Renovation

What’s up in the Castel

Paul&Dorte — Sun, 11 Feb 2024 12:25:31 +0000

Were are still advencing. The work is long and chalenging. We are very close to move in on the first floor. Here is a video of the actual today Castel :

The 2nd Floor in the Tower

Paul&Dorte — Fri, 23 Dec 2022 20:59:00 +0000

The Tower of the Castel

During these last months of the year 2022, we have been working in many places in the Castel. Our focus was mainly on the first floor as we are planning to move in during the year 2023. Yet, our plumber will be coming soon, and we had to finish the 2nd floor of the tower so that he can connect our new bathtub. We are relieved as we found out that the tub fits in the tower, enjoy the video !

Dans le cadre du plan climat air énergie territorial, Le service public intercomunal de l’énergie à suivie notre chantier depuis le départ. Ils ont été d’une grande aide en nous donnent de bon conseils. Voici une vidéo du Castel qu’ils ont réalisé.

You can find other interesting news and videos from the region trough their website :
https://www.valdedrome.com/5585-le-plan-climat-air-energie-territorial.htm

Renovation of the terrasse

Paul&Dorte — Tue, 05 Apr 2022 14:25:38 +0000

Renovation of the terrasse

One of our old ideas was to build a bay window on two levels. Instead, we have now one bay window for the third floor that opens up on a balcony also called ” Soleillos ” (comming from the word soleil (sun)). For the kitchen we have tree windows and a much larger kitchen.

Enjoy the video !

What have you done in 2021

Paul&Dorte — Sun, 19 Dec 2021 17:01:53 +0000

What have we done in 2021

Struggling to put all thoses beautiful photos online, Paul has cooked up a little video to show you how far we have come this first year of renovation. We can go all the way up to the third floor now and enjoy the view over the rooftops of Beaufort and marvel at the stunning landscape.

In the studio we actually changed the entrance, making it much more clear and easy. photos with explainaitions will follow as soon as our technical hickup is resolved.

ON other news: you can buy us a cup of coffee now, supporting our work and be an active part of our High Frequency co- creator tribe. As a thank you, you will get wonderful discounts and priviliges to rent our Studio for your holidays or events.

But now, enjoy the video

Summer in the castel

Paul&Dorte — Fri, 03 Sep 2021 09:34:19 +0000

Summer in the castel de la gervanne

Summer 21 was a summer of love. At the end of June we got married to celebrate our love, our family and our project. So lets have look how our love has supported and advanced the project, shall we?

We finally got our agreement from the french “heritage protectors” for our terrasse, and this is what it will look like from the outside:

We are obligated to close the great opening on the second floor, which means that our actual outdoor space is relocated to the top part of the third floor. The roof is actually pretty low, so we will will have to sit on our balcony rather that standing, but hey that is alright with me

Even if this was not our favourit option, we are always open to ” this or better” in our manifestations, and we end up with a much bigger kitchen, where you can see the three windows.

So as you can clearly see on the right hand picture, this is our kitchen. Well, you may need a little bit of imagination: three big windows in the back, kitchen appliences along the left wall and a bar type kitchen isle under the beam in back….

Insolation of the roof

In the summer of 2021 we hired Thomas who did the insolation of our roof. It makes for a big difference now. It looks almost like a real house, if you look at the roof.

The insolation is 35 cm with celulose. This is what is standard at this time and in france the governement helps financially with this kinds of insolation. I would love to share some beautiful pictures of this major part of renovation, but I am experiencinng some technical issues with photo uploading that I will need to figure out first.

A Marathon of renovations

Paul&Dorte — Sun, 27 Jun 2021 15:16:02 +0000

42,195 km of renovations

Ground floor

Au rez de chaussée nous cassons un mur de la cuve à vin. Un mur très robuste de 60 cm d’épaisseur avec deux rangées de pierres et un ciment parfois aussi dur que de la roche.

On the ground floor we are breaking one of the walls of the wine tank. A very robust wall 60 cm thick with two rows of stones and cement sometimes as hard as rock.

Après un petit coup de balais, nous pouvons poser notre poêle à granule et surtout monter le silo d’une capacité de quatre tonnes dans la vielle cuve.

After a little sweep, we can place our pellet stove and above all assemble a four tons capacity silo in the old tank.

First floor

The studio appartment used to be the only part of the castel that was inhabited. There are not tons of renovations to do and our plan is, to move into this part of the castel in summer or autumn 2022. New kitchen, new bathroom and a sleeping nook that is inspired by tiny houses will do the trick.

