This depiction of Chateau Duffy in chalk graced the men’s toilets at Ian McKellan’s pub last summer. (No, I did not take the photo myself…) [Credit: Chris Austin]
First of all, it’s not a chateau. We’re aware of that, but it does confuse people. Our current Matryoshka Haus interns had to explain this fact to their rather excited American families. What can I say, we’re eccentric English people!
Six years ago, a group of people who were beginning to become very good friends began chatting about a curious trip to France to work on a house. I vividly recall an evening at Marie’s (the best Thai food in London, found on Lower Marsh) where Shannon encouraged me to come along. I believe her words were something like: “Come to France! There’ll be wine! A swimming pool! Lots of great food! It’ll be fun!”
In her defence, she was not wrong. She just left out the hours of back-breaking work that would take place before we had a moment to jump into the pool or open a bottle of red! Anyway, as long-term readers of this blog will know well, by the end of that trip I was fully committed to the project that was now known as Chateau Duffy and was on my way to developing a wide range of DIY skills.
Chateau Duffy in August 2011 before any work began.
This month marks Chateau Duffy trip number twelve. We’ll be gathering together another motley crew of Brits & Americans with a side order of baffled French locals. (When we’re in St Denis-des-Murs it’s like the circus has come to town.)
Across eleven trips, 62 adults have worked on the site. 27 of them have even been willing to come back. Thanks to their combined efforts, in six years we have:
- Taken down the barn’s roof.
- Rebuilt the barn’s beams; boarded the roof; waterproofed it & then put the tiles back.
- Pointed walls.
- Pointed more walls.
- Demolished a hay loft.
- Dug up and concreted the barn’s floor.
- Pointed walls (again).
- Dug up and concreted the house’s floor.
- More pointing.
- Built a mezzanine in the barn.
- A bit more pointing.
- Built another mezzanine & created frames for two bathrooms.
- Added a staircase to the barn.
- Slurried walls (though we get local Englishman Will to do this.)
- Dug out and installed a septic tank.
- Mortared the internal walls in the barn.
- Painted window & door frames.
- Installed (some) windows and doors.
- Re-tiled the house roof (with some help from Romanians).
- Connected the water supply to the bathrooms.
- Plaster-boarded barn ceiling.
- Installed toilets & shower trays.
- Dug out trenches for laying pipes.
- Tiled the downstairs bathroom.
- Plastered barn’s ceiling.
- Pointed some more (mostly inside).
- Tiled upstairs bathroom.
- Blocked in downstairs bathroom.
You’ll notice some recurring themes… My goodness pointing is a never-ending task! Despite that looking like an epic list, we’re still not done. Sure, you can use a toilet and potentially have a shower but you can’t yet cook a meal. But all that could change by the end of July!
I feel like this photo from April’s trip doesn’t quite do our work justice – you can’t see the inside and the endless pointing efforts are less obvious from a distance. Despite still being a bit of a way off finishing, the amount that’s been achieved in a little over 12 weeks is pretty impressive. Our local builder friend even suggested that we’d got more done in three months spread over 6 years than a team might have managed in 12 consecutive weeks. (Although I’d be inclined to suggest that it’s largely French bureaucracy that would hold things up!
My 11 weeks of work (yep, I’ve only missed one trip – one that clashed with my MA deadline) now equate to 22 weeks of being able to use the place when it’s done. I’m not sure it’ll be quite be the same without needing to mix mortar…
Should you find yourself at a loose end for the last week of July, there’s still time to book!
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