In the 1910s, my grandfather Massoud returned to Mlikh from USA where he lived in New York and Boston for a few years. The contrast between the two ways of life could not have been greater. The house was built by stone masons from the Metn region. Life was tough and centred around agriculture. In 2004 I organised renovation work while keeping with the original style of the house. The project took just six weeks to complete thanks to the hard work of my brother Nabil and all the skilled builders especially Semaan, Mohammad, Jamil, Joseph and Radi. Special thanks also to mum and sister-in-law Rola for keeping everyone fed and refreshed and for enduring all the mess, and to my wife Linda and brother Walid for valuable long-distance advice.

View of the front of the house. Built on a hill, the back wall is partially below ground level.     Inside view of the lounge showing the original archway and the stains caused by water seeping in during winter. Also showing is a photo of grand dad.     View from inside the lounge before the work has started.     The concrete lintel removed from over the window showing the edge of the archway.     Once the old window was removed, a larger window was to replace it and the old plaster of the archway can be scraped off to reveal the stone.     A new re-enforced concrete slab and side pillars was being built.     The old archway was faithfully extended about 70 cm thanks to the rare skills of a local stone mason, Mohammed.     Meanwhile Nabil and Rola are stripping the many paint layers off the original door.     The archway extension getting built.     With the archway extended, the blacksmith is measuring for a new wrought iron window.     Meanwhile, the back wall is getting re-built around the archway curve.     Late night and flood lit, Nabil is priming and painting the wrought iron window.     Locally quarried limestone tiles before being used.     With a new under-the-archway stone seating area, the floor is getting tiled using locally quarried limestone tiles.     Last piece of stone skirting board laid by Joseph.     Grouting is being applied by Joseph.     The stone of the archway is getting cleaned.     Joseph is polishing the stone tiles while Radi is pointing the archway.     The pointed archway, showing a cubby-hole. Where oil lamps were traditionally placed, halogen spotlights are now fitted.     The finished floor, with a fig and an apricot tree showing in the background.     All's done. Still to come are tradiotionally-covered cushions for the seating area.     Cushions and spotlights in place.     The door lock getting re-fitted. The pattern at the top of the original window showing here was copied in the new wrought iron window.