Projects are like buses

You have none and then a bunch of them come along all at the same time. I’ve got to get cracking on my new tool store but at the same time I’ve got another much bigger one up my sleeve that I’ve also got to progress, as I’ll explain in a moment.

I already had work lined up on the bigger one today but I couldn’t resist going out first thing to peg out the spot that I’ve earmarked for the new tool store just so I could satisfy myself that it will work as I envisage it. Here’s a shot taken from further forward in my garden to show what will be its general position. You can just see the pegs that I banged into the ground at what will be each of its corners.

And here’s a shot taken from much closer to what will be its position. Although it looks as though it’s a bit on the skew, in fact it’s parallel to the rear boundary of my garden and it’s only the trees that I’ll need to cut back a bit that give that impression, I think.

And finally, here’s a shot from what will be the new tool store’s left-hand front corner.

But my priority today was the other project so that was as far as I could get to today on the tool store. When I bought my house here in France, one of the reasons why I chose it was because of the enormous amount of potential that it had for improvement and development. The French are not much into that sort of thing but the expats who buy property in France, mainly Brits, Dutch and German, spend a great deal of time and money on renovating, extending and improving old property and mostly do a fantastic job. When I bought my house it was ‘vide’, empty, and had very little in it except for an awful old toilet and bathroom and an ancient chipped earthenware sink in the kitchen. But what it has got is a spacious ‘grenier’ on the first floor which has always cried out to be developed into extra living space.

Up to now I’ve not been in a position to proceed but at last I have the resources to hand to do so. It’s too late to do anything this year because my plans will involve stripping and replacing the roof after installing some decent insulation, but because of the need to get pricing and a suitable contractor sorted out for the spring of next year (it’s too big a project for me to do single-handedly myself), I need to get some rough sketches and plans together to discuss with the builders that I ask to quote. So that’s what I had to do today.

Here’s what I came up with after toiling away for several hours on my PC.

I’ve also turned out an initial floorplan for the first floor, but at present everything’s only at concept stage and I’m sure that as time passes it will all be modified. Being a ‘DIYer’ but not a builder, I’m pretty certain that what I’m proposing is achievable but my early discussions with the professionals, two of whom I’ve already got lined up to talk to through contacts, will be very illuminating. My main concern, of course, is that my vision doesn’t exceed my budget but time will tell and I can’t wait to get those discussions underway 😉