Curious Provence

a Curious Canadian in Provence

CuriousProvence on House Hunters International

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house hunters

First day of shooting. Very nervous!

Pricey in Provence

On December 27th, our House Hunters International show “Pricey in Provence” first aired on HGTV in the US.

House hunters International contacted me last year through Curious Provence. When I told them that we were interested in buying a house they wanted to start filming as quickly as possible. Usually, I’m very shy in front of the camera. However, we thought it would be a fun experience.

Anglophones abroad on the show generally rent, especially young couples like us. Dedicated to our Provençal dream, we knew that we wanted to buy either in the Aix en Provence area or Les Alpilles. We quickly found out that Aix en Provence is second to Paris in terms of property prices. Urgh. Maybe next time.

Pricey in Provence indeed.

We settled on Les Alpilles region, not much lower in price. Les Alpilles is the olive producing region of Provence. It’s absolutely stunning. It’s chic, depending on the village, while still being in the countryside. A perfect investment for us.

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Before and After Renovation: Living Room

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Here are a few pictures of the before and after renovation of our living room. Can you believe the difference? The locals are, unfortunately for us, still so curious that I’m often confronted with a face pressed against our window… But thankfully, everyone seems impressed.

Next we’d love to renovate an enormous Provencal farmhouse with a pool, large rose garden and olive orchard…haha Maybe when we win the lottery. For now, if you need any help in the area- Robin is available starting in October.

The Before and After:

diy renovation Unfortunately we couldn’t keep the wood fire stove as it was dangerously installed. I’m told they work really well. We still don’t have any heating installed; Robin seems to think he’d like to see how cold it gets first. Ha! Spoken like a true Brit. I told him to prepare himself for a grumpy partner if he doesn’t get on it!

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Full Before and After DIY Renovation: Kitchen

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Our Kitchen Before and After Renovation

If you’re interested in the full Before and After of our house renovation here in Provence; voila! The kitchen, when we first bought the house, was entirely brown. The last time the house had been renovated was in the 70s. The ceiling was styrofoam made to look like wood, behind that, there was asbestos. The ceiling leaked and there was a hole in the floor to access the water meter. There were layers upon layers of unnecessary wood and tile. It was dark, moldy and awful! The only thing that remains of the kitchen now, is a rather odd triangular shape.

We raised the kitchen roof, insulated all the walls and basically replaced everything!

The following pictures are taken from about the same angle to show the real before and after of our DIY renovation in Provence. 
kitchen before reno

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Renovation in Provence: Garden Transformation

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Our Tiny Village House in Provence

This tiny garden of ours has endured quite a lot since we started renovating last December. There’s been so much debris, stones, machinery, and all sorts to the point where we often could barely get in and out! It’s not much to work with, but I think it’s improved enormously. People unashamedly peer over our fence to tell us our little garden is charming all the time. Here are some images of the garden transformation of our renovation in Provence.

village terrace before

The original garden, photo taken from front door of house. There were various ‘sheds’, one with an enormous oil tank, taking up half of the already minuscule garden.

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Renovation in Provence: Bedroom and Bathroom Transformation

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Our tiny house is an awkward triangular shape. This is most evident in the upstairs room and the kitchen. Basically, anywhere you would need to put a large rectangular object– like a bed! Everything has been a compromise to make the space appear bigger as well as functional. Here is some of the bedroom and bathroom transformation from the last 8 months of our renovation in Provence.

house renovation

The original back wall complete with tiny bathroom and closet. We wanted to install the bathroom where the closet was in order to make use of the small window, or ‘fenestron,’ there that looks out onto Les Alpilles.

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Renovation in Provence: Living Room Transformation

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Here are some photos of the rather drastic living room transformation after 8 months of renovation in our tiny provencal home. Tune in next week for the reveal!

The Orginal Room

renovation provence

The original (after we ripped a bit off the wall). That is a rather lot of wood.

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Renovation in Provence: Kitchen Transformation

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It’s been a long eight months of renovation in our tiny village house here in Provence. We had a deadline. The house was going to be filmed. Ever since the mania of trying to get everything to look presentable we’ve been taking it easy. I think Robin is still a bit too knackered to function. He pretty much single-handedly transformed this house, that hadn’t been touched since the 70s, into the beautiful little nest it has become. We’re not entirely finished, but I thought I’d finally let you in on some of the action of the last few months! If you’re interested in the process I’ll be posting throughout the next few days images of the transformation of each of the rooms and will next week be posting pictures of what it looks like now! A Kitchen Renovation: (and a large one indeed!)

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Sneak Peak of our Reno Reveal…

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Reno Reveal Coming Soon…

The past few weeks have been wild as we’ve been rushing to get the house done for a certain television show that filmed our house today. More on that later…

The villagers are so curious that I’m thinking we should just have an open house to quench their curiosity. Thank goodness we now have curtains! Yesterday, a couple let themselves into our courtyard and pressed themselves up against the window as we stared back at them in disbelief. Robin was only wearing underwear in the kitchen. The woman saw us looking at her and she just kept pointing to the roof and garden most likely in an effort to hide her embaressment. Unbelievable.

There’s still a lot to do but things are starting to look, I must say, absolutely fabulous. During the next few weeks, I’ll be posting more (I promise) about the immense progress we’ve made. For now, here’s a sneak peak…

reno reveal

See more about Our Renovation in Provence.

Our Renovation in Provence: Chaux instead of Paint

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chaux à l'ancienne

Stylish painting outfit? Before I got covered in chaux!

Chaux Lime Wash

We’ve recently painted our upstairs with chaux/lime wash. We wanted to apply a wall covering that respected the age of the building. It’s important that old walls breathe in order to reduce trapped moisture. We quite liked the texture of the traditional lime wash (peinture à la chaux). Knowing the ingredients, but not the quantities, there was some trial and effort involved. After a brief search online we were left more confused. People add all kinds of things such as cream or milk in addition to the basic ingredients of lime, water, tint and setting agent. We asked the opinion of the local macon, and it seems that lime wash recipes are up there with truffle locations in terms of closely guarded French secrets.

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Our Renovation in Provence: The Builders Arrive…

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Hiring Builders

Up until now, Robin has been doing all of the renovation to standard building codes (he has done some serious homework and seems to be the only person around here actually following the rules). We knew we would always need a little help with one thing- knocking down the wall that separates the kitchen and the living room. This actually used to be the outside wall of the house before the extension was added in the 70s. It’s a serious wall. We needed to hire builders to help prop up the ceiling, install a new beam to replace the old beam that would now be too short, and help us with the exposing of the stone. We had 2 workers for 2 weeks. It was a race to see how much we could get done.

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