Bathroom Progress

We have now sent detailed specifications of the master en-suite to our builder.  It will not have a bath any more, as, although there would be space for it, the room will seem more spacious without it.  In reality, few people would actually use the bath anyway, and if they did want a bath, there is always one downstairs.

We're hoping that the wall to the bedroom won't have to be moved by much, not that it would make much difference in the bedroom given its size.

We now await the quote and the builder starting work.  It's getting exciting!

Letting Websites

This year we are experimenting a bit.  When we started, we signed up to Holiday Lettings and Holiday Rentals.  That first year, all the bookings we took were from Holiday Lettings, and I think we only received one enquiry from Holiday Rentals.  I'm not sure really what caused this: was it the site or the advert in the site? As a result, and not knowing the underlying reason, we dropped Holiday Rentals and still managed to have a good set of bookings in 2009 and 2010, with our first bookings outside of July and August in 2010. 

Not wanting to leave it there, though, for 2011, we have signed up with Chez Nous, who claim to have a different demographic from the other letting websites, and a newer site called Pure Holiday Homes.  Both have nicely presented adverts etc, although there is a downside in that I will have to update three sets of availability calendars as well as recording details of the lettings here.

Has it paid off?  Early to say - we have five weeks next year booked already, but four of those are re-bookings from previous years.  The other week is from Chez Nous.  I am reasonably confident that week would have been booked from Holiday Lettings, and the true results will come if we manage to let more weeks away from the main season - for instance the "shoulder" months.

Interesting Places to Visit

Whilst we were down at the house this weekend, we went for a drive around lunchtime.  We had heard that there was a Christmas fair in a village Soussac, not far from Pellegrue.  We decided we would try going to Sauveterre de Guyenne for lunch, and then on to Soussac afterwards, going there cross country.  As it turned out, the fair at Soussac did not come to much - it might have been better later, but it looked as if we would have been the only visitors there, so we ducked that one!

Sauveterre has a charming square which is now a car park, but I imagine hosts a bustling market on Tuesdays.  Around the square are a number of shops, and we found a nice little restaurant for lunch - Les Arcades.  It was a bit basic, but the fixed price three course lunch with wine for €11.50 was not bad at all.

We then headed out on the road to Monségur, which we have been to before, and also has a charming square and nice cafés for lunch.  The map we were using had told us about a "village de charme" - Castelmoron d'Albret.  We parked up, and wandered around the village.  It had a feel just like villages in Provence - buildings and houses perched on the top of a hill, winding roads between the houses butting directly onto the roadway.  The buildings themselves were generally a bit run down, and a large number of them were for sale.  These would make ideal renovation projects if you wanted a village property.  There was a restaurant there - Chez Pierre, I think - which looked like a nice spot for lunch.  Next trip, I think!

The three locations - Sauveterre, Monségur with Castelmoron in between - make a nice little trip - perhaps on a Tuesday for the Sauveterre market or Friday for the Monségur one.

Visit in November

Just come back from a weekend - it is good to be over there.  We did have a few problems, though.  Going over in November, you really need to have the heating working ok.  However, when we got there, we had difficulty getting the boiler to work.  We finally worked out that the boiler had been on since the 22 of September, when the last people were there, and the shower upstairs had not been fully turned off.  As a result, it had been using up hot water continuously until the tank ran out of oil!

We had bought about 500 litres earlier this year - the previous 500 litres had lasted 2 years.  All gone!  Also no way of getting the tanker over to fill up.  There was a solution - we had a couple of 25 litre jerry cans which we took to the petrol station in Pellegrue.  We filled them up, and, not easily, transferred the contents into the tank.  A couple of attempts and the boiler started up.  After a while, we realised the heating wasn't working.......  A couple of blows to the pump with an Irish screwdriver, and we had hot radiators!

Ok - that was ok Saturday afternoon, but, Friday afternoon and evening, we were freeeeeezing!  The small electric radiators just aren't up to heating a big space - they're fine for the bedrooms we bought them for, but not the master bedroom or the downstairs living area.

