lost in espace

Margaret, We've thought about it, but we'd lose the feel of the stone, and the unevenness of the walls is quite nice.  Also the upstairs rooms won't be huge, and we think they'd be really boxy with all placo walls.

Thank you for the info and advice, Albert.  It was very, very helpful, and encouraged me to email the artisan with some detailed questions about the devis and the work he's proposing.  I'd love to be able to do some of the work ourselves, but unfortunately it's not possible at the moment.  Thanks again!

Has anyone had lime plastering done and can comment on the price we've been quoted, please? We're trying to renovate part of a two storey stone house in the Drome.  Well, it was two storey but we've taken out the upstairs, so at the moment it's one space approx. 7m square with just a new beam and joists installed for the new upper floor.  We've realised rather late (doh!) that the walls really need replastering and that chaux is the thing to use but are dismayed by the devis we have received. The walls add up to 128 sq.m and we've been quoted E22.00 per sq.m. to take off the crumbly old chaux and odd bits of concrete and polyfilla that's on them now, and E55.00 per sq.m. to lime plaster them anew, three coats. On top of this are charges for protection of the huisserie (door and window frames?), temporary boarding of the joists, taking debris to the dechetterie, a compresseur (not sure what that is), 8.5 tonnes of sand, some lime, and TVA of course, all of which brings the actual cost to E34.50 sq.m. for removal of the old plaster, and E81.00 sq.m. for putting on the new, E115.50 sq.m. altogether. Does this seem a bit excessive, or is lime plastering just expensive?  Thanks! Jacqui