Renovations: An end-of-year update
My high school math teacher, Mr Brown, always said that a picture was worth a thousand words. With that in mind, here is a mostly visual update on how Casa Beatrix renovations are progressing:
Old sheep shed, aka La Bergerie
This space was decrepit, dark and smelly with the roof partly collapsed. The existing building was renovated into a living and dining room. It is gorgeous, except it doubles as my summer office (in winter, I use my laptop from the tiny house as that’s more energy efficient than a desktop – who knew!), triples as the accommodation for our friend and volunteer Barry, and quadruples as storage space.
Next, we hope to build an extension to the Bergerie that will house two bedrooms and a bathroom, making it our first rental unit (fingers crossed!).
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- La Bergerie
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- New roof, reinforced walls
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- Reopening an old window
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- Wood composite walls
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- A window onto the old school stone walls (no cement was used!)
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- The carpets really tie the room together
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- The not final but much improved Bergerie
[Photos of the current setup to follow.]
Bigger house no. 1
We really hope the construction crew will finish this renovation by the end of the year. That way we can work on finishing and furnishing touches early 2020!
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- Bigger house no. 1 with no. 2 peeking out on the right
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- Bigger house no. 1
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- Upstairs, renovations are progressing
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- Old beams for decoration
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- Downstairs, the future kitchen
Bigger house no. 2
Nothing going on here yet, so I am just sharing its status quo.
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- Ex-chicken coop & pigeon house
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- Upstairs entrance
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- Door worthy of a Stephen King novel?
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- Inside upstairs
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- Inside upstairs
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- Bigger house no. 2 from the front
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- Downstairs, where they kept animals
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- Big wooden boxes to store meat and grain, old school style
Other plans
We’re hoping to add a storage space, another unit or two, a natural swimming pool, and a few other tidbits (get rid of the cement block pigsty, upgrade the area between Bigger house no. 1 and our wood oven into a terrace, the list goes on and on).
Cleo standing by the “pigsty”
Yes, this will hopefully all happen before Summer 2020 which is our grand opening. Details forthcoming as soon as we know more, hopefully Q1 2020.
After all, if you aim for the stars and miss, you might still land on the moon!
Mariam Nayiny
Incredible work. Can’t wait to see 2020 photos of additional progress. Great job you two
Shahnaz Radjy
Thanks Mariam, can’t wait to have more progress to share! x
João
It is great to see the progress! To make sure it is not all photoshoped I better go check that with my own eyes… 😉
Shahnaz Radjy
I agree, you should definitely not just take our word for it – come visit and see for yourself 🙂
Cate O'Kane
You’re on our travel list! So excited to see how it is all coming together. Congratulations! Cx
Shahnaz Radjy
Slow and steady wins the race, right? Here’s hoping. Great to hear we’re on your travel list – definitely let us know when you come to this neck of the woods, as it will be wonderful to catch up beyond what FB allows. x