On the way to the house from Bordeaux, we stopped at Leroy Merlin to decide on bathroom stuff, and we bought a grate for the fireplace.  That did make a difference, and both nights we were able to have a roaring fire, which made up for it a bit.

Bathroom planning is now well advanced - we are assured it will be ready by the time I go out at the end of March.  I have a list of improvements for when I'm out there - shutters for the bunk bedroom, skirting board and general tidying up around the landing, decorating in the bathroom...

New Bathroom

Plans for the bathroom have taken a bit of a knock back.  Mr Balthazart who does the garden and is a very good handyman does not have the time for this project.  This means a fall back on a builder who has proven to be a bit unreliable in the past, unless Mr Balthazart has a friend who can do it.


We'll have to see where this one goes.......

Painted Shutters!

Here we are - the "new" shutters for the downstairs double bedroom, finally painted.

September Visit

Well, we finally managed to get out to La Matha for a weekend.  This was the annual pilgrimage with Bill (of the fence building project), Shirley, Freddie and Ali, the precedent for which was set last year.  Slightly different route this time - Easyjet to Bordeaux and a Europcar rental.  I've decided now that, even if Europcar is the cheapest quote, I will go elsewhere: the Europcar desk was the only one with a queue, and that moved very slowly.

Anyway, Pip and I had a trip to Leroy Merlin to look at bathroom stuff for the en-suite whilst the others did provision shopping in Auchan at Bordeaux Lac.  We then headed straight to the house for a late lunch, followed later by dinner at La Terrasse.  Saturday was St Foy market to get fresh food for a BBQ in the evening, following which we just chilled out in the garden, by the pool, on the terrace..... The barbecue was fantastic - we had bought some meats from one of the butcher's stalls ready prepared - some duck kebabs which had duck liver on, as well as devils on horseback, and some butterflied and marinated chicken breasts..

I managed to get the shutters painted - they had held up remarkably well considering they were only undercoated.  Photos were taken and will be uploaded later.

On Sunday on the way back to Bordeaux, we stopped off in St Emilion to have lunch in Chai Pascal http://www.chai-pascal.com/, which was superb.  A really good Lalande Pomerol for €22 and some delicious veal as the plat du jour.

I suppose it sounds as though we were just eating all the time.  That's not quite true - we did drink copious amounts of wine as well!!!

Next time, I will NOT be the designated driver!

Here are some photos

Shutters

When we had the wall to the side of the house re-pointed, it really highlighted how rotten the shutters for the downstairs double bedroom had got.

Therefore, when I went over to La Matha in May with Bill, I took some tongue and groove wood, a skill saw and some other tools.  The wood was not as thick as the original but I ended up with something that worked.

The weather was so bad in the last few days I was there, I was not able to paint it outside - that meant I had to wait for one side to dry before painting the other side.  As a result, I ran out of time, with only two coats of undercoat on the wood.  I did ask a builder to pop over and paint it in the same colour as the shutter on the front, but.........  I will be painting it when we go over in September, provided the undercoat is still in good nick!  The other shutters will probably need replacing as well before too long.

The Next Project

When we bought the house, one big project that had not been completed was the en-suite bathroom for the main bedroom.  The door was there, and a large velux was in place, but no flooring, walls etc - bare roofspace.

There is a problem, though: the large beam that is visible in the first picture above is just a tad too close to the wall adjoining the bedroom for a shower to be fitted, and that's the only place for it.  The solution has to be to move the wall about 6 inches or so into the bedroom to create space for the shower.  A nice bath under the velux, and a stylish washbasin between the two.  Finish it off with the loo, some nice tiling, and we're in business!

There will of course be updates on this as it progresses!

Living Room

The room which needed least doing to it was the living room.  We did need to clean it thoroughly, put up curtains, install lighting (there are no over-head lights, hence the two uplighter/standard lamps).  Sofas and arm chairs completed the line up, although after the first year we bought a couple of low tables - handy for that glass of wine or bottle of beer!

Important improvements were the installing the TV, DVD player and UK satellite digibox (although the first year, we couldn't get that to work).

Later in the year, we aim to buy a new grate for the fire place, which will make fires in the winter easier - we also need to do something with the top of the chimney, as, for some reason, it goes straight up, with no cover or device to stop rain from coming down onto the hearth!

