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Renovation, “LES OURS” bedroom
We almost called it the “DOLMEN’S ROOM”. But why such a name? Quite simply because it’s the only room that now has a double view of the enormous stone on which we’ve always had our coffee, which sinks gently under its own weight and looks like a small dolmen with its feet buried in the […]
Renovation of the “Maison à Pain” begins
This quiet cottage in the middle of the Kerbeleg park is a perfect romantic nest. It is meant for a couple or even a family with two children. The windows look out over the sunset through the woods. The restored historic bread oven and the wood-burning stove to warm you up in winter. Everything is […]
Where are we now?
Here’s a quick snapshot of the progress of the work.. The big house is finally finishedThe oven will be the winter’s workThe gravel path is almost finished… 15 tonnes of gravel spread out, only five more to go!
Renovating the driveway: 19 tonnes of gravel!
For years, weeds of all kinds have been growing happily in the driveway around the house. Faced with this titanic maintenance project, we decided to limit this gravel path to the front of the house. The tour will therefore take place in a freshly mown lawn. The first step was to dig up and scrape […]
Light
Because the concrete staircase was rarely used, and because we felt that its aesthetic was out of keeping with the building, we went looking for a mason to remove it. With no workmen available on a reasonable budget, we ended up hiring a jackhammer to do the job for four hours… Roughing up and clearing […]
2021 Kerbeleg Olympics!
While in Japan the unfortunate athletes are running out of steam in front of empty stands, the house is finally ready to welcome players of all kinds.
And the “monk’s room” became… “the bird room”!
… or ‘blue’ bedroom. Less mystical for the newcomers, but the vintage spirit remains intact with the monumental fireplace. Our little bear and the birds lighten up this very bright room with new proportions and a comfortable bathroom.
The bread oven… update!
Emptying basins of water every other rainy day during the winter at the foot of the baker’s oven had worn away my patience and curiosity. I imagined this pile of collapsed stones, bathed in mud and the roots of plants that had grown on the roof. So I ended up drilling a hole in the […]
Tell me, little flowerpot…
…when are you going to be de-peppered? The little trough that serves as a planter is sinking with the rain and the passage of time. We were curious to know how deep it was sinking, so Antoine and I pulled it out by the roots to raise it a little. We leave it another 20cm […]
Glass transoms
One of the new tasks I set myself was to replace some of the small dormer windows, where the surface area of the sash and frame often exceeded the area of the glass that let in the light, so we decided to install double-glazed transoms in these locations. Perfectly insulating and letting the light in. […]
L’alchimiste
(to be read between meals) It all started at the end of the plumbing works when the water was turned on, with heavy, foul-smelling stench rising up the walls and partitions of the little house every time we took a shower. The bowels of the earth were telling us that an invisible evil was threatening […]
Mother on board!
Normally, that would sink the boat, but during her stay, as well as embellishing the garden, she started work on the projects that we’d planned for later, but which were so important to keep in shape and give the impression that the project was progressing well. As a result, our priorities have changed and our […]
The hot potato
“And the lucky winner of a Breton closed bed in the 50th birthday quiz is… Fabien!” Ah, that’s it, the hot potato is therefore mine. This piece of out-of-date Breton furniture, which has been nibbled away by insects and must weigh close to 100 kgs, was moved into the garage by tractor two years ago […]
Small ‘Library & Baby-Foot’ lounge
This is probably one of the rooms that gave us the most cold sweats, along with Daddy&Granny’s old bedroom, as the level of insalubriousness discovered once the walls had been stripped bare was quite horrifying (a small sample of the images before the mushroom omelette below). The wood-eating beetles are not to be outdone and […]
And all the while…
… LeeLoo’Ch (yes, that’s her name, for those of you who have seen Luc Besson’s The 5th Element, she’s the main character) is purring with all her red fur like a little fox. Our new little 6-9 month old cat, orphaned by the SPA, has joined her new home. She’s adorable but ultra-cautious of anything […]
Hollywood
At Kerbeleg, cinema, karaoke and, more exceptionally, games are now available in full width over 2m50. So I needed a few expert cabinet-makers’ hands and strong arms to help me make this formwork in line with the new beams in the living room so that the screen would be a little more discreet. So, with […]
Chambre Hugo (former parents & baby bedroom)
Even more complicated was opening up the stairwell to save our scalps and transform the shared upstairs WC into a functional bathroom. The adjoining bedroom is smaller but just as cosy. All that’s left to paint here are the radiators.
