At the beginning of renovating this apartment, we were faced with the same issues that we had when we renovated ours in Cassis.
The apartment is on a few levels,
There isn't a yard or garage to store or work on things,
The apartment needed to be gutted which makes the renovation more like creating a new home within existing walls.
Since the walls are made of stone, we would have to plaster most of them instead of using sheetrock, because we did not want to lose space.
The walls that had been plastered had to be removed as it wasn't done well which meant plastering on top of them would cause the walls to peel.
The stairs were very uneven, and since they were made over a hundred years ago we couldn't just cover them but rebuild them, which made using them a balancing act.
AND everything that needs to be done needs to go up or down the stairwell since we could not drop a shoot outside the front window.
Debris from demolishing the kitchen, carried downstairs to the truck in buckets.
Over 50 sacks weighing 50 pounds each were carried up.
Muscles.
Rene does it all.
The kitchen will look better one day. Gary and Ching want it to be modern. The facade will be charcoal. Did you know that black kitchens are in vogue? My mom had a black kitchen when I was a kid.
We hired Joel the ironsmith and Stair Master to help us. The stairs will be reconstructed, they will have a cement finish and where those boards are will be finished with an iron trim. That stone wall will remain uncovered. The board above their heads was where the storage room used to be.
Rene took one of the steps apart to show us how they were made in the day, underneath the stair tiles are layers of rock, board, dirt and whatever, solid yes, but to even them out will be a great deal of work as they have bowed lower as the years have gone by/
SO the work has begun, decisions have been made and we are on the hunt to find the elements to put it back to beauty again.
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