Front door and adorable help!

The cement lintel

I think I have mentioned in one of my previous post that I am quite a 'strong' woman but boy oh boy, I am beginning to feel the years like everyone else AND especially when we have to move stone lintels down and up again, move cements lintels of uncertain weight up and down and and and!

So when after the window lintel we did early last week, we saw our friend and neighbor Jean-Yves, I jumped on the occasion to ask him to help O with the lintel above the front door.

Front door without the cement lintel

In the meantime one of our frequent guests, Alessandro, and his beautiful partner, Caroline, decided to come and see us the past weekend and on top he proposed his help for a couple of days - I JUMPED ON THAT OFFER!

Alé and Jean-Yves with the new stone lintel in place

After we've removed the cement lintel with Olivier in the week (and we had the firemen coming to put out a fire here Aux Jardins des Thevenets the evening of Olivier's birthday party and had to organise a plumber and the insurance), the

three boys went off to Ugly Betty on 

Sunday morning!

And came back just over and hour later and VOILA - the lintel in place above the door! 

AND

I did not have to move a finger!! (Except cooking and organising etc as usual!)

And today I could 'relax' at home without rushing off to Ugly Betty as Alé is helping Olivier for a couple of days!

THE FRONT DOOR IN - Lintel resculpted by MR O!

So little by little, lintel by lintel, with little help from our friends, this is all coming together!

Nighty night!

Holes and more.......

The past 2 months flew past in a hub of work on Ugly Betty and receiving guests here Aux Jardins des Thevenets for Christmas and New Year.

Filling the holes

The last post showed you the beams being fitted by Olivier and Christophe and to do this, they did holes in the walls at 20 odd cm interval all along.

End of last week my Olivier started to refill these holes while I started to take out the grid from around the lintel stones of windows and the front door we have to move. Not one window or door is at 'conventional' heights and we have to change them all.

Then this week we decided it's going to be THE week of finishing some of the window's and hopefully the front door.

Before

Lintel out

 

So the 2 of us moved a stone lintel of an uncertain weight onto the scaffolding and we reduced the sides of the window to the right size. Then we replaced the lintel and more or less fitted the window. Now I know it has not been a cold winter thus far, but

boy oh boy, did we drip with sweat!

From the inside looking out !

Lintel on right in place and now for the cement lintel on the left!

Yesterday morning we were all apprehensive to see if this installation made it through the night! 

It DID!!

The front door is quite advanced but you'll have to be patient to see the suite!

Always nice sharing with you all!

The Incredible Adventure of the Beams !

So this is the NEW YEAR and Ugly Betty is ready for this New Year - with all the 'make up' and 'hair cutting' and 'blowing', she'll be the New Beauty on the Blog!

First part of beam out

Just after Christmas (actually the French do not know such a thing as boxing day) Olivier and another Olivier and his son Christophe attacked THE BEAMS! So this was about getting the old central beams out, putting in place two new 10 meter beams and all the other little ones that will hold the first floor! Without the roof falling in ..............

Roof being held together with almost nothing

AND they did this in 2 days!

Amazing!

I unfortunately saw very little of all of this as I was running around the guesthouse doing cooking and cleaning and and for the lovely guests we had over Christmas and NewYear.

 

New Beams IN!

Ceiling beams IN!

Now all's in place, Olivier is busy filling the holes bit by bit and this weekend half of the roof will be uncovered and new beams replaced!

I am back on site as well and you'll have more regular updates from Ugly Betty!

To you all, have a groovy 2012!

Christophe and his dad Olivier

Just a little postscript :

It is rare that one meets a young guy of 21 so passionate about his profession. Young Christophe is such a young man. Since a tender age he has been tagging along with his father whenever he was doing building jobs. His passion -  Carpentry.