The attached photo of what it was like when we initially visited with the estate agent is not that inspiring, and shows what a bit of daylight and less clutter can do! 

Summer Time

The Summer period is now here, and from last weekend, we will have visitors at the house virtually all the way through the summer until we go in early September.  It is encouraging that we can get so many bookings given the economic climate, but also a bit scary: we hope that people will enjoy themselves, and that the weather stays good.  Last year was a cracker down there after a poor year in 2008 - lets hope the summers do not alternate each year!!!

We are asking guests if they are happy to send us photos for publishing on this blog - obviously of people looking happy!  Watch this space for a small photo album coming soon!

The Bunk Bedroom

The other bedroom downstairs again was one of the rooms originally created about a dozen or so years before we bought the house.  The bedroom was used by the 11 year old son, and it was decorated in very very faded wallpaper, and a carpet that was completely threadbare and really filthy.  The wallpaper was nursery stuff - obviously not for a 11 year old boy - and was papered onto some form of polystyrene wall covering, which was badly dented and coming away in places.  Behind that covering one wall was very damp.

Unfortunately, I did not take any photos of the "before" - I was too busy concentrating on stripping the wall covering, ripping up the carpet etc.  Not knowing why the damp was there, we took a gamble and simply sealed the stripped walls with watered down PVA and then painted onto a rough finish.  The damp came back slightly right at the beginning, and the very first visitors we had complained about an unpleasant smell in that room.  However, since then (touch wood), the damp has not come back, and there is no smell.  We are now convinced that the cause was that insulating wall covering not allowing the wall to breath properly.

With the plain white walls and new flooring, we have furnished with bunk beds, a wardrobe and other small bits and pieces to make up a child's bedroom.

We may well be getting a camp bed, which could easily be used in this room, which will increase capacity in the house to 10 (ok, at a push!)

Downstairs Double Bedroom

When the barn was originally converted, there were just two bedrooms, both downstairs - upstairs rooms came later.  When we bought the house, these two bedrooms were in a poor state.  I'll write something about the bunk room later, but this article is on the room which we now have as the double.

Although the ceiling isn't really low, it was clad in tongue and groove timber, which was quite dark and therefore gave a bit of an oppressive feel.  There was a very old carpet on the floor, which was very dirty, and the wallpaper was peeling off in a number of places.  They were kind enough to leave the wardrobe, which, although not to our taste has saved us having to buy one for the room.

Once the wallpaper was stripped, I set to laying the flooring for both the downstairs bedrooms.  That first week, I had a heck of a lot of work to do - building beds, wardrobes and other furniture, as well as laying the flooring.  Sadly, I do not have a "before" photo, but I do have one during the work.  It was quite tricky having to move the wardrobe around the room as the flooring went down.

 After that, the next time we were down - May half term, I think - we put up lining paper for painting.  Finding decorating equipment matching what we were used to in England was not easy, not helped with my basic but improving French.  We ended up buying very expensive fibre-glass paper, which came in wide rolls, but was a dream to put up - it simply would not rip!  This was excellent for covering small cracks and imperfections.

Emulsion paint in France is very different from in the UK - it goes on very thin and translucent, but then dries back to the colour.  It also takes more coats to cover than we are used to, which adds to time.....

Anyway, here is the room once finished:

 

Master Bedroom

As mentioned, when we moved in, most rooms were incomplete, and, whilst the master bedroom looked spectacular, that too needed work doing to it.  The large external wall was beautifully rendered, the flooring was down.  However, it was finishing it off that was lacking.  Some of the skirting board was down, but most was piled in the corner.  The lighting consisted of a single 60w bulb on the end of the wires coming out of the main exposed roof beam.

A carpenter who was commissioned to put architrave around the upstairs door frames was also asked to finish off the skirting in the main bedroom, and I managed to wire in the lamp (it is a long way up there!).

Kitchen

When we decided to buy the house, we had not planned to replace the kitchen straight away.  However, when we took possession and started to move our furniture in, we had to have a rethink.

