then kindly gave him a list of all the bits he needed. All of this was included on his mammoth ‘three trolley’ trip to Bordeaux IKEA, but something went wrong and a few bits were missing and a few bits were left over (a door rather than the vital screw we had forgotten to use). Off we popped to IKEA once again, but got round in record time and didn’t even stop for meatballs.
We also went to the Mairie to talk about bins and rubbish collections. I know that even though the translation of Mairie is Mayor, he isn’t the same as our Mayor in Lewisham, I still found it funny that we had to talk to him about our bins when at home residents have to ring a big call centre in a Council building somewhere. I work in the same office as the people whose role includes dealing with problems of missed collections and missing bins and I know that they like me would find it amusing. I can never imagine a situation where Tom and I would walk in to Lewisham’s Town Council Chambers to talk to the Mayor about getting a bin.
Dining room lighting
Lighting went up via scaffolding
Lighting went up via scaffolding
Dining room lighting from scaffolding
Living room lighting from scaffolding
Living room lighting from scaffolding
We have just started the second week and things have moved on massively. It was a flurry of excitement and activity here on Monday (yesterday). Thromas – our plumbers and electricians – came to install shower screens, heated towel rails and some of the lighting. This was the lighting that needed scaffolding to install so Tom wasn’t able to do it. It is amazing what a bit of lighting can do to a room. With these major jobs done there would be a lot less dust being created. This meant we could put furniture together and remove plastic coverings from the windows – the later of these activities certainly made the place feel a little less like a building site. Flapping plastic in never a good look. With the furniture in place we were finally one the way to having a home.
Lighting and furniture
Breakfast in the ‘dining room’
On Thursday, Fred (French Fred), the man doing our earthworks is starting. Hopefully, by the middle of next week we will have a driveway, footpath and some useable garden at the back of the house. This will make a huge difference to the look of the house. Removing plastic from the windows does help stopping the place look like a building site, but the piles of earth and stone all over the place do nothing for the look of the house.
I’m off to do some more cleaning now, we’ve got guests coming in a couple of days, so we need to get things a little more tidy – I think you put up with a lot more when you’ve been living with it for a while. I’ll report back soon on our progress…., but it really is all coming together….!
At the end of July, Tom, his dad and his brother drove down to Montemboeuf for a week. Luckily they were not too delayed with the ongoing problems in Calais and made it in time for a lovely meal at the Lavender House. Over the next week they had a very busy time of it including a mammoth trip to IKEA, putting together flat pack furniture and getting the house cleaned up. They were also able to get a good look at what had been happening in the house in the month since we had last visited the house. One of the most exciting developments was the installation of the bathrooms. It was so great to finally see something installed that we chose just after Christmas. I am just pleased that we still like our choices!
We have a bathroom!
Already in use!
The other big development was the fixing of the shutters. The ‘envelope’ of the wooden cladding can really be seen now. Not only that but it made it much cooler for the builders that were working inside the house. July was a very hot month in Montemboeuf, so I think they were relieved for anything that would cool the house down.
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The first job for the boy was cleaning the house as much as possible. The builder had done his best, but with all the furniture that would be arriving over the next couple of days they needed the place, not quite gleaming, but as dust free as possible. The boys had a tough time of it, but I think it was probably worth it in the end!
A mammoth IKEA shop
Tom’s brother getting to work
Boxes everywhere
The next day they travelled to IKEA to do quite a large shop. Fortunately, IKEA Bordeaux do a click and collect service, so we were able to pre-order and pay for a few items. It may have just been a few, but every little helps when it comes to IKEA. Tom was very lucky that he had the help because they had 3 trolleys worth of goods. I don’t think much can be said about an IKEA shop, other than the fact it took them a long time and they deserved their pineau once they got back!
The next day more furniture was delivered including a bed and sofa. Tom assures me that this is still covered in its protective plastic covering. Nether of us are particularly keen for it to get covered in builder’s dust or paint.
In the month between Tom’s visits our kitchen also arrived, so Tom and his family made a start putting this together. There were quite a few cupboards to assemble and shelves to go in, but they managed to get all this done. All that needs to happen now is for our builder to attach all of this to the wall and install all the electrical goods. We really hope that this can be done by 11th August because this is when my sister and her family will be staying in the house!
Work on the kitchen begins
The Kyle men worked really hard over their week in France and managed to get a huge amount done. Part of me wishes I had been there to see how much progress had been made, but I think Molly and I would have been in the way. Until we get her using a screwdriver it is best that she stays having fun at home!
Two weeks ago, Tom, Molly and I took a very quick trip to Montemboeuf to see how things were going with the build. Having not seen the house since Easter, I was expecting quite a few changes, and there certainly were. The biggest change is of course our wall. It completely changes the look of the house and it was so good to see Stuart’s handy work in the flesh. I could see why he was so proud of it. He is clearly a very talented mason.
Unfortunately, while we were there we discovered that after all the time and effort we took choosing tiles, we found out that our floor tiles were no longer being made and so we had to chose from a new set. We narrowed it down to two, and Molly and Stuart had the deciding votes because Tom and I preferred different ones.
The screed starts to go down
The screed starts to go down
The screed starts to go down
Tiling the hallway
Tiling downstairs
Stuart didn’t waste anytime in starting the work on the screed and the tiling. Partly because, we couldn’t do anything else in the house before this was done! The downstairs tiling in practically finished already, which means Bernard and Thromas (our electricians and plumbers) can start with the second fix! With any luck, the tiling will be finished by the end of next week. If all goes to plan, Tom may actually have a working kitchen and bathroom when he goes back in July.
Work starts on the terracing
Work starts on the terracing
Stuart also started work on the terrace. it is apparently in the mid 30 degrees at the moment, very hot weather to be working outdoors. Still better that than on the roof!
On a slightly more annoying note, our doors are still not fixed. Doors and big windows always seem to be a moment of high tension in Grand Designs, and it is with us. They went in easily enough, but now they don’t really work. The manufacturers have been out a couple of times to try to fix the problem, but haven’t resolved it yet. I just hope when they do come again, they fix them and don’t damage the tiling.
As the wall was going up on the outside, on the inside work started on the painting the walls on the inside. First things first, the whole are had to be sanded to make the surface ready to paint. The poor chap above was given this task and it looks like he did it on a very warm day. Luckily he still seemed to have a smile on his face!
White walls and ceiling
White ceiling
White ceiling
I will not post lots of photos of paint drying, but it is an important step in the build process, so in needed blogging about! We still haven’t quite decided on all the colours, but we are getting there. We even roped in our neighbours and lodger to help us choose our colours, but we only got as far as the grey and orange! We do not have that long to decide because our decorator needs to order the paint from the UK. Paint colours are quite important for the feel and look of the house, so although we don’t have long, ew can’t rush these things either….
The thing about finding songs to match the title of the blog post, or vise versa is that you come across some crackers (and some not so much). I will leave you to decide which this is.
lespetitesgarennes 