Maison d'Amis

Timeline: September:  Now we have the main gîte pretty much completed, its time to get stuck into the little house, our lovely 18^th century listed cottage. We want to bring it back to life as our second gîte, providing a cosy retreat full of charm and original features. It is blessed with lovely tommette clay floor tiles to both floors, an old fireplace and chimney which although covered with multitudinous layers of green paint, hopefully will yield some stone underneath and then there are lots of beamed ceilings, stone niches, fossils and a fabulous exposed timber roof construction. Although a small building, like many structures this old, it has seen changes over the years and as we gradually strip back generations of paint and plaster, some old secrets are revealed. 
 

Maison d'amis, a centuries old time capsule

We discover a low level window opening with a curved head and adjacent door opening in the rear wall, both filled in with stonework at least a hundred years ago, as we have photographs this old showing the external staircase which blocks these openings. The roof line has been increased in height, with the line of the old roof and pockets for roof timbers clearly visible. Another external door is discovered at the front of the house, more recently blocked when the massive stone gate pillars where built. My suspicions are that the rear door and window are probably original to the house, possibly dating back several hundred years when the house was in its original form. The gate pillars were possibly only erected in the 19^th century when the property became more important as a part of a larger wine producing enterprise. More research will hopefully reveal further clues and one of our neighbours family used to own much of the properties in our road as part of their vineyard, so we have some local knowledge to hand.

My now good friend and stone mason Monsieur Deschamps has already created new window openings and we had new windows fitted in July and after many attempts of finding a roofer, the old roof covering was removed in September and as I write this on the 9^th October, the ridge tiles are just being finished and we have a new watertight roof.

  

In the last few weeks, Paul and I have moved a door opening, formed another, repaired various parts of he structure, constructed the timber stud partitioning to the ground and first floors and with great satisfaction, uncovered a stone fireplace beneath all that green paint! Paul has also put all the first fix waste and hot and cold water services, while Sparky Paul has done most of the first fix electrics. There are seemingly more electrical cables than on the space shuttle, but they’re all been hidden more or less away and the rest will soon be covered up by new plaster and plasterboard.

The bathroom (yes, a bath!) to the first floor

We also have had a new purpose made steel balustrade fabricated and expertly fitted by our local metalwork man and Thomas is a remarkable and happy individual to have on your team.

So that brings up pretty much up to date, although we are just about to accept a quotation for construction of a new chimney to the barn and the bride et moi are very much looking forward to the arrival of our god daughter Laura, her sister Emily and Em’s boyfriend Pete and Laura’s friend Olivia tomorrow. We haven’t seen Laura since her last trip to the UK two years ago and Emily since Laura’s High School graduation on Maine in 2006, so we have some catching up to do. Our local restaurant, which is normally closed on Wednesdays, is even opening specially for us to have a grand reunion dinner tomorrow night. How cool is that!

Next time: Masion d’amis, continued . . .

A bientôt,

LC