Uzer and other things. A photo journey. A "Mish Mash".: How our new house in Uzer evolved.

The living room in our 400 year old house in St Marsal

After twelve years living near Perpignan, in St Marsal, a small village at 750m on the Canigou, the sacred Catalan mountain, we decided for various reasons to move. After a visit to the High Pyrenees we discovered an area called "The Baronnies" near to Bagneres de Bigorre and within sight of another mountain the Pic du Midi, here shown as the background to the farm house we decided to buy and renovate.

WE FIND THE HOUSE

As you can see the farm house was in need of lots of TLC.

One of the previous owners repaired machines and used the sides of the fridges and cookers as replacement slate tiles!

The old stables, which are to the right and under the hangar in the picture below, had collapsed.

In the middle was an open garage and above it a hay loft.

Behind the farmhouse was a sort of lean-to.

The farm came with about 20 acres of pasture, ideal for our horses. We were also conveniently near to the town of Bagneres de Bigorre and schools for Manon. Yet outside a village and with views of the hills and mountains around us.

RENOVATION PART 1 "Le Gite"

Here you can see how we rebuilt the stables and converted the garage and hay loft into a gites. We call it that for easy identification but it is really the place where we house family and friends who come to visit.

When it was finished we moved in and started the renovation of the main house.

Below Anne-Marie does some painting in the bathroom of the Gite.

Michel Becat our builder, basically built the house on his own. He had a crane and Yves (below) came to help with the demolition/ earth moving as he had the machines. But Michel did the foundations, the brickwork, the woodwork for the roof, the slate tiled roof and the zinc guttering.

RENOVATION PART 2 "La maison principale"

The first job was to clear the inside and here is Yves on his mini machine starting work.

We all had turns as you can see. Manon is pictured below having a go.

Once the ground floor was cleared the floor was removed and the cellar floor levelled.

Here we are in the cellar during the clear out.

And then we erected the concrete posts to take the concrete floor. This was part of the reinforcing that we had to do.

The photo above was taken on Saturday afternoon at about 5.30pm

THEN DISASTER STRIKES

A week after work on the main house started, at midnight that Saturday, the main house collapsed. A beam gave way in the corner nearest the gites and the result you can see. Anne-Marie was at the gite bedroom window (the small one) when we heard "crack and tinkle" and she saw the house collapse. It took les than 5 seconds.

Her I must sing the praises of our builder Michel Becat and Yves who within 4 days had arranged delivery of this huge machine and cleared the site.

During the clearance Yves recovered all the stone surrounds of the windows and doors as well as all the oak beams that survived the collapse. (There were quite a lot)

The two gable ends had to be demolished.

Manon finds this all fun.

The site was cleared by Yves, who started the Monday after the collapse at about 4pm and finished the following Wednesday evening.

The foundations were being laid only four days after the collapse!

Left, the Pile of recovered stone. We were able to restore all the stonework of the windows and the front door as well as the lounge fireplace.

Fortunately we had a very efficient Inspector of Finished Works

The rest took shape quite quickly. In all the main house took about 6 months to complete.

One of the consequences was this: The old house main walls were 60 centimetres thick, now they were replaced by breeze blocks 20 cm thick. We gained 80 cm in the width and 80 cm in the length on three floors. That is the equivalent to 50 sq meters or 2 large rooms.

Unfortunately because the house was now 80cm wider inside, all but one of the ceiling oak beams were too short. We used as many of the oak beams as possible: in the kitchen (see end photos) and as window lintels. Fortunately the extra cost was not so bad as we no longer had need to have some fairly expensive concrete belts around the house and the house, reconstructed faithfully as it was, is new!

Here I am helping on the roof.

and Michel in his element

and Manon

and Anne-Marie

We topped the roof with this horsy thing.

And here Michel celebrates the finish of the roof of the utility room and TV room.

I did all the electricity in both the Gite and the main house. Anne-Marie did most of the painting in both parts.

and here is (above) the front door and the brick surround.

and (below) as it was before the collapse.

The well, a hole in the ground, is 15 metres deep and completely faced with stone all the way down. Here Thomas, who did a lot of the interior work, plastering, plumbing and tiling, helps place the first part of the well's new dress. See the result below. And it pumps up fresh clean water too.

We gained all round as we left most of the rubble behind the house and made it into a road. It also helped level the horse training ring which actually contains part of our old house, a block of flats from Tarbes and part of the Hospital of Bagneres de Bigorre!