Yes this means to live in 55 sqm with two small children, but we hope to expand into the appartment soon after.

second and third floor- the appartment

the second floor is really our heart and soul, because it will create the base of our appartment where we plan to live with our family, raise our children and create the live we dream about. The third floor is no more than a tiny mezzanine in the living room. The first order of busines is the creation of the third floor: over the kitchen ( sometime called the terrasse) and over the bathroom, where the tower-room will be. The mezzanine in the living room needs to come down a few inches actually to be able to walk up there.

So we hired a local construction company to smash some holes in the walls and put some beams in place to create the third floor.

newly installed third floor above the (future) kitchen on the “terrasse’.

And so it begins….

Paul&Dorte — Mon, 22 Mar 2021 21:30:17 +0000

And so it begins...

Lwith as little as 5 month delay, we have finally taken the hammer and started to work. Contracts are signed, scaffolding have risen and we are excited to start building our dream. So let me just share some pictures, don’t expect big wonders just yet, though.

For you to find the difference. We started to demolish some walls to make space for the future kitchen. might not look like much but it was a lot of fun.

The partition has come down and we made room for the future kitchen. The door on the right will host the toilet and on the left there will be a brand new bathroom, with showers under the stairs, but that’s kind of hard to explain, you may have to come and check it out for yourself.

the stairs on the way left go up into the second floor appartment, where the shower is. So we will have kind of Harry Potter- under the stairs shower.

We will keep you updated about the progress and on how we are doing. Right now I need to stop typing, my arms are hurting from all the destruction

First floor Studio

Paul&Dorte — Sat, 20 Mar 2021 16:32:35 +0000

This studio is my Castel- First Floor

Up the stairs you go and to your left side is the future studio appartment. That is tha place you might spend your holidays, your workaway days or a whole season while enjoying tha small village french lifestyle. Now, you need a little bit of active imagination to make the links between the 3 model, the floor plan and the current photos. There is a lot of work to do. Lets have a look at the floor plan

in this plan you come up the stairs and arrive at the “Palier”. To your left the studio, to your right the door to the appartment. We continue the tour of yur studio. We come to the main room, the living room. there will be a mezzanine hosting the bed. lets have a look at the 3d model.

This is the view from the entrance door. There are obvioulsy two big windows but I guess the software bugged one out.

Here is now the real view from that point and some photos looking that room. Kitchen and bathroom in the back are not yet existing, or better yet need to be demolished before they can be rebuild, but more on that topic later. Let’s just have a look around the big studio room.

It still looks pretty raw. The first thing we will do is oping up the space for the future kitchen and demolish the existing toilet and bathroom. The wall need a good insolation, which will be done with breathable chalk/hemp mixture that will be projected against the walls. The mezzanin that we see here will leave and we will make a permanent one where the bed might be. The windows will be changed as well, of cause- with permission of ” batiment de France”…

My home is this Castel- Ground Floor

Paul&Dorte — Sat, 20 Mar 2021 16:06:37 +0000

My home is this Castel- Ground floor

Construction is starting this month, after we finalized our planning. Do you want to see the 3D model?

Here goes

looks funny, huh? So the ground floor is the smallest, there is only the entrance and a small room in back for the furnace of the central heating systhem.

That is anyway how we would like thing to look after renovation. This is how the entrance looked a couple of weeks ago, you can’ t even see the stairs in back.

So the last months we spend most our time at the dump and the garage. Now it looks like this.

Looks miuch bigger now, but it is still in a rough shape. However, this is not where renovations will start. We will continue to show you around. have a look here for the first floor.

Protecting heritage

Paul&Dorte — Sat, 26 Dec 2020 09:27:02 +0000

Who is protecting our heritage?

We live in a village that is about 500 years old, and as such it is a protected french heritage. The French governement wants to make sure that the village stays authentic in architecture and charme. In general this is in total alignment with our intention, we love this village and the heritage its represents and we want to create in alignment of the memories and engergies that live in the stones.

However, on a practical level, this means that we are obliged to get a formal authorisation for every little piece that can be see from the outside. Luckily we only have a few windows to change and a huge terasse to build. We thought that anything is better than the gaping hole in the village landscape, but we are taught otherwise. See for yourself.

For the official approval from the french governement, we need to create an exact image of what we are planning to do. So far we have sent 10 differnet versions, none of them was exepted. We even had the decision makers come over, have a look and make a drawing, but still our propositions were not quite exceptet.