Our Renovation in Provence Archives - Page 2 of 2

Reno in Provence: Living Room Transformation

July 30, 2016 by ashleyt 5 Comments

Here are some photos of the rather drastic living room transformation after 8 months of renovation in our tiny provencal home. It seems like a lot went on, which it did, but it was defininely worth it. It’s getting there. I just cant wait to see the finished results and finally get to add furniture and decor. Imagine how comfortable this place will be in the winter, especially with all the rugs! Tune in next week for the reveal!

The Orginal Room

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

July 29, 2016 by ashleyt 5 Comments

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 like it has been done by a co that does million dollar projects, 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! First up a special kitchen design and renovation: (and a large one indeed!)

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Sneak Peak of our Reno Reveal…

July 4, 2016 by ashleyt 5 Comments

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…

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Our Reno in Provence: Chaux instead of Paint

April 21, 2016 by ashleyt 27 Comments

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 Reno in Provence: The Builders Arrive…

March 23, 2016 by ashleyt 23 Comments

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), whilst I have been looking for the finer details such as furniture, handmade pendant lights, rugs, etc. 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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Our Reno in Provence: More Ceiling Surprises

January 6, 2016 by ashleyt 13 Comments

Our Renovation: More Ceiling Surprises

So we’re still stripping back to try to get to the bare bones of our new tiny house. During the past few days, we’ve gone back upstairs to take down the ceiling that consisted of fake wood made of styrofoam and 2 layers of wonky boards, all the way up to the roof. We’d considered having Ace Roofing Company take a look at it, but for now we’re still confident in our own skills, especially as Robin has also removed the insulation, floorboards and gutted the chimney.

This back wall is slanted at such an angle that our whole house is basically an awkward triangle. The final position of everything is going to be a compromise.

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How to Buy a House in France

December 29, 2015 by ashleyt 13 Comments

A typical gorgeous Provencal farmhouse or ‘mas’ just outside Oppede le Vieux in the much sought out region of the Luberon here in Provence.

Our version of Peter Mayle’s “A Year in Provence”

After two years, the time had come for us to finally settle down and buy a house in beautiful Provence! (sadly- NOT the one pictured above). Here are my tips on how to buy a house in France.

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