- 7 tuần trước
Help! We Bought a Village - Season 4 Episode 35
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03:20And it was like just a feeling of immense curiosity
03:24When you know it's somewhere that's going to be special for you
03:27Not too small, not too big
03:30This one we can make work
03:32Yeah
03:33Once a vibrant farming community
03:36The village was abandoned in the 1960s
03:39Since becoming village stewards
03:41Louise and Paul have been fighting to bring it back to life
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07:30Đó là gì khác than an ordinary door.
07:35Đó là cái word I would use at this stage.
07:40Every detail of their dream home
07:42has been carefully thought through by the couple.
07:45The door is an important part of their final design,
07:48so Louise is keen to try and sort it.
07:51I thought that the curve would be in between the glass of the door.
07:56It's going to look really rubbish, isn't it?
07:58We're extremely keen now to get the door on
08:01so that the house is completely sealed.
08:04This is what we've got.
08:05We're going to have to swing with it and hope it's OK.
08:09So, you know...
08:11Not far away, in another part of Normandy,
08:20another English couple are saving a village
08:22and it's slowly beginning to wake from its slumber.
08:25La Cloutière is a farming settlement dating back to the Middle Ages.
08:31Londoners Budo and Tracey are now three years
08:35into the renovation of their historic village.
08:39It's the lifestyle, isn't it?
08:41It's the lifestyle here.
08:42Once you mould into the way of France,
08:44you start to change your whole perspective of your life.
08:48You start to slow down, you take breaths,
08:52you're more aware of everything around you.
08:55It just changes you.
08:56And it's not just me.
08:57I've talked to other British people
08:58and they've had the same situation, you know?
09:01You appreciate things more as well, don't you?
09:03Yeah, definitely.
09:04You appreciate your surroundings,
09:06you appreciate what you've got
09:07and we know that this is going to be a beautiful property.
09:11We can do everything we ever wanted here in France.
09:15Definitely, yeah.
09:18It's October
09:21and with the Normandy weather taking a turn for the worse,
09:25today the couple have moved indoors.
09:29When the weather is bad outside, we come into the house.
09:32Jobs are always getting done
09:33but we are weather dependent.
09:35But luckily we can carry on with another big project
09:38which is the kitchen.
09:39I'm going to be making some kitchen worktops.
09:42If I can get them done today,
09:43then it's a big job ticked off.
09:45Yeah, we'll be happy, won't we?
09:47The only thing that might stop us is having lots of tea breaks.
09:50Or getting high on the glue.
09:51Yeah.
09:53The kitchen is still very much a work in progress.
09:56A completely bespoke design,
09:59Carpenter Budo is crafting nearly everything by hand.
10:02We're getting wall-to-wall work surfaces
10:05and a big island as well.
10:07So we're going to have a massive area.
10:09Tracy's got loads of implements like, you know, mixers.
10:11She's got all there to put out as well.
10:13While keen cook Tracy can't wait for the kitchen to be finished,
10:17today she's on door painting duty
10:19while Budo builds the worktops
10:21made from planks of sweet chestnut
10:23that he milled from a locally felled tree.
10:25Like the craftsmen of the past,
10:28Budo is using what's available around him.
10:33So what I do is I lay these out and I match them up
10:37and we're trying to get the figure of the grain
10:39sort of looking pleasing to the eye more than anything.
10:42And now what I'm going to do
10:43is I'm going to be using these here.
10:46We call these in the trade biscuits.
10:48They go in between the two joints
10:50and they're not there to hold it together as such
10:54because the glue does that.
10:55They're there to keep it in line up and down
10:57so we get a smoother transaction between these two.
11:00So what I'm going to do now
11:00is I'm going to start biscuiting these.
11:03And now I do that,
11:04I use this tool here
11:05and basically put it on here.
11:13The biscuit jointing tool
11:15cuts a small semi-circular slot
11:17horizontally into the plank.
11:19Each piece of wood pre-marked by Budo
11:21so the slots line up
11:23with the corresponding adjacent plank.
11:26While many jointing techniques and woodwork
11:29are ancient in origin,
11:31the biscuit joint is a relatively new innovation.
11:35Invented by a Swiss carpenter,
11:37Hermann Steiner, in the 1950s,
11:39he founded a company manufacturing an electric tool
11:43popularising the technique.
