Before starting the second house to renovate into a gite it seemed necessary to build a garage. At the moment the second building is functioning as a garage storing all my tools, equipment and materials, but as it starts to be renovated I’ll definitely need more space and somewhere to store everything once it’s finished.

I don’t want anything too fancy, just a big wooden shed, but if it’s over 2 square meters and permanent then planning permission is needed. Things have changed recently and various types of planning permission are required. For more information see French Planning Permission.

I chose to use the Déclaration préalable for a garage less than 20 square meters. The forms are available online, but I got a copy from the local Mairie because they need multiple copies and the offline version uses NCR paper to make all the copies. The form is about 15 pages but most of it I left blank, really all they needed on the form was Name, Address, Cadastral Plan references and the size of the building. I also supplied copies of the drawings above (done using Google Sketch Up) with ‘artistic impressions’ of the garage and the position on the land. The overhang on the side of the garage is for log storage and some dry cover. Yes, I know the perspective on my images plonked on the photo is out a bit, but it’s only to give the planners and idea.

When I handed in the form they checked everything and did point out that they wanted a site plan with the position of the garage. Helpfully they printed out a large scale cadastral plan for me and I marked in fluo it’s position. They also checked through the form whilst I was there and checked up on a few regulations. They did point out that the garage had to either touching the boundary of my land and in-line with the edge of the house OR at least 5 meters in from the boundary. I’d planned on putting the garage a meter or so in from the boundary but on their advice moved it to the edge. They also verified that the land was in a constructible zone. Nearly all my land is zoned as agricultural A and therefore can not be built upon, fortunately there is a 10m wide strip in-front of the house that is zone Nh and is OK.

I should get a decision within a month and according to the receipt if I don’t get a decision by the end of the month following my application I can proceed anyway. However my French isn’t that good so I’ll think I will just wait a while first.

I would recommend going to the Mairie and talking to the local planner as they are helpful and can save quite a bit of time and re-applications by avoiding simple errors like my positioning near the boundary.

To recap – The septic tank system, with pump and sand filter bed was installed almost a year ago but never really used until we moved into the house in August. Within a few days there was quite a strong smell in the laundry room. The laundry room houses the electric meter, water supply and the main drain to the tank. Fortunately shutting the door kept most of the smell in. Talking to friends they suggested that it just needs a little time to settle and get a crust on the surface of the water in the tank.

Anyway after a few weeks the smell was getting stronger and permeating into the rest of the house. There was definitely something wrong with my plumbing. As a temporary measure I even put a small extractor fan on the outlet for the tumble dryer to suck the bad smell out.

Things didn’t really improve and I spent lots head scratching and pondering trying to work out how the smell was getting back into the house. I checked all the obvious things, like all the traps had water in them, the primary and secondary vents were clear, the soil pipe entered the tank below the water line etc. I just couldn’t understand how the gas was getting in. Maybe there was a pressure build up and the gas was forcing it’s way past the trap for the washing machine. I started imagining the nightmare scenario that somehow I must have cracked or broken a soil pipe under the floor. But even that didn’t really make sense as the smell was isolated to the laundry room and the pipes were buried under the concrete floor.

Anyway to buy some thinking time I decided to leave the lid off the pumping chamber that pumps the waste water from the tank up the garden to the sand filter bed. The pumping chamber has a small electric pump with a float that kicks when the water level rises. It is also vented using the same pipework as the vent for the septic tank. It worked as a temporary solution but sitting outside was not very pleasant.

I was on the point of calling out either the installers of the system or a drain company to send cameras down the soil pipes to find the problem when some friends turned up. After a standing over the pumping chamber bathing in the aroma for a few minutes telling them about the problem, one of them pointed to the red conduit in the side of the pumping chamber containing the electric cable for the pump and asked, ‘where does that go?’

Bing – light bulb goes on. The conduit goes to the fuse box in the laundry room and it was open both ends. All the waste gas was travelling up the electrical conduit straight into the house.

Stuffing a plastic bag into the end of the conduit and sealing the end up with silicon solved the problem. Lid back on, no smell anywhere; fantastic

Sometimes you just get so fixed on one thing (e.g. the soil pipes or my incompetence as a plumber) and just can’t see the wood for the trees!

Before delivery I put a tarpaulin down to stop all the sawdust and loose bits covering the gravel.
This year we got two cords or wood and hopefully shouldn’t use all of it, so leaving some of the logs to dry out for next year. In future we should only need 1 cord per year and then use last years’ delivery of mature wood.

The ‘house warming’ party went off with a swing. It was almost exactly 1 year after I bought the house. It’s been a long and hard road, especially the last few months. Time for a rest and a little self-indulgence.

The concrete mixer and trailer is tucked away in the long grass at the back. I guess I’m going to have to get the strimmer and blitz the garden; if summer ever arrives.

It’s certainly a huge improvement over this builders yard

Stinky

With the bathrooms operational and having been moved in for nearly a week there has been quite a strong smell coming from the septic tank back up into the house. The septic tank does have a ventilation pipe running from the output side of the tank and before the filter bed that vents up through the roof. However first impressions seem to be that this is not working correctly and the smelly gases are somehow coming back through the input side and the gas escaping through a trap. Fortunately the trap the gas has chosen is the washing machine trap in the laundry cupboard. Keeping the door to the laundry room shut helps, but it’s still seeping into the house.

