When I first set eyes on the run down, neglected and frankly horrible house I now call home, I never ever imagined that so many years later, I would still be working on it!

It was a chilly day in February, sleet fell making everything look rather drab and bedraggled, a bit like how I felt as I traipsed round a small town in France looking for a hot meal when everything seemed to be closed against the weather.

I’d ended up looking at a few houses just for something to do before going back to London after a day trip to buy wine in Calais. And in a bizarre twist of fate, I’d fallen head over heels for one of them and bought it! It was very cheap, needed heaps of work “a money pit” my dad said. But, there was something about it that pulled at my heart strings.

14 years later it’s pulled at my purse strings too I can tell you. But, it looks nothing like it did (at least not on the inside). It’s been worth the hard slog. And its been a rollercoaster ride of an adventure, one that I wrote about in my book My Good Life in France: In pursuit of the Rural Dream. So many people  who read the book said that they’d like to see photos. So for you, here are some before and after photos of my little French farmhouse.

The house the house as it is now, not quite finished (top photo), we’re working on shutters and making it look pretty! This is the house as it was, the day I bought it:

The sitting room before. It was a dingy room, the orange wood panelled walls sucked any light out of the room, it was freezing cold and not at all pleasant:

and the sitting room after, full of my bits and pieces, I’m definitely not a minimalist style person:

The Kitchen the day I first saw it. That’s my dad announcing that the walls were damp, the wood had wood worm, dry rot and damp rot! “This house is not fit to live in” he said.

and after, as you can see, we added a small extension where the window was:

The dining room before (and yes I’m wondering what I saw in this place too). I remember when we entered the house and came into this room, my feet squelched on the floor because it was damp. The walls were a horrible mix of concrete block and chalk blocks but I thought the beams were lovely!

and after, it’s now the first room you enter when you come into the house. This is where neighbours come in for a cup of coffee or a glass of wine. On cold days we light the wood fire and chill!

We did all the building work ourselves. We did courses and YouTube tutorials and much was by trial and error. We salvaged wood and made cupboards from scratch. We toiled on the house day and often night. Someone asked me if I’d do it again. I’d have to think about it a bit. It’s been mostly fun and awful at times. Things have gone wrong, still do go wrong. We’ve had burst pipes and broken fingers, we’ve argued over the decor, we’ve worked in the freezing cold when our fingers turned blue but we had to get things done. We’ve laughed a lot, we’ve learned a lot and we’re still learning (and laughing). And yes, I’d do it all again at the drop of a hat!

If you want to know more, you can get my book My Good Life in France: In Pursuit of the Rural Dream on Amazon UK, Amazon US in fact Amazon everywhere, it’s also in good book shops and online outlets such as Barnes and Noble it’s also an audio book and in big print!

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Whether or not you need planning permission for your renovation in France depends on what you are going to do.

Applying for Planning permits in France

A good starting place is the local town hall, and, even if you think you don’t need permission, it’s usually best to check, rules change. The Mayor or his staff should be able to tell you whether or not you have to get permits signed off or if you can simply declare the works for your renovation project. They can also provide the necessary forms and make you aware of local restrictions or regulations. And, they’ll tell you where you need to go if there are further permits required such as the DDE, the Departmental Directorates for Equipment who control some aspects of permission granting.

If you’re buying a house and you know that you will need to request planning permission then before completing the sale process check with the notaire to ensure there are no planning restrictions in the area. If you know you are going to require planning permission, after you have paid the deposit but before you pay the full amount, you can ask the notaire conducting your purchase to apply for planning permission and insert a clause in the purchase contract that if permission is not granted, you can withdraw without financial penalty (including retrieval of your deposit).

Planning permits for updating the interior

Interior work on an existing house doesn’t require a permit – unless a change of purpose is involved e.g. converting a loft or outbuilding, creating a bathroom etc. The reason for this is that the conversion of space may mean that you need to pay more tax as you have more facilities in the house, eg a bathroom.

If the habitable space being created exceeds 170m², you need to employ an architect; this includes extending the current liveable area, e.g. if you have 150m² and converting an outbuilding adds 21m² or more. The architect will draw up the plans, liaise with the planning department and make life easier for you when it comes to form filling.

Planning Permits for Updating the Exterior

When it comes to exterior work, you need permission if you intend to change the appearance, including colour, such as painting shutters, doors, windows, walls, or if you intend using a different material e.g. render. Repairs don’t need a permit but amending the appearance whilst conducting repairs does, for example repairing a roof/adding a roof.