11:44I've got all my biscuit joints made
11:49and I'm now going to start to put them together.
11:54So basically, just put the glue on.
11:57This is a polyurethane glue.
11:59It's a glue that foams up
12:01and grabs hold of the wood
12:02and locks it together.
12:05It's waterproof.
12:06I just now spread it all over nice and evenly.
12:08Now put my little biscuits in.
12:09Make sure they're pushed in.
12:17Then I'll put this one,
12:19line up my little marks.
12:24That's ready to go for the next one on top now.
12:26And I'll just carry that procedure all the way through.
12:28I'm going to need my trusty assistant here
12:41to help me
12:43because when I lay it down,
12:46sometimes they open up.
12:48OK, Trace, if we could...
12:49It might come apart, but we'll see.
12:52Push it down.
12:54Push it, hold it down
12:55and then lay it straight down.
12:57Straight down.
12:59There we go, that's beautiful.
13:02Now what I'll do is I'll clamp this up
13:03and I need this to sit in here for about half an hour
13:08and I've just got three more to do
13:10and then that'll be the kitchen worktop's done.
13:13I'm happy about that.
13:17So I'm going to use this scraper tool
13:18and I'm going to clean the surface off.
13:23Won't take long.
13:23I've been looking at it.
13:33The grain pattern's nice.
13:34A little bit of dressing up with some hand tools
13:36and a bit of sanding, that'll be finished.
13:38I've been having a good day today.
13:43Got the worktops made
13:44and got the door painted.
13:46Even though we've had torrential rain all day.
13:49Yeah.
13:49You know, we don't let the rain stop us.
13:51We want to be out in the barn doing the barn work.
13:53If we can't, we come in here, we keep going.
13:55We keep going.
13:56We've got lots of work to do.
13:57Yeah.
13:58And we're getting through it slowly, slowly.
13:59For Tracey and Budo,
14:02breathing new life into their village isn't about speed.
14:05It's about patience
14:06and lovingly restoring every single inch
14:09of this once lost community
14:11as she enters a new chapter of her life.
14:19Coming up...
14:20These are absolutely the latest technology and solar panels.
14:24A Spanish village saviour goes green.
14:27As we're running lunches in the restaurant,
14:29and this is exactly when the solar panels
14:31are going to be delivering their maximum energy every day.
14:34And at La U?
14:35As it is, the door is absolutely fine.
14:38Louise has a change of heart.
14:40The rectangle of the glass fits perfectly inside the curve.
14:45Happy days!
14:54While some of our village saviours
15:02manage to bring their once-lost settlements back from the brink
15:04within a matter of a few short years,
15:07others can take a lot longer to be saved.
15:11The tiny hilltop village of La Brada in rural Galicia
15:15lay in ruins until 2008,
15:18when Newcastle-born Ben and his Spanish wife Susanna
15:21set about transforming it into a high-end holiday complex.
15:27The first time we saw the village,
15:29we saw the potential.
15:31What we wanted to create is something special,
15:33and I think we've been successful in that.
15:35Almost two decades on,
15:37the couple have a contemporary restaurant
15:39and a busy B&B business to show for all their hard work.
15:43Recently, Ben and Susanna have moved on to a new phase of their renovation,
15:48breathing new life into the still-crumbling Upper Village.
15:51We've put our heart into this,
15:58but we're driven to complete this mission we've started,
16:02and hopefully that mission will be finished soon.
16:09Meanwhile, the part of the village they have restored
16:11goes from strength to strength.
16:15Increasingly popular in the local area,
16:17the restaurant is now serving up to 50 covers a day.
16:23To help keep their costs down,
16:24as well as keep the lights on,
16:26Ben and Susanna have made a very modern investment
16:29for their historic hamlet.
16:31These are absolutely the latest technology in solar panels,
16:34so they're bifacial.
16:36Generating literacy from the front and from the back.
16:39The light-coloured stones you see on the ground
16:41are to help reflect the sun,
16:43because the sun then comes back up to the back of the solar panels,
16:46and we gain another 20-30% of energy as a result of that.
16:50As we're running lunches in the restaurant,
16:53our main usage of energy is going to be lunchtime,
16:56between 12 o'clock and 4 o'clock, 5 o'clock,
16:59and this is exactly when the solar panels
17:00are going to be delivering their maximum energy every day,
17:04so this should make a huge difference to our cost of energy.