As a temporary measure we’ve fitted a small fan to the tumble drier pipe to suck out the gas and relegated the tumbler to the garage. Blocking the washing machine trap might well shift the gas escape to a more sensitive part of the house !

Speaking to some friends they said that their new septic system also smelt a bit at first but settled down quickly. It does seem a bit strange to me that the gas isn’t taking the easy route via the vent.

I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.

UPDATE: Problem solved.

Well it took a good deal longer than expected. Firstly I had to rub down the floorboards with a fine glasspaper because the grain of the wood had lifted slightly from the previous application of a woodworm treatment. The tin of oil (Huile Naturelle pour Parquets, incolore mat) said to apply liberally with a brush then wipe of the excess after an hour. Well of course I knew better and decided not to wipe off the excess and leave it overnight to soak in. Anyway it was getting to 2′o’clock in the morning and bed was calling.

So this morning we find that most of the oil had soaked in but it was still very wet and like an ice skating rink. Maybe if we leave it a bit longer it will disappear. Well it didn’t. So we both had to remove our shoes and socks and paddle in armed with piles of old cloths and towels to mop up the excess. This actually took quite a while because the oil had now started to go sticky and was pretty difficult to remove.

Fortunately it all turned out OK, as once the excess had been removed the floor dried properly (as it said it would on the tin) and the finish looked fantastic. The oil really brought out the grain and gave the oak planks a nice warm colour. The photo shows the difference between the pre-treated oak and the oiled oak.

In case you are wonder why I didn’t just use a varnish, it’s because I find that a varnish (even a matt finish) leaves a slightly ‘plastic’ sheen on the wood and I believe the oil shows a more natural finish and lets the wood ‘breath’ . The oil finish is slightly higher maintenance as it needs to be re-applied occasionally, but I think worth it.

We’ve got a basic kitchen (thank you to my plumber friend Ian who connected up the propane gas bottles outside) and a fully functioning downstairs bathroom. I finally got round to buying a sink and everything is connected up. We are still waiting for the built-in fridge delivery but we have got a temporary free standing fridge in the kitchen until it arrives.

The place is still a bit of a mess with everything from the rental property in boxes or carrier bags, but at least we are in. Moving out from the old place took ages and quite a few trips back and forth with the trailer, but apart from the final clean everything is out.

At the moment we are sleeping in the office downstairs as our bedroom upstairs has turned into a storage space, so there is still quite a bit to do. The main jobs in the next few days before the kids come to stay for the weekend are :-

• Clear lounge and oil floorboards
• Connect water and waste to kids bathroom sinks
• Fit shower mixer and shower door to kids bathroom
• Hook up the satellite for the TV – Kids need TV and I want to watch the Hungarian Forumla One Grand Prix

Then next week we have our one year on party and the following week my Mum and three nieces are coming to stay!

I wish the days were a bit longer, but on the plus side we don’t have to travel 30 minutes each way to and from the rental place.

Even with lots of unfinished jobs, there is one plus side, the France Telecom man came the other day and connected the Telephone and ADSL, so at least I have a 4meg broadband connection, not that I’ve got much time for surfing.

The kitchen went in today, and some of yesterday. It all went together remarkably easily and I have to say the quality of the IKEA stuff was very good. There wasn’t a single screw, nail or fixing missing. Everything just slotted together perfectly.

The cooker is in but not connected to the gas yet. I’m waiting for a plumber friend to come and sort that out. The other minor change, which required an extra shopping trip to IKEA in Nantes, was to replace our free standing fridge/freezer with a built-in unit. This meant an additional 60cm wide tall unit and the purchase of a new built-in fridge/freezer. The new fridge/freezer is going to be delivered in a couple of days and should just slot straight into the corner cabinet.

So, kitchen in but not quite functional yet. It is also missing handles, plinthes under the units, the splashback and extractor for the cooker and some tiling behind the sink. I guess we’ll have to live without these for a short time.

No photos as yet, I’ve just not had the time (a bit of a lame excuse) but at the moment it’s basically wake-up, work, sleep.

As it turned out it wasn’t quite as quick as hoped. Assembling all the various bits and pieces and getting the curved shower doors to fit and run smoothly took most of the day. The water connection was very simple, just two screw fittings, but the waste proved a little more tricky.

They provided a flexible waste outlet from the shower tray, but it was very difficult to get your hands in to connect the waste and push the unit back into the corner without kinking the pipe. After quite a bit of fiddling about and some cross words the whole unit slipped into place and the water seems to run away without a problem. I’ve no idea if there is a leak on the waste as you just can’t see properly.

With hindsight it might have been possible to jack the whole unit up in the air 30 cms then make the connections and lower it into place, but when you are up against a deadline and very tired the obvious or alternative solutions don’t always come to you.

In the last week we have also managed to get quite a lot of the other sanitary ware installed. The kids bathroom is basically finished. The painting is finished and it has a toilet, sinks and shower. It’s just waiting for the hot and cold water to be connected to the sinks and shower. The downstairs bathroom is also almost complete with it’s undercoat, toilet and shower. It’s just waiting on a corner sink to be fitted. It’s not much use moving in and not being able to wash and go to the toilet. The kitchen and lounge will have to wait until the last minute.

Nine days to go before we are homeless.