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« La Pointe »
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Preparing for the new roofOnce we'd got down to the old beams, they all needed to be cleaned (of dirt, plus any worm-eaten or water-damaged parts) and treated against insects. We massively underestimated how long this part of the process was going to take and fell hugely behind schedule, not helped by frequent interruptions by the rain - it's been a wet summer in the Ariège! |
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This preparation took so long, in fact, that seeing the barn with no roof became perfectly normal and the neighbours began to wonder if we were ever going to put a new roof on at all! We started telling them that we liked the fact that it let a lot of daylight into the place so we'd decided to leave it open... |
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Click on any of the images to take a closer look. |
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Cleaning the beams involves scraping off the damaged layer of wood on the outside using a drawknife. Actually, most people these days would have used some sort of power tool - the older locals were impressed to see us using the old techniques and tools. |
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The other important job to do before starting to put the new roof on was to build the chimney. Needless to say, we'll be making a pretty looking fireplace at some point in the future... |
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