Latest French Pictures

[Lippyp]

As some of you have asked, here are some new pics of my project house in France. We spent three weeks over there in August and I managed to get back for a couple of weeks in late september/early October to finish a few things off. Next trip will be in three weeks time to shut the place up properly for the winter.

This was the access in August



Same view in October with our new road



August



October

[Dick Dale]

God, I need to visit. Where in France is that?

[Lippyp]

We now have a proper entrance with a mailbox and everything although next year I'll install some gateposts and a proper gate.



and I installed the plumbing for the new bathroom



We now have a new window put in as we need a second bedroom for the forthcoming new arrivals



and finally the unfinished (needs some more drywall) but working bathroom

[Lippyp]

The house is in the Lot, kind of south-west France. Its about a 900 mile drive from our house in the UK, takes a couple of days to do it although we have done it in one go. From about 12 miles from our house to an hours drive from the French one its Freeway all the way.

[Lippyp]

Also its nice because its quite high up, in fact theres skiing up in the Massif Central about an hours drive away and you do get some reasonabe snowfall there, this was Januaryt this year when I was over and it snowed nearly two foot in 24 hours.

[Brad]

Great pics Phil, thank you for sharing. What a fantastic house- and very interesting too!

[67ChevyRedneck]

I've followed your other threads on this too! Great stuff man. Rebuilding a truck is one thing, restoring an old house is something ever better. My dad and I have done a lot of rebuilding/home construction stuff, I personally love doing it, I get a lot of satisfaction out of it.

Looks like your almost "home" on your project.

[Longhorn Man]

Everytime I see the pics of this place, I am totally floored.

[Jimbotronics]

Dats tha coolest!

[N2TRUX]

Great progress Phil! What's amazing is how much you get done every time you visit. I recently managed to turn something as simple as changing a light bulb in to replacing 5 fixtures and the accompaning 8-9 trips to 2-3 different hardware stores. I can't imagine having to get things done when you can't make extra trips to town for supplies...

[BOSS]

hey you need some drywall and i have some free time.....lol. Great looking place you got there

[Palf70Step]

Looking good! Beautiful countryside around your place.

[LUV2XCLR8]

Gorgeous, simply gorgeous

[bad_turbo]

Beautiful pics! Doesn't look much like downtown L.A. Wheres the traffic?

[HeavyD]

Wow, I am in agreement with everyone else..the place looks beautiful, even in the winter.

[barn9]

Congrats on the good work Phil! You have come a long way on the place, it is looking really nice man! Keep us posted, we're all vacationing vicariously in France because of you, LOL!

[Lippyp]

Heavy traffic is when two tractors pass within an hour! The nearest building supplies place is a good 40-50 minute drive away, not so much because of distance but because its a very winding road down out of the hills. Add to the that the fact that the French shut for a two hour lunch break and at times it can get very frustrating trying to get something done. Some of the work has been done by contractors some by me, I did the bathroom from scratch. The language barrier at times an make it a touch difficult although my French is improving all the time, although theres a slight problem in that some of the locals aren't even native French speakers, they speak Occitan which is an ancient language found around southern France http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occitan Great people though, when I arrived in October I found that someone had ploughed, harrowed and rolled the areas downhill from the new road on my land so its ready for seeding. Turned out to be my nearest neighbour who's barn is halfway up our access road. He did it because "thats what neighbours do" and he's so delighted with the fact he now has a tarred road to his barn!