17:07Saving money means more cash
17:11to fund the rejuvenation of the abandoned upper village.
17:15A former farming settlement,
17:18commerce at Labrada used to mean
17:19harvesting cereal crops and grazing cattle.
17:23To generate income in the modern era,
17:26work is now underway to build three holiday homes.
17:28The last couple of days,
17:32I've been taking all the cement off with a hammer drill.
17:35In the past, they used that for insulation,
17:36but basically it makes a beautiful building look very, very ugly,
17:40and we want that real rustic look
17:42that we've got in the lower part of the village.
17:45And we find this really cool little window here,
17:47so we didn't even know it existed,
17:48so that's a bonus.
17:52Small windows like this are a common feature
17:54in rural Spanish properties,
17:55as they help manage the flow of air to keep the house cool.
18:00And inside, the couple are also ensuring
18:03the village's original features are fully on show.
18:08This used to be a three-storey building with an attic,
18:11and we wanted to expose the beams in the attic,
18:14so we basically made it a two-storey building
18:15with nice high ceilings.
18:18These buildings have been here for hundreds of years,
18:20and as the custodian of this village,
18:22we have a responsibility to make sure that everything's done right.
18:25so that it is going to last,
18:27and it is going to be a great place
18:30for people to come and visit.
18:33Keen to maintain the architectural heritage of La Brada
18:36as they breathe new life into its buildings,
18:38this is not going to be a quick process.
18:42It's good to see the team working.
18:48We're happy that we're progressing.
18:50The key thing is that we do it right the first time,
18:53and so I'd rather take more time and get it right
18:55than speed up and have problems.
18:58Back at the 17th-century Normandy village of L'Ou,
19:09it's March,
19:15and builders Kelsen and Stuart
19:16are fitting Louise and Paul's new door,
19:19despite the design not being to Louise's original specification.
19:23The archway is an unusually sophisticated architectural flourish
19:39for a 300-year-old rural French farmhouse.
19:45While Louise originally wanted an arched window,
19:48she's had a change of heart.
19:50That looks great.
19:53As it is, the door is absolutely fine.
19:56The rectangle of the glass fits perfectly inside the curve.
20:00Works fantastically.
20:01Happy days!
20:03With the door fitted,
20:05next, Stuart and Kelsen begin grouting
20:07the newly tiled downstairs floor.
20:11So at the moment, I'm just filling in the joints.
20:17Because the stone wall's not straight, it's a regular,
20:21you cut it in as best as you can,
20:23and then you just fill it in there after,
20:25just to blend it all in.
20:27Then you get washed and sponged off,
20:30and so it will look the same as the rest of the floor.
20:34The travertine tiles Louise and Paul have picked
20:36are a type of limestone.
20:39Hard-wearing, they're cheaper than marble,
20:42but just as visually impactful.
20:44This is amazing.
20:49I think this is the most beautiful floor
20:51I've ever seen in my life.
20:53I feel that strongly about it.
20:55I really love it.
20:56I so much prefer this to any other kind of tile ever.
21:00It's mid-April,
21:08and the project to save Le Où has raced forwards.
21:12Bit of a landmark day today.
21:14The build is finished yesterday.
21:15Wahey!
21:16The house is basically now ours.
21:19Great!
21:20Still got the electrician to do his bits and pieces.
21:23Plenty of painting to do.
21:24Yeah.
21:24Lots of furniture to put together and to move,
21:26but hey, big, big step forwards.
21:28This is a little hamlet that had been...
21:33It's our little village.
21:33..a bit left to rack and ruin.
21:36It had been treated badly,
21:39and we've done a lot to make it more beautiful
21:41and to keep it going.
21:43It's been five years,
21:49and it's been, you know, at times,
21:53very frustrating.
21:54Times have gone, oh, my God.
21:56Yeah.
21:56What have you done?
21:57It's been tough for Paul,
21:59because he's been working and doing all of this.
22:02Yeah.
22:02It's been tough for me,
22:05because manually, physically,
22:08I've never worked so hard in my life.
22:11Hopefully, when we move in here,
22:14we will begin a different kind of life,
22:18which is the life that we were always aiming for
22:20from the beginning.
22:23I cannot wait.
22:25I am itching to get in.
22:26Yes.
