(OT) Damn I'm excited.....new project!

[Lippyp]

Last week the wife and i drove down to southern France to look for a house to buy for a vacation/holiday home. After a week of looking at decaying gutted wrecks in pouring rain we found close to our dream place on the last day.

Its a 150+ year old stone farmhouse on three floors, set in nearly a hectare of field and wood, serviced by a rough dirt track. The current owner has started to renovate it, the roof is watertight but unfinished, there are no windows in the openings behind the shutters, two new floors, no staircases, the water and electricity is to the house but not connected and the ground floor is currently inhabited by sheep and has an earth floor! The main room has the original stone Evier or sink built into the wall and although the fireplace/chimney has been removed (it fell down!) there are still the original stone niches in the wall that was inside the huge fireplace where the original ocupants used to store their salt to keep it dry. This will get rebuilt.

There is no drainage, no bathroom and no kitchen so basically it is a shell. This is great as it was well under our meagre budget so we have money to do the essential works to make it habitable. It's south facing and has a stone terrace outside the front door on the middle level and I can just see us sat eating breakfast there and swilling cheap wine in the evening...heaven.

Loads of work for us to do but we have the opportunity to really put our own stamp on it. I know this is way off topic but hey I'm so excited!

Drove back on saturday, did 800 miles in about 12 hours in the wifes diesel Jepp Cherokee (Liberty) French toll autoroutes are just great!

[69 Short Fleet]

Sounds awesome Phil! OLD STUFF=VERY COOL!!! regards, Doug

[Mudder]

Pics would be cool..............sounds neat!

[dwaite72lnghrn]

Are you planning todo the work yourself or contract.

[Lippyp]

Planning to contract the initial stuff out to get it habitable e.g. get the roofing finished (I ain't teetering about three stories up!), stairs in, electricity and water connected, septic tank for the sewage in and doors and windows replacing, the rest of the interior (dividing walls, insulation in the roof, decoration, rebuilding the fireplace, instaling kitchen and bathroom and flooring) we'll do ourselves. Pics will follow when we get them developed and put on CD.

[Lobo'74]

My wife would be very jealous. She loves England and likes France, just not as much. Years ago she extracted a promise from me that we would live in England for a year right after I retire. Federal government says pilots retire at 60, so looks like I'll spend Sept 2012 through Sept 2013 in your neck of the woods. But. . . . sounds like you'll be in France, on your terrace, quaffing vintage vino by then.

Best of luck on the project.

[cdowns]

[serviced by a rough dirt track.]
if you've got a dirt track you'll need a winged sprintcar

[Warbones]

Sounds really cool. Can't wait to see pictures and congrats on the find.

[stllookn]

I can smell a work party!!! It has been years since I was in France! I thought Paris was a little stuffy and not nearly as much fun and hospitable as the North Devon Coast but what the hey...good wine, great cheese and some fresh bread from the local shop are about all it takes!

I was so inspired on the my last trip I purchased a book titled "Building Stone Walls". I just don't have the right kind of rock around here to do that. It sounds like a great project!

[Spoof]

I was in France last summer...what a place. I didn't think there was any place in the world like home but Normandy was incredible. Proveance, Pax de Calais ( Sp?) just amazing country side, how they've managed to control development like we've experienced here I would like to know. They were also the most polite and helpful people in Europe, except perhaps the Dutch.
I wanna go back!!

[Lobo'74]

Hmmm. . . .
Its a little far to bring the trucks for a meeting, but I bet if there was some English ale and French wine available that a suitable work force would want to be there.

Again, all the best on your new project.

[PanelDeland]

Lippyp, does this mean there is a Mutton roast in the works for the work party.Those sheeps gotta go somewhere.My belly would hold a couple.With cheap vino.
Good luck with your project and send pics.

[FRENCHBLUE72]

FRENCH WINE id be there for that .. Nice find can't wait to see pic's I have family in the netherland's but never been there..

[rockguy]

Sound like a great project phil, some pic would be cool Stone is my business aka rockguy.

[dtlilly]

Congrats on your find. When is the house warming party?

[Lippyp]

stllookn, I've been on a course to learn how to build/repair dry stone walls, great fun spending all day stood in a peat bog in the rain in a cloud of mosquitos!

Sheep sadly aren't part of the deal, as they would have made great automatic lawn mowers! Loads of work to do on it, I should have photos tomorrow and will post some. I love France, the pace of life is real slow, the food and wine great, I've always found the people to be friendly as long as you have a go at mangling their language. My parents have a house in Normandy also, thats about 500 miles north of where out house is. As for the truck meet, great idea if you can afford the gas!

[juju808]

OH I am so jealous! I would love to hear stories and see pictures of your adventures in rebuilding your new home! I have always dreamed of going to a different country and remodeling a home and experiencing a different way of life! Good luck and have fun!

[shortymac83]

sounds great! Never been to france... And yeah, I'm definitely not bringing my cars over there and loading up with $4.00 a gallon gas.

[Lippyp]

Here are some pictures, apologies for the quality, not sure if it was a problem with the 35mm film, camera or developing. West end, no windows on this end.

[Lippyp]

The front with assorted childen belonging to a French/Irish couple that helped us with translation. You can see the terrace on the front which is south facing and behind the rusty shutters there currently aren't any actual windows, just big holes!

[Lippyp]

The other end with the top floor window and the entrance to the ground floor (currently the sheep shed!)

[Lippyp]

My wife on the terrace with the view over our land in the background.

[Lippyp]

This is where the fireplace used to be, you can see the original outline and the niches in the wall, one of these is where the occupant would have kept their salt to keep it dry. We hope eventually to rebuild it, the stairs will go down in the right hand corner.

[Lippyp]

Finally the other end of the main room, kitchen area will be here.

[barn9]

Looks like you have quite a project on your hands there Phil. The country shown in your pics looks pretty nice, how is the view from the terrace? Keep us posted, it will be neat to watch the transformation.