This is what it was like when we visited with the estate agent:

 And later, after we had boght it:

Quite apart from not being to our taste, doors were falling off the units, there was no oven, and the extractor fan was a bit of a monstrosity.  The hole for the eye level oven was not a standard size, and there was no space for the fridge we had brought over.

As a result, we decided to change earlier than expected.  We took a risk on choosing an Ikea kitchen, which I think has worked, and our friendly local works manager fitted it himself with his electrician son.  Photo below (not really intended for publication, given the state of untidiness....)

Anyway, we think it is an improvement on what was there before.  This year we have gone a stage further and installed a dishwasher - we regret not doing that at the beginning, as having 9 people in the house without a dishwasher is not our idea of a holiday!

Buying Wine in May

One of the advantages of taking stuff down in a van is that logistics determine that there should be a payload for the return journey.  Coming from the Bordeaux region, that can only mean one thing - Wine!

Whilst we were out there, Bill and I visited St Emilion and Pomerol.  We had a good session in a wine shop, where they sold Petrus and other fine wines, but we weren't in the market for them (€3,000+ a bottle).  However, we did part company with a few euros for some good wine (around the €30 to €40 range).  Whilst in St Emilion, we had lunch in Chai Pascal, a really good bistro with a great atmosphere and a good wine list (as you would expect).

Anyway, we also made other trips to the local co-operative at Les Lèves and to Berticot at Duras to stock up on day to day drinking wine.  In the end, I travelled back with over 380 bottles of wine - not all of them were for us: Bill had a quota, and there were purchases on behalf of other friends which made up most of the quantity!

Staircase

The stairs that were in place were little more than scaffolding planks, with newel posts and railings that were not very solid, as you can see in this photo (which also has mattresses and Ikea flat packs visible!).

This was one of the first things we wanted to change.  Our building contact put us in touch with a staircase manufacturer who was based about 45 minutes away towards Montauban.  They came and measured up, and we went to the showroom to chose the design.  We had the staircase made in Brazilian Oak (known as Cerejeira), and also had a step for the triple bedroom upstairs made to match.

The staircase now is a main feature of the house showing off the gallery landing to great effect.

Whilst the stairs were being fitted, the woman who had sold us the house came by to drop off a key, and mentioned to us that the stairs had been in the "temporary" state for about 11 years......

History Continued...

Whilst La Matha was probably the most habitable of the nine houses we visited, there was a lot to be done.  The house was originally a stone barn, and the previous purchaser had bought the building and a square plot carved out of a field, for renovation.

The owners were an English builder and his French wife, and, in the 13 years that they owned the house, they had achieved quite a bit.  However, for a builder, it is always more tempting to work on projects that generate money, so projects at home started to be left.  The couple separated, and we were able to buy the nearly completed renovation.

I say nearly completed - there was probably not one project that had really been finished.  Some of these I will detail with before and after photos in forthcoming posts.  Others were just laziness - for instance around the top of the chimney at the back where the stairs pass, there was a gap, into which tissues had been stuffed to block a draft; it took about 15 minutes with a silicone filler and a wet finger to produce an effective seal that did not grate on the eye!

The father of a Frenchman we knew from home lives just outside Bordeaux, and his job was the works manager at Bordeaux hospital.  In addition to his other son being an electrician, and him being quite handy at doing stuff himself, he had good contacts.  Very useful for our project to get the house usable quickly!

Fencing

Well here it is. Forget the dark looking pool - it had black polythene sheeting in it as a winter protector. 

This is the gate for Mr Balthazart, the gardener to get his tractor through for mowing the grass by the pool....

I'm Back!

We got there eventually at about 1:15 am.  Driving was fine, as I was able to keep going thanks to some Red Bull about 1.5 hours from the end.   The problem with that was, I was then wired and couldn't get to sleep when I finally hit the pit!

Anyway, weather was rubbish, and became very cold - had to have the central heating on!  We made good progress and finished the fence, photos to be posted later.  

We were also able to make shutters for one of the windows - the one that was rotten.  However, because of the rain on Tuesday and Wednesday, these were finished late, and I was only able to get two coats of undercoat on them.  Not all is lost - Chris my builder will put the coat of gloss on later.

