November 2002
The property we had just purchased in the South of France had already proven to be more than we expected. There was a massive amount of work to do to the house and we realised that it was going to take us several years to complete. We also knew that unless we acted quickly, there wouldn’t be much of a French property to renovate.
When we returned to the house in November 2002, the electrician had fitted a consumer unit and a few circuits. In doing so, he had cut a deep trench through the (perfect) tiled floor in the entrance hall…. It’s always a good idea to be present when work is being done on your property – especially if you do not know the individual can be trusted to do what you want them to do!
While we were at the house, we began to lay a cement screed over the existing cement floor in the downstairs room. The floor level in this room is two feet below the level of the hallway and is uneven. To start to make this room comfortable, it is necessary to level the floor and raise it at least a foot in height. That means lots of bags of cement to mix!
We also started to work on the plaster in this room. After years of decay and water ingress, the plaster throughout the house is in a fairly poor state. In this room, it is completely unfinished French plaster (lime based and white in colour), which has hundreds of years of accumulated dirt, soot and smoke trapped within. We know we will never be able to get the walls flat (that’s a factor with a rough-built, rural stone house) but we can make the plasterwork sound and relatively even.
Also, check out our Beginners’ Guide on French Electrics attached to this post.
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