Making a grand entrance...well perhaps not so grand

Another job for me at the Provence project was to make a secure entrance from the basement garage,the only way in, to the main house. Kept me out of mischief!

Boxing clever?

Another task I was set at the Provence project was to conceal this rather ugly arrangement for sharing the heat from the house's wood-burner to the upper levels.

Here it is in the new kitchen (by others)

And for my next trick...with apologies to non-DIYers

More from my Provence project - after modifying my steps to suit crooked wall on the right I was blessed with the ability to form a new one square to the wall on the left...needed for kitchen fitters but guess what? - the beam running off the wall was not running square to it!  

Had to bring my engineering skills to the fore...

Interestingly a professional had said that the only way to do it was to leave a gap between wall and beam!

Ripping out and making good

My second job at the Provence, Monmoiron project was to rip out the old kitchen and form a small office/pantry that would also provide one of the walls for the new steps.

As anyone who has worked in old French properties will know,trying to find a square wall to work from can be difficult - and that was the case here.My already formed steps had to be modified to accommodate the misalignment.

Taking steps to make access safer...Mormoiron project.

One of the projects I undertook here in the Mormoiron  house renovation was to replace what was, unbelievably, an architect-designed stair. Francoise had come up with a plan to replace the old kitchen and form new stairs which would be both safer and more aesthetically pleasing - I had to turn it into reality.

  

With the help of a good builder's site  on the internet I came up with the design and made replacement steps. If only it had been that simple...more to follow!