Today was a nice day and the masons, Barthé et Michel finished pouring the concrete slab above the rainwater cistern (which will be the garage’s floor) and on top of the cellar N°1. You will see on the picture that they have planted some rebar pieces along the right side of the garage and in continuation of the garage’s right side corner. This will anchor and connect the small stone wall that they will build all around the garage and on top of which the carpenter will bolt the garage’s wooden structure.
The masons have also started to prepare for the scaffolding around the dining room walls as they will start building the stone walls again on Monday. My dad and I covered the beams with plastic and built a walkway with planks on top of the beams for the masons to be able to work on the second floor stone walls.
We almost forgot to place a plastic pipe to keep a hole on the garage slab that will be for the cistern’s intake. You can see it on the right of the cistern trap door. This is where the rain water that we will collect from the roof will enter the cistern.
I climbed one of the huge trees at the bottom of our property to take the pictures of the North West façades.
The masons are preparing for the reinforced slab that is going to go over the cellar #1 and the rainwater cistern. They needed Ismael and me to clean the side of the road and the top of the old house’s wall that is against the road as this is where the outside edge of the slab will come to rest. They needed to build a small footing using rocks.
Yesterday the masons reinforced the top of the old house’s wall, completed the footing for the slab and finished setting up all the forms (planks, metal sheets, etc) on top of which the concrete for the slab will be poured. While two of them were working on the set-up, a third guy was preparing all the rebar grid for the slab. If everything goes well, they will bring the concrete mixer truck on Friday and pour the slab.
Everyone is really happy that the work on the cellar #1, the cistern and the slab went ahead (following my dad’s recommendation). The hole that was in between the house and the road will soon be all covered up and nicely finished. One will be able to walk from the road onto the slab and stand right in front of where the future entrance door will be.
Today was a funny day weather-wise: there were sudden showers and a bright warm sun right after each of them. Both the masons and the carpenters were there and they were able to progress with their respective work. You will see in the pictures that everything is ready for the concrete mixer to come tomorrow and that the carpenters have installed the beams above the dining room. They will come back next Wednesday to install the pillars in the main room and all of the other beams above the kitchen and living room and above bathroom, entrance hall and downstairs bedroom. My dad and I are going to spray them with a solution of sodium borates and water and put a type of oil to protect them against insects and dirt.
I arrived in Bigorre yesterday morning. We spent the day picking up the straw bales as the weather forecast had announced rain in the evening. It was pretty accurate and as soon as we were done covering the trailers full of bales, the wind started to pick up and the first rain drops started to fall down.
We harvested 2 full trailers of rye straw bales which is about 450 bales. We hope that there will be enough to do the whole insulation on the house. It was a good workout because you have to use a fork, lift the bale above your head and carry it to the trailer. As the trailer gets packed higher and higher, it gets harder to throw the bales to the top.
While we were taking care of the bales, the masons poured the long reinforced concrete beam that goes from the water cistern to the front of the first cellar. Today, they covered the whole cellar and the rainwater cistern with planks and steel sheets to prepare for the reinforced slab. While they were doing this, Ismael and I cleaned the side of the road and took some soil away so that they will be able to extend the slab closer to the road and rest on top of the old house’s wall.
The slab should be pourred and finished by end of next week.
Tomorrow, the carpenter is coming and will start his work on the beams for the first floor. Everything is moving along and it’s nice to see. There is still tons of work to be done but it’s already starting to look nice.
