Friday

Arrived back from the USA in the Afternoon, suffering of course from Jet-lag

Saturday

A beautiful dry sunny day - I'm woken at 9AM to the announcement that Patrick Serres just showed up to begin digging the hole for the cave. I laid out the boundaries for the cave and walls to be built in the back yard and then I began to move the stone walls. After a few housr of that I felt like Robert Redford in "The Castle." I got Farmer Jacques, who lives up the road, to agree to go with me to get the materials for building the cave. No purchases have been made yet as I had planned on doing that after I returned from the US. Little did I realize that Patrick would begin bright and early on the 15th, so now I felt under a great deal of pressure. As it turned out, Jacques offered to take me to the stores to buy the necessary equipment and materials. By the time we left, it was after lunch and I obviously forgot that I was living in France - all the stores were closed. Even Jacques was surprised. So we returned empty handed. Later that same day and just before Patrick finished, Glenn Sims and Linda Prout, our very first visitors, arrived. Glenn offers some great advice on how to do footings. Based upon those discussions, I decide to have Patrick dig out more dirt on Monday.

Digging the Cave

Sunday

A day off! Glenn, Linda, Karen and I went to La Barthe de Neste for the Sunday market and had our dejuener at a local's restaurant in Heches.

Glenn and Linda at the Sunday Market in La Barthe

We took the rest of the day off and Glenn and I did some planning for the cave. Overnight, I have nightmares about accomplishing the job and abandon the idea of having an "L" shaped wine cellar in lieu of a rectangular / square one. This will prove to be a great decision!

Monday

First thing Monday morning, I give Patrick additional instructions for the continued digging of the cave. Glenn and I go shopping for materials and tools. We buy a cement mixer (Betonniere), wheel barrel (Brouette), pick axe (Pioche), trowels (truelles), long level (niveau), hammer (Marteau), nails (Clau), right angle square (équerre), tarps (Bache de couvreur), multiple buckets/pails (les seaux), stainless steel Rebar ties with end loops (Liens 2 boucles), a rebar loop tying tool (Lieur Prof Automatique), a rebar cutter and various other tools to complete the job. We also bought 50 bags of cement (Ciment), 2 loads of gravel (Gravier), 2 loads of sand (Sable fin roule), 150 interlocking cinder blocks (Bloc coffrage), 20 end-butt cinder blocks (Bloc Creux), drain tubing (Tube epandage), waterproofing ( Igol foundation), 2 rolls of 20 Meter subteraenean siding (Prot. Soub. Fondatop) for protecting the burried walls against water and what seems like miles of rebar - 90 meters of 12 cm gauge (Fer Beton Tor.) Delivery is planned for the coming Thursday. Linda and Glenn spend the afternoon touring to Bagneres and Farmer Jacques and I go to pick up the cement mixer and the wheel barrel.

Mon Betonniere

Tuesday

Glenn volunteers to help with the laying of the foundation - thank god!!! He has experience doing this and I do not. It shows. Glenn and I first buy lumber to use in building the forms for the foundation and carry the lumber back in our tiny 1992 Vauxhall with the boards sticking outside the front and rear windows. Good thing this is France, I am sure I would have been nabbed in the good old US of A.

Glenn, Being a Hands-on Construction Manager

Work on the foundation begins. We had to dig a bit deeper in order to lay the foundation. This proved to be a terrible job as the soil was very sticky, compacted clay. It would stick worse than peanut butter to the shovel. It was very hard work and Glenn and I panted our way through it. We lay down about 75% of the forms for the foundation before nightfall. With Glenn's help the forms are level and at right angles and I have learned the how to's. Glenn and I finish very sore and tired,

We had Linda's fantastic pate' for dinner

Linda Preparing our 5 Star Meal

Dan Waiting for Linda's Sumptious Meal

Served with candles by the Fireplace

Wednesday

Glenn gives me his last tidbits of advice before he and Linda head off to Lyon on their way home to Turkey. I finish the foundation forms by myself, reveling in the fact that I was able to do the remaining bits properly. It takes me most of the day, including the time to go to the store to buy more wood.

The Finished Frame (Encadrement )

Thursday

Delivery day… or should I say, nightmare day! The delivery truck is too big to fit onto our local streets. Where do I put the materials? The truck driver and I finally decide, with trepidation, to put the 4 pallets of materials on our neighbor's lawn. While the truck driver is unloading, I meet with Evelina who reveals that she is the owner of the property. Now Evelina was one of the very first local French people to come by and say hello to us when we first arrived. She graciously accepts the fact that I had no idea that she owned the property ( I thought that is was owned by a recently deceased farmer.) She says "No Problem" - whew!!! OK, so the truck driver says he will be back with the next load - What? - another load!?!? There is no more room, So where is he going to put it and how am I going to get it to the back of our house??? Fortunately, Farmer Jacques shows up and he and the truck driver decide where to put the next load consisting of one large helping of sand and another of gravel.

Farmer Jacques

It turns out that they decided to put it about 2-3 minutes up the road near our local restaurant. Farmer Jacques assures me that the sand and the gravel are OK there and that he can move the material using his farm tractor. Later, he and I move the first l;oads of materials behind the house. We move about 10 bags of cement, 8 rebar, 50 cinder blocks, and 1,000 lbs each of sand and gravel. Oh, my aching back! Before letting Farmer Jacque go, I had him slide half of the cinder blocks down a home made sluice made out of left-over wood from the forms of the foundation framework. That sure made that job easy. It gets me to thinking, how am I going to get the mixed concrete down 9 feet???

Karen looking over the job site...

Only if she knew what she was in for the next day!

