Progress Report

Perhaps you will not remember, but this is what the east wall of the third floor looked like when we arrived back in France a few weeks ago. It was crumbling apart and actually had holes that you could see daylight through. The exterior of the wall still needs to be dealt with, but we (meaning Nancy) have at least stabilized the interior wall with concrete. She now has one layer of lime plaster over the whole mess with more layers to come. I've built a seating area with much needed storage underneath. It will eventually be gussied up and have a shelf across the top and pillows and paint, of course. The wall is far from flat or plumb and you can see the shape of the timbers underneath the plaster, but I think its a great improvement and with each coat of plaster, the room grows lighter.

We still have a ways to go. Nancy is working on the other two walls and when she is finished, I will put down a wood floor. Below, Nancy is working on the west wall, which must have had a stone chimney at one time. She's started to clean the soot off and get this wall ready for lime plaster.

Each wall of this old house has different stonework on it. Different stonemasons, different source of stone and perhaps different epochs too. It may be this house was built after the two structures on either side, and was sandwiched in between. Or not. It would be interesting to know the history.