Dishwasher in, but I failed abysmally with the plumbing - Chris will sort that out too!

Vans & Stuff

We have been given the smallest van ever that could be said to be competition for the basic transit.  It's called a Citroen Dispatch.  It is clearly lower and narrower than the transit I was expecting.  Getting the stuff in was a logistical nightmare, only solved by Pip's three dimensional thinking.  Ending up low on the ground with the heavy fence posts and post cement, the van is now fully packed with nothing left out (at one stage it was full with three pickets, one gate and a wine rack left over!).

Then we have a misunderstanding on the departure!  My friend who is accompanying me thought we were departing on Friday 30th, where the planning had all been going on Thursday...... Oh dear.  Instead of getting the 06:50 shuttle, we will probably end up leaving the country at about half past four.  It will be a long day!

Gates

The fencing company (Fountain Timber from Bristol) have come up trumps.  OK, they delivered the wrong size gate last week, but we were able to alert them quickly, and at 06:45 this morning, a driver came to deliver the correct size and pick up the old one.  Fantastic service, which was rushed through to ensure we were all good for the 04:45 departure on Thursday morning!

So everything is now in place, including the appointment to watch Bordeaux FC and dinner afterwards - we will, of course deserve some recreation time!

We're Almost Set

Fencing has arrived (although they've delivered one gate the wrong way round - hope that arrives before we go), ordered the wood for the window shutters, dishwasher waiting to leave.  Also tickets have been bought for Bordeaux v Toulouse on Saturday evening.

Still have things to do before we go - the wood for the shutters will need to be cut from 5.1m lengths, as they won't fit in the van, chest of drawers to empty and move downstairs.

Orders have been taken for wine purchases to fill the van on the way back - such a rarity to have capacity to bring volumes back.

Can't wait!

The French Legal System and the Move

Once we decided to buy, we then had to try to understand the French legal system as it relates to property.  It is antiquated, and there are Napoleonic laws applied to inheritance for married couples.  In addition, it is not normal to appoint a lawyer - the theory is that the whole process of determining ownership etc is done by the state appointed Notaire.  In order to ensure it all went OK, we did appoint a French lawyer in the UK, to translate the documents and to ensure we were not disadvantaged.

Anyway it all went through relatively smoothly.  On a Sunday in April 2008 we packed up a van with furniture - some new some additional to requirements here - and headed down to Gironde.  We stayed at La Terrasse in Duras, where we had stayed in an earlier visit (for measuring up etc), and then had all day Monday to buy little bits and pieces - mainly for cleaning.  The meeting with the Notaire was not until 17:30; during the meeting, Monsieur le Notaire reads out the contract word for word to ensure both parties understand.  We then had to sign each page individually.......

It was then late, and we needed to start unpacking the van so we could make our bed to sleep in.  We got there in the end.  That trip was seriously hard work - decorating bedrooms, laying flooring, buying and building IKEA furniture.

More on that in following posts.

Duras or Blaye - that was the Question!

So after our weekend trip, when we saw a total of nine properties, we had ended up with two possible candidates one just outside Blaye, the other just north of Duras.  Work needed doing to both properties, although, on the face of it, not much to the one near Duras; we liked both properties, which each had their own charms.

The choice, then was between Blaye, which we felt was relatively quiet on the English tourist front, or the east end of the Gironde department, which has many English residents - we went out to dinner in Duras, where only one table was occupied by French people, all the others were brits!  This then was a dilema.  We needed to be able to rent out the house when we weren't using it to help with the costs, but we were not that keen on an area swarming with English people.  We ended up going for the Duras option, as letting the house was important.

In the end, although you come across English people around, for instance in the various markets around the area, there are not many Brits in the immediate locale.

Duras

Duras is about 15km south of St Foy La Grande.  I knew this area, as my family have connections with a family in St Foy, and I had stayed there a couple of times as a holiday exchange.

The property we liked there was a converted stone barn, which was owned by an English builder and his french wife.  Whilst it had been converted and a lot of work had been done, not many parts had been finished - little finishing touches were missing, such as the skirting board in the glorious master bedroom.  Some of the older rooms, such as the downstairs bedrooms had not been decorated in 13 years.

Blaye

We were really taken with Blaye.  It is a pretty town on the banks of the Gironde estuary, just across from the Medoc wine region.  All the people we met there were very friendly, and there did not seem to be any English people there at all - which is a good thing!

The house we fell in love with there had really large grounds lawns sweeping down to woodland with a stream.  Some work was needed on the house, but it had plenty of charm, including a separate room with en-suite, which you could only get to by putting up some external stairs.  If we had gone with this, we would have needed to build the pool - not a problem given the space available.

The History

How come we ended up buying a house in the South West of France?  Well, back in late 2007, we came into a small bit of money, and decided to do something with it.  We both enjoyed going to France on holiday, and had talked a lot about retiring there.  We had fallen in love with a lovely village called Venasque in Provence, where we had been on holiday at Easter that year, however, prices there were very high.

We started looking in the Bordeaux region, using a property website selling French properties to the English, and focused on two specific areas - Blaye, just to the north of Bordeaux on the banks of the Gironde estuary, and south of St Foy, near the Dordogne river.

We went for a long weekend in October 2007 (actually the weekend that England beat Australia and France beat New Zealand in the Rugby World Cup quarter finals) and went to visit properties.  We started in Blaye, and happened to also notice some properties with an estate agent that we hadn't arranged to meet.  On the first day, we visited three properties which we had already identified.  One of these was really nice, the others needed a significant amount of work.  We made arrangements to come back to Blaye on the Saturday afternoon (we were originally going to stay near Duras for two nights), and visit a further three properties.  None of the additional properties were good enough.

Before heading back to Blaye,we visited three properties around Duras.  One of these had been refurbished although still required some work; it also had a swimming pool.  One other one was also in good condition, but was much smaller, and had no pool.  The third needed an entire refurbishment and was a semi-detatched house.

Therefore the choice was between the one in Blaye and one near Duras.

We're Back!

It was really good to get out there.  The slight concern about any problems was put to rest - all was good.

Measuring done for the fence around the pool, and for the shutters (I hope I can make them ok!).  We have also bought some spring/autumn duvets and some better pillows.

Videos were taken, although they are not very good - they should help to give an idea of what the house is like inside!  Click here to go to the page on the website

On a personal side, we have started the stockpile of wine to take back in May!

Off we go!

We're off to Stanstead at lunch time to fly down to Bergerac, and visit the house for the first time this year.  A mixture of "can't wait" and trepidation - will everything be OK?

I have a video camera with me, and hope to be able to get some good panning shots both inside and outside the house for both this blog and the website.  It is difficult to give an idea about how big the house is, and I think that having videos will be a good step to achieving that.

Have been checking out hits on the website using Google Analytics.  Firstly, the level of detail in the information you can get is amazing (a bit scary really!).  One good bit of news is that, certain search combinations on Google - for instance "rent a cottage near Bordeaux" - we come up very near the top of the first page.  All my efforts are paying off, and if it attracts future guests, then it will definitely be worthwhile!

Bookings for 2010

We've just taken another booking outside of the Summer period. That means that 2010 will be more successful than last year. All in all the house will be used from June through to mid-September with only a few weeks empty, unless we manage to get the two weeks in July away, which would be really good.

This will help us to fund the next projects: perhaps the en-suite for the master bedroom, heating for the swimming pool, or maybe just a cover for the pool?

Anyway, we're down there at Easter for a few days, and I can't wait.

Re-Pointed Wall

Here is a photo of the finished wall. So much better, although all I have to do now is replace the shuttering and varnish the window frames!

One question is - where will the swallows go now?

Wall re-pointing

In September 2009, we decided that the long wall on the other side of the house from the terrace needed re-pointing. Some of the stones were falling out, no doubt assisted by the many swallows who had taken up residence in the wall.

Anyway, our helpful gardener, Mr Balthazart, arranged for his friend Monsieur "le Maçon" to do the work, assisted by him. Here you can see work in progress, having to negotiate the power cable.

The next post will have the photo of the finished product.

Front of the House