June 2014 – At Home in France

Spalling

June 10, 2014Posted in UncategorizedTagged before, France, spalling, wall

This is a close-up of one of the things that can happen when a house is left to rot. Fortunately this house was left for just a couple of years, so things haven’t gotten too bad.

The house was built of the smaller stones that you see, then covered with a kind of heavy, 19th-century equivalent of stucco. As with contemporary stucco, it can crack. Water seeps between the structure and the stucco, then it freezes, expanding in the process. It can pop that stucco right off – and has done so on this house, in quite a few places.

My contractor will have to remove all the damaged wall coating. Then he will replaster the house with new stuff, all smooth and gold-colored. Some day soon, my house will be beautiful again. Then we will keep it that way with the floor heating, which will evaporate stray seepage and end the freeze-thaw cycle for a good, long time.

Demolition derby

June 5, 2014Posted in UncategorizedTagged barn, before, demolition, France, garage, renovation, roof6 Comments

rear facade before — So this is the back of the house. Notice the wild oats growing up to shoulder height. I am standing in the field as I take this photo. I have lovely roses , those pink dots, and fruit trees: cherries and apricots, I think. I have a lot of work in my future

greenhouse — I think this was a sort of winter garden. It would have let in some afternoon sun and allowed folks to start seedlings with just a little protection from the elements. It’s in pretty bad shape, now. The windows were never good and the roof is going. The only question is whether it will go before we take it down. We may take out the back wall, as well, to open the space to the back yard — garden, must call it garden. Over here a yard is paved, like a prison yard. Anyway, if we want to develop this space it will be nice to have it open to the view. We shall see.

garage before — Some previous owner kept pigs here, lots of pigs. I’m a California girl myself, which is to say I prefer cars to pigs. So the pipe rails, the concrete that holds them in place and the paving below them — cobblestones in places and not much in the way of drainage — will all make way for parking. Too bad I have only one car.

Attic Stairs

June 4, 2014Posted in UncategorizedTagged attic, France, stairs6 Comments

That’s enough depressing stuff for now. There will be plenty more to come. Let’s take a break. Let me show you something that I hope will give you an idea of why I got myself into this.

This is the upstairs landing, showing the stairs to the attic. Notice the light coming from below? Notice that they have walled off the access to above, so it’s relatively dark there? I’m sure that was for climate control but it looks dreadful. My plan is to rip out the walls and that green door. (Green Door, really: for San Franciscans of a certain age, depending on your interests in such matters, this either definitely goes or definitely stays. In my house, it goes.) This will leave a fairly nice staircase leading to the attic. We will insulate the attic and put a skylight over these stairs. This house has big windows anyway, so we don’t need a light well, but I think the visual effect will be quite nice.

Can you see the cracks in the ceiling? It is possible that this indicates structural damage, but I don’t think so. When you walk on the attic floor, it is solid. I think those are expansion cracks. There is significant heat gain at the roof. Of course when we insulate, that won’t be an issue, so I expect that the cracks will not return.

And then? My plan, of course, is to become the crazy lady who lives in the attic; Jacques is even learning how to get his stubby little legs to climb the stairs. This floor will be an office for me, guest rooms for you. One of you may have to share your room with a piano — not until my funding recovers, of course.