One of the houses in our little hamlet is being renovated. It's an old house that has had a much newer addition added on to it at some time in the past. The woman who lived there died a couple of years ago at age 95.
All the doors and most of the windows and shutters have been replaced with more modern versions. A new doorway has been cut to give direct access from the kitchen out into the garden. The house had only one door originally. The old doors, shutters, and other things have been left standing out in the yard, and out in the weather, leaning up against the walls of the house.
I don't know if the people who are having the house renovations done — they are the son and daughter-in-law of the woman who died — will ever come and live here. They live in the Paris area. Maybe they are planning to sell the place after the work is done, or maybe they plan to leave it to their grown-up children.
Of the nine houses in our hamlet, four are occupied full-time. Four are occupied seasonally or only infrequently by their owners, who use them as vacation houses. One is for sale. Three of the houses are less than 50 years old, and two or three are probably about 200 years old. About a dozen people live or spend stretches of time in the hamlet.
All the doors and most of the windows and shutters have been replaced with more modern versions. A new doorway has been cut to give direct access from the kitchen out into the garden. The house had only one door originally. The old doors, shutters, and other things have been left standing out in the yard, and out in the weather, leaning up against the walls of the house.
I don't know if the people who are having the house renovations done — they are the son and daughter-in-law of the woman who died — will ever come and live here. They live in the Paris area. Maybe they are planning to sell the place after the work is done, or maybe they plan to leave it to their grown-up children.
Of the nine houses in our hamlet, four are occupied full-time. Four are occupied seasonally or only infrequently by their owners, who use them as vacation houses. One is for sale. Three of the houses are less than 50 years old, and two or three are probably about 200 years old. About a dozen people live or spend stretches of time in the hamlet.
those old doors & shutters would make nice coffee tables or headboards
ReplyDeleteI like the door a lot! Maybe you can take a look inside the house while it's open.
ReplyDeleteRenovation in France. Many Blog posts could be written. It's always interesting to see how others fared, compared to one own's project.
ReplyDeleteWill you get inside shots?
Ooh, yes, if it's feasible, it would be fun to follow the progress, and to see the inside a bit. What do the new door and shutters look like?
ReplyDeleteI would have kept those windows and shutters unless they were totally beyond redemption. Better than nasty plastic.
ReplyDeleteAnother possibility, they might rent it out as a gite.
ReplyDeleteThe house under renovation is one of only two in the hamlet that I haven't been inside of. The current owners told me that it needed serious updating when they took it over (after his mother died). But now his health is bad and I don't know if he will ever come to live down here in Saint-Aignan.
ReplyDeleteIt's exciting to see the outcome of the renovation. So, how's it going now? Is it almost finished? By the way, Ken. Are the owners of the house planning to replace the roof, or repaint the sidings? If they are planning to sell it, I think they should do that.
ReplyDelete