Chateau Duffy is a tumbledown French farmhouse and barn in the little village of Saint Denis des Murs, not far from Limoges. It’s owned by Chris Duffy (of Duffy London fame). We think the house and barn have been abandoned for about 150 years. That’s quite some time!
So, what does a trip to Chateau Duffy involve? Perhaps that’s best explained by telling you what we’ve done on the three trips we’ve taken so far…
The first priority was sorting the roof of the barn out. (See how it dips in the photo above?) So we had to take all the tiles off, replace the rotten beams beneath them, and get the tiles back on – which we completed in August 2012. In total, we rescued over 4000 tiles, all of which have been put back onto the new roof, along with a few new ones. Voila:
But if you don’t have a head for heights, don’t worry! Not all the work at Chateau Duffy involves scaling scaffolding and clambering around on the roof. There’s plenty to be done at ground level (or a little above) too. In the spring of 2012 we tested out our pointing skills (replacing the old cement between the bricks on the building’s exterior) and we did a lot of more of this in the summer – but there’s still lots more to do!
The top priority of our Easter 2013 trip was putting in the plumbing and laying the floor of the barn. For some of the team, this involved a lot of digging and moving of earth. Meanwhile, around the back of the house, pointing work continued. On our next trip, there will be yet more pointing (hopefully one day we’ll finish!), as well as a lot of interior work in the barn – such as wall building. There’s also a septic tank to be installed, following the digging of a very large hole…
The Easter 2013 team test out the brand new floor.