Friday

This morning, after a restless night thinking about how to move the cement (Beton), I sized and laid the rebar and tied it all together. I find, to my dismay, that the rebar cutting tool I bought is too small for the 12 cm rebar - either that or I am just too weak (I think that is the result of being a couch potato.) I resort to sawing each piece of rebar. Karen and I begin the job of laying the foundation. This is not only the first time that I have used our new cement mixer, it is the first time that I have ever used a cement mixer. I had no idea what to expect - neither did Karen. We make our first load and it became immediately apparent that getting the concrete from the mixer down 9 feet to the foundation frame is going to be a big problem. I hit upon the idea of using old materials waiting to be sent to the Decheterie (Dump) to build a one-time use chute to slide the concrete down into the form. Although extremely makeshift, it seems to do the job. I carry the sand, gravel and cement down to the mixer from the top of the back yard in a bucket and put it in the mixer. I pour the mixed cncrete into the makeshift trough and Karen scoops it into the forms. She turns out to be a real trooper and in about 5-6 hours time we finish laying the cement. We are both very sore and tired. I am left to level and smooth the cement. This is slightly problematic because it took us so long to get to this point. I am able to nicely level and smooth about 75-80% of the foundation, the remaining is just to well set to work and so I am forced to rely on the leveling job Karen did by eye. She actually did a pretty good job of eye balling it, so I am hopeful that there will not be a problem, and if there is, that I will be able to make it up when I "Butter" the cinder blocks to form the first course.

After a day of having too much fun!

Our first work of art!

Sat

Our first rainy, foggy day. No work today.

Tarp Protecting Work Site from Rain

I go to the store with Karen to upgrade the rebar cutter to the next bigger size and also purchase an electric circular saw (scie circulaire )and an angle grinder (Meuleuse).

Karen and I stop by Godin, the store that is selling and installing our new fireplace in the living room. We spend about an hour discussing details. In order to put the new fireplace in we must rip out the old chimney. This will require us to do some extra reinforcement of the walls and ceilings so we don't have a cave-in and to hire an "artisan" who is familiar with re-laying the old stlye slate tiles used in our roof. Nothing is ever easy - you'd think we were living on a boat!

Le coin du feu

Karen purchases a 5 foot tall stand for the phone and other appliances (to be placed in our dining room) at a nearby store and then we head home. When we get home and take the stand out of its box, it turns out to be broken. So into the car I go again all the way back to Tarbes, about a 40 minute drive with tolls. At the store, they tell me they cannot replace it and the clerk says I cannot have the floor model. Finally, the store manager intervenes and gives me the floor model. That makes my day. I return home to a nice meal of Duck prepared in Karen's special duck sauce. Yum!

Sunday

Another foggy day with potential for rain. I start this diary.

Monday

And another beautiful day. Started working at 9AM today. Removed the wood retainers for the foundation, lined up the first course with string and made some cement. Then I dropped the first course of cinder blocks. Must not have made the sand-based concrete properly as I could not butter it onto the cinder blocks. Had to work in reverse by putting the cement mixture on the foundation and then putting the cinder blocks down. It turned out to be more difficult than I imagined to keep the course straight and level. In the beginning it was taking me about 5-10 minutes for each cinder block but by the end, I was down to less than a minute to level each block. Discovered a few tricks along the way which made things go faster. By the end of the day I had three courses down. Next will be the concrete and rebar fill and I think that I will start water protecting the exterior side of the wall. It may rain tomorrow so not sure what to do next.

The First 3 Courses Are Up

...and the wall didn't fall down!

Side note: This project must be the talk of the village (not much else going on here.) Today, Farmer Gilbert stopped by to talk a bit. He doesn't know any English so it was a bit painful. Turns out he does know some Spanish, so between the Spanish I learned in Barcelona and the French I am learning now, we were able to communicate fairly, if not painfully, effectively. The end to this story is that he wanted to know if I preferred red or white wine. I told him red and he ran off to bring us a bottle of red wine from his cave to begin stockpiling our own. What a nice neighborly gesture.

Tues

Another Rainy day so no work outside. I tried using this free time effectively. I drove to the Fireplace store to place our order for the new fireplace. That took about 2 hours. Then I drove back to Esparros, stopping on the way at the store where I bought most of my construction materials for the cave. Now I have found that I can get by (je Me debrouille) with my French when I do not have to go into technical details. That was not the case here. I had a few technical questions to ask and it was not easy. With pointing, picture making and several diversions on the part of the sales clerk to ask the boss (patron) for some guidance (He knows as much English as I know French - a pitiful state) we were able to get, well almost, to the point. This proved to be a very long day and an expensive one since their answer to most of my questions was to buy more things! (I purchased more water proof siding Protection Soubassement Foundatop), Moulding strips for the water proffing material (Fonda Moullure), Concrete nails for the moulding strips (Pointe Striee Beton), and a stiff brush to clean the concrete Finally I had to leave before becoming bankrupt (Je fauche comme le bre.) It seemed that every issue was solvable if I spent more money. So now I am at home, lamenting my new expenditures, thinking about how many bottles of wine I could have bought for the price this cave is costing me. I better not think about that anymore...

Wed

Another foggy - rain on and off day. As I am typing this the sun is out but the threat of rain still lingers and I am somewhat remiss to remove the tarp (Bache) in order to do some work. Farmer Jacque is suppose to come this afternoon (Cet apres-midi) if it doesn't rain to help me move more sand (Sable) and Gravel (Gravier) to the work site and to more more cement (Ciment) and Cinder Blocks (Blocs de Beton - Bloc coffrage).

