labonmaison, Enfert, Mhère (2024)

23/11/2023

TBT...

A real ThrowbackThusday. It's hard to imagine the kitchen looked like this when we bought La Bon Maison 3 years ago. We love our new kitchen with the beautiful 'murs en pierres' walls. Some last details like connecting the wood heater (which we still had from our house in the Netherlands) and we're ready for the 'gezellige' winter evenings 🍷🔥🍷

04/03/2023

Step by step

Bit by bit

Stone by stone

Brick by brick

We're renovating La Bon Maison. And once that is finished we will start building the barn into our home. People ask us:

How long will it take?

It's so much work!

What is your deadline?

Well we just take it step by step, bit by bit and make sure to enjoy every step :)

The last few weeks we took some steps in the kitchen. Do you remember the 'tent' in the last update? In that 'tent' we have lifted and stabilised the ceiling, removed the old grout and repointed the walls to beautiful 'murs en pierres'. The last part will be the wall with the kitchen counter. We'll do that in spring so we can cook and bbq outside while working. And although officially it's not spring yet, we already enjoy the beautiful sunny days. We hope you do too, have a great weekend 😎

02/12/2022

Walls ⛏️⛏️⛏️

Our latest project is to renovate the 'murs en pierres' , the characteristic stone walls you see with most houses in this area.

One by one we will renovate all walls. When working on the outside wall at the kitchenside, we also demolished the stone staircase. Although it was a beautiful, old staircase it was in a very bad condition and caused a lot of humidity in between the wall and the stairs. We've removed all the old grout from the wall and now we wait for some dry, not too cold (5+) days so we can repoint the wall with special, traditional grout.

Oh and this week we have built a 'tent' in the kitchen, this way we can also renovate these walls and still use the kitchen. So stay tuned for the next update 🤗

Enjoy your weekend!

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14/10/2022

And just like that it’s autumn again! 🍂🍁🍂
Unbelievable how fast the seasons change and time flies.

June 2020 we arrived in France and now we’re already more than a year living in La Bon Maison in the lovely village Enfert.

People ask us “When are you going to open La Bon Maison?” “Will you still run a B&B?”
Yes! We will!

But as seasons change, plans are also there to change. You cannot plan life and the last years we have learnt time and time again how important it is to be flexible and to be able to adapt your plans.

We will start small, with renting out only the top floor of La Bon Maison as chambre d’hotes, a B&B. We do not have an exact start date yet, but we hope to welcome our first guests in 2023.

In the meanwhile we continue to renovate and enjoy La Bon Maison and we will do our best to give you more often a glimpse in our French country life.

19/06/2022

Are you ready for summer?
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We sure are 😎
It has been quiet online, but in the 'real world' we have been pretty busy. Spring brings a lot of work and there were also several trips to the Netherlands. That's why the last months the renovation of La Bon Maison was on hold. But after saving time and money, we hope to continue again this autumn 👊

So stay tuned and 🏖ENJOY🏖 the Summer!

31/12/2021

Best way to end the year: frying (and tasting 😉) 'oliebollen' in the sun.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!
🥂Cheers to 2022 🥂

29/11/2021

Winter is coming…
Winters at Enfert are very beautiful, but they're also very cold ☃️. And we want to stay warm in La Bon Maison. Thanks to Veelzijdig Technieken we have installed a heat pump. We're super happy with this new way of heating; more eco friendly ♻️ ánd a comfortable, warm home. Obviously this warmth has to stay in. The good thing is that old houses like La Bon Maison (early 1800) have solid, thick walls. But also every crack has to be filled and the ceilings have to be insulated. To get this done, Lex is building a new floor for the La Bon Family room.

Winter also means nice, cozy, gezellige 😉 moments at the fireplace 🍷🔥🍷. And to enjoy these moments even more we've painted the walls green 💚. We hope you like it too!

Have a great week and stay warm!

19/09/2021

Time flies when you're having fun!

And we sure had fun the last few days!! 🥳🍻😇🍾👯‍♀️😍☀️

Our friends from the Netherlands visited us at La Bon Maison. Lex had the pleasure to share the house with 5(!) ladies. So much fun, looooooot of laughs, and of course good food and drinks! Merci Daan, Bonnika, Miran and Sas! ❤

You would almost wonder if we're still renovating La Bon Maison 😉. But we can reassure you, the work is still going on. Last week they finally removed the old gas tank, so now we can prepare the installation of the heat pump. And we have many more tasks to complete. So not so regularly anymore, but we'll keep sharing updates of the steps we make at La Bon Maison.

29/08/2021

Life is BON! 🙌

Life is good at La Bon Maison!

3 weeks ago we moved into La Bon Maison and we're enjoying every day! Just some pictures to give you a glimpse into our new home and life...

24/07/2021

Last year we've been living in the beautiful 'la grange morvan' thanks again Hans and Jo!!

But now it's time for our own place 🏡

These covid times are not ideal to open a new holiday home and our future home will take longer to build, so we have decided to first live in La Bon Maison ourselves. We'll move there in August.

So sorry 😉 you'll have to wait a bit longer to spend your holidays in La Bon Maison. But no worries! Next year we'll start renting out the first floor as a chambre d'hotes (b&b).

