So Nice to See You Again! And a Guesthouse in France

Hello once again, dear readers! Thanks so much for all your comments while I was away. I promise I will shortly be visiting you! I had a superb, lengthy, awesome holiday at home, Argentina, together with my eight kids. Thanks for asking!

And a very warm welcome to my new followers. Hope to see you around every day!

Back to our home tours, then! Maison-Travaux takes us to visit La Bergerie de Fontbonne, a guesthouse in France built against a hill, at the bottom of a valley. The period of construction is difficult to date as traditional building techniques have remained unchanged through the decades and even centuries. None of these buildings have foundations, but all are based on a double wall buried 25 cm deep. Architect Emmanuelle Stevenoot was in charge of renovating these four ancient barns which cover a floor area of 265 square metres. As the buildings stand on different heights, steps were used to connect one with another.

If you'd like to visit La Bergerie de Fontbonne's website just click here.



































Photography by Antonio Duarte
All images from Maison-Travaux

Renovating a Victorian Home

Angela and Graeme McFarlane are in the middle of a big scale renovation of their Victorian house in Berkshire, England. They needed a place in the house to be able to get away from the building going on in the other rooms so they decided to complete the kitchen plus its extension before anything else.
This is how it turned out.


Flat roof skylights provide extra natural light.


Kitchen and dining area.


Dining area and small extension to the left.


Travertine tiles were used for this room.



Photography Brent Darby
All images from here.

Renovated Mill in France

Good morning my friends! I will be taking a short holiday today and I'll be back on Wednesday next week. I might post once or twice but, you know, as I'll be in Rio de Janeiro I'll have to go to the beach (poor me!).

It took Noël et Rozenn Bernasconi four years to renovate this seventeenth century mill, located in the south of France. It was quite a challenge as it had been vacant for several years and was in a sorry state. Let's enjoy the tour together!














To preserve the history of the mill, Noël has retained and enhanced the original features, such as the grinding wheel, which is the starting point for the new staircase. A glass pane covers the mechanism, preserved below.









Photography by Christophe Rouffio.
All images from here.

Maison & Travaux Renovation Winners

There was a competition last month for the best porch or terrace renovation sponsored by Maison & Travaux. These are the photographs submitted by some of the 20 winners. If you'd like to see the rest of the photographs the link is at the end of this post.



















All images from here.

Photographer James R. Salomon

Good Monday morning, dear readers, hope you all had a great weekend!

When I saw an e-mail in my inbox sent by James Salomon I knew I was about to see something special. And I wasn't wrong. The photographs of his latest work are lovely.

I featured some of Jamie's work in yesterday's post and last year here.

So, this is the latest project captured by Jamie's lens. It took two years for Barnes Vance Architects from Georgetown, DC to transform it from an inn into a single family house. It is located in Bar Harbor, in a small town known as Down East Maine. The owner decorated the interiors with the help of the architect.

A magnificent house and beautiful photographs. Thank you Jamie for allowing me to show them here!



































Be sure to visit James R. Salomon's website where you can enjoy more of his great work! Just go to his portfolio right here.