Chateau de Firbeix

Continuing on having finished the main staircase in the PMR gîte, we also need a small staircase between the first floor landing and the upper bedroom over the living room, about 1m difference in height. The door opening was created back in the summer and we've been using a small set of step ladders to go up and down. With all old buildings, nothing is vertical, horizontal or perpendicular and this applies to the wall with the opening in relation to the new landing walls so the we had to get creative. and the finished staircase (minus the hand rails)...

After 3 months or so without a staircase in the PMR gîte (as we had to remove what was left for the scaffolding for the atrium), earlier this week we started building the main staircase. There is another smaller staircase we'll build later between the the main first floor and the top bedroom (about 1m higher). I'd ordered the wood a few months ago, it is kiln dried Douglas Fir, beautiful colour and grain, but tough to cut. In these photos, we've cut the three stringers (diagonals) but not fixed in place. Outside each outer stringer will be a similar 50x300mm end board to cover up the ends of the steps and risers. The stringers are 50x300x4m, the treads 32x250x4m and the risers 32x175x4m. The stringers are locked in place by notching the top and bottom and bolting 50x60 planks into the concrete floor and the first floor joists. Today we started fitting the treads and risers. On the left you can see the outer board, there will be a similar board on the right once we've fi...

At the same time as the terrace concrete was delivered, we also poured the concrete foundations for the extension to the barn, a kitchen/storage/preparation room and a toilet. We will have to create 2 new doorways in the barn wall to connect to the extension.

The concrete was delivered on Thursday, all 55 tons of it. We had masons to help us as the area (174m2) was too large for Dan, Em and myself. We've done smaller areas when Luke was here and this type of concrete needs special treatment. The finished product looks great and will become lighter in colour as the concrete fully dries, it is only 24 hours old in these pictures. 

After a beautiful warm spell, the garden has suddenly come to life...  

I've not posted any new blogs for sometime, but that doesn't mean we've been idle 😉  With a long spell of nice dry weather and a need to get outside from working in the PMR gîte, we've switched attention for a week to construct the terrace around 3 sides of the barn. The 4th side will be the extension for the bathroom and kitchen/storage room. That is another post I'm publishing today as well. The terrace will be 3m wide along the long sides of the barn and 5m wide on the gable end, 174m2 in total. This translates to 24m3 of concrete, 3 lorry loads! While we got in professionals to levelling the ground and compacting the hardcore, we did all the "coffrage" (wooden supports and planks and the rebar (actually soldered sheets of rebar). In all 70 panels of 2.5mx1.2m rebar and lot of arduous but very rewarding work. The concrete arrives at 8am tomorrow so early night for me anyway! It will be a very long day. If you're curious why the windows look blurred...

While laying the concrete for the terrace around the barn, we're also going to dig and pour the foundations for the extension. This is because we need a pump to deliver the concrete over the far side of the barn and it is expensive to rent so makes sense to get the terrace and foundations poured the same day. We also needed machinery to level the ground around the barn and bring in several tons of hardcore to raise the gable end of the barn as the land slightly slopes away from the chateau. The same machinery (a small JCB digger) dug the extension foundations. They wouldn't let me have a play with the digger but I did fit the rebar to re-enforce the foundations. More pics in the next few days once it is all poured and we've recovered!