Thurs

I listened to the weather forecast last night and the prediction was for rain today and tomorrow with Saturday clearing and more rain on Sunday. Now I can't say for sure that all this rain is making me paranoid, but between all this rain and with the cave being underground, I have been thinking more and more about the installation of a sump pump. I must admit, and I hope I am not being overly confident, that with all of the water protection "stuff" that I purchased (A thick, tar like sealant, water shedding side panels for the exterior walls that goes on top of the sealant, and finally heavy duty exterior quality plastic to sheath the whole ensemble) that I shouldn't have a problem, but the last thing in the world that I need is water in the wine cellar. So I am planning a drainage system inside the wine cellar that will drain into a sump and I will lead the sump output into a self draining sump that is already installed on the outside of the cellar. Now all of the locals told me not to make my wine cellar floor entirely concrete, but to make the floor out of loose blue stone. They tell me that inevitably, that moisture from humidity will build up inside the cave and a concrete floor will not allow that moisture to dissipate - Voila, the bluestone. (I actually visited some wine shope in the area that had wine cellars in their basement. All of them were laid with blue stone.) That works nicely for me now that I have decided to put in the sump pump. If you notice the picture with the partially built wall, the concrete flooring only extends a short way out from the wall. This was deliberate: 1) To facilitate the bluestone and 2) To provide a solid base for the wine racks. If you have made it this far in reading all of this you are probably wondering why I am carrying on so, well the answer is simple: I am dying to get out there and do some work, but the rain is stopping me, and I am dissipating some of that nervous energy!

Fri

OK - So it didn't rain and I was actually ale to get some work done!!!

After spending a very hard day on the wall, there wasn't too much to show visually in terms of accomplishment. I cut and fitted the horizontal rebar on the 3rd course and cut vertical rebar too with my new, bigger (and much more expensive) rebar cutting tool. I made sand-based cement and patched several of the cinder blocks that had broken appendages. I also belved the efges with concrete where the cinder block meets the foundation. I assume that will help with drainage and prevent water from lying on the foundation. I moved more materials to the work site with the help of Farmer Jacque. ...And I began in earnest to fill the first three courses with cincrete. Was I ever surprised! It is going to take a lot more concrete than I had anticpated to fill up the holes in each cinder block.

Enough to Make Any Man Smile...

My New Enlarged Rebar Cutting Tool

(Coupeur de boulon)

I used 2 bags of cement and was only albe to fill 4 corners of the wall. Not only that, but now I have seriously begun to think abbout the ramifications of filling the wall when the wall is higher. Ugh! There may be an easier way to fill the wall but I haven't figured it out yet. So I haul concrete by hand, one bucket full after antoher from the mixer, down the steps to the cave site, climbing over the wall as necessary to fill the other side. The bucket is so heavy that I can't imagine climing up a ladder to fill the higher courses. I have already begun to think about scaffolding, but that seems like another big and expensive task in itself. Not sure where I am going to go with that. Well I called it a day (6PM) and decided that I would leave the filling of the remaining wall sections for tomorrow. But I am not through yet. Still gotta clean the cement mixer, buckets, tools and the site of the mess I created today.

Saturday

Today will be interesting. Plans are to begin waterproofing the far wall side with a water barrier. The other two sides are easier to get to but I must waterproof the far side as I go since the vertical dirt wall is so close to the cinder block wall.

I have the previous owner of the house coming over today to help me figure out how to get the furnace to heat the house working and to look at a small leak in roof the storage shed. He assured me that he would help me if any such leaks occurred and so far he has been true to his word. Fortunately, the shed is not critical and the roof for the shed is easily reachable without a special ladder.

Then it is back to my wall. I need to build a special wooden retainer to facilitate the joint between the wall I am building and the exterior wall of the house. Since the wall of the house is a 3 foot thick stone wall, the exterior side is very irregular, especially at the depth that I am working, From what I can tell, I will have to do this all the way up the wall on both sides of the wine cave where the walls intersect with the house. Not a big problem, just a time consuming one. Then I start in earnest to make more cement to finish filling the 3rd course, assuming of course that there is enough time left in the day to accomplish that task.

OK, now for the reality check... Above is what I hoped to accomplish today, below is what I did:

Built the supports for retaining the cement adjacent to the house

Met with the previous owner and discussed a variety of things including this project. I don't think he believed I would take on such a "big" project - that took 1 hour.

Mixed my first batch of cement and discovered that one bucket of cement will almost fill one hole. I bag of cement makes about 6 buckets of cement, It will take 3-4 bags of cement per side of the wall (3 sides) if I attempt to fill 3 courses high. (Note: the lowest 3 courses are the easiest, it will only get harder (and most likely take more time) as the walls get higher.) That will be about 27 to 36 bags of cement to make the wall about 7.5 feet high.

Met with the "artisan" who will be working on the Gite. Solicited his help in this project to put in the glass door entrance into the wine cellar. Also discussed with him my plans for blowing out the existing external wall of the house to make the passage into the wine cellar. Mostly the concern here is putting up enough supports that the stone wall above the passage doesn't cave in, much like the wall in the movie "Under The Tuscan Sun" did. We don't want that!

Made the next four bags of cement and poured them into the cinder blocks. 1 more bag would have done it but I quit as the threat of rain was imminent. At 4 bags per day (what I averaged today) that will take at least 8 -10 days, not including the time that it takes me to prep, mount the courses, waterproof, etc. I get the distinct feeling I will be busy for quite a while.

Cleaned and put away tools.

Redrapped the tarp in case it does rain

The net result is that I almost accomplished filling the three courses today but totally missed doing the waterproofing. Tomorrow is supposed to be another nice day. I hope to finish the cement, waterproof the existing foundation and maybe, Insha'Allah (God-Willing), lay some new courses.

