Final plans

Click to enlarge.

To answer the question everyone is asking: no, work has not yet begun on the ground.

But on paper, things are looking very good. For instance, above is the sketch of the South side of the property, as it will appear post-restoration. Note, the covered area on the left. Located directly outside the kitchen, it will make a fine spot where we can sit and dine while enjoying a lovely view of the valley, down below and to the East.

We had a very productive trip, late April early May. And the period since then has seen some progress, too. Briefly:

• We had three in-depth meetings with the architect during which we ironed out the last wrinkles and signed off on the plans:

The South wall. Note the covered patio described above. (Click to enlarge)

The West elevation (i.e. the house, seen from inside the courtyard).

Note the dormer windows, and the terraced yard.

Interesting also to compare with the earlier sketch posted in December. (Click to enlarge)

•  We visited many suppliers and are now very close to selecting materials, appliances, doors and windows.
• Flooring will likely be as follows: chestnut in most rooms and on the stairs; stone in the kitchen; and tiles in the bathrooms.

 Other areas where progress is being made:

• The building permit application is in.
• Applications are being processed for water and power to be reconnected at the site in time for the work to start.
• We're going back for a week at the end of June, to ensure that everything is on track for work to begin in the Fall.

New floor plans

We received the revised floor plans this week.

The stairs now follow a more conventional design, with the first step roughly in the middle of the foyer and in line with the front door, leading to the first flight up to a half landing against the back wall. They take up more space than in the original plans, but the living room is still a good size at more than 20 m2.

Also, the guest bathroom is now located in the West end of the barn, as we had suggested. It will require a new doorway through the barn stone wall, and a couple of steps down from the guest bedroom, which is now more spacious, in spite of the extra volume taken up by the upper half flight of stairs.

We still have a few revisions and ideas that we want to explore. So, we're taking a few days to review them, taking notes with changes, requests and suggestions that we'll return next week for the architect to incorporate into the next, and quite possibly final, version. It's getting very close to sign-off.

The next step will be the development of the engineering plans, followed by the production by the architect of an itemized program listing every board, length of pipe and door knob, as well as labour, that will be required to make all this a reality.

Our next trip there is still planned for April.

New sketches

Things are beginning to take shape, at least on paper.

Last month we received the first set of floor plan sketches from the architect, and last week, the elevation sketches. Below is the West elevation: the roof profile has been made consistent over both halves of the house; and the existing openings are just more fully defined; but it's the appearance of the dormer windows that really transforms the look of the place.

We are now looking forward to the revised version of the floor plans, based on the commentaries and queries that we returned to the architect last month. Generally speaking, we are happy working around the existing layout, with some minor adjustments here and there. However, the stairs' design and location are going to require some fine tuning.

The architect will be filing the building permit application early in the new year and he has promised us the revised floor plans before Christmas.

About the property and the surrounding area ...

It’s a typical Périgord farm where the house, the barn and two animal sheds form a square courtyard accessed through a gate. All buildings are stone; in fact, even the roof on the barn and one of the animal sheds are covered with “lauze”: small, flat stones, typical of that area. The slide show includes some close-ups of a lauze roof.

Two walls of the house itself are partly covered with crumbling stucco. In the early 20th c., stucco was considered more genteel than plain stone, deemed too rustic-looking. But underneath is the same lovely honey-coloured stone, typical of the area, that was left exposed on the other buildings. The stucco will be scraped off as part of the restoration work.

Overall the property is about 3 acres, partly wooded, on the North slope (hence S. exposure) of a small valley that is all meadows, woods and small farms on either side of a brook. The nearest town, about 4 Km away, is Montignac.

Montignac is an ordinary, pleasant country town on the banks of the Vézère river. It has a population of about 3000, and a farmers’ market twice-a-week, year-round. Montignac is best known for the Lascaux (prehistoric painting) caves, located just outside the town.

The nearest major city is Bordeaux, a two-hour drive due West on the A89 freeway.

And, only 20 minutes down the road, is fabled Sarlat ...

Bonjour!

Ce blog vient en réponse à l'intérêt de nos amis et proches et à leur désir d’être tenus au courant de l’évolution de notre projet de restauration de Gaulejac dans les mois à venir.

Cet intérêt est particulièrement marqué de ce côté de l’Atlantique, vu l’exotisme de Gaulejac du point de vue de Toronto ou de Vancouver. Il est donc fort probable que les rubriques seront principalement en anglais. Mais il est entendu que chacun s’exprimera dans la langue de son choix. Vive le bilinguisme!

Quant à la fréquence des mises à jour, pendant certaines périodes, comme par exemple quand les travaux auront commencé (au courant de l'hiver), elles pourraient être hebdomadaires. Mais dans l'ensemble, elles devraient se limiter aux progrès des travaux et aux questions relatives à notre transit.

En attendant de pouvoir vous recevoir à Gaulejac, je vous invite donc à consulter notre blog autant que vous le désirerez et à y apporter vos observations, questions ou commentaires.

À suivre …

We bought a property in the Dordogne!

An old farmhouse on a few acres of partly wooded land, it has sat empty for many years. The foundations and the structure are sound and have never been altered. Think of it as a blank canvas for the would-be restorers that we are about to become.

The restoration is our retirement project and the finished product will become our retirement home, in a few months.

Since we announced our plans, we found happily that many of our friends and relatives share our excitement. And that's the point of this blog: to share with them the evolution of our project.

And so it begins.