22:33Coming up...
22:35It's all about accuracy.
22:37Cut into your line.
22:38At La Croutière,
22:39Budo is determined
22:41to deliver the very best for Tracy.
22:43This kitchen's going to be very solid.
22:45I want it to look aesthetically right for Tracy.
22:47I feel like she's, you know,
22:49a million dollars herself.
22:50And at La Brada...
22:51If we look upwards,
22:53we can see the beams are pretty much a goner.
22:57Beng uses modern tech to survey an ancient ruin.
23:01The roof has collapsed,
23:02or not in any good condition whatsoever.
23:15Back in France,
23:17at the historic farming settlement of La Cloutière,
23:20it's October.
23:21And while Tracy is out in the village's lavender fields
23:24performing vital pruning to their growing crop
23:27ahead of the winter,
23:28Budo is in his workshop,
23:30determined to push on
23:31and finish the farmhouse's bespoke kitchen.
23:34Today, he's handcrafting kitchen drawers
23:37using a traditional woodworking technique.
23:41So today I'm doing dovetailing,
23:43which is quite a technical little joint
23:46if you're not used to them.
23:48And the reason I want dovetails
23:49is it gives strength in the drawer,
23:51so over the many years of pulling,
23:53pulling in and out,
23:54this joint locks them,
23:56stops from falling apart.
23:58Making a drawer,
23:59it's just a box, I know,
24:00but it can be complicated
24:02if you don't know what you're doing.
24:03These drawers probably make four a day.
24:07Started yesterday and I'm on number six.
24:10I've got to make 16.
24:13So what I'm doing now is I'm cutting this out.
24:15I've already marked it out.
24:16I'm going to bring that to my voice
24:17and start the process.
24:20Trusty glasses.
24:21Can't see without these.
24:23Especially the fine details, you know.
24:24It's all about accuracy.
24:35Cutting to your lines.
24:37Which I'll show you.
24:42So when I'm cutting this bit out,
24:44this is my waist,
24:46I'm, um,
24:47cutting above the line.
24:51So you'll see me chop that out
24:52in a chisel in a minute.
24:58But I love this sort of work.
25:00You know, it keeps me, uh,
25:01keeps me brain going.
25:04It keeps me thinking
25:04and it ain't costing me nothing.
25:09So next job
25:10is to take that out of there.
25:15I've got my chisels.
25:17So I come to my line on here.
25:19Down.
25:20Turn to an angle.
25:21And the reason I'm going to an angle
25:23is because the pins are at an angle.
25:26So a little bit down,
25:27come in,
25:28angle.
25:32In.
25:33A little bit of an angle.
25:37It's a,
25:37it's a great, uh,
25:38craft woodworking.
25:41And it's, uh,
25:43it's very fulfilling, satisfying.
25:45And then I do the rest of that
25:47with a
25:48little knife here.
25:51We call this the snots.
25:54Clean the snots out.
25:57There you go.
25:58So I'm going to put it together.
26:00And I put the, uh,
26:01joint onto its position
26:02where it's going in.
26:03and then I just bring it home.
26:08and then I turn it upside down.
26:16And there we go.
26:17It's nice, tight.
26:19It's very strong.
26:20And that's what we call a
26:21dovetail joint.
26:24Dovetail joints and woodworking
26:25are a very old technology.
26:27Some surviving examples
26:29of its early usage
26:30have been found
26:31in excavated tombs
26:32and burial sites
26:33across Egypt,
26:35dating to the time
26:36of the pharaohs.
26:39This kitchen's going to be
26:40very solid,
26:41very well built.
26:42I'm putting a lot of time
26:43in to get it right.
26:44I want it to look
26:45aesthetically right
26:46for Tracy.
26:47I want her to feel
26:48that she's in a bit of luxury.
26:50You know,
26:50she can have the good quality
26:51around her
26:52and feel like she's,
26:53you know,
26:53a million dollars herself.
26:54That's a lovely one done.
27:01My next job would be
27:02to put the grooving in
27:04on the inside
27:06and do some staining
27:08and finish it off
27:09and then fit it.
27:12But I've got one here made.
27:14I'm going to go test it,
27:15fit it in its space.
27:18Budo's dedication
27:19to his craft
27:20is all to the advantage
27:21of La Cloutier.
