louiebaby said:
Sounds like a logical next step. I like the look of "F" in a holiday home to rent kind of way. It looks a bit small for a main house, but perfect for a holiday cottage!
Is that a booking?
Coneyhurst Blue said:
This looks like it has the makings of a real adventure !
a BIG adventure! a journey, more than just a build (sounds a bit corny I know, but...)
Its been very revealing for me starting this thread, as since leaving the UK I've sort of put all UK memories behind me trying to move forward, but starting this thread has sent me further & further back trying to find a start point, I think I've found it so please excuse me whilst I indulge, its quite apparent I have a need to record what's happened as well as what's happening, apologies in advance
The earlier days of our lives in the UK were an adventure & we shared them right from the start, Gills were about proving herself in the business world & seeing what she was capable of acidemicly.
Mine was seeing how much fun we could have along the way & at the same time supporting Gill in her quest & later on, the rebuilding of her physical self after the accident.
Cars & motorbikes played (& still do) a huge part in my quest for fun
learning to drive & ride, driving/riding fast, owning fast cars/bikes, track days etc & the reason I'm here on PH posting
I've always enjoyed pushing things until they broke, knowing where the limits are but exceeding them first sort of thing, you'll see this in the pages to come
& probably cringe over, I'm sure I'll get some stick but also sure is deserved considering my lack of respect for health & safety (for myself)
weirdly though I've always looked after my health & fitness above all else, without it I know I wouldn't have the discipline or confidence to carry out the build, its given me a deep seated belief in my ability to just keep going, no matter what!
I think our story starts in the latter part of our lives in the UK....
We (as many) were not happy with the quality of our lives anymore, we had done everything we could within the environment of the UK, my wife had achieved the goals she had set herself in the business world & now she would stare at the crane drivers job out the window with envious thoughts, also her injuries were now at a point where she was fully mobile again so my supporting role to her goals were redundant & with fast cars, track days, hoons etc becoming normal rather than exciting, it was very clear that our adventure now lay elsewhere, looking back, our holidays taken from the UK for the last few years had become searches more than holidays...
stick with me everyone, I'm not normally this detailed, later it will definitely be more 'quips with images' its just something I feel compelled to write thats taken me a little off guard....
I'll skip through our: country to live in, French play period & property search & straight to..
the very day we signed our compromis de vente (comitment to buy)
that very day we went on our hunt for an Architect...
we had 6 months to gain planning, after which the compomis de vente would expire giving the farmer or us the option to pull out or renegotiate price, the french snail race was on....
My wife is very creative & we'd already designed & renovated a couple of our houses in the UK..
DSC00406 by
pvapour, on Flickr
final 2 by
pvapour, on Flickr
Front by
pvapour, on Flickr
so we only really needed a draughtsman to pen our ideas for the planning office DDE
we knew roughly what to expect cost wise from people on forums, we interviewed 6 different prospective architects, 3 french, 3 english all at the property over a couple of weeks, the French farmer we were buying from was incredibly friendly & understanding.
3 stood out from the rest.
An english guy who had a column in the local english property paper, nice guy who knew his beans at a sensible price but after reading his column we realised he goes on holiday a fair bit!
A French lady who drove from the wrong side of Bordeaux (70 miles) to see us, 10/10 for effort! but she was the maddest arty type person I have ever met, scatty was not the word, very sweet & amusing with it though. One amusing point was her reluctance to enter the tiny house as she was scared of spiders, her fears were relised when we saw a HUGE spider lower itself onto her shoulder, she must have seen the horror on our faces & then saw what had landed, my hearing has only just recovered!!
That leaves David, a very gentle & historically sympathetic Architect, he felt the same way about the little house that I did, its difficult to describe what it is about this house but he was silenced with the same emotion. he was happy just to pipe up with additional ideas to our already quite detailed design avoiding the threes a crowd scenario. Its quite hard to find an architect who is happy to do this as they like to create (understandably I guess)
we had already visited the DDE (planning office) in Bergerac to get a rough idea as to acceptance of our proposal, which was very positive (misleadingly so)
Because of the 16th century little house we were advised to visit the controlling arm of architecture in Pergoux,, a very interesting day with four people sat round the largest table I have ever seen, I could only just see the tiny french guy sat the other end.
It all went well with no real objections to the change in use on the barns, so David put our plans to paper, we submitted & put up our board, then waited & waited....
an answer within 3 months is mandatory but they reserve the right to lengthen this if there is missing information from the application, 2 days before the 3 month period were up a letter arrives stating there is missing information, uh huh! we play the game & give the 'missing' info, another 3 months pass with no objections from anyone concerned & we just about squeeze the purchase in within the 6 month period, phew!
apologies for all the info, next will (I promise) be our plan....
)