Antoine’s room (formerly the boys’ dormitory and Solange’s room)
We joined the 2 bedrooms to make one, and replaced the out-of-use Velux windows with larger ones that allow you to admire the meadow (20cm high and the full width of the beams). The recess in the eaves has been condemned. If anyone can tell us what it was used for, we’d love to know…
F&V room (former games room):
Having our bedroom on one level means that, before we think about a future that we hope is as far away as possible, we can look into the eyes of the moon and the sun as they rise and the birds and owls sing. Here are a few brief steps to get us into shape:
Adventurers of the Lost Ark
A little racy, I admit, but far less romantic, and instead of setting off in search of the famous and improbable treasure of Kerbeleg, we set off on a relentless search, not for the source of the water like Manon, but for its more obscure destination. We are sorely missing the left (west) half of […]
“Stairway to heaven”, the new life of the staircase.
What a joy it is to find the clattering footsteps of our ‘little ones’, now grown up, quietly climbing the steps of the wooden staircase that leads to their bedrooms. Goodbye cobalt blue and ultramarine blue carpets, closer to the blue of a gloomy Breton winter sky than the blue of the South Seas against […]
Terre a tribord!
The port of St Nazaire welcomes our container, just a few hours away and twenty-five years of furniture, paintings and other objects that have marked our lives in France and Asia reach their new home. It’s a party! Jean Tanguy, Daddy’s former gardener, leads the way. We couldn’t have expected it, but his grandson is […]
Claustra, le tuto…
What was still a small, dark, low-ceilinged corridor leading to the old kitchen in the spring is now a short, but bright and high passageway to the new one. So, in the spirit of brightening up the rooms, I decided to install a half-timbered clerestory. Once the partition had been erected to a height of […]
Garage – Small dining room – Utility room… Water rising!
We already knew the garage, which became a small north-facing dining room where we had so many breakfasts, courgette gratins and sausage and purée puddings at the end of a beach day, but the future laundry room is taking on a generous amount of water. The doors have lived through the years, suffering from the […]
Kantoche Mer & Campagne
Easy recipe for crispy mixed vegetables with herbs and pan-fried fish fillet with garlic and Breton butter: INGREDIENTS: 1 kg medium to large potatoes, avoid ‘floury’ ones (see table below) 500 g coloured carrots (or plain carrots depending on the desired visual effect) 1/2 mustard glass of herbes de Provence 1/2 mustard glass olive oil […]
Partitioning (video)
The rooms have finally found their walls, the electrical conduits and plumbing are partly incorporated into the décor, and the new rustic oak doors have been fitted. The new perfect parallelism in this old space is a little disconcerting, but don’t forget that this building was constructed over four hundred years ago, when craftsmen probably […]
A mon papa
When I’m walking under the evening glitter, or at four in the morning when the starry vault crackles in the icy Breton air, when the madness of organising the work resurfaces in the middle of my night, I think of my dad, my little benevolent blond ghost who won’t have had time to see Kerbeleg […]
A tribute to funny DIYers
In the workshop, if we’ve all spent at least a little time there doing odd jobs, Daddy, Uncle Bruno and Emmanuel have been sweating it out for days on end, and the most tried and tested of its accessories is of course the workbench. This mass has become misshapen under the weight of blows, blades […]
Geology Museum
We’ve fallen in love with travertine flooring. We’re replacing the smoky tiles with this limestone inlaid with a multitude of shells, crustaceans and other crystals to give the living room and the new kitchen the light bounce that will brighten up the interior of the farmhouse. A whole crab several million years old rests in […]
Storm warning
The 160km/h gusts hit the islands of Groix and Belle Ile before rushing into the Gulf of Morbihan, and we couldn’t escape the tail of the dragon, which swept violently through the small woodland. A bit of wood to cut up for the coming winters.