Sunday

OK, time for an assessment. It has been a half a month since this project started and where are we??? Well, I was hoping to be further along, but in being kind to myself, I think I am on target given the rain days we have had. I think the project overall will take longer than I thought, but as the realities of doing a job that I have never done before unfold, I have come to grips with the time frame. Now I am not going to commit to a specific completion date because there are still some unknowns that will affect the project, but unless there is a catastrophic change, I think we can get this done before winter sets in, or sooner, which was my goal all along.

Today was relatively productive, but as usual, I didn't accomplish as much as I had hoped. The major item that caused a delay today was my decision to step back and use sand-based concrete to re-level the wall d starting at the 3rd course. It turns out that the cinder blocks that I am using for the 2 corners furthest from the house wall are of a different size than the standard cinder blocks that I am using to lay the dry wall. A dry wall does not require fill (in my case concrete) between each layer of cinder block. The strength of the dry wall approach is that one uses rebar and concrete to fill the interior of the cinder blocks. This is a fantastically strong solution. In my case however, the cinder blocks are no longer level wrt the corners and that is causing a problem in keeping the walls level. So, in my ultimate wisdom, which in this case leaves a lot to be desired, I decided to put filler (concrete) between the 3rd and 4th course in order to ensure that the walls continue to be level despite the fact that the end cinder blocks are of a different size. This took me considerable time, in opposition to pure dry stacking, and thus I didn't get as far as I had hoped. However, with that being said, I did make good progress,.

Today's tasks completed:

1) Double sealed each cinder block seam & the belveled edges between the cinder block wall and the foundation

2) Triple coated the exterior wall with water repellent coating

3) Re-leveled the 4th course

4) Laid the fourth course

5) Filled the fourth course on 2 sides

6) Laid the fifth course on 2 sides

7) Removed soil from the Inside of the cellar to make room to fill with blue stone

8) Dug the hole for the sump pump

9) Punched a hole through the concrete wall to lead the 25mm hose outlet from the automatic sump pump to be located on the inside of the wine cellar to the external sump

10) Cut more Rebar

Each Seam Individually Sealed with 2 Coats of Sealer

After the Seams Dried, the Wall Was Coated with 3 Coats

I also came up with a new heuristic for concrete consumption, that is, one bag of cement for each course on each of the three sides. It will take 3 bags of cement to do one course, which is in agreement with my previous heuristic, even though it was measured from a different perspective. Sooo... I still have a lot more bags of cement to mix!

Some calculations: If I make the inside height 7.1 feet high, then I will need 11 courses. That would be 33 courses all together for all 3 sides. I have already laid 4+4+2= 10 courses. So far I have used 20 bags of cement, 10 for the filled courses and 10 for the foundation. That leaves a meager 23 more bags of cement to mix. At 4 bags a day, that will be about 6 more sunny days.

Major sub-projects in the pipeline are:

Purchase sump pump and hose

Finish work on digging out sump pump location and drainage channels

Punch out concrete to feed the output of the sump pump into the external sump

Install electrical wiring for sump pump

Buy light fixtures and switches for wine cellar

Install electrical wiring for lights and switches

Rerun the exterior water outlet for the back yard

Build framing for interior wall of the wine cellar that will be facing the original stone wall of the house (Right side of wine cellar)

Fill frame with rebar and concrete

Build framing for left side of passage

Fill frame with rebar and concrete

Decide exactly how the Passage will be tunneled through the 3 foot thick stone wall of the house

Purchase and Install support beams for passage

Punch out passage and install additional support as required

Takes measurements and buy glass window/door ensemble

Transport door to house

Remove interior wall for door

Install door and glass window

Layout and build steps leading up and into the wine cave from the interior of the house through the passage

Dif our more dirt to make room for the barbeque unit to be located adjacent to the wine cellar just outside the rear door of the house

Lay 23 more courses

Cut rear for 23 more courses

Water proof wall

Install water proof siding

Put base of blue stone in around house to lay foundation for French drains

Install French drains and finalize termination of drain into external sump pump

Cover French drains with blue stone

Refill with dirt the exterior sides of the wine cave

Fill interior area of wine cave with blue stone

Make final decision on how I will lay roof. This will require additional measurements and the purchase of the appropriate materials for the approach chosen (Wooden frame supported by jacks or prefab concrete forms)

Lay roof frame

Lay roof rebar

Lay roof concrete

Coat roof with water proof sealer

Lay roof with protective barrier

Put additional layer of plastic liner around cave (Not sue this is now necessary)

Complete backfill

Build up stone wall around wine cellar

Complete stone work around barbeque

My current estimate to complete these task is in the range of 236 hours. That is approximately 30 more days of work. That will put me into the beginning of November assuming that my estimates are good, there are no serious interruptions, all days are sunny, I take no days off and there are no glitches. Chance of glitches? High.