The ground floor of La Bon Maison is almost ready with a lot of help of our parents 🙏 So this time some action photo's and next time we will share pictures of the different rooms. But first weeeeeekend! Cheers!

04/06/2021

Still 17 days till summer 😎 but the last 1,5 week we have been enjoying some nice sunny ☀️ days already.

Lots of respect👏 to Danny and ; working so hard on the roof in this heat. The next step is to lay the slates and then this side of the roof is also finished.

We're also taking steps in one of the bathrooms in La Bon Maison. was a great help to fix the ceiling ánd he installed the lights. Thanks Hans 🙏 ! Once the plastering is done, the bathroom can be painted 🖌 and the shower 🚿 installed.

We also started to paint the kitchen cabinet doors. It will take a while before they're up, because the walls of the kitchen still have to be worked on. But we're very happy with the first results. It's hard to see the colour (faded green) in the picture, so more photos will follow :)

07/05/2021

Just take a sec...

and enjoy the view 👀 through our new windows.

On the other side of the roof the slates have been removed, the casings are filled with concrete and a few beams have been replaced. Now we wait for some dry days 🤞 so the work can continue.

Besides dreaming 💭 💭 about our future home, we of course carry on with the renovation of La Bon Maison. The last weeks it was a bit of a part time job as Lex his business has started quite successfully and he is busy with several gardening jobs. Debbie was even hired to be his intern 👩‍🌾 ;)

In the meanwhile the painting continues in La Bon Maison. A lot of work, but a very thankful job, the rooms look very bright 🔅 and fresh. Since yesterday there is even one extra wall to paint, Lex has built a new wall in one of the 3 bedrooms👌

After these fruitful days, it's time again for the weekend 💃🕺

Ps Make sure to spoil your mum this Sunday ❤

26/04/2021

Backside of our future house! Today the scaffolding was removed. Now you can see the new roof and new windows. Looks awesome, very happy with the result!

16/04/2021

3 weeks 🗓️ since we posted our last update. 3 hectic but good weeks; working on the roof of our future home, cutting and gardening jobs for Lex and of course renovating La Bon Maison. And we also celebrated Debbie her birthday 🎈Thanks again for all the nice whishes, cards and presents! 😊

The boiler for La Bon Maison has been installed, so we have warm water 🚿🙌🏻 🚿 And room by room Debbie is painting ánd having fun with wallpaper. Even the cupboards under the windows got wallpaper. Still some details to finish, but these two bedrooms are almost ready for your holidays 😎

Tomorrow one more day of work and then... weekend. Have a good one!

26/03/2021

Views

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What a beautifull view we will have once the windows in our future livingroom have been installed. Lex, Cédric and Danny started the renovation of the roof. The old slates have been removed. The opening in the wall for the windows has been created. And the casings have been built and filled with concrete. Now things can dry and they will continue the work next week again 👊

Another nice view, will be the view in one of the bedrooms of La Bon Maison. We painted the walls and wood and put on the wallpaper. Ready for sweet holiday dreams 😴 🌺 😴

12/03/2021

Home 🏡
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After a lot of cleaning demolishing, sanding.... we're slowly starting the 'build-up' of La Bon Maison. Last week we have been painting 🖌and for the first time in our lifes we have plastered walls 🤩. Probably the professionals think we're crazy 😉 But hey we finished 2 bedrooms, the bathroom and started in the livingroom. And it looks pretty good, so we're happy 🙌 !

Last week Lex also picked up windows for the La Bon Maison Family room. And windows for our own home in the barn. Because they will soon build the new roof and install the windows. The scaffolding is up, the material has been delivered but they can't start yet as the forecast is rain, rain and ☔ But once it's dry again they will start. Super exciting as this is the first step to our new home! A great way to start the weekend, cheers 🍻

19/02/2021

Warming up

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Slowly you can feel the temperature going up and spring is in the air 🌱 In La Bon Maison it was actually still pretty cold without any heating. But not anymore! Because the chimney has been finalised and the woodheater is installed 👊. And to start a fire you of course need wood. Well I can tell you, Lex had a lot of fun with his chainsaw 😉

In our last update we mentioned we still had to work on the walls in the kitchen. While removing the old plaster, beautiful stone walls were revealed. So we decided to remove it all ⚒️ We still have to clean and finish the walls but we can already start to see the potential, we hope you too :)

05/02/2021

Step by step

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Sometimes we feel we want to go faster, but as most things in life it's best to do it step by step and do it good 💯. So steady we continue the sanding of the wood and the removal of the old and damaged plaster on the walls... Last room to be finished is the kitchen before we can start to put on the new plaster. And then.... painting 🖌️ and wallpaper (have a look at the 2nd pic to have a sneak preview of the 🌺 wallpaper in one of the bedrooms).

In the meanwhile we're preparing and fixing the chimney to install the woodheater. And of course we also have to make some money 😉 so Lex did a tree pruning job in a village close by.

Oh and you might be wondering what's 😻 Harry been up to? Well he has taken up a new responsibility as guide. Daily he's exploring Enfert and once our guests arrive he can share some nice walks around La Bon Maison.

labonmaison