27:23When finished,
27:24this kitchen is likely
27:25to last for at least
27:26a hundred years.
27:29Look at that.
27:30Tracy's going to love that.
27:33That's just so nice.
27:35Soft closed drawers,
27:36we call them.
27:36It's very tactile.
27:37Just part of the
27:38harmony of life,
27:40you know.
27:40That's why Jesus
27:41was the carpenter.
27:42back at La Brada
27:52in northern Spain.
27:57It's January
27:57and work is continuing
27:59on the renovation
28:00of the upper village.
28:02All the buildings bar one
28:03are well on the way
28:04to becoming
28:05holiday rental properties.
28:06The remaining derelict house
28:09is due to begin
28:10its rebirth in the summer.
28:12This property,
28:13earmarked to become
28:14Ben and Susanna's
28:15dream home.
28:17A crumbling wreck,
28:19today Ben is keen
28:20to inspect
28:20the current state
28:21of the building
28:22using La Brada's
28:24newest form
28:24of inter-village transport.
28:26There's a lot of
28:27moving of things
28:29around in all of this
28:31area we have
28:32in the forest
28:33and all the fields
28:34we've got.
28:35So we've gone and bought
28:36this vehicle to help.
28:38It was dropped off
28:38yesterday
28:39and we haven't had
28:41time to play with it yet.
28:51And I suspect
28:52it has no fuel
28:54right now.
28:56So when in doubt
28:58fill it up
29:00with fuel.
29:05This doesn't work
29:06we'll walk.
29:11No.
29:12That can't be it.
29:15All right
29:15so we'll walk.
29:19Looks great though
29:25doesn't it?
29:26The crumbling building
29:31that will become
29:32Ben and Susanna's
29:33dream home
29:34is now too dangerous
29:35to enter.
29:36But Ben is keen
29:37to survey the structure
29:38to ensure it's still
29:40saveable.
29:41He has a modern solution
29:43to allow him to roam
29:44freely and safely.
29:46So we're just going to
29:47have a little look
29:48inside our house
29:50which obviously has
29:53deteriorated so much
29:55that it's pretty dangerous
29:56to go in
29:57and the whole thing's
29:58collapsing.
30:05Look upwards
30:06we can see the beams
30:07are pretty much
30:08a goner.
30:10They're
30:11sort of not in any
30:12good condition
30:13whatsoever.
30:14What we're looking at now
30:17is the area
30:19which was the kitchen
30:19which the roof
30:21has collapsed.
30:23There's the sink
30:24and the cooker
30:28and basically
30:30what that will be
30:31is my office
30:31and that will lead
30:33into one of the
30:33three bedrooms
30:34in this building.
30:39There's a sink
30:39in the corner there
30:40and four bedrooms.
30:43Getting a glimpse
30:43inside for the first
30:44time in years
30:45Ben now has
30:46a much clearer picture
30:48of what his dream home
30:49might eventually
30:50look like.
30:51This place is like
30:52a TARDIS, you know
30:53it's actually a lot
30:54bigger inside
30:54than you think it is.
30:56Having recorded
30:57his remote
30:58reconnaissance of the ruin
30:59Ben is keen to show
31:01Susanna
31:01what he's uncovered.
31:02What we found
31:05is sort of
31:06several different
31:06bedrooms.
31:08Oh my God.
31:10So this is upstairs.
31:14Green doors.
31:15Amazing.
31:16It's clear
31:17that the potential
31:18is there
31:19to utterly
31:19transform this building
31:21and their reaction
31:22to seeing the inside
31:24means they are now
31:25inspired to dream big
31:26when it comes
31:27to breathing new life
31:28into this
31:29abandoned ruin.
31:32Good job we have
31:33someone technical
31:34in the family.
31:37Almost two decades
31:39into its rebirth
31:40La Brada
31:40is beginning to thrive.
31:43The lower village
31:44consists of four
31:45luxury B&B properties
31:47sleeping up to 28 guests.
31:50In addition
31:51the couple's
31:52new restaurant business
31:53is booming.
31:54Summer season
31:58was very intense.
32:01Very busy
32:02with dinners
32:03with lunches
32:03with breakfast.
32:05So super happy
32:06because of that.
32:10But Ben and Susanna
32:12have no plans
32:13to rest on their laurels.
