Well, after many years of not hearing the sounds of cement mixers, stone masons and the blaring music from the workers, we decided to start the renovation of our humble abode by fixing the "cow shed".

Currently the shed, which was indeed used for cows, looks like this:



What we're going to do, is redo the roof (before it's totally blown away), put in 3 skylights, 2 on the street side, one on the garden side, and one long dormer window. The dormer window is going to be located on the mezzanine, which is where I'll be installing my office ! The top of the roof is "just" a little too low, so by putting in this dormer window, I'll be able to walk around my office without banging my head.

The shed itself will have a real floor, and will be used for storage. This is what it's going to look like:



So yesterday, Trish & I went to Rouen and actually purchased a ready made garage ! They are kits made out of red cedar wood, and can be ordered in almost any size. So we ended up buying a 6 meters wide, and 7 meters deep garage, with 2 doors and a window. On the side of the garage, they'll also place a small roof where we can place firewood.

This is the garage we bought:



The new garage will be deeper than the shed, but that shouldn't really matter. here's what it'll look like:



Now the only thing to do is submit the millions of pages of paper to fulfill the French bureaucracy, getting all the permits.... Work is planned to start in September ! It's going to take at least 3 months to get the permits, and then the holidays will have started....