I've been a bit remiss not updating the website as frequently as before. My main reason is that, although we're progressing well enough, we're completing tasks rather than rooms, so it all looks a bit unexciting. The main job has been to plane and sand the downstairs ceiling beams and clad the spaces between with insulation and plaster board. Starting with the Living Room, this has been a messy business, because the layers of ingrained soot have the properties of coal dust, so thank the Romans for inventing decent washing facilities. It's also tricky measuring the plaster board because no two beams run straight, such is the charm of the rustic. Hence the width of each section has to be measured every few centimetres because it changes so much. The example below, as pointed out by my charming assistant, gives an example of the kind of curves we're talking about.
Incidentally, during this period we passed the year mark of our renovation. I don't know what we expected after a year, but given that the place is warm, secure and reasonably comfortable, if you can ignore the heaps of power tools, we're pretty pleased with that.

The same deal here, albeit with less ingrained soot. The beams are, however, even more idiosyncratic. I think this is the older section of the house and the beams reflect that. They do plane and sand really well though, and even the soft worm-eaten outer layers slough off to reveal lovely hard core-wood. It's a mix of chestnut and oak.
We've been putting in the downlights at the same time as the plasterboard. It's nice to have light. Cooking by torch or candle light is all very 'Gin Gan Gooly' but definitely loses its appeal after a time.
We also took a few centimetres off the top of the room divide and gave it a brick surface. The old bread oven materials are still going strong.
We've heightened the plaster board surround underneath the wall units. This will all be tiled.

Chris has been hanging out with Olivier. It's a tentative relationship I think, and we're wondering when the boys are going to kick off. At the moment they seem to be keeping truce. Chris has also been throwing evils at Vox, the ever vigilant neighbouring dog. I think the local cats see him as something to wind up in between eating and sleeping.

After enjoying our customised winter hats courtesy of Chris and Richard we've now began using our specially customised egg cups, again courtesy of the same. Don't they look nice?