The Mezzanine is up!!!

[HelenChaplin]

Thought I would keep you all up to date with the progress here. The mezzanine is up now and boarded (we are keeping the new floor boarding and oak staircase until the works are completed upstairs otherwise they will be ruined!)

We were given a huge beam which,after being cleaned up, we raised, with the help of a very strong friend (a thousand thanks Joe)and propped a couple of inches at a time and then cemented in place. And, guess what......it's level!!

The joists have now been fixed across it, the boarding put down on top and a temporary staircase (52 euros from Bricomarche) installed. As the barn/salon is very gloomy at that end, the mez is going to be plasterboarded underneath, have spotlights installed and painted white.

The next big job is to knock a doorway through from the mez to the grenier beyond where (thanks to you all for the advice a while back) Phil has installed a chevron frame fixed to the surrounding stone walls to strengthen the existing floor and insulated it. We have found a carpenter who is making small double glazed windows for the two tiny grenier window openings and then we will section off the space to make two bedrooms and a shower room.

Hopefully, this will all be done before our guests descend on us for the music festival at Confolens in August!!

Phil says his best buys todate are the cement mixer and the little drill bit with the counter sink end!! Mine have been brandy and valium (only joking)!!

I'll give you another update later on in the summer. We have a photo record of progress but I wish we had had a camcorder for recording the best, scariest and funniest moments!! I still think the best moment was when we both wanted to christen the newly installed loo at the same time!!

Regards....Helen

[Iceni]

Super congrats. Our concrete pads are in but that is all at the moment - the beams should arrive tomorrow. Our bugbear is that the beams have to go down to the basement to give enough strength for the mezzanine as it is quite huge - about 40 x 22 foot and one wall curves as the barn follows the road. The first floor is also 'overspanned' so we could not put any loads on that.

This sounds very exciting. I am in mid Spring Clean here in the UK - Easter and Estate Agents seem to be made for each other.

You will have to put a website up (if you have not done so already) so we can all take a look.

Di

http://www.iceni-it.co.uk

[Jongleur]

Ooohh rats!!

Well done you lot and congratulations!. We know where to come for help and advice, although don't think we need beams etc!!

I still don't have a bathroom or planning permission (sob)!!! Although for our eventual house!!! we have ordered a new shower cabinet for downstairs - with jets and a deep well suitable for bathing children!!

Guess who is going to replace the shower cabinet on the landing for the new super duper one - being small maybe I can have a sort of bath??

Best wishes
Jongleuse

[Washy]

Well done Helen. We still watch the video of my husband and our son, then only 10!, gradually lifting 8 beams onto the roof using an ancient block and tackle. My son was pulling the chain and Dave was guiding them and keeping them level. It all looked very precarious and was probably quite dangerous.

Another beam over the garage, a very large one was bought near Perpignan from Roc et Broc in Soler, transported back on the roof of the Land Rover and then guided into place by my son standing on the roof rack of the Land Rover while my husband inched the car backwards, miraculously it fitted onto the prepared stone ledges. Meanwhile I could hardly keep the video camera steady.

Our son is arriving tomorrow, he is now 19, we have saved some 2 person jobs for him to do. He has grown up here and is proud of the part he has taken in building it up from a pile of stones.

[Anton Redman]

Sounds great. I hope you have turned the corner.

[HelenChaplin]

>The next big job is to
>knock a doorway through from
>the mez to the grenier
>beyond >

Have done that now! Thanks Charles (Les Flamands) for your helpful website.

We removed (via a couple of buckets and a hoist) a double axle trailer load of stone and rubble from one little opening! My shoulders ache today but we can now walk through from the mezzanine to the grenier.

We will now get the rails up around 3 of the stone walls for the placo(there is only one decent stone wall up there)but my question is........

We have to section off the space to make two bedrooms and a shower room. Apart from building block walls what is best way to construct and soundproof (as much as possible) the walls between the rooms? I don't want them to look like the thin partition walls that are in many French houses.

Regards.......Helen