What’s the fosse all about? If your property comes with a fosse septique (septic tank) arrangement for waste water etc, make sure you know where it is. New regulations state that if you don’t know the location, you’ll have to put in a new one and that’s a big expense. If the seller can’t confirm location, this may be a chance for price negotiations. Estate agents are aware of this requirement but many brush buyers’ fears away – don’t be fooled.

Septic tanks: Permission is required to install a new one and you will probably need a survey conducted plus completion sign off.

Helpful words and phrases

Permis de démolir – Demolitions permit
Certificat d’urbanisme (CU) – Outline planning/planning in principle
Déclaration préalable – Minor works, this planning form supersedes the Déclaration de travaux
Permis de construire (PC) – Planning application for a building permit, an architect must be employed to submit this form.
Déclaration d’ouverture de chantier – Commence work on site
SHOB (surface hors œuvre brut) – gross floor area

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I bought a wreck of a farm house in France. Dirt floors, corrugated iron doors, holes in the roof, rising damp, descending damp… you name it, this house had a lot of issues.

I wasn’t daunted, I knew it had potential. I had dreamed about doing an old French house renovation for years.

After a rather sticky time sorting out planning permission, it was finally time to start renovating the end room. I’d spent a whole year of going back and forth to the Town Hall and the DDE (Departmental Direction of Equipment who grant planning in my area) on my few days a month in France (I was working in London) only to receive rejection after I’d done everything they’d asked. The mayor’s assistant whispered to me that I should get an architect to apply on my behalf – I did and it turned out that roughly half of my house wasn’t even registered on the official documents which had caused the confusion. Drawings were resubmitted and 5 days later – permission was granted!

One of the things we requested planning for was to rebuild a room at one end of the house. There was an end wall, joined to the main house by a dilapidated plastic roof – open at both ends with ivy growing over and in it. Although it showed on the plans as a habitable space – the only inhabitants willing to rough it were the local wild cats and some brave birds.

We somehow got it into our heads that we’d like a gym. Quite why I don’t know. With 21 rooms to completely rebuild and decorate, lots of structural work including new builds, new roofs, an acre of land to tame – we didn’t really need any more exercise. But, we figured, the French house is miles from civilisation, we’re never going to be able to get to a gym let alone afford to join one when we finally finish renovating so that’s what we went with. The gym was to be opposite the posh spa we had planned for the pig shed!

We started by digging out the dirt floor to level it and then mixed several tons of concrete to form a new solid floor. In all these jobs, the OH (other half) is the guv’nor and I am the gofer (I go fer this and go fer that). That means that I have to fetch and carry the tools, level the concrete off, hold things in place without moving even if a spider is crawling towards me – I often fail this part of the job. One of the other jobs I have to do is fetch and stack the breeze blocks that are commonly used to build walls here in this part of France. They’re heavy.

The first day of building the end walls I almost dropped one of the breeze blocks, caught it in mid-air and managed to break a finger. Some women would wail about breaking a finger nail so I think I was justified in having a bit of a sniffle but I was told to bind a lolly stick to my floppy finger and get on with it.

We built the two end walls, installed doors and windows, put on a new roof, insulated, boarded, plastered, painted, laid a new wooden floor and hung mirrors and pictures. Gym equipment was bought out of storage, dusted off and set up and it looked like the most perfect gym.

After all that work you’d think I’d be as fit as a flea wouldn’t you. No such thing, my first real work out in the gym, I stuck on “Eye of the Tiger” (the Rocky theme Music), took a deep breath, bent down to pick up and dumb bell and pulled a muscle in my back – I couldn’t use the gym for months!

A bientôt
Janine

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When I bought the old French farmhouse it wasn’t the hall that sold it to me that’s for sure!

A horrible dark, damp and smelly room consisting of breeze block and chalk block walls and a rather unattractive tiled floor which had been covered with ugly carpet.

There was a 40cm high step into the kitchen and the door way was very low – you had to climb up to the step and then crouch down to get under the door frame. As I am very short the climb was hard but I never hit my head. The OH is very tall so he simply high stepped it – and promptly hit his head every time.

A boxed off entry to the front door made from bits of old wood was hung with enormous and thick spiders webs interspersed with peeling, random pieces of ancient wall paper.

