The coldest February weather for 27 years needless to say had a fairly dire effect on the works.Before the temperatures really dropped, the coldest was -16, with it not getting above -6 the next day, they found that the floor in what will be the utility room was hollow under the concrete! The screed that had been used for the original house was crushed slag from the steel works at Decazeville, about 20km away. It had "matured", swollen and then contracted leaving the void.
So up it all had to come. The red stuff you see is the crushed slag, and the rest of the rubbish you see on the floor is the remains of the concrete and bits of wall foundation that had rotted! Those of you with 20/20 vision will notice that the partition wall holding the door frame and the door frame itself are several inches off the ground.
So they set to work very quickly and filled the 50cm deep void they had created with firstly crushed limestone then a layer of sand then 20 cm of insulation and finally a layer of reinforced concrete. The concrete just had time to go off before the real cold got into the house. This much the same view.Then yesterday the plasterer eventually was able to restart and he insulated and finished lining the walls of the dressing room and Bren's lair and got on with doing the utility room as well.
Each of the pictures are taken roughly from the same point, the door that leads through from the garage to the apartment via the utility room which will be for the benefit of both us and whoever is staying in the apartment.
As this is such a long blog I just get the feeling that one or two of you might be interested in another panorama! Above the utility room is the dressing room/walk-in wardrobe, call it what you will. From the corner upstairs is a chute which will take the laundry directly down. At the moment it is a piece of sewer pipe, but everyone has to start somewhere! There it is in, the far corner. It is still only in single figures and as many of the inside walls froze it's a bit of a fridge in there.