Monday	1	Celebrating the new morning with the parade of cows past our house Today I was able to make good headway. I decided to take a break from my focus on putting in courses and focus on two very important things: 1) Putting in the drainage system before the wall got too high - As the wall gets higher, my access to the area between the wall and the earth becomes more and more limited and 2) putting in the 1st tier of plastic water barrier on the outside of the wall. Drain installed over a bed of gravel and the plastic water proof liner in place. Before doing those items, I sealed the outside of the course I laid the previous day, making sure as always that the seams were well sealed. Then, in order to lay the drainage pipe, I had to dig out the debris that fell between the wall and the earth and to level the earth where the drainage pipe will sit. I also had to make sure that the trench was deep enough, about 10 cm's, to lay the gravel foundation for the pipe. Before laying the gravel foundation, I inserted the waterproof plastic barrier, making sure to get it even (or at least as low as I could) with the bottom of the foundation. Then I poured in the 10 cm's of gravel, trying as best as I could to keep the bottom of the barrier pinned to the bottom of the foundation. On top of the gravel I laid the drainage pipe that wraps around the cellar. I could only lay 2 of three sides as I had only 1 right angle turn. So Karen went to the store to purchase another right angle fitting which I will put in place tomorrow. With that done, I laid in the next course on two walls and filled them with concrete. I am not putting any more courses in the 3rd wall until I have finished the passage between the cellar and the interior of the house (through the 3 foot thick wall.) I need to begin this process soon, but before I do, I want to obtain some roof supports.
Tues	2	It's Noon, and I just finished eating lunch. Unfortunately, in terms of my milestones, this morning has not been very productive. I did seal the last courses laid yesterday. Then, the previous owner, Robert, showed up, as promised, with an electrician in tow. We discussed several projects including putting extra ceiling lights in the kitchen, lights in each of the entry ways leading into the adjacent rooms (where there are steps), wiring for a Jacuzzi, and finally, wiring for the wine cellar. Convinced that he understood what I want, we agreed that he would put together an estimate (devis) and give it to me later in the week. After the electrician left, Robert and I spent some time talking about the intricacies of digging out the "Passage" for the wine cellar. We spent a lot of time discussing how to best prevent the wall from caving in, and thus the roof of the house, while I am digging the hole. I think after that conversation, I will need to add a few days to my estimate for project completion. By the time they left, had returned home from shopping and we had lunch. Now I am letting it settle and will be out there again shortly. I think I will start digging out more dirt where the barbeque will be located in preparation for laying more concrete there. Karen also stopped by Farmer Jacques' house to ask him to bring more materials by for the wine cave. He is now scheduled to be here later this afternoon. There was good progress this afternoon. Karen helped me load the remaining cinder blocks down into the "pit." Farmer Jacques did come by and we got more materials, Sand, gravel, cinder blocks, cement and rebar to the work site. He also slid down to me about half of the cinder blocks we brought to the work site. I filled in the 6th course and cut rear to be laid into the wall horizontally - 2 bars per wall. Cut additional rebar to be used vertically. Made a sand-based mixture of concrete to be used to level out the laying of the seventh course. I have now done that on the 3rd and 6th course and it is helping me keep the wall level and straight, making up for the odd sizes of the cinder blocks. I also put in additional concrete on the joint between the house and the far wall to ensure that the plastic liner is well sealed where it meets the wall of the house. I will need to continue to do that for the joints of the 7th and 8th course and then I will seal that cement using the liquid sealer. That should make the interface between the wall and the plastic liner resistant to water penetration. 7 Courses High You can barely see the Water Barrier Liner at the top of the two walls The Plastic Liner Is on the Right - It can be seen wrapping around the far wall. It is contiguous with the far 3rd wall (shown above) Four more courses will finish the overall height of 2 out of the 3 walls. I need to begin concentrating on finishing the sump pump installation. I now have the sump pump and the hose running through the wall to the external drain - thank you Karen for doing the shopping! I need to find or build a housing to retain the sump pump. I have a fixture in mind and will have to check it out when I next go to the supply store. I also need to begin work in earnest on the passage. To do that, I must first buy 2 steel braces to jack up the inside of the house. Then I need to begin the tedious process of removing the stone above the "passage" in order to create a lentil to support the stone above the passage so it does not cave in. The idea seems simple enough... I need to create a lentil that is 50 cm wider on each side of the width that I plan to make the passage. Once marked out on the wall of the house, I must carefully remove each stone within the boundary of the lentil and the support the stones located immediately above where I removed that stone with a small piece of wood. I continue to do this, until I have cleared out the entire lentil. Now there are two approaches. One is to use concrete with rebar (My preferred choice for the moment) optionally including a piece of wood for dressing the appearance of the lentil or to have a wooden beam fabricated at the local saw mill and tap that into place using a sledge hammer. In both cases, the little wooden supports stay in place. In Option 1, the concrete is poured around the vertical wooden supports, while in Option 2, the fabricated beam pushes the vertical supports out of the way as it is being tapped into position. Sump Pump Hose led through the cellar wall Another option has arisen thanks to our Dutch neighbor, Hans, which involves extending the existing roof rather than fabricating it out of cement. At this point I see the merits of the approach but I am leery of the technical details of installing the roof extension. Hans assures me that this approach will be easier than fabricating a concrete ceiling as I am presently intending to do. I need to look harder at this option. Cleaning up after a long day
Wed	3	Rain predicted for the day so Karen and I went to visit Dakare and unload some more stuff. 5 hour drive each way, 2 hours on the boat, and 1 hour wine tasting at a local vinyard near the boat. Just had to pick up some more wine for the Cave.
