We are Steve & Sue Lawn, we moved to France in 2006 having got fed up with the British weather and wanting to do something a little more adventurous with our lives. The Mill was the first property we looked at and having spent another 4 weeks looking at lots of other properties, we kept coming back to the Mill. After some final soul-searching and a lot of persuasion on Steve's part (Steve is obviously the one with the foresight!) we bought it. We realised then that it would be a 3 year project. The first year getting the house in which we were to live right for us, the second year on the actual Mill itself and another year on landscaping the grounds.
The Mill is dated around the 17th century and up until 1995 was apparently still working. It was also used as a farm. It had been in the same family for a couple of generations and some of the family members still live in the area. Unfortunately in 1995 the children (all 11 of them!) had to sell up in order to put their father into a nursing home. He is now in his 80's and still lives in a nursing home in the local village of Guern. Every year on Father's Day we have had a visit from one or two of the children plus their children and in some cases their grandchildren! They are all pleased that the Mill has been given a second lease of life.
Below are a few photographs of how it looked when we bought it - we hope you find them interesting!
First project the house in which we were to live which you can see just to the left of the picture. There was also a 30ft barn attached to the house which had to come down in order to put in the new septic tank. Unfortunately Steve chose this time to tell me that he was afraid of heights! but I gave him a spanner and a chainsaw and told him to get on with it!
With a few runs of the chainsaw the barn successfully comes down.
Now just a little bit of tidying up to do - think I may need a bigger broom!
In goes the fosse.
Up comes the new grass! Now for some re-decorating and re-shaping of the house.
Out with the old kitchen.
Being a little bit fashion conscious ......does my bum look big with this!
In with the new kitchen. After a little more decorating (new bathroom, flooring, painting etc) the house was finished late 2007. Now for a bit of gardening!
Time to get out the flymo!
Where's the secateurs! Oh dear think we are going to need some really heavy duty gardening tools!
This is what they call in the trade "needs a bit of TLC" we think more like "TNT"! Having realised that the garden was going to be an ongoing project and with the onset of winter we thought we would crack on with the Mill.
The first thing was to take out the internal 6ft diameter wheel that was used to lift up the heavy bags of grain for grinding.
We wanted to save the wheel and put it on display outside but when it started to crumble and fall to pieces - out came the chainsaw!
Next up came all the old wooden floor boards and all the support beams had to be treated and replaced where needed.
The new floor going down in what is now the lounge/diner.
Having uncovered the old mill stones we decided to keep these in place and make them part of the kitchen floor.
Now for the bedrooms and the two bathrooms in the main section of the Mill
Once the old floor was removed and the beams treated and replaced where needed it was time to section it into sizeable rooms.
The stud work starts to go up for the bedrooms.
Plasterboarded and ready for painting.
Having finished the interior of the mill and all the landscaping in the summer of 2009 the last job was to put back the wheel and this was completed in September 2009. The wheel is modelled on an existing watermill which is in a local village called Melrand.
We hope you have enjoyed your visit to our website and that it may have inspired you to come and see the Mill and the local area for yourselves.
There is lots to see and do in the area, or if you prefer just chill out by the pool under the shade of the walnut tree!
And finally................
From This To This ..............Simple!
