Building & Piglets
We all know the story of the three little pigs... the first quickly built a house out of straw, which was easy to rebuild, but also easily blown down by the wolf. The second built with wood, which took a little longer, but even this was no match for the wolf. The third little pig built a house out of stone, which took a lot of time, but this house proved strong enough, and he and his brothers found shelter there. What many of you don't know, however, is that there was also a fourth little pig. This fourth little pig wanted to be more "ecological" and had carefully observed what the others had done. He decided to build a house out of straw, wood, and stone to take advantage of the benefits of all the materials. He gathered the things the other little pigs had left behind and began building. He repaired the existing stone building and supplemented it with wood and straw, installed windows and doors, and made the interior comfortable. It became such a beautiful building that he wanted to share it with others and turned it into a holiday cottage, so people could come and stay. And today, they can! An eco-friendly holiday cottage in southern Brittany.
Once they'd mastered the art of eco-building, the Piglets rolled up their sleeves and got back to work building a second holiday home, a renovation using similar techniques and based on the same principles. It was just a bit more work and took a bit longer!
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How did we, the piglets, make our holiday cottages as ecological, sustainable as possible?
The Cottage 2011-2012
The walls:We constructed the new walls from straw and wood using the Canadian GREB method, with a double wooden frame that fits the straw bales perfectly. Then, you screw sheet material onto the wooden frame on both sides, row by row, from bottom to top, and fill it with a mixture of sand, sawdust, lime, and water. This essentially encloses the straw bales and seals them airtight.
After that, the exterior can be finished with a layer of plaster or wood (like ours).
The windows and doors:
We saved the hardwood windows and doors from a one-way trip to the municipal dump, and with a fresh coat of paint, they bring light and space to the gite.
The floor:
Under the wooden floorboards in the living room lies a base floor of lime and stone, as follows:
- on the earth and rocks lies a thin layer of gravel and the pipes of the drains
- Then, a layer of boulders of various sizes with a drainage hose that has an exit to the outside on both the north and south sides, creating natural ventilation. All the stones, either found during the excavation of the floor or from the ruins next to the gite, were then washed and incorporated into the second layer. The washing prevents capillary action between the boulders.
- the pipes for water supply and electricity are laid over it
- then a geotextile cloth to prevent the lime concrete from filling the spaces between the boulders.
- first layer of lime (gravel, sand, lime)
- second layer of lime (sand, sawdust, lime)
The walls:
The exterior walls are mostly stone, which we finished on the inside with a sawdust and lime plaster. The interior walls are made of a wooden frame with a mixture of sawdust, sand, and lime in between, or clad with wooden planks. The wooden planks we used were partly left over from the renovation of our house in Edam and were supplemented with pine from Les Landes and chestnut floorboards from our own house here. With the exception of the ceiling of the upper floor (one of the few compromises), we didn't use plasterboard. We're not fans of "artificial" materials and only used them for lack of a better (affordable) alternative.
The Paint
After much inquiry and research, we decided to make the paint ourselves. The paint we used is based on "earth tones." These natural shades come in many variations. We first created numerous samples using different recipes to see how they worked, dried, and adhered. Ultimately, we used a recipe specifically for wood paint (based on pigment (earth tones), water, and flour, among other ingredients) and another for wall paint (based on pigment, chalk, and cottage cheese, among other ingredients!). We cooked the wood paint recipe, and for the wall paint, cold mixing it the day before was sufficient.
The result: a completely natural paint that doesn't smell (quite the opposite!), dries quickly, and protects well. We're happy with the result and quite proud of it, too.
The Water
The fact that clean water is a scarce commodity in many parts of the world, and we still flush toilets with drinking water, was the reason we invested in a rainwater harvesting tank. We pump up the collected water, easily filter it, and use it for flushing toilets, washing machines (rainwater is also much softer than tap water!), and of course, for the garden.
The kitchen:
We custom-made the kitchen, largely made from recycled wood. The drawer handles and fronts are also made from recycled material.
The furniture:
We made a coffee table from an electrical reel. We used pallets as bar paneling. We found many nice pieces of furniture and decor at flea markets, and made table lamps from granite boulders and driftwood. In short, everything you see has a story behind it, too many to describe it all. We hope we've given you an idea of how we've used materials sustainably and cleverly without compromising comfort or styling. And whether we've succeeded is up to you to judge, of course.
The Longère 2014-2018
Kermaric's former main farm was in complete ruin for years, and when I say ruin, I really mean ruin...rubble, trees, brambles, ivy, piles of earth, crumbling walls...many thought we were crazy when we rolled up our sleeves and put on our work gloves a few years ago to start this job.
