There is golden autumn around us, the forests we see on the hills around the village are rusty and brown, and the days are much shorter now, reminding us that winter is coming. Which is also evidenced by frosty mornings, with the grass and leaves edged by white.
But before the really cold season is here, it is still time to enjoy the leafy nature outside, go mushrooming, and get the garden ready for the next season. Which is what we've been enjoying doing, and it is so much easier now having all this beauty basically right out our doors.
Country pleasures - walks in the woods, picking mushrooms, watching the leaves turn golden
Going for a walk in the woods is always a nearly magical experience for me, and we are so lucky to have quite a few beautiful forests around us. Just being there and inhaling the unique aroma of the forest calms and rejuvenates me. No city park can compare.
As residents of our village we have permission to go and pick berries, mushrooms, and just enjoy these spaces. I love picking mushrooms, although I don't know much about them! As a city girl much of my life, I learnt some things from my grandfather who as a child went foraging for food. My neighbours took me mushrooming with them a couple of times, so now I know what to pick and what not to pick (for the most part). And in France, when in doubt, you can bring your basket of pickings to a pharmacy to make sure you are not going to eat something that will make you ill, or poison you.
But where are we after five months of the house restoration project? I am sure many of you are waiting for the before and after pictures. And I am waiting to have all this behind us!
There is progress!
So this is where we are - in a nutshell, we are not done yet. Some parts of our house are getting a final lick of paint. Some still look like a war zone. Tiles, paint, and other finishing materials are standing at the ready waiting to be applied to the surfaces...
In a positive development, a few days ago I was delighted to take a shower in our brand new bathroom which did not exist before. We decided to carve it out of a small bedroom, the rest of which became a small closet (because there is never enough storage, even in a big house!). We decided to keep it simple, with the original tomettes that were returned to their former glory - they were painted grey, and had to be stripped off paint by sand blasting. This operation was done right at the start of the project, and let me tell you, the dust got everywhere! I still find red tomette dust when I clean in corners and behind things.
The walls are in warm neutral colors. The same New White hue by Farrow and Ball was applied in most of the spaces upstairs, giving them luminosity and warmth. The Zelige tile of the new bathroom is kept in off-white tones. We opted for no built in furniture, preferring free standing pieces, and re-used a sink that was already here but in the master bathroom. It is in great shape, dates from the 50's, and with the new water tap will be serving us forever. Many elements of this house are being reused here and there. I believe in not wasting anything, and moreover, furniture and fixtures were so much better made in the past. Wall lights and the mirror came from my beloved Puces du Canal in Lyon.
Before and during (see "after" above) - before there was one skinny bedroom with tomettes painted in grey... The image on the right shows a wall in the shower tiles with the off-white Zelige tiles. Love these tiles!
With one completed space I feel like we reached a major milestone. The comfort of having the actual bathroom made me wonder how could we live with the laundry/shower/toilet situation just a short while ago? I guess when you have a goal you are ready to make some temporary sacrifices.
At the same time my husband's office also became ready to move into. This came just in time, as his temporary office was located in an unheated workshop on our property, and the temperatures started dipping close to freezing...
And we were able to move into a new bedroom, which in the future will welcome guests.
In this space the most important change was upgrading the floor. Although the wall to wall carpeting was fairly recent, we didn't want to live with it, and decided to invest in oak parquet flooring. This way the floor is a visual continuation of the corridor with its original oak floor. The color was carefully matched to be as close as possible.
Left to right - before the restoration began, see the wall to wall carpet and grey walls... and the paint on the fireplace; the middle is work in progress; the right is a nearly finished stage, with the flooring installed but not stained the darker color yet
As we moved to the newly finished bedroom, which is a temporary situation, we are again living among furniture, boxes, and clothes racks. But it is all good, as our own bedroom will be worked on soon, and I will finally have my own walk-in wardrobe, aka "dressing" as we call it in France, first time in my life. Can't wait!
There is also a small toilet room upstairs now, because this house had only one before, downstairs. Imagine navigating to the loo in the middle of a night, down the stairs, across the main floor, to the laundry room, trying not to trip over anything... Anyway, this will not be happening now, as we have this proper loo on our bedroom floor now. And since I feel an importance to give small spaces a proper decor, especially a loo, which is often overlooked, this one is fitted with a beautiful wallpaper sourced from Antoinette Poisson, and brand new fixtures. I especially love the doll size wash basin. This room still needs some touch ups, but I love how it is shaping up. A vintage light and mirror are waiting to be installed :)
With these developments, I am getting a taste of what a normal life looks like again. Clean walls, painted in light hues, and gentle colors. Refinished floors in natural materials - tomettes, wood, stone. I am also finally able to see my ideas, and vision, if you will, I had for this house.
Bit by bit I am dusting off some boxes (the dust situation is serious! it gets everywhere and getting rid of it is a real pain in you know what). I am finding the wall lights that I collected overtime at various flea markets, little pieces of furnishings needed for little nooks here and there, area rugs. I will be happy to see things in their proper place, but I don't want to have every room in the house completely "done" right away. It will be a pleasure to add to the spaces over time, selecting art work for the walls, curtains, more furniture.
Even with the house partially completed, partially in disarray I can feel that "homey" feeling. I can see that soon this house will be warmly welcoming family and friends, and will be the place that we will be truly able to call home.
To be continued...
XOXO
Joanna
Comments