anyone interested in reading about our build?

- 7 years ago my wife had a road accident (not her fault)
- deciding the UK had become intolerably crowded & having always travelled away from the UK at any given opportunity, it was time to leave
- after 4 years of getting ready, we packed our nap sacks and set sail for France, a place we have always loved
- what followed were 2 gap years of playing with fast cars and living in beautiful villas, fun but not very fulfilling & not the change in life we'd intended...
- We thought long and hard about the things we loved & were passionate about in our lives & how we could include them in a new way of life
- after 6 years we'd now seen the last of all the hospital operations needed to correct the injuries suffered from THE accident
- now was the time to start building our new life....

17 acres & 5 buildings in the South of France.

There is only us (me & my wife) & entirely on our own (apart from an electrician & intended animals) we intend to create a self sufficient life style, solar power, underground heating, orchards, potager (vegies), animals, wild meadows, gym/spa, gites etc.


This is the most challenging thing we'll ever do with our lives & brings together all the skills we've gained thus far, obviously we're going to record every step we take together, I thought some of you might like us to share it with you?

I'm completely uneducated and not the best with the written word but I'm ok with a camera

is anyone interested in following our build? I wont bore you if not

Of course. Take lots of pictures. Will be interesting to hear about your experiences with the small-town bureaucracies. Keeping the mayor on-side seems to be the key in France.

Go for it!!!!

Remember to post the downs as well as the ups!

As above as there's always room for another build thread - sounds really interesting too.

Bookmarked!

Bring it on!

I'll start putting something together

not read other build blogs & spare time now is spent recovering as we're pushing quite hard on project now, so any pointers gratefully received

wandered where you'd gone DM, good to see you're still around

after viewing 40 different properties covering an area the size of england the first time we saw the property was 2 years ago....

negotiating on price lasted 6 months, sale was subject to planning consent which took a further 6 months & allot of bureaucracy! (will describe this in more detail as we go through)

My wifes french is good (she's the visionary & brains) mine is not so good (brains & french) I can speak French but I still find understanding what is said back to me incredibly difficult, we're in rural France so the local dialect is somewhat harder, add in a farmers mustache (male or female) & they may as well be speaking mandarin!

The latter built buildings were working as part of a farm before we bought, the earlier built buildings have not been lived in for many years with the smallest house not having been inhabited for at least 150 years.

to give an idea of scale, the largest building 'A' is about 7,500 sq ft, stone built 20th Century, the smallest is 'F' measuring 13m x 6.5m, 16th Century (& the building I fell in love with (bit of a soppy romantic me) and has its own entrance from the bordering road

we are the only property on the Chemin (street) & the Chemin ends at our property, I've not included the land that encompasses the property as the building would be to tiny to see! very few of the properties we viewed had the buildings within spread out so well, very important for what we intended.

to get started, A building plan (complete with proposed underground elec cable) view & some pics of the first time we viewed....




entry & first view of property 'A' from Chemin, other roads border property but this is the main entry (at the moment) complete with poly tunnel (to be sold) & manure (to be used)


_MG_1697 by pvapour, on Flickr


other side of polly tunnel to give a sort of 'walk through' feel for plot.


IMG_1694_2 by pvapour, on Flickr

continue walk passed 'A' on left seeing 'D' in the distance where we will endeavor to live temporarily...


_MG_1700_2 by pvapour, on Flickr


inside 'A'


DSC00643 by pvapour, on Flickr

looking back, 'D' on right


IMG_1690_2 by pvapour, on Flickr

'D'


_MG_1701_2 by pvapour, on Flickr

'E'


_MG_1706_2 by pvapour, on Flickr

'F'


_MG_1708_2 by pvapour, on Flickr

taken from our border looking back at smallest house, our prune tree orchard spreading out to left


_MG_8906 by pvapour, on Flickr

I'll go into our intentions / plan for the property next, is that the right step

Bookmarked, Looks like a rather large undetaking!! Good luck, and best wishes to you both!

^^ that, and biscuits!