Thurs	4	Sealed the last course (# 7) and then started looking at the making the "Passage." Hans, our neighbor, came by and we discussed the various options. Sealing the 8th course. You can barely see it, I am standing on cinder blocks now to get to the outside top of the wall. We are slowly getting there! Looks like I will try the tried and true method employed by the French farmers for centuries, that is, removing a stone at a time and creating a slot big enough for a lentil (Made out of oak) and then slipping the lentil in place when the stones are completely removed. I found some loose rocks in the wall near where the lentil would be placed. I removed them and shored up the large rock that they supported with concrete. I think I will continue to make the surrounding area of the stone wall more substantive before creating the hole for the lentil. I will also shore up the ceiling in the current WC which will be converted into the entrance way for the passage. The first stones have been removed from the rear wall of the house where the lentil support for the passage will be put. (FYI, the wall is level, the camera wasn't<G>.) Laid the 8th course and sealed it. By then it was 5:00 PM and I decided to clean up since the clouds were rolling in and there was already a light sprinkle. Looks like rain for tomorrow, It has already started raining lightly here and the forecast is for heavy rain tomorrow.
Friday	5	Woke up to heavy fog and a damp landscape. Worked on pinning up the plastic waterproof siding to the cinder block wall. When I bought the materials to do the job, they said I needed nails. Nails? But I have to hammer them into concrete. No problem they said. Use these special cement nails. I dubiously said OK. ...It takes me about 10 of these special concrete nails to get 1 in without it breaking. I have gone through more than half a box of these nails and have only pinned up 2 walls. Oh well, we are at least moving forward. That took me to Noon and I had some pea soup for lunch - a very French thing to do. Afterwards, I began to put up the 9th course. I decided to horizontally rebar the 8th course and I also decided to level the 8th course with sand -based cement (as I did with the 3rd and the 6th courses.) So all of this took a bit longer to do and by the time I had three more blocks to lay, it started to rain. So I finished the last blocks, cleaned the cement mixer and called it a day.
Sat	6	It poured out heavy last night. I am glad that I have a large tarp (Bache) to protect the work site, otherwise it would be mud soup out there. The sun is beginning to break through. I hope this is a good sign for the day. Well I didn't get to do any real work, I did get to go to the store and by hacks to support the ceiling of the passage as I am blowing out the wall and I also got more lumber to lay a frame to put in a concrete wall to support the exterior wall of the huouse adjacent to where we are putting in the passage. I also set up an appointment to discuss the materials needed to build the roof with the owner of the materials store this Monday at 8AM. That's it for today!
Sunday	7	Looks like another slow day. It is not raining our now but who knows. I decided to join Karen in going to the local organized yard sales. Just a bunch of locals trying to clear out stuff from their house. Last time we went, we picked up a beautiful alibaster lamp for 15 EU. So who knows, maybe we will find something neat again.
Monday	8	Another rainy day and no tangible work done. I did go to the store to order materials for the roof (toit) and the sump pump installation. All should e delivered on Friday. My helper, who was supposed to arrive today, didn't, as agreed since it was raining. I need to check on the weather for tomorrow. I think that this is a problem with living in the mountains, but I will also go as far as to say that I think the weather this season is unusual. Global warming seems to e having its effects here! I continue to use my time to think about the issues of creating the passage through our 3 foot thick wall. This is the most critical, if not most prone to catastrophe part of the project that I must face. I am feeling good about it and I think that I have a solid approach. The truth will be known in the execution. The roof (toit) has become less of a problem and I now think that I have all the issues associate with it under control. Remember, that I have never done this before and all of this is a big issue for me. So until it is completed, I am very nervous. Above is the system that I will use to build the roof. Poutrelles (Prefabricated reinforced concrete beams) will be placed across the top of the cinder block wall and Hourdis Creux (Concrete blocks) will traverse the space between the Poutrelles. I am told that this is very strong. Rebar is placed along the endges and concrete is poured over the ensemble. One of the putrelles I also spent time today investigating (and simultaneously fixing a leak with the toilet) the issues associate with moving the toilet from the room designated as WC (Wash Closet) to the adjacent room which is a bathroom sans a toilet bowel but includes a Bidet. Now I was hoping to replace the Bidet with the toilet bowel (Isn't this a gross conversation?) and in the process I discovered that the outlet for the Bidet is insufficient for the toilet bowel. This now means that I must tear up the stoned tile floor from the bathroom into the WC and dig out a channel to house (if it is possible to do so) an extension of the effluent outlet from the bathroom to the currently existing toilet bowel connection. Ugh! Just what I wanted to do. My neighbor said today that this type of problem is Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) and that I shouldn't e too concerned about it. Well, needless to say, I am. All I can think about is: "What if..." Another avenue to cross. Just because it is like crossing the street in front of the Arch de Triumph which stands at the top of the Champs Elysées in Paris is no reason to be too concerned. I have tried doing it before and gave up. Fortunately; at the Arch, there is an underground passage. I hope there is a similar way out of this too!
Tuesday	9	Had my first near catastrophic engineering failure today... Despite the weatherman's prediction of rain for the day, for the most part it did not materialize. With the potential threat of rain looming, I began my next project. My big project for today was to build a re-enforcing support wall made out of concrete for that part of our house wall that would not be turned into part of the "Passage" going from inside the house to the wine cave. I believe that shoring this wall up will be very helpful in preventing the collapse of the rear wall of the house as I remove stones in the house's 3 foot thick exterior wall. The first thing I did was to put in a steel framework to support the concrete. I used rebar as well as steel trellis. Re-enforcing rebar along the rear wall adjacent to passage. Note: The area immediately to the right of the reinforcing rebar is the stone that will be removed for the pasage. Then I built the wooden frame. Here I did try to cut corners and to use what wood materials I had available. (Did this prove to be my mistake?) My (Not So) Work of Art Next, I started to make and pour concrete. (I learned yesterday that I was making my concrete to rich in terms of the cement to sang/gravel ratio and that I should be using about 4 more buckets of sand/gravel in my mixture. I was told that making the concrete a bit richer as I have been doing does not hurt anything, in fact, it would only make the concrete stronger. So nothing lost with that issue.) Now each bag of cement makes about 10 buckets of concrete. I could only pour half a bucket at a time since I had to lift each bucket, after carrying it from the mixer