When i finished the garage during the summer, i started on the next project: clearing up the space at the back of the house and building a stone wall to separate the terrace from the street. i had tons of stones left from opening the walls for new windows and doorways plus a neighbour gave me an old granit fireplace... i took lots of pictures throu

How to get planning in france? well it's quite easy, the first thing to do is to contact your local mairie, i found them very helpful, they will tell you whether you need a 'permis de construire' (full planning) or a 'declaration de travaux' as well as provide you with the documents to fill. both plannings are quite similar really as they require l

La maison se termine, ouf! les peintures sont presque finies, il faudra que je poste quelques photos, j'ai attrapé mal au cou à force de regarder en haut! ces derniers jours, je me suis franchement bien amusée à faire un peu de papier peint dans quelques endroits stratégiques 😉, car avec le style que j'ai choisi, un peu voyant, point trop n

Since i bought the farm 2 years ago, nothing much has happened in the garden, except that is, the exceptional growth of the nettles, brambles and various weeds. i made an attempt at creating a hedge and planted a few griselinas around the perimeter... they're suffering a bit from the fierce competition but what's not going to kill them will probabl

J'ai commencé à installer le nouveau parquet en pin massif il y a quelques jours et la maison commence à avoir l'air finie! enfin presque... juste quelques portes, plinthes, finir la cuisine, carreler les salles de bain, bref, des détails! le parquet sera cérusé en bas et naturel dans les chambres, juste verni. le rdc devant l'escalier, avec

Summer is finally on its way in finistere, we had almost given up on it... but as the weather is getting better , i have decided to start building a little garage on the eastern gable end of my house. i did the boring stuff with the planning a few months ago and amazingly they said yes. i built a very 'diy' formwork for the future slab (it's like b

A good staircase is crucial to the renovation process. as my house is a bit unusual, i actually have 3! i decided to build them as i couldn't find a cheap alternative in the shops, that would suit the narrow space i have. they are all built on the same idea, quarter turns stairs, made out of 18 mm marine ply, with a wooden frame supporting the trea

After finishing the large wall at the end of the terrace, i had enough stones left to create a small border on the side of the car park, it didn't take too long, about 3 days. the hardest bit was probably moving the stones about... hi, we're doing up a farm in brittany! all the stories and pictures on our blog http://oldbretonfarm.over-blog.com

Well, it's not as bad as people think! i got myself a book about electrics and had help from an electrician friend but really, you can find lots of info on the net. in france, you can do an electrical renovation yourself as long as it's not 100 percent, i wouldn't recommand doing it until you've got a good understanding of what you're doing of cour

Fin août et le garage est presque fini, avec les vacances de juillet, j'ai pris un peu de retard! j'ai attendu un peu que les fondations sèchent avant de poser une structure en bois (recyclage d'un ancien carport), puis des parpaings de 10 doublés de pierres pour faire joli... j'ai ensuite construit le reste de la structure en bois, puis posé d