32:16As well as now
32:17offering venue hire
32:18for weddings
32:18and events
32:19their plans
32:21for the upper village
32:22renovation
32:22mean that
32:23when complete
32:24the new holiday
32:26accommodation
32:27will mean upwards
32:28of 40 guests
32:29considered La Brada.
32:31We're still
32:32renovating those
32:34but it's looking
32:35really good
32:36so I'm very happy
32:37with the results.
32:39So confident
32:41are Ben and Susanna
32:41that their holiday lets
32:43will be finished
32:43by the summer
32:44that they are already
32:45taking bookings.
32:47And soon enough
32:48work will begin
32:49on their own home
32:50its completion
32:51marking a major milestone
32:53in the rebirth
32:54of La Brada.
32:55The entire village
32:57will be complete.
33:00So looking forward to it.
33:08Coming up
33:09our villages
33:10bring joy
33:11to their saviors.
33:13This is my kitchen
33:14and I'm cooking
33:15on gas.
33:16As Tracy
33:17is on cloud nine.
33:19I'm just in heaven
33:20at the moment.
33:22While at low
33:22We like the juxtaposition
33:24between the new
33:25and the old.
33:27The old farmhouse
33:28transforms
33:29from a house
33:30into a home.
33:32And I'll tell you what
33:33it properly feels nice.
33:35Back at the farming
33:49settlement
33:49at La Cloutier
33:50in Normandy
33:51While Budo's work
33:55crafting the farmhouse's
33:57handmade kitchen
33:57continues throughout
33:59the autumn
33:59and winter months
34:00One, two, three
34:02On the top
34:03nice and easy.
34:07At the same time
34:09their hamlet
34:09also makes
34:10big demands
34:11on the couple's time.
34:14As our village saviors
34:15are all too aware
34:17land management
34:18at these once
34:18abandoned places
34:19can be
34:20a never ending task.
34:25However
34:25by the spring
34:26the kitchen
34:27is almost finished.
34:29It's May.
34:32Well
34:33this has changed
34:34a little bit.
34:35Yep
34:36We're busy in here
34:37and I've just completed
34:39the island
34:39sweet chestnut
34:40so it's going to be
34:41really nice and classy
34:42I think.
34:43But I'm just in heaven
34:44at the moment
34:44because coming
34:45from a caravan
34:47which I cannot
34:49complain
34:50I made
34:51roast dinners
34:52so I've done well
34:54but to come in here
34:55now is just
34:56pure luxury.
34:59As they would have
35:01done in the past
35:02Budo has sourced
35:03all his materials
35:04locally.
35:06All this cabinetry
35:07I've made by hand
35:09the over mantle
35:10we call this
35:10an over mantle
35:11this is all sweet chestnut
35:12again and there's a lot
35:13of detail in the chestnut
35:15like this little cove here
35:16so these little
35:18corbels here
35:19we call these
35:20and that gives
35:21a feel of
35:22dresser
35:23of some sort
35:23you know
35:24rather than just
35:24a plain old kitchen unit
35:26but keeping it simple
35:27as well
35:27but looking very classical.
35:30Not only are the couple
35:31thrilled with how it looks
35:33but it's given them
35:34the strength
35:34to carry on
35:35with the rest
35:36of the hamlet.
35:40In time scale
35:41probably a couple
35:43of months of work
35:44in total
35:44to get to this stage
35:45but it's been spread out
35:46over a year and a half
35:47because of all
35:48the other things
35:48going on.
35:49Because we're not
35:50just doing the renovation
35:51are we?
35:52We have land
35:53so we always get
35:54pulled away.
35:55But for the last few weeks
35:56we've seen the progress
35:57to get to where we are now
35:59we're feeling that
36:00inspiration
36:01to keep pushing
36:01forwards now
36:02because you can see
36:03the fruits of your labour.
36:06Look at this
36:07gas
36:08this is my kitchen
36:09and I'm cooking on gas
36:11Budo if you can
36:12put your timer on
36:13and just let me know
36:14when five minutes
36:15is up please
36:16thank mince
36:18With their kitchen garden
36:20providing much
36:20of their food already
36:21Tracy and Budo
36:23have future plans
36:24for even more
36:25of their produce
36:26to come from
36:26their village.