down to the work site, to the top of the form in order to pour it. I had no idea how much concrete I would need because of the irregularity of the wall of the house, but I estimated it to be somewhere between 4 - 5 bags of cement or, equivalently, a maximum of 100 trips back and forth with half buckets. I was about half way into my second bag of concrete, or approximately 30 half buckets, when the lower half of my wooden retaining form blew out. Ugh!!! Fortunately, only 3 boards blew out and only at the bottom. With the use of the adjustable jacks that I had purchased the other day to support the ceiling beams above the "passage," I was able to nicely recover. Glenn had warned me about concrete blow outs like this. I did heed his words, but obviously not enough. It could have been a lot worse if all (or a larger part of) the staking and supporting failed, but thanks to Glenn's advice, most of the wall held. I had to remove about 4 buckets of concrete that had oozed out of the bottom of the form (The bottom of one side of the form moved about 3-4 inches.) This concrete I dispatched back into the top of the form after I had completed using the jacks to move the form back into position. So apparently no harm done but a great lesson was learned! I called it a day after finishing up the second bag of concrete as it was already 6 PM and the threat of another shower was apparent.
Wed	10	Only got to make 1 bag of cement today before it started to rain this morning. The good news is that from my inspection of the form and seeing to what level it is now filled, I think that all I will need is 1 more bag of cement to complete the job of filling the support wall. Forecast for tomorrow is favorable. I could use some sunshine. Esparros from our driveway the day after all of the rain. The church can be seen in the background.
Thurs	11	It is bright and early this AM and I am looking forward to sunshine and a helper who is "supposed" to show up today. He was supposed to come last Tuesday and was a no show. I have given up on the helper... Two views of the concrete retaining wall with the forms still being supported by bracing. Note: The far wall is at the 11th course - That is as high as the cave will be made. Today I finished the concrete wall and then I hope to begin the process of delicately removing the supportting lintel ( Linteau) for the existing small window (Petite Fenetre) where the passage will be. I also laid in the 10th and 11th course on the far wall. I hope to cement that course in before doing the lintel. Time for lunch... This afternoon, Jacques the farmer came over to help me move materials. When we went to get his tractor, the battery was dead. After a bit of effort, we wound up going to our Dutch friend's house, Hans, and borrowing his charger. Now Jacques and I will move the materials tomorrow. We will also go to the Carriere (Rock Quarry) to get some stones for our new walls and to get more sand/gravel mix for the cement. Also tomorrow, new supplies for building the roof should arrive, so between moving and organizing things, it looks like tomorrow will be a day for logistics. After my failed attempt with Jacques, I returned to gingerly pulling out more stones from the wall. I am very nervous about the entire wall collapsing. This house is one of the oldest still standing in the area. Back when it was build they didn't have concrete and cinder block. They made their homes strong by building them thick (1 meter) with stone and mud. Now this is very alien to a Yank like myself, but this is the way they did it and it works. It keeps the house cool in the Summer and warm in the Winter. The only problem that I can think of is when you are doing what I want to do, that it, break through the outer wall to create another entrance or window. The stones are stacked one on top of the other, and when you start removing the stones, not from the top, but from underneath somewhere as I must do, the risk of collapse is high. My approach is to remove a few and see how I can shore up what is above what I took out. Today was a bonanza - I hope! I was able to remove about a 1.5 foot horizontal area a little more than half way into the wall. There were a few stones that collapsed in, but in general the wall held in that area. Scanning the interior of the hole was a bit scary. It was clear that if I were to move any more stones without doing something to support the area above, I would face a real threat of collapse. Now, concrete is a wonderful thing and it can be used to strengthen bust about anything, but in this case, I would have to put the concrete into the upper reaches of the hole and not the lower, since I need to keep the lower area clear as a place to put the Lentil. Concrete does not like to work against gravity so the problem becomes, how do I reinforce the upper area and keep the concrete in place. I could create a wooden platform that would isolate the upper half and try to maneuver the concrete into that area, but it would be very, very difficult to get the concrete effectively into the nooks and crannies that would make the support it would create strong. Luckily, I spied a stone about 1 foot higher than where I was working. It was loose, so I removed it. It was a large stone. After a bit of additional excavating, I found that this stone connected to the lower chamber that I was working on and now I had the perfect conduit into which to pour the concrete and allow it to filter down into the nooks and crannies of the voids below. Viola! Now I only hope it works as planned. As additional insurance, I concreted into place the cinder blocks forming the 10th and 11th course of the far wall. Now with that concreted in on one side of the passage and the concrete wall that I just finished building on the other side of the passage, there is good support laterally.
Friday	12	Today will be a busy day: 1) Get the support beam for the passage made at the local saw mill 2) Move the concrete blocks, remaining rebar and cement up to the house to make way for the new delivery 3) Receive the new delivery of materials for the roof, sump support and wood. The wood is for a side project... Turns out that Karen and I purchased these nice glass door closets to put into our hallway. Unfortunately the charm of our hallway floor, the big granite stones that make up the foyer floor, are not level (to be expected and part of the charm.) The 6 feet of closet floors do not stand level or well on the stone floor. The wood is to make a mini floor that will be leveled and the closets will be placed on that wooden floor above the stone. 4) Get more sand and gravel at the Carriere 5) Get stones (Pierre) for the stone walls at the Carriere 6) Move a new supply of sand and gravel to the work site. 7) Meet with the Plumber (Plumbier) at Noon to eval moving the toilet to where the bidet is located Also, in preparation for the delivery of our stuff from the storage unit in the US, which is expected next week, Karen is beginning anew, her interior wall painting campaign. Today should prove to be a busy one. Did not do 1, 2 and 6. Did dig out the area for the barbecue pit though and am close to finishing that. THe plumber said he would be back in one week to do the job. I think that the "service" is due in part to the fact that the plumber's wife babysits our next door neighor's baby - and having connections helps! So all in all it was a good day!
