Renovating a Gite in Brittany

Apart from gite changeover on Saturday I been resting and watching Formula 1, recuperating for this week. Today I've been jointing and taping the stairwell in the other gite. My friend Ian, who loves plastering, put the cream coloured enduit around the kitchen door surround. Caroline has been tiling one of the bathroom walls – I think she is getting a bit fed up of tiling – and the three of us have managed to knock a few of those niggling jobs off the list. You know, the one's that you can't face at the time and delay and delay.

Last thing tonight I went over the enduit with a wire brush to give it a rough, rustic, texture to make it look the same as the exterior enduit. When the macons applied the enduit on the outside they put in on quite thick (about 15mm ?) then left it to harden after a few hours then ran over the enduit with a 'nail board' to give it the rough texture. Ian and I just followed their example but I used a wire brush because it was a small fiddly area. I am extremely pleased with the finished result .

Shown in the photographs are the original doorway, the working in progress version after sandblasting and some plasterboard infill to square things up and cover some concrete and finally the finished result with the creme coloured render blended into the doorway. The remainder of the plasterboard will be painted an appropriate colour to pull the whole together.

 brittany gites

Whilst Caroline has been tiling next door I've been filling, rubbing down, painting and varnishing the stairwell in the other gite. There is another coat of paint to do upstairs and finish off vanishing the stonework downstairs.

Before painting the plasterboard, and after filling all the joints and screw holes, I bought some sous-couche plaque de platre from my favourite DIY store. It was only 5 euros (3 pounds) for 10 litres. It worked really well as an undercoat on the board and stopped all my expensive paint being soaked up like a sponge.

The stonework is being varnished with a thinned down 'breathable' varnish to highlight the stones and help prevent the dust from the pointing. These are the stones that I sandblasted ages ago and Caroline pointed up with a sand and lime mortar. You can see the difference in the section left to do.

Once this stairwell is finished I've got to move over to the other gite and do it all again!

brittany gite

Caroline has been floor tiling today and yesterday in the other gite in preparation for the staircases and I've been jointing and taping the bits of plasterboard at the top of one of the stairwells and Velux window. Once the stairs are installed it would be more difficult to reach the ceiling etc. above the stairs. I'm also likely to drip paint onto the new stairs, so we have planned to finish and decorate the stairwells before the stairs arrive.

brittany gites

Yikes, we've just taken our first booking for one of the two new gites. Fortunately it's not until Christmas, so plenty of time for another Pastis. The original goal was to have them both finished for August, but that seems a little optimistic at the moment, especiallyconsidering how tired we both feel at present.

brittany gites

Almost finished plasterboarding the two gites. Shown is the kitchen area from this afternoon with the two layers of insulation, brown paper backed 100mm and yellow 45mm that slots between the metal vertical rails. Because it is the kitchen here's quite a few pipes and cables that need to be run through whilst I'm working.

As a reminder here are the floorplans of the gites, upstairs and downstairs

The lounge area and toilet/wash room are all finished so hopefully Caroline should be able to start floor tiling the second gite in a day or two. It takes a day to clean out all my tools and materials etc.

I'm going to take a break for a few days after this. The tiredness and fatigue is really starting to take it's toll, but the light (for this stage anyway) is at the end of the tunnel. I just don't want to think about filling the plasterboard joints, fitting kitchens, tiling bathrooms or painting and decorating just yet !

brittany gites

The four of went to try out the new Ten Pin Bowling alley in Dinan this afternoon, Le Belem Bowling. When the kids bowled, 'bumpers' rose out of the gulleys to keep the ball on the track making it much more enjoyable for them. It worked out as 4.50 € per game which isn't too bad.

Somewhere extra for our gite guests to try on those rainy days

Caroline has made excellent progress and finished the floor tiling in the lounge, kitchen and dining room of one of the gites. All the tiles have been laid on the diagonal and grouted. The finished product looks superb.

I've been frantically plasterboarding in the other gite to try to get ready for her to start floor tiling the other gite. This gite seems to have more fiddly bits round the windows and doors which has slowed progress. I've been using mortier adhesif (MAP) to stick the board to the window and door returns and lintels. I don't know what mortier adhesif is called in English but it's a white cement type powder that is mixed with water and 'thrown' in blobs onto the back of the plasterboard and then pressed onto the brick/stone surface.

For all the straight walls runs I'm using the metal rail system with a 100mm gap between the stone and the plasterboard filled with 'rigid'  glass fibre panels 60cm by 130cm. Working with glass fibre is one of my least favourite jobs as it gets everywhere and is really irrating. I've found the best way to cut the panels is to lay the moisture resistant paper backing face down on a wooden board, press down with a wide staight edge to compress the panel then cut through with a long bladed Stanley knife. The panels are then slotted in between the wall and the plasterboard with the paper facing into the room.

I'm not looking forward to insulating the roof spaces. The 200mm thick rolls are much more difficult to handle and the glass fibres break off much more easily. I would stongly recomment wearing a quality mask when working with the stuff.

Yesterday was the annual village relay race and evening knees-up. There is a group of 12 villages, – Plesder, Evran, St Judoce, … – , the communité de communes, which group together to provide teams to run a relay race from village to village (commune to commune). Each village takes in in turn to host the event and this year was the turn of Les Champs Geraux.

We went along to watch the runners finish, although I can't remember who won; but I'm not sure it's that important, and to see Elizabeth dance as part of a display by the Breton Dance team. Afterwards there is the mandatory evening meal and party that always is great fun and goes on until the early hours.

Last time I cut the grass the belt on the mower broke, this time the cutting deck broke. I think it's best if I stick to DIY and Caroline mows the lawns. The only reason I did the mowing was because she was laying more floor tiles and I was meant to be looking after the Children. Public holiday so no school today because of Ascension.

The actual bit that broke was a weld on the cutting deck height adjustment mechanism. Unfortunately the piece was deep in the bowels of the mower and needed half a dozen imperial spanners and sockets to get at it. I can't remember the last time I used a 3/8″ spanner. It's particularly odd living in France using English spanners on a rebadged American mower.

A quick trip to my local hardware store tomorrow should see the weld repaired and then I can finish mowing. I do actually have an arc welder, but I've never put in the time to practice enough to be confident of getting a good weld. I don't fancy having to strip the mower again if my own weld fails.

Yesterday I finished off all the plasterboarding in the left hand gite, so Caroline – the Bonnie Tiler – started laying the floor tiles this morning. She is laying them on the diagonal, which means extra cuts at the edges, but it looks much better. This is quite a milestone for us because our old stone barn is now really starting to look like a livable holiday cottage.

With the staircases coming to be fitted in a couple of weeks we need to push on a bit to get the tiling done, which means I'm now plasterboarding the right hand gite so Caroline can tile that one as well.

There are are boxes and boxes of tiles stacked up in the garage along with about 25 large sacks of adhesive. I think we will both need a break after this stage.