La Petite Touche The Story Develops

2008 - Design, Design, Design!

It takes so much longer when you do things remotely.

By April 2008

and after several iterations and a lot of passing of data and pictures via email we had agreed the project parameters for the renovation work for the first phase of the renovation, being the work to create the two Gites. The next stage, having agreed the outline, was the more detailed "Devis" (estimates) done by the Artisans and to be "signed off" before work commences. This took some time!

End August 2008

and all the devis had, at last, been signed off after a number of iterations to get things as we wanted them. Work could now commence within the next 2 months on the first phase of the renovations, once the planning application had been approved. The big lesson learnt is that it is a time consuming exercise. However the people we were working with were all really helpful.

September 2008

After quite a bit of investigation and research, not easy during August with everyone on holiday, we eventually got to the bottom of the planning situation. There was an existing planning consent,which meant that the renovations could start. Hooray!

In October 2008

Work had begun! The first phase of the job was, as one might expect, the removal of the things we didn't want. (Here started the ongoing saga of what became known as "the heap", an ever growing mountain of material neither wanted nor needed inside!) By this time the wall in Gite 1 (Le Petit Bosquet) had been demolished and we now had a lovely large room as the Salon with 2 double windows. The old downstairs bathroom was no more! Also, the water meter had been fitted ready for the supply of mains water to the house, to augment the well.

Two rooms become one large salon

Gite 1 - half salon Gite 1 - 2nd half salon
Gite 1 - salon

December 2008:

in the last two months work had moved on apace. The main beam in Le Vieil Atelier (The Old Workshop - the name we have decided on for Gite 2) had been replaced. This involved a crane and lots of heaving and left ruts all over the place. All of the downstairs rooms had had their floors concreted, and various items of pipework and cabling had been "planted" under it. Sandblasting of the woodwork had also taken place. The floor of the downstairs bathroom in Gite 1 had been dug out and relaid to give more headroom. So the year finished with work on both Gites well and truly under way.

Removal of the old shower room in Gite 1 and then a new concrete floor

Gite 1 - shower room Gite 1 - shower room new floor

In the salon of Gite 2, the new beam, and the old beams after sandblasting

Gite 2 - the new beam Gite 2 - new and old