Saturday	13	This has been a good day! Even though I probably spent more time on individual sub-projects than planned, I think that what has been accomplished today is above and beyond what had been previously expected. I spent yesterday and today digging out the area for the barbecue grill that is immediately outside of the Cave du Van. The good news is that while digging out that area, I decided to completely revamp the entire area where the barbecue grill was intended to be. This includes the area just outside the rear door and also the area where the existing external sump pump is located. It would be way to complicated to explain all the detail, so I wilt try a short version. I moved the existing sump pump to a new location that would be more conducive to draining off the area. I enlarged the overall area where we exit the rear part of the house to include an expanded area for the barbecue grill as well as providing a deeper drainage area to e backfilled with bleu stone. I think you need to be here to understand the full implication of this, the bottom line being that I think that this is a vast improvement over the way things were set up by the previous owner. Hover, the bottom line is that it took me an extra two day to accomplish this, time that was not included in my original estimate. I am, at this stage, very happy that I did what I did. I think that it will make the back entrance a lot more attractive, cleaner and useable than the previous arrangement. New Sump Location (old sump pump in foreground) The Drainage Pipe for the Cave is shown on the left. I hand dug out the dirt (the length of the pipe all the way to the right of the pic) for the barbecue pit. I also perfected my new concrete delivery system, employing, as Glenn had suggested, gravity to do the work for me..Tomorrow I will try the system our for the first time. Hopefully it will work as well as I hope. Jacques also came by today and delivered the much need supplies. So for the moment, I am all set to go!
Sunday	14	Today I laid extra concrete on one side of the cave to ensure that water could not leak through to the inside of the cave along where the drainage pipe terminates near the barbecue. Then I mounted my Rue Goldberg concrete chute and filled (where there were voids from when the house was built or from when I removed some stones while ferreting about trying to figure out how to replace the small lentil with a larger one appropriately sized for passage) the house wall with concrete. The top of the concrete chute is a rainspout made to work like a funnel to capture the concrete when I pour it. The Plastic tubing routes the concrete to its destination. This time I am routing the concrete into the wall of our house in the area just above where the passage is to be knocked out. I hope that this will prevent a collapse of the wall above the passage. If anything, I have made the house a lot stronger by filling in those voids. It took about 5 buckets of cement to fill the internal voids in the wall. The newly laid wall for the Barbecue Pit
Monday	15	Today marks the beginning of the 2nd Calendar Month So what has been accomplished? Today saw the completion of a very special milestone. Today I removed the old lintel and fitted the new one. In the process, I further reinforced the roof area of the passage with concrete and lots of rebar. I was very pleased to see that concrete I had poured the previous day to reinforce the roof area just above the lintel had done its trick! When I removed the old lintel by excavating the additional rocks that held it in, I had no fear of a cave in. Now, with the additional concrete reinforcement that I installed today, we are ready to go to blow out the passage. In all, this was a significant day for me. Just before the big moment! The old lintel (horizontal piece of timber) has been excavated and is ready to be pulled. To the left is a black and a gray area. The black is where the stones have been removed and the gray area above it is the concrete that was poured in the previous day. The Lintel has been removed and additional bracing can be seen in preparation for putting in the new, wider Lentil and the concrete that will follow. The old lintel (It was for a very small window) In addition to the rebar previously laid into the concrete that was poured the other day, I added additional rebar (both lateral and transverse) to reinforce the area. The framing on the left is to create a lip for the new lintel when the final concrete is poured. Voila!!! The New and the old.
Tuesday	16	The big event today was that the moving company showed up with all of our furniture. So now not only is our back yard a mess, the interior of our house looks like a tornado hit it. It will take us a good bit of time to get ourselves unpacked. The Movers have arrived! That's as far as they could get, so they have to lug everything the rest of the way. In the morning I poured the final concrete for the Lintel. I have a good feeling about the integrity of the lintel system now and I look forward to digging out the passage. Karen also helped me pour the remaining concrete into the empty cinder blocks that had recently been laid for the barbecue pit wall (at this point, it is only 4 courses high and 3 cinder blocks long.) The Lintel is in place! I decided that I was unhappy with the depth of the exterior sump pump for the barbecue pit / back door entrance way area. I dug out the pump system, which I had put in place the previous day and dug down an additional 6 inches Then I refilled that area with blue stone and was quite pleased that I had taken the time out to lower the system. Now it will e covered by a total of 8 inches of stone and that will make for a better walking surface.
Wed	17	Today I started digging out the passage. I also went shopping at a new materials store (Weldon in Lannemezan) for supplies that I could not get at the local Brico Marche. In particular, I needed hose interconnects (25mm) to connect the sump pump hose and the cave drainage pipe into the drainage system. I also got additional fittings to connect a new drainage system for the house back door area and barbecue pit into the same system. We stopped by the Lannemezan street market (held once a week there) and picked up rotisserie chickens for dinner and lunch the next day. Then we returned home to continue work on the cave. When we got home, Jacques showed up with a large aggregate stone to be laid as a foundation in the barbecue pit / back door entrance way area. Karen helped rake the aggregate into position while Jacques and I poured the aggregate into the chute I made. It all worked very well. Then we poured in a topping of smaller blue stone to cover the larger stone. The current thinking is that we will leave (at least for a while) the blue stone as the working surface in this area. The aggregate is in place in the rear door / barbecue pit area This is a lot cleaner then stepping into mud. There is about 10 inches of blue stone in this area. On the upper right of the passage (looking into the house from the outside) was the original small window. I started removing stones from the house wall to the left of the small window and I got to the level of the bottom of the window. I decided that I should shore up the left wall that I had just dug out using concrete and I spent the remaining part of the day do that.
Thurs	18	Today I finished digging out the passage. I learned a lot of things: 1) There are a lot of ston