a Curious Canadian in Provence : photography, art & renovation!
Here are some photos of the full before and after renovation bedroom and bathroom. The difference is just as radical as it is anywhere else in the house. This is officially my favorite room of the house; it’s beautiful and cozy. What do you think?!
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So you’ve bought your fixer-upper in France. The romanticism of Peter Mayle has snared you into the dream (or perhaps my blog?). You’re not a millionaire but you’ve got essentially a ruin of stones to work with. At least that’s a start.
You most likely don’t know anyone. You’ve heard horror stories about local tradesmen. Everything in the DIY stores seems more expensive. You’ll have to be careful about your budget…
We had a budget of only 25,000 euros to completely renovate our tiny house. We were able to accomplish this because we did most of the work ourselves. I have to admit, that Robin is a certified tradesman so this helped enormously. His experience really helped us stay within budget.
If you’re planning on doing the same, here are some tips on how you can spend the least amount of money possible while not compromising on your materials or safety building codes.
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It can be difficult to find stores near you in a foreign country. This is especially true of builder’s merchants in France. Your common knowledge of simple store names just isn’t there. If you’re renovating a house in France, depending on where you’re located, this is where you’ll find your building materials:
Fun Fact: Robin, in addition to offering project management on renovation sites, offers to take his clients to various antique and repurposed material warehouses depending on your needs. Find him on Facebook, Instagram, or renovationprovence.com.
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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:
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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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. We were desperate to give it a complete makeover. We decided to add tiling in order to comply with the rustic feel we hoped to create. 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. I have to admit, I’m really pleased with how the kitchen has turned out. There are still a couple of things that need tweaking but overall, I’m really happy with everything!
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These images don’t do the final result justice; everything is also not quite done. However, here is the first version of our almost finished home in Provence. After 8 months of renovation, and with the limited budget and awkward dimensions we had to work with, I’m quite impressed! I never expected our first home to be so beautiful, especially before we hauled out all the old junk that used to be in it. Now it’s away in dumpsters hauled away – it was fairly easy to get the dumpster dimensions we needed to fit near enough to make it easy – out of our home and out of our hassle. And just look at the results! I am so grateful to my man. Bravo Robin!
This is what you see when you walk into the house from the front door.
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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. There is still so much that we want to do to this garden, like build a pond. We’ve even started looking into Nymphaea Pygmaea water lilies and how much goldfishes would be ready for when the pond is ready. Still got a while to go before this can happen, but if it best to be prepared. Renovating this garden has been a challenge, but we are proud of how far we’ve come. Here are some images of the garden transformation of our renovation in Provence.
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, which I eventually wanted to use the space for teak garden furniture UK products.
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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.
The original back wall complete with tiny bathroom and closet. We haven’t decided yet if we’re going to use the best electric shower we can get or go for a different option, but what we did know is that 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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We figure that our kitchen is so tiny that in order to make it look good, everything in it has to have character and charm (well, maybe not the damn washing machine). I’ve fallen in love with all the shabby chic/farmhouse french kitchens that I’ve seen on pinterest. I’ve particularly fallen for the beautiful stone sinks. Of course, a stone sink costs about 800 euros. Not within the budget.
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