The builder's hard at work

Whilst over in France the week before last I went to the Mairie's office and collected the Declaration de Travaux that was approved (but they'd neglected to tell me about).

In the end it's quite a simple and boring piece of paper simply saying that my works are approved, and that's it.

Had a number of chats with the builder during the week which has ended up with me agreeing more work for him to do in the second house within what may (one day!) become a second Brittany holiday home to rent out. That's somewhat in the future right now and the priority is on doing some of the work before the next rental season catches up on us. I absolutely want to get the work done in the "quiet" season and not have any of it done whilst guests are staying next year.

Oak beams and fireplace of second Gite

So the upshot of this is that the builder has agreed to take down the ceiling which the previous owners had put in the second lounge and re-do it properly. The previous owner had laid double skin sheets of chipboard across the old oak beams and then put floor joists on top to level up the floor of the bedrooms above. Of course the chipboard has sagged between the oak beams and the beams are not level so the crossways floor joists vary in thickness from 4inches to 2 inches.

He's taking all this chipboard out (which doesn't look great) and properly battening and plasterboarding it out. I want to keep as much of the oak beams visible (which are some 18 inches thick) as we can and the builder's promised to do this for us. I've seen some of his previous work and it looks good so am looking forward to seeing the end result. Glad I'm not over there dealing with all the mess from the old ceiling though right now ...