our project

Bendida's upper floor with its central corridor and four equally sized rooms is already completely inhabitable. Our major effort will lie in transforming the lower floor that used to be occupied by sheep. We have already spent a lot of time in cleaning out the piles of animal waste and lowering the floor by about 40cm. Furthermore, we have carried in a water pipe and built a stone bench along parts of the walls in order to reinforce the weakend foundations.

This lower floor shall become the principal living space with kitchen, bathroom and fireplace, linked to the upper floor bedrooms by a staircase. We want running hot and cold water and electric lighting (solar panels). Our plans are sketched out on these renderings. In order to form the separate bathroom space we want to build two inner walls made of adobe bricks. The walls exposed to water will be plastered with lime (tadelakt technique).

The major tasks will be to open up more and larger window holes and install door and windows, isolate the ceiling, lay the water pipes and cables for 12V lighting. We plan to have a natural stone floor and an open kitchen with a small bar. Cooking will mainly be done with a wood stove, but we will also be using gaz for quicker cooking.

With a simple wooden staircase one will be able to go upstairs without leaving the house. On the upper floor we want to build an intermediate wooden ceiling above the central corridor to isolate it thermically from the outside. Currently this corridor is just covered with the stone roof, but outside air circulates freely. The south terasse and the covered north entry have to be renewed almost completely. Still a lot of sweat before Bendida will be ready for cosy cold winters..... :-))