Seven New Windows

It's taken a couple of years from grant application to installation, but we finally have seven new double glazed windows. We had hoped to have new shutters too, but Batiment de France refused our request to switch from 19th century louvred shutters to simple plain solid shutters and it was too expensive to include new shutters in the project.

The new window in our dining niche/my workspace.

Our grant, through a government agency known as ANAH, pays for a percentage of the work on the understanding that we improve the energy efficiency of the house sufficiently. So the full project included a new hot water system and in the future insulation and dry lining of our sitting room and bedroom. 

One of the masons and one of the joiners remove the crappy old side door into the sitting room. It had been glued shut to prevent drafts and probably hadn't been opened for forty years.

We chose Brice Bois Concept for the windows and have been very happy with them. They are based in Loches and have been easy to communicate with, and perhaps most importantly, understanding of our financial constraints, especially once Covid hit. 

The joiners struggle to remove the non-standard old window on the street front of the sitting room.

Brice Bois came and measured up then sent us a quote which we passed on to ANAH for approval. Brice Bois have the required RGE certification and approval wasn't a problem. We signed the agreement and paid the deposit, which Brice Bois passed on to the window manufacturers. 

I hid in the attic while the joiners worked.

Once the windows arrived there was a bit of negotiation. We needed to get the mason to come to replace wooden window sills with stone, and to change a door into a window. I couldn't get the mason to commit to a date and Brice Bois didn't have the space to store the windows. So we agreed a compromise. We paid the balance of windows materials portion of the bill and took delivery of the windows, on the understanding that the installation would be at some later date.

The masons at work on a couple of windowsills.

So the windows sat in our barn for a year, propped up against a pillar and covered by a tarp. Finally we agreed a date for installation in the last week of March. It had to be no later than then as Brice Bois was in the process of restructuring their organisation and needed to finish all the jobs on their books before 1 April. We had to return from the Netherlands a couple of days earlier than we'd planned in order to be here when the windows were installed.

One of the joiners (Fr. menuisier) applying finishing touches to the new bathroom window.

The blokes from Brice Bois were quiet, competent and polite. We were very impressed by their skills and can do attitude. They had made sure to talk to the mason so they knew what he was doing and what they needed to do on the relevant windows. None of our windows are standard and I'm sure they were faced with some challenges. They just quietly problem solved, with no teeth sucking, no complaining and no swearing. They even fixed our back door, which had started sticking due to the house moving in the dry weather.

Exterior view of the new window and windowsill for the dining niche.

After three days they had taken away the old windows and we had seven newly installed double glazed windows. The next day I paid the final balance of just under €2000 to cover the labour. The total bill came to just under €9500, with the most expensive window being the big front sitting room window at €1700 and the least expensive being the dining niche at €750. The window frames are pre-painted in 'pebble gray', one of the Batiment de France approved colours, and made from exotic hardwood. The mason's bill will, I think, be about €1500 and the limestone for the windowsills came from a quarry in Vienne.

The mason finishing off the windowsill for the side of the sitting room.

The next challenge will be getting the sitting room and bedroom insulated and lined. We have twelve months to complete the work to ANAH's satisfaction before our grant will be rescinded. Wish us luck!

The joiner working on the front sitting room window.

But for now we are just grateful to have windows that are easy to open and close, don't leak and don't let in draughts. After all, in France, one is taught to have an absolute horror of les courants d'air. That's why they all bundle up in scarves, even in high summer...*

Further Reading: Brice Bois Concept website (in French) [link].

The mason was Franck Sully from Martizay [link]. 

The stone came from the Carriere de Tervoux [link].

The new side window for the sitting room, exterior view.

The new side window in the sitting room, interior view. My insistance that this window opened either by tilting in at the top or by swinging on its side hinges meant that we had to go up a range for all our windows, making them more expensive.

*JOKE. A gentle dig at the French penchant for wearing enormous, and to my mind thoroughly inconvenient and uncomfortable, scarves.  I should also point out that the French will open all the windows once the temperature gets above about 15C, to air the house and to fling all their bedding out onto pigeon poo covered windowsills to soak up a load of vehicle emission particulates. Go figure.