Above the upstairs bathrooms and just before entering the large attic room, there is a small space I like to call the Kids’ corner. In order for this space to be safely used by kids, proper railing needed to be installed. Now it’s done and it looks great. My dad, again, came forward and offered to build this part. After all, soldering is one of the first trades he trained in.

Along with the railing, he made and installed the last finishing metal bands along the floor edges of the landing and Kid’s corner areas. This is to cover the different floor layers (supporting wood planks, wood fiber soundproofing and laminate).

The last level of the house can now be safely accessed and used by all.

The stairs and railings are finally done and it looks amazing! Thanks to everyone who took part in building and installing these pieces with a special note for my dad who supervised most of it and took care of installing the wooden hand rail which was no easy task. Now, we just need to apply a last coat of linseed-based natural hard oil and clean the glass panes; just one more item to add to our ‘to-do’ list next time we visit…

Another important milestone was reached today with the installation of the mezzanine glass and metal railing. It took us months to decide on a design for this railing and even longer to finalize its assembly and installation. We worked very closely with the contractor to source the appropriate materials and ensure the railing would meet all safety regulations.  We wanted something that would not block the view from the large bay windows which explains the use of glass and no vertical posts. The challenge was to find appropriate railing in the same black metal as the staircases (no stainless steel or aluminium) to hold the glass panels in place. We love the result and can’t wait until the wooden hand-rail is fully installed – in our opinion, it adds that warm touch so often missing in glass and metal works.

Une autre étape importante vient de se terminée aujourd’hui avec la pose de la rambarde en verre, métal et bois du balcon de la mezzanine. Comme pour les escaliers, la rambarde fait partie de ces ouvrages qui nous ont un peu pris la tête 😉 Nous avons passé pas mal de temps à choisir le style et une fois cela fait, il a fallu plancher sur sa réalisation laquelle n’était pas jouée d’avance : armature qui s’accorde avec celle des escaliers donc fer brut ou peint en noir (pas d’inox ou alu) et qui soit des plus minimaliste donc pas de balustres ou poteaux. Nous avons travaillé étroitement avec l’artisan choisi pour la réalisation de cet ouvrage (même artisan que pour les escaliers) pour trouver les bons matériaux et un assemblage qui tienne la route. Nous sommes très contents du résultat et avons hâte que la main courante en bois, qui selon nous apporte le brin de chaleur souvent manquant dans tout ouvrage en fer et verre, soit fini d’être posée.

The house entrance is located 2/3 up from the ground floor and facing the village road. The original house that was built on this land more than 150 years ago was positioned right against the road. Over the years and as the house became a ruin, the wall that was aligned to the road got partly covered up by road repairs and improvements. The new house was positioned away from the road (mainly for safety reasons) thus creating a 3.5 to 4-meter gap between the old house wall and the new one. Rather than filling this gap, we used it to place a 20 000 litre rainwater cistern (situated under the garage) and a cellar for the mechanical and laundry rooms. It is the concrete slab that’s above the cellar that we have just finished paving.

The paving was made as follows:

• Landscaping cloth
• EPDM membrane (waterproof membrane used for flat roofs or swimming pools)
• Metallic grid (used by tilers for strengthening tiling work)
• Concrete mix
• Slates (leftover from the roof work)
• Ciment grouting

The landscaping cloth is a bit of an experiment on our part. We think it will help maintain the EPDM membrane in place (even though the terrace slope is minimal) and prevent and/or absorb any condensation that may occur between the concrete slab and the membrane. The membrane was placed so it would go up by 4 to 5cm on each wall surrounding the terrace just like when waterproofing an italian shower base. We added a waterproofing agent to the grouting mix.

The kitchen cabinets are being installed on a cold and frosty winter day… Thankfully, the roads are clear and the house is nice and warm with the in-floor radiant heating keeping an even temperature throughout.

We ended up choosing a local carpenter who was recommended by our window and door carpenter. The cabinet boxes are made of the usual laminated particulate board material and the doors and drawers are made of local solid ash wood. We decided to keep the wood’s natural colour and asked to have only a clear varnish applied as a protective coat.

My dad finished building the wood pellet silo. It can contain roughly 4.8 tonnes of pellets which, according to the plumber, should be enough to provide space heating and domestic hot water for a whole year.

The boiler was installed just before Christmas and hooked up to the in-floor radiant heat right away. The pellets are fed into the boiler automatically and my dad was saying that the whole system is very quiet and efficient. A hybrid hot water tank (water can be heated by the boiler as well as with solar energy and electricity) has been hooked up but is not operational yet since none of the bathrooms and kitchen are finished yet.