🏡 House

It was a few years after moving to France when we started looking for land to build a house in France. Now, the house is a home and we are settled.

These videos follow us as we endeavoured to understand and navigate the building of a home in a foreign country. This was our space to record that process (for ourselves) and to share it with friends and family across the world.

15.0 – Underfloor Heating

Having endured freezing winters in old French apartments, we delight in seeing the underfloor heating pipes laid in the house. Pipes cover the entire floor of the house and will ensure this will be our last cold winter.

14.0.1 – Little to See

As we prepared for this site meeting, there was one thing I wanted to know. Would we get to see the underfloor heating?

14.0 – An Unwelcome Lack of Progress

For the first time since building began, there has been almost no progress on-site. The electricity connection has progressed but is not complete. No sign of the expected underfloor heating or next layer of insulation.

13.1.1 – Tread Carefully

The floor inside has been returned to a level surface. All the tubes carrying cables through the house have been covered with a layer of concrete, ready for the insulation and underfloor heating to go on top.

13.1 – Progress Week 39

Watch a short video showing the house progress between week 36 and week 39.

13.0 – Concrete Covered Electrics and Plumbing

Concrete has been poured over all the tubing. Inside those tubes, encased forever, is our electrical wiring and plumbing. After the meeting, we use our external stairs for the first time and try to coordinate the mains electricity connection.

12.1.1 – Small Changes

Progress on the house has felt slow the last couple of visits. It’s not that things have slowed down, there have actually been a lot of changes, but they are small changes and they don’t have the same feeling of progress as the big changes earlier on.

12.1 – Progress Week 36

Watch a short video showing the house progress between week 34 and week 36.

12.0 – Plumbing, Pipes, Burners, and Tiles

The pipes across the floor trouble the tiler and we change our minds on tiles in the bathroom.

11.1 – Progress Week 34

Watch a short video showing the house progress between week 32 and week 34.