36:28Now we can sit
36:29have a little salad
36:30for lunch
36:31I'm actually looking
36:31at the plate here
36:32all the salad
36:33will be grown here
36:34the eggs
36:34from the chicken
36:35and we were talking
36:36about making cheese
36:37weren't we?
36:37Yeah
36:37So technically
36:38100% that plate
36:40will be from our land
36:41That's part of our journey
36:43being self-sufficient
36:44isn't it?
36:45There is just so much
36:46you can do
36:47if you put your mind
36:48to it.
36:50And across the four years
36:52of their stewardship
36:53of La Cloutière
36:54there's so much
36:55that Tracy and Budo
36:56have already done
36:57This place was in a bad state
37:00when we first bought it
37:01It was unlivable
37:03Then we got our teeth
37:04into it
37:04started doing the floors
37:05building up the walls
37:07there are lots of hidden jobs
37:08like running plumbing
37:09and electrics
37:10Making new windows
37:11beautiful oak ledge
37:13and brace doors
37:14as well
37:14you made
37:15didn't you?
37:15In oak yeah
37:16I had the pleasure
37:17of oiling them
37:17they were lovely
37:18We built a porch
37:19on the front
37:20we built a garden
37:21so we built a potashay
37:23they call it in France
37:24where you grow your food
37:24we built a lavender field
37:26Which is expanding
37:27isn't it?
37:28Which is expanding
37:28year by year
37:29and then we started
37:31a little bit of work
37:31on the barn
37:32yep
37:32but we had to stop that
37:34to go back to doing
37:35the kitchen
37:36but the thing was
37:37the building had collapsed away
37:38so I rebuilt
37:39the whole building as well
37:40done all the walls
37:41put the roof on
37:42tiled it
37:42and then built
37:43the kitchen inside
37:44so we've been doing a lot
37:45in four years
37:46and also
37:46within that four years
37:48it's maintaining our land
37:49and one of the main issues
37:51you have in France
37:52and you have to remember this
37:53if you come to live in France
37:54socialisation
37:55the socialisation
37:58is a must do
37:59because you offend
38:00your neighbours
38:01if you don't
38:01they enjoy life
38:03and that's what I love here
38:04and it's because
38:06they realise
38:07working is not
38:08the be all and end all
38:09is it?
38:10They want to enjoy life
38:11they tend to enjoy
38:11their lives a lot more here
38:12they're at a slower pace
38:13not only have Tracey and Budo
38:15saved a lost village of Europe
38:17but the village has given them
38:19the life
38:20that they always dreamed of
38:22once we do finish the renovation
38:25and get that up to a standard
38:26then we can really start
38:28to enjoy it even more
38:30it's just a wonderful experience
38:31yeah
38:32and you know
38:33if you've got the means
38:34to have a go
38:34at doing something like this
38:35buy yourself a little village
38:37and do it up
38:38yeah
38:38a few miles away
38:50in another part of Normandy
38:52another village
38:53is paying its saviors back
38:55in spades
38:56it's April
38:57at La Oue
38:58water
39:00water
39:01village saviors
39:02Louise and Paul
39:03are getting ready
39:04to move into their
39:05fully restored farmhouse
39:07I mean the kitchen's
39:09fully functional now
39:10isn't it
39:10aye
39:10it's all connected up
39:11to the electrics
39:12and the gas
39:13so it should just work
39:14yay
39:15there we go
39:16we knew it would get there
39:17in the end
39:17but it's still nice
39:18to see it to work
39:19yeah
39:19I'm sure that
39:21after we've moved in
39:22and everything
39:22all of a sudden
39:23it's going to all become
39:24very banal
39:25but at the moment
39:27it's really thrilling
39:29we're going to have to be
39:32very careful
39:33yes
39:33while the appearance
39:36of the farmhouse
39:36has changed considerably
39:38from what it might have
39:39looked like in centuries past
39:40Louise and Paul
39:44have made sure
39:44that elements of that past
39:46are still on show
39:47we like the juxtaposition
39:49between the new and the old
39:51the new and the old
39:52you know
39:52you've got the kitchen
39:54which is modern
39:55and the floor
39:56which is retro
39:57the new lights
39:58next to the beams
39:59I love it
40:00wow
40:04there we are
40:05what you might want to do
40:06is open the other box up
40:07and start lifting the bits out
40:09breathing new life
40:13into a once abandoned village
40:15takes time
