Renovating in February

Renovation of the Breton cottage continues! The plan for this trip was for E to finish lime rendering the kitchen and the gable end wall/chimney breast in the bedroom. My plans were slightly more flexible as I needed to fit in a few social visits, some canal/woodland walks, firewood gathering, knitting and reading ;-)

Back of cottage and barn (on right)

Front and barn on left

View of woodland 

Lime rendering in process..

E managed to finish off most of the rendering before the bale of hemp; needed to mix with the lime, ran out. Advances in LED mean that we were able to source low voltage bulbs with a soft but bright light (as opposed to the usual harsh white) for the kitchen; being off-grid for electric means that minimising usage is a priority.

We had a meeting with the heating engineer who installed the log-burner and hot-water tank/radiators (gravity fed from a back boiler) so he'll be testing and installing a small wood-burning Rayburn (rescued from a friends garage) in the kitchen and a solar water panel low on the wall outside with a small photovoltaic panel to pump.

The living room's starting to look quite cosy..

Although we're still camping out by the fire :)

Main structural work on the barn has been done; roofing, walls, floor, mezzanine..

So we'll leave it now until the house is finished and then introduce a more contemporary feel with a modern log burner etc to contrast with the traditional cottage.

The weather was beautifully warm and sunny for February so walking a kilometre along the canal to the village centre was a daily pleasure..

Where the Nantes-Brest canal joins the River Blavet 

Part of the Napoleonic centre of the village

I like the sliver of moon and the bird silhouettes in this photo of the village church spire