Razing The Roof - Doing It Ourselves

three years ago me my brother Billy and his fiancee Gwendolyn took on the mammoth task of restoring this stunning French chateau at first it was just the three of us but since then the whole family has moved in to help bring this place back to its former glory and not forgetting the newest family member maybe Ernest we do everything ourselves from fixing the leaky roof managing the vast 60 acre estate to restoring the grand interiors back to the way they were a hundred years ago it's not always easy but that's what makes life in a place like this interesting my name's Michael and I'm going to be showing you what it's like to live work and play at Chateau de Letran oh yeah well dad and Sean have made a head start there up there and they're just ripping off all the old plaster on the ceiling and as soon as they've got all of that worked off I'm gonna go up there and help them we're gonna take the old wooden lathes off the ceiling it's gonna be a lot of work this is probably one of the dirtiest jobs so far in the building but as soon as that's done we can really get going and insulating the ceiling and putting the new plaster board and stuff in so it's a really important job but it's got to be done today put your mask on there's a lot of dust up there don't all that in my lungs I'm son let's go and do some proper work [Music] and what we're doing we're taking all the plaster off first yeah wages the plaster oh we're gonna take all the dollars off looks like there's so much there they said there's loads of slate up there as well yeah I'll take a nail slice off they just kept falling through yeah so it's just getting chucked out the window in a minute then if you can hear those cows in the background there it sounds like a Jurassic Park you do get a shot at them bill [Music] oh yeah slice rock there look this stuff about these okay yeah see nothing so we have got hardhats on but there are there special ones look can see they're like a baseball cap but they're proper hard hats so we can be stylish [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] if you have a look up here you can see just how big this place it's gonna look when the all this ceilings from I'm gonna have loads of head height and it's going to make this room really thought so much bigger which is what I really wanted especially that lovely beam across there that's going to look like such a nice feature you should have chimney now is sitting on the wall yeah it's tied into the wall yeah well it does come in very slightly but yeah it's okay well what we want to do is take the one nowhere I clean it forever I mean give a good point up but it's not tied in that side look against the wall where okay it's not tied into the main wall there you serious that beam that goes through that you sat on there look yeah no no I mean that is hidden under the dates on the wall the wall yeah there's the wall not name my goggles are all steamed up a partyer thing whatever bad says you must be right right but it's all been cleared out as you can see the room looks a lot bigger dad and Shawn worked really hard in here and it's time I helped him clear up the mess now obviously we still got to take all the plaster off the walls but for now we've done a lot so far so you can really get an idea of how big this space is gonna look now please with it [Music] [Applause] [Music] right well today I've got something really exciting happening we're finally going to be address in the cracks in the building which obviously my dad's just taken out some of the older lime mortar and they look really terrible so it's quite important that we get this done today but today I'm going to be watching and learning because I've never done any line pointing before and especially a job that's really important like this I'm gonna leave it to the experts so dad I'm sure know exactly what they're doing so they're just about to go mix up the EM the lime mortar and they're going to show me what they do and I'm gonna film a bit and show you what they're up to so up today I'll be watching and learning and then next week I'm gonna have a go doing it myself [Music] yeah perhaps here's a moment is mixing up the lime mortar to do the cracks in the Gabriel in wall we put some color in we did this stuff here this is um this is a vegetable color and we put it with the with the motor and it comes out and lighter yeah very light yellow a color sort of being white otherwise you do without this stuff and the mortar goes cool white and it takes a hell of a long time to to mellow down so we put this into it and that solves the problem we have got a mixer so but we have a good mechanical mixer problem is we don't need that much with the lime mortar the lime also stick to the inside of the mixer we're very very by hand plus you haven't gotta wash the mixer at the end of the day Oh wunderbar way up to Shawn just gonna start pointing on this idea yeah once I've got a clue how this works pointing so I'm gonna have to watch you and learn sorry doing that just puts a stick Center and here's a superb word I suppose but you know so he sticks to the stonework that's a lot of strong when I was you come on put it on dust on it plastic probably yeah now it makes it twice as strong oh yeah sure I said this is perfect the mix I said that's my name is so course stone in it oh yeah you can see it's really cool and when it goes off its really strong man it looks like a load of sand and water but you set rock-hard [Music] I looks fantastic the date for parts really simple oh yeah definitely I'll say like I know what I'm doing but others are these stuff it looks like the old stuff that coloring goes with it yeah more natural that's what that's what I was worried about more than anything says something put on the front of the cottage I mean obviously it's really strong but it looks pure white it doesn't match the cottage not dry but how longs it take to set this stuff three days at least yeah so it's not like concrete it's not this is a lime it takes longer to go off yeah because it's lime water you say it's stronger than concrete yeah yeah yeah you see there this stuff red neon that stuff from the coal no you won't do that yeah it's still breathable that's the biffle moisture in that framework it's going to come out you look at the old stuff here compared to the new stuff it's put it in well we're just off out to buy some well to have a look for some antiques I need a few bits and pieces for the new cottage things I could new dining table and whatever we can find so Billy knows a really really good antique shop up near the coast in is it Brittany Brittany's summer off to there now and mums in the back yep so we're just driving through the French countryside of the minute and when we gets down tea shop I'll show you around because it's a really really nice one [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] we're