Shutters

The extension is nearly complete and at the end of last week they actually took some of the scaffold down that's been on the other extension's roof for over a year now. The extension you are looking at was started in ~1920 when the parcel of land it's standing on was bought and the wall that was there was demolished and a kink was put into the wall and a single story structure was built taking most of the main structure in the picture.

We think much later possibly ~1970 an upper story was added, using the garden wall at the rear as it's back. and a crude concrete block wall to the north face joining onto our existing house. For some reason this extension was never completed and though it had a roof, the windows were never filled in with frames or glazing and it was basically abandoned.

Sometime after 2010 and before we bought the house a new extension was built from the wall out of shot to the left across the front of the house joining onto the abandones extension. That's the zinc roof you can see the scaffold was sitting on. Because the new extension was in the way, getting at the old one to do anywork on it was a pain in the arse and cost double what it would have cost if all the work had been done when access was easy a decade ago...

Anyhow we had the old extension demolished, except for the stone garden wall parts and the bit that was holding up the new extension. Then they dug down to removed some dirt and lay a new slab over some insulation, and then built this new structure inside the hole. The ground floor is basically partially underground at the front of the house and not at the rear so there is internal drainage built into the walls, which are unusually for France cavity walls - which is standard in the UK.

The upper floor, which is what you can see mostly here is a timber frame box with thick insulation and untreated hardwood timber cladding exterior. The shutters are basically made out of the same material as the frame and slide out of the way, and we're leaving them like this for a while to adjust as they've only been up a week, whereas the rest has started to weather already. When finished the wood should go grey in about three years time, and then remain that colour for 25-30 years or so. It's naturally oily and doesn't need any treatment - though it's recommended to wet it now and then in the first year to make sure it weathers evenly.

The small south facing window was changed at the last minute and has an white plastic roller blind which only the French love, they are ugly, annoying and they've not made much effort to hide - the little black strip over the window is the solar panel that powers the motor.

The large solar panel intruding to the right of the picture is for hot water, and while I'm not convinced of its economic merits, with the price of energy as it is, maybe it will pay for itself eventually.