The window frame was made from some oak beams of 10cm by 20cm sections to take a 60cm by 75cm window. That's the internal dimensions of the window. The window is actually about 4cm larger all around as it is fitted to the inside face of the frame. Just for fun and a little authenicity I used oak pegs to made the joints in the frame. Because the joints in the frame might leak on the window sill there are two channels cut into the underside of the sill and a plastic membrane running under the sill and up behind the window. Hopefully this should allow and water to drain away outside, rather than collect in the wall and cause a damp problem inside.

Making the hole in the stone wall is a little scary, as the hole always seems to end up about twice the size that you need it because of errant large stones. From the photo you can see the inside beam at the top of the hole that protudes right into the wall. The new window was deliberately positioned right under this beam so that I only needed to use one acro prop to support all the stone above the window. As you can see quite a lot of stone still falls out which all needs putting back in. Personally I use quite a dry mix of mortar so that there is very little 'cement water' that seeps out to stain the face of the stonework. Any mortar is also raked out at this stage to leave a gap between the stones for pointing later.

The inside of the window is just shuttered with some old planks and concrete used to fill out the inside wall. I used a couple of bits of oak beam to make the internal lintel then infilled with stone above. The internal lintel is not shown in this photo. The internal stonework and concrete has to wait until the external stonework is complete, but not all the external stonework can be done at once. Therefore this whole process has taken several days, by building up several layers of stone outside, backfilling with concrete, then more outside stonework etc. etc.

Personally I pretty pleased with the end result. Things are really starting to move along quite swiftly and the downstairs rooms should start taking shape soon.

Whilst the concrete has been drying, and along with jobs I've been doing for the roofers, I've started the next doorway but through a cob (mud and straw) wall this time. The wall is about 60cm thick and the door will be 90cm by 2m tall, roughly. I started bashing away with a chisel and hammer thinking, hey it's only mud, how difficult can it be. Well after a full day with power tools (an SDS hammer drill) I can tell you this stuff is like concrete. It's far harder and messier than a stone wall any day. The dust gets everywhere and the volume of spoil seems to double, if not triple, in size as it's excavated.

I used a similar technique to the stone doorway by knocking a couple of holes through above the door to insert two supporting timbers. Because the cob is so tough I don't think I'm going to need to shutter up the side of the door and back fill with concrete so I just cut a large slot at the top of the doorway and inserted three large bits of timber for the lintel and cemented them into place.

After they had set for a day or two I then cut through below. The door will be the width of the orange lines eventually, but I broke through first and I'm then going to trim and straighten the edges later. I friend of mine (thanks Chris) did tell me that they actually make a special saw for cutting through cob. It's got very large teeth and he believed a bit like those old fashioned two man tree saws. Fortunately he had a knackered old two man tree saw in the garage which he has lent me to try to trim the edges with. Once I find a sucker to work the other end I'll let you know how it works out.

Anyway, as I was excavating I just shoveled the mud down the staircase. Here's what I ended up with. A huge pile of rubble and god knows how many wheelbarrow trips to clear it all. Note the acro prop downstairs to support the acro prop upstairs.

I've got another two of these openings to do, both upstairs, one in each house. One is in a stone wall again and the other in a cob (mud and straw) wall. I think it might be wise to go and buy some more acro props, especially for the upstairs because I'll need to support the floor beams from underneath to take the strain of the bracing on the first floor.

On a slightly more fun note, I had a huge bonfire at the end of this week. All the old lattes removed from the roof needed disposing of, so the obvious solution was to burn them. The wood was tinder dry and so it was certainly a fierce blaze. Every after several thousand years a great bonfire still captivates.

All the walls in the cottage, like the majority of old Breton houses, are built with stone and mud and range from about 60cm to 80cm thick. They are amazing sturdy and robust.

Before starting, workout were you want the hole and markout the size plus a bit extra for the width. I used orange fluo spray and made the opening 10cm wider each side than I wanted. The reason is that the stone overlaps quite a bit and often there is a really large stone right where you want the edge. It pays to have a little flexibility.

Unfortunately I forgot my camera yesterday so you'll have to visualise what I'm talking about. Obviously to stop the wall collapsing on your head it needs some support, so start by making a smallish hole, or holes, above the proposed lintel height to slide a heavy duty bit of wood through. In my case I only made one hole for a 1m wide opening because I also had two existing beams set into the wall. Usually the beams go most of the way into the wall so I used them and the extra central prop. Use some spare planking and big nails to 'lock' the whole lot together to prevent twisting. Also nail the acro props top and bottom. A little errant driving later with a wheelbarrow full of concrete could spell disaster.

Once everything is secure it's time to start tunneling through. It is a bit scary and stuff does just suddenly drop down from above, so basically take care. The hole will end up being a lot bigger than you expect because of the nature of the stone wall. Once you have made the initial hole a crowbar and a lump hammer should be sufficient to excavate the whole thing.

Don't be surprised about how much stone and mud comes out of the wall. A little tip, during demolition take the stones, especially the larger ones, out by hand and toss them to the side. If you let everything fall to the floor at you feet it's a pain later on as you work down the wall to clear up the mess, especially if your acro props are too close and you forgot to put some old board down to make shoveling up easier. Note how the wall 'collapses' in a triangle shape.

Once the hole was opened up to the correct size and all the rubble was cleared up it was time to repair the damage. Using an old door and some planks, I clamped some vertical supports each side of the wall to the required finished size of the opening. These vertical bits of wood are used to nail the shuttering on to so we can backfill with concrete. I'm using concrete because the wall is going to be plasterboarded later. Starting at the bottom (!) nail short bits of planking, one or two at a time, to the vertical pieces and pour in the concrete and some old bits of rubble to pad it out a bit. Basically work your way up each side a few planks at a time tamping down with a stick to ensure the mix gets into all the crevices.

With several barrow loads of concrete behind the shuttering I made sure the planks did not 'pop' off by adding some bracing between each side of the door to hold the shuttering in place.

By the end of the day I had managed to shutter up to about 1m 50cm on each side and decided to leave the whole lot to set for a day or two before tackling the lintel. Hopefully things should go smoothly.

brittany renovation