“The concrete roof had to be done twice because it leaked after the first attempt, said John. “I was up and down ladders lifting the concrete in buckets. It was hard work but it had to be right.” With the atrium almost complete, John


removed the corrugated plastic roof of the outbuildings, took off the old doors and had an old oil tank professionally removed from the site. He then began the transformation of the 900 sq ft space by building the front wall up to roof leel, creating a at concrete roof and then using support beams to hold up the structure while he built the internal breeze block walls. While the front part of the gite was open to the elements, howeer, heay storms ooded the building and progress was delayed until it could dry out ahead of doors and windows going in to make the building watertight. Earlier this year three friends from the UK travelled down to Chablis to lend a hand,


34 www.sbhonline.co.uk


including father-and-son plumbers who spent a month living with John and Julia so they could complete to second fi stage. Between them they laid a concrete oor  using almost 100 mixes of concrete created across three days  fitted a shower room on the ground oor, made the roof terrace on the gite waterproof and installed a staircase to the second oor bedroom.


At the point of writing, John was still working on the second fies, tiling the oors, plastering walls and generally getting the gite to the point where he could start decorating. “It’s been a long, hard project and most of it I’ve done on my own, but there are stages where you seem to be taking one step forward and three back, and other times when you are making huge progress very quickly. Then suddenly it all pulls together and you stand back and get a huge sense of achievement. You know, at that point, that it’s all been worthwhile.”


may/jun 2023


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