There was a small, bricked up room to one side which was termed a “utility room” on the estate agents particulars. No ordinary utility room this, it came complete with an open pipe to the outside which let the cold air in along with all manner of hideous insects and small creatures. The OH hung an old basket hung over the end to try to stop the critters getting by but they just knocked it off with a Gallic shrug no doubt and let themselves in.

A tiny windy staircase built for Hobbits led to the next level and was completely unsafe. The steps were uneven, very narrow and steep and led up to a wooden landing – everyone who attempted to climb them found them unpleasant and dangerous – the OH fell up them once and hit his head at the top on a beam. He had a neat cut right across the top of his head – for ages afterwards he looked like a human money box.

The saving grace in the hall was the huge beam which ran the width of the room with smaller beams coming off of it. It was so bowed it looked like an enormous boomerang but the beams are very old and were really the only thing that were worth retaining in the whole sorry mess.

When it was time to renovate this area, we had no choice but to gut the whole room

We took down the wall that separated the hall from the living room – it was in the wrong place, it was badly constructed, the doors were in the wrong place – it was easier to just take it out and start again.

The front door was in the wrong place – the path to the front gate was to the left of it so that had to come out and where the door had been became a window and we bricked up the bottom half. The doorway was moved to the centre of the hall where previously a window had stood. I cannot tell you how much fun it wasn’t to have ten tons of dust cover everything from cutting out a new doorway.

We replaced the windows and doors with new ones – this was a big bone of contention. I wanted to keep the old ones and restore them but the OH (who is a builder and Guv’nor when it comes to this stuff) said we had to have new if we were to keep the drafts out. This was enough to win me over – the house was very cold in the winter as there were so many holes in the roof and the walls and round the old single glazed windows, and I knew he was right even if it wasn’t aesthetically as pleasing.

Our first winter in this house left me in tears and wanting to go back to London. We would sit and read with two oil fires and a wood fire in the room, covered in blankets, and still have frosty breath – you know when you breathe out and the air is so cold you make patterns! The bed sheets would be damp every night despite the dehumidifier going 24 hours a day; condensation ran down the walls and mould formed on almost everything – we felt permanently cold. I knew that making the house damp and draft proof and warm was a priority.

Our first job in the hall was to build a new fireplace – we decided to locate it in the centre of two rooms – between the hall and the front room – a double sided wood burner which would heat the whole of the downstairs. It took several weeks to do as it involved building a brick fireplace and hearth – in which we set my two little stone lions from Lassco, the salvage yard in London. I’d had them stored for years waiting for somewhere for them to go and they looked perfect either side of the brick hearth in what would be the front room! Then we installed the huge wood burning fire and a stainless steel, double skin chimney up through the centre of the house – we used that style because its safer, cleaner and fumes are trapped inside.

When it was eventually finished, we lit that first fire and it felt like all my Christmases had come at once.

But it was still only the start of our renovation odyssey, the next job was to make a stair case – with salvaged wood that Winston Churchill once walked on!

A bientôt
Janine

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After the external structural work was begun (roof tiles rain down) and the rebuilding was finished (a phoenix arises from the rubble) – it was time to work inside the pig pen.

The OH who is the Gov’nor when it comes to building, instructed me, the apprentice, to do the painting of the horrible black, sticky, smelly anti-damp paint on the breeze block walls before we went any further.

By now I was used to pulling the pallet truck with the hot tub on it which was in the middle of the room. As you may recall we had to put it in the room before we built the last wall as it was way too big to fit in through a door or window.

Painting with anti-damp liquid is a horrible job, it smells vile, clogs up the paint brush and is physically difficult to get off the brush and onto the surface.

After that we got on with stud walls, insulating – and I can’t stress how much we’ve learned how important it is to insulate as much as possible when you’re renovating these old French properties. We boarded the walls and ceiling and then plastered. By now we had split the room into two halves – one for the hot tub, the other for a sparring area for the OH who is a boxer and for another great e-bay bargain I’d found – a sauna!

The end of the first room to be renovated was in sight – it had taken months. The last bit of plastering done we heaved a sigh of relief and tried to pull the hot tub into place – the OH fell backwards and straight into the wall where he promptly made an enormous derrière sized hole.

I can’t tell you we laughed it off – we didn’t.