finally getting much much closer how long was that journey about an hour and a half yeah it's quite a long way from the chateau base worth it as the antique shops amazing this way that was really really hot the minute and we're here mini carriage wow this place is amazing I should get it for earnest I wonder how much it is I'm just looking at some of this still the stuff mum there's a goal just little tea strainer in there yeah I know sugar tongs as well I'm in the market for a bit of silver look this stuff is well like that oh wow is that a tea strainer that's beautiful this place is a treasure trove look at all the things Wow I love that that beautiful shades stunning and what have a little what's the cavil occur oh yeah it's got all the little bottles and glasses for everything I love that oh look they've got some silver you know what I really want some silver cutlery but I think it's really expensive but I know it's probably a bit early but I am actually look on the lookout for a nice dining table like an old country farmhouse style table for the gardener's cottage I know it's a bit early but you know if you see something that it's really nice and it's a good price then you should really just get it straight away with antiques because it's not gonna stick around for long so if I see something really nice I'll there you can get a good price for it lots of tables but nothing that I like to look off so far this place is absolutely massive so goes for miles and they've got everything you know stuff that's not particularly valuable to stuff that is really valuable so there's a bit of something for everyone in here lots of chairs what is it transport people in it oh I forgot what the name is for those you put something in it and they'd have like it was it would it be a bar that goes to bars and two people would carry it wow that's amazing Stephanie Jarvis needs that Billy said he said a really nice Gothic fireplace and it's gonna have a look at it wow that's stunning look at that that's a proper gothic piece of furniture you don't often see that start well I look at that sword what's this cat silver canteen bit he likes this this is beautiful what's the stuff called in it bull like Borla it's actually like a type of tortoiseshell that's inlaid absolutely stunning I really like this this is lovely obviously it's not the sort of style that we're going the cottage but I love all the old handles on it I wonder how old is somewhat be bought Billy you can take your mask off now I bought two bedside cabinets all they're lovely and they weren't particularly very expensive so they've got like a nice pink marble top as well they're gonna go in your bedroom wasn't Ren's bedroom yep well they're better than the ones you've got now so I've already got one though my speed it says nine and ten on them unusual there you go that's fancy well we're just on the way home I didn't find a nice table for the gardener's cottage but we still got about six months to find one but I did find a few little treasures and I'll show you those when we get home well I'm just back from the antique shop so I'm going to show you some of the little treasures I got so first item this is something very special that I saw in the antique shop and it wasn't very expensive so I got it for Gwendolyn now this is a solid silver ring holder so you would put your rings on there to keep him safe and I actually cook gave Gwendolyn one of these couple years ago and it wasn't made from silver it was just made from like crystal or glass and she used to use it all of the time but unfortunately she dropped it and it broke so when I saw this I thought this is absolutely perfect because if you drop this it won't break and it's quite nice because it's solid silver and it just says on the back just there sterling so that means there's actually English so that's quite pretty that was quick cheap actually what else did I buy this yes and you know I love tea so I would treat myself to something special this is a pair of solid silver sugar tongs you can just see there is the hallmark there's one on websites actually I don't know how old they are I know they're French and I've never actually had any solid silver a tableware before so I thought it's about time seeing as I'm gonna have a little cottage soon so anyone that comes around 40 you can use these so they're quite nice what else did we manage to find so here we have now everything I bought was silver and you can get silver quite cheaply in France I got all of this for just over 100 euros which is really reasonable now this is an antique French tea strainer it was quite an unusual tea strainer because I'm if you might have seen tea trainers before they have like a hand almost like a spoon and you would hold them over your tea cup and pour the tea through these ones are different so let me show you how it works I've got a teapot here so I can show you so on this you have these soft and silver wire things and they go in the spout of the teapot like that so that when you pour your tea the tea pours through the tea strainer so you don't actually have to hold it we need to do is hold the teapot and I got two of these so that's the first one so this one you saw earlier in the video it was in a glass cabinet so here is another one this the wires on this one a much shorter and a bit sturdier so I'll show you how that goes into the spout of the teapot and once again as you pour your tea go through the tea strainer so these are absolutely fantastic and this is solid silver bracelet so all of this stuff was quite cheap I mean I think this was 20 euros this was 20 euros maybe I think most of the items were about 20 euros each now they were priced a bit higher in the shop but I did manage to have all them down so I think it probably all cost about 120 years so four one two three four antique silver pieces and a bracelet I think that's a bargain so if you ever find yourself in France make sure you look in all the little cabinets because these little treasures a very good price can be found so there you go that's my antique haul for the day and I'm quite pleased with it so that's the end of today's video I just want to thank everyone who watches these videos and watches the adverts because it really helps me out and I'm just so pleased that you keep coming back and watching them because it means a lot to me so for now thank you for watching and I'll see you next week [Music]

Channel: Doing It Ourselves

Views: 183,210

Rating: 4.9772606 out of 5

Keywords: chateau, chateaux, france, french, castle, renovation, restoration, escape chateau, reno, gardeners cottage, wedding venue, chateau wedding, forest, woods, trees, nature, peace, relaxation, vintage, gardening, aga cooker, Aga, church, cathedral, fun, cottage, kitchen, interior design, home, design, construction, cooking

Id: s_hvKH7wLZU

Length: 27min 14sec (1634 seconds)

Published: Fri Jul 10 2020