Carpentry and masonry workshop
The floor in the living room has been lowered by 10 cm to increase the ceiling height, so it was necessary to remove the highest stone on the landing and redo a ‘stone-like’ slab, as was done at the time of the renovation in 1962 for the rest of the landing, which is not made […]
Gros bras, gros planning…
With Antoine and Armelle here for a long weekend, we’re moving Kerbeleg in its entirety, labelling, sorting and donating, all between two crêpes and a bowl of cider to perk us up. It’s heavy, it’s dusty, but we’re having a bit of fun all the same, because a lot of forgotten objects are coming out […]
Finishing the shell (video)
After three months of Asterix & Obelix-style work carrying granite menhirs, beams and digging up the floors, our mason has unveiled the new structure of the house, ready to house the new electrical network, plumbing and insulating partitions. The hard work can now begin.
Lime devaaaant!
A necessary stage in our renovations, a first level of renovation through the walls opens its creative doors to us. Renovating with lime will allow the stone to breathe again. Until recent decades, all restored houses were ‘insulated’ with cement, either partially by grouting the exposed stones, or completely by covering the walls. This absurd, […]
Mars Attacks !
The weather had a few surprises in store for us. From desert sandstorms to tornadoes to UFO landings, we were stunned by the sublime sight in front of our house.
It’s a…!
Literally! Now that the floor of the living room and the corridor leading to the old kitchen have been removed, the mason will pour the insulating concrete slab over the new electrical conduits. The cement mixer passes in front of the house and in a fraction of a second sinks 30cm into the ground. The […]
The time has come for cathedraaaaa…!
It’s a rather pretentious term, I admit, for a farmhouse, but it’s the one traditionally used to describe this new ‘cathedral’ living room, which involves reclaiming all or part of an upper floor to give a room more volume, air and light. So here we are, back in the days of the ‘pillars of the […]
First visit (video)
The structural work is progressing apace… Nostalgic for the Kerbeleg and its percheron cart, fans of posters of the Snow Queen, sensitive souls, refrain from entering for the moment because the walls have taken quite a beating… Literally! We’re pushing back the limits of the space available to us to offer our future visitors an […]
Under the ‘tent
We’ll be camping out in the oven while the work is being done. There will be musical instruments, a kitchen, a table for four, a pantry, linen and accessories. We’re ready to face these months in the middle of the building site, the oven has its charm as it is, even if we’re planning a […]
Welcome Committee
We landed at Roissy on 2 July and headed straight to Kerbeleg loaded down with our luggage for the next five months. The land of buckwheat pancakes and salted butter caramels was ours. The next day, as we were doing another tour of the site, a gentleman of respectable age appeared in front of the […]
The big hammers are coming off…
The fireplace in the ‘piano room’ has been completely freed of its cement so that, as we’d hoped, the stone can appear, but we’re in for a big surprise (and no, it’s not the treasure of Kerbeleg…) when we discover a tangle of beams eaten away by insects and a heap of crumbly cob that […]
Open sesame!
Moving freely around the house is one of the priorities of this renovation. Before the complete renovation of the insulation, heating, water and electrical systems, the mason began the extension phases.
‘Crachin’ Breton
Between two phases of structural work, a series of showers and the outside drains clogged with leaves from the previous autumn created a torrent in the driveway that extended into the house… As a result, with the gutters saturated, the water seeped under the door of the former small dining room and into the hallway […]
The 2020 Plan
Nothing is more complicated than drawing straight lines in curved spaces. We’re in for a treat, it’s a perilous exercise but the result will at least be interesting, if not creative, ideally a success, but that’s a tall order, we’ll see in a few months. So here’s a look at the main wall, which varies […]
Heritage & Ecology
Preserving the history of this house while transforming it to make it feel like home will be the most difficult of tasks. Endearing because its walls exude our carefree years, it will have allowed us to envisage numerous combinations of space and circulation rearrangement and colour schemes, while preserving its character. Deciding what to do […]
Winter 2020, 35° in Singapore…
Our lives are about to change radically, as this venture into life abroad comes to a sudden end after twenty years, and we prepare to leave behind us banana plantations, monkeys, lizards and slobbering monitor lizards from South-East Asia to rediscover apple trees, calves, cows, pigs from our own backyard and, at the end of […]