It has been another busy week here, although the rain has continued, which has made external work a challenge. Even so, we are pressing on, as everything we are doing now is leading up to our first wedding.
One of the main projects at the moment is removing the render from the outside of the château. It was originally covered in graffiti, and the most effective way to deal with it was simply to take the render off completely. We have been chipping away across the whole building up to the first-floor windows. Once the render is removed, we will re-point the stonework so that the natural stone is visible again, giving the exterior much more texture and character.
Whenever the rain sets in, we switch back to indoor jobs and juggle between the two. One of the biggest decisions we have had to make recently – and also one of the most expensive – has been choosing the colour for the shutters. Zion is probably sick of me at this point, as we are now on our fifth attempt.
I am very particular about colour. I even wrote my college design thesis on it, and I want the château to look elegant and timeless. The first paint we bought was too much of a forget-me-not blue. Zion spent hours in the basement mixing different shades, but we just could not get it right.
In the end, we took it to a professional paint shop. Rather than using a machine, the gentleman there relied on his own eye. He spent 24 hours testing and adjusting the mix, adding black, pink, blue, and purple until he achieved the perfect Air Force blue, matching the original colour we discovered on a second-floor shutter. Paint is incredibly expensive here, and we have just spent €800 on 30 litres, but getting the quality right is worth it.
While waiting for dry weather to paint the shutters, we have been working on three shower rooms. We are currently on the third. Last year, we finished two bedroom gîtes and have been renting them out successfully, but the bathrooms were tired and in need of attention. We are now tiling and repainting those en-suite showers.
At the same time, we are completing a suite inside the château specifically for my mum. It is on what we refer to as the ground floor, making it easier for her to access. We have added a small kitchenette and a comfortable shower so she can stay here independently and with ease.
This week also brought an extraordinary discovery. When we bought the château, it was almost completely empty. While clearing out one of the old farmhouses to use as a spray shop for the shutters, Zion came across a collection of old paperwork, drawings, and photographs.
The photographs date back to the period when nuns lived here. They bought the property in 1980 and stayed for around 15 to 17 years. Seeing how they used the space was fascinating. The three rooms on the ground floor were arranged to resemble a church, even though the château already has its own chapel.
The photographs also solved a long-standing mystery for us. We had assumed the previous owner invested heavily in the interior panelling and fabric-lined walls. However, the images show that the dining room panelling and the ceiling in the Blue Room were already in place during the 1980s. It fills in an important gap in the history of the building. Before the nuns, it appears the château was owned by a Count, which is something we now want to research further.
We will share the photographs online so you can see them too.
Thank you for your continued support, and have a good week.