After we had replastered, our neighbours Aris who is Greek and Katherine who is Australian helped us to manoeuvre the hot tub and this time it went to plan.

We painted, laid the floor and unwrapped the hot tub.

What a moment it was – we were so thrilled. After all the hard work we finally were able to have a bit of luxury we thought…

We’d bought the hot tub to France from the UK on the back of our old trailer, it had been stored for 3 years in a shed and then the best part of a year in the pig pen while we were renovating around it – we had no idea if it would even work, the lights came on when we plugged it in but we could only really know once it was filled with water.

We ran a hose pipe into the tub and after several hours it was full. We turned it on – soft coloured lights came on under water, bubbles came out  of holes – we were ecstatic.

However bubbles weren’t the only thing that came out – water did too, from underneath the hot tub. Not only that – the water didn’t heat up at all.

The chances of getting a hot tub engineer to this remote part of France for a reasonable price was not an option. We had to figure it out for ourselves – the company I’d bought the hot tub from had gone out of business (that’s why I’d got it so cheap in the first place – definitely a lesson for me there).

When you take on a big renovation project in France you learn to be pragmatic and determined. We scoured the internet and figured out we had a broken pipe and a broken pump. We managed to track down replacements from other models that looked similar – it took several months.

Finally, we had the bits, the OH went out to the pig pen/spa and told me to stay away until he’d finished.

Several hours later, he returned to the house triumphant, took me by the hand and led me to the prize – a bubbling, warm watered tub, in a dry floored, sparkling clean room.

I can tell you I stayed in that tub until my skin was so wrinkled I looked like an alien!

A bientôt

Janine

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Eco loans are available from high street banks and are completely interest free to residents in France whose application complies with the requirements.

The duration of the Eco Loan is usually ten years but can be extended to 15 years if necessary – i.e. there is a lot of building work and therefore the top amount is borrowed. The amount you can borrow depends on the work to be undertaken and applies only to properties built before 1 January 1990.

Interest-free Eco Loans in France cover energy saving installations and renovations such as loft insulation, fitting double glazed windows and doors, solar panels, green heating systems, rain water harvest systems, sewage systems,

In order to gain an Eco Loan you will need to have a thermal survey conducted on your property and apply to your local energy efficiency office: Agence de l’Environnement et de la Maîtrise de l’Energie (ADEME). You can download a form (in French) from their website (below).

You must apply for a package of works (a bouquet de travaux), not a single element – the loan is not available for just one unit of renovation/conservation.

Once the form is completed you will need to apply to your bank for the loan. This will require you to arrange estimates (devis in French) for the building work from a registered builder – DIY projects are not in scope.

Once the loan is granted, the lender has a period of 2 years to complete the work and return to the bank to present the invoices and receipts.

Useful websites:

Agence de l’Environnement et de la Maîtrise de l’Energie

French Government Website gives clear guidelines and assistance

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Having removed the roof from the old pig shed (and survived being knocked out by a roof  tile dropped on my head) – we now had an empty three walled shell.

It was time to move the hot tub in!

Yep – the pig shed was earmarked for an Italian hot tub bargain that I had got from a company that was selling off stock. It had been covered in bubble wrap and a giant tarpaulin for three years in the shed and weighed an absolute ton.

We managed to get it onto a hand pallet truck (don’t ask, we have so much stuff in our house) and wheel it down the garden into the building. It had to go in at this stage as once the last wall was up there would be no way to get it in through the door or windows. I honestly don’t know how we managed between the two of us but we did – we pulled and pushed that trolley with the hot tub balanced precariously down a 100 metre grass hill that was the front garden and into the building.

After that we built a new wall with holes for a door and windows, repaired the existing walls, laid a concrete floor and rebuilt the roof. We had to keep moving the hot tub from one place to another and work round it – it wasn’t easy.

The OH is a builder and carpenter and knows what he is doing. I on the other hand know nothing of building and renovation and what I am taught I seem to forget instantly – causing the OH to shout at me, the lowly apprentice. I dread to think what the French neighbours must think of all our yelling at times. This usually occurs when I am told to get a tool and get the wrong tool – this happens a lot. I am called names and sent back until I get it right. Being an apprentice labourer is not all fun.

Putting the roof back on involved the OH making the gable ends down on the ground and then us having to haul them up to the top of the walls – they were big and very heavy.

One of my (many) phobias is heights.

After a bit of coaxing, followed by an instruