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!