40:16commitment
40:17and patience
40:18I will hold it
40:20you twist it
40:21and for couples
40:22like Louise and Paul
40:23it means having
40:24a shared vision
40:26for what your village
40:27and your life
40:28are going to look like
40:30weee
40:30weee
40:32weee
40:33weee
40:33having risen to the challenge
40:35they're finally starting
40:36to reap the rewards
40:38oh that was comfy
40:40apart from sitting on the floor
40:41yeah
40:42scrubbing it
40:43it's the first to have sat on a seat near
40:45yeah in fact
40:45wow it is actually
40:46yes
40:47today
40:47and I'll tell you what
40:49it properly feels nice
40:50I cannot wait
40:52to start faffing on
40:53and getting it
40:53how we want it
40:54you know
40:55still got the grand move to do
40:56but
40:57yeah
40:57it's starting to come together
40:59three weeks later
41:05and the couple's dream
41:06finally becomes
41:08a reality
41:08the former farmhouse
41:12where animals once slept
41:13under the same roof
41:14as the labourers
41:15who worked here
41:15was abandoned
41:17in the 1960s
41:18left to rack and ruin
41:22decades of decay
41:24meant it was
41:25almost lost forever
41:26but now it finally
41:29has a new purpose in life
41:31we moved into a new house
41:33two nights ago
41:34not sure we can quite believe it
41:36we've exceeded our expectations
41:39the dusty and crumbling old farmhouse
41:42is now an elegant and modern home
41:45downstairs
41:46the open plan living area
41:48proudly showcases
41:50the charming relics
41:51of the building's past
41:52this is the original brick wall
41:56I'm like blown away
41:58by how it's turned out really
41:59I think it looks amazing
42:00it really makes it into something
42:03super special
42:05upstairs
42:06where long ago farm workers
42:08would have bunked down for the night
42:09it's now a bright and playful
42:12contemporary bedroom
42:13this is an amazing space
42:16it's nice and light
42:18we've got our two
42:20dressing room areas
42:21behind the bed
42:22for the couple
42:23the journey to get to this point
42:25hasn't been an easy one
42:27it's been eventful
42:29yes
42:29to say the very least
42:31it was a slightly unpleasant surprise
42:33to find out the whole thing
42:34needed underpinning
42:35yeah
42:36it was like
42:37oh dear
42:37how much is that
42:38but at least now
42:40it's on solid concrete foundations
42:41and I think
42:43with all of that
42:44behind us
42:45we'll begin to live the life
42:48that we wanted to live
42:49from the beginning
42:50bringing Lou back to life
42:52has been a mammoth project
42:54for Louise and Paul
42:55from restoring holiday geats
42:57to building a swimming pool
42:59for their guests to enjoy
43:00with the farmhouse complete
43:02their next project
43:04is to turn their old house
43:05into a geat
43:06and expand further
43:08their blossoming holiday business
43:10we've got four geats up and working
43:13which is great
43:13and we will have five
43:14we will have five
43:15though there is a chunk of work
43:16to be done on that
43:17yeah
43:17so that'll keep us busy
43:18over this month
43:19so we're getting it ready
43:20hopefully ready by the peak
43:22we'll see
43:22Louise and Paul
43:25have done more than just
43:27saving a village
43:27they've given her
43:29a new purpose
43:30ready to begin
43:31a new chapter
43:32in her long life
43:34the thing that I'm most proud of
43:36is we've taken something
43:38which was
43:39a disaster
43:39a run-down disaster
43:41and we've made it
43:42into something beautiful
43:43as far as I'm concerned
43:44there's no better feeling
43:46we've made a difference
43:47I think so
43:47we've preserved a little bit of history
43:49in a lovely bit of France
43:51which to me is very satisfying
43:52the book of Le Houx
43:54started in 1700
43:56there are more chapters to write
43:59but I think with the house
44:00we've finished a big one
44:01we can go
44:02ah
44:03and enjoy it
44:04yeah
44:05then get on to writing
44:06the next chapter
44:07Le Houx
44:07the future
44:08Le Houx
44:09the future
44:09exactly
44:10if you too
44:20are saving a village
44:21or a hamlet in Europe
44:22and would like
44:23this programme
44:24to document your progress
44:25please get in touch
44:27with our production team
44:28we'd love to tell
44:31your story
44:32we'd love to see
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