One week left

A month ago I said the first new gite would be finished by the end of next week.

Over two weeks ago I said the first new gite would be finished in a week or so.

Well it isn't yet! There's been a few distractions and things have taken much longer than expected. We have been busy most days but minor finishing touches keep cropping up and take ages to finish. Caroline has finished painting all the door frames and architraves, and put lassure (kind of varnish) on the oak window sills, various bits of wood trim and a window that I built. The oak window sills look really good, the lassure has brought the grain out of the wood.

I've put an unplanned door and some plasterboard under the stairs to cover the hot water cylinder. More painting and rubbing down in the downstairs bedroom, three loft hatches, some loft insulation (horrible job), cover for the fuse box, ... You get the picture.

The gite will be finished by next Saturday. It has to be because we've taken a booking. Arggg. As long as I don't slash my wrist open again everything should be fine. So, photos of the completed project next week :-) Fingers crossed.

 11:48:45 PM   One week left   

Build an oak window sill

Along with all the minor fiddly jobs I've been doing in the gite, one of those I have put off for a long time has been making a window sill in the lounge. It's a slightly complicated shape with a large sloping return on one end. The window sill I made last week for the kitchen was a simple straight run, but was a useful test run.

Three bits of oak plank planed and thickness and then glued edge to edge larger than the finished size. I stuck a large 50kg weight ontop to prevent bowing or twisting.

Glue dried and ready to shape. At it's widest point the planks are about 54cm. I didn't have any oak that wide, hence the gluing.

On the underside of the long edge I had to rebate out a shape that matched my finger. That's because the inside edge of the window frame has mastic sealant run along the bottom edge.

Cut into shape with a circular and jigsaw. The top edge has also been rounded with the router. Just needs a jolly good sanding down.

Installed in position and ready for a tint and oil finish.

 8:31:40 PM   Build an oak window sill   

Gite renovation timelapse

For a bit of fun I've created a 'slideshow' using Picasa of the gite renovation in pictures. Broadband users only.

 8:48:15 PM   Gite renovation timelapse   

Installing a wet room shower

After a small layoff I've started to get back into the renovation. Yesterday I decided to make a window sill for the kitchen out of an old piece of oak I found in my workshop. It should have been a short job, but due to the irregular shape I ended up having to use:-

• A planer/thicknesser
• Sanding machine (belt and disc)
• Router, for the curved edge and a rebate to fit the window
• A handsaw
• Bench circular saw

All that, and a couple of hours, just for a window sill.

Recess in concrete floor for shower.
Shower tray.
Tray installed plus waterproof band.

Today I decided to tackle the walk-in shower tray that's been staring at me for months. One of the gites has a downstairs bedroom and en-suite bathroom designed for handicapped access, so it needed a flat 'wet room' style shower installed. The recess in the concrete floor and the drainage was finished at the end of last year, but I've been putting off fitting the actual shower tray until today. The tray (from Wedi) is a pre-formed unit about 4cm thick with the necessary slopes and angles built in ready for tiling. The center of the tray has a push in siphon/tray that lines up with the pipework in the floor. The whole lot was then stuck down with a flexible tile adhesive and I also ran a waterproof strip around the edges of the shower to prevent water ingress between the floor and wall. Fortunately the recess and underfloor plumbing all lined up perfectly. Something I have learnt is that good preparation is worth the investment. It just needs tiling now!

Because things went smoothly I decided to tackle another job I've been putting off - architraves around the doors. Last time I did it I painted the architraves before fitting, and the finish wasn't that good. This time a friend suggested I undercoat both sides, fit the architraves and then paint the door frame and architrave at the same time. More cutting in, and potential gloss paint splodges on the walls, but I'll give it a go. Apart from getting a huge blob of 'No More Nails' glue (Ni Clou Ni Vis en Francaise) in my hair - which I didn't notice for 3 hours - that's another job ticked off.

Still got a fairly large list of finishing off jobs - but I think it's getting smaller.

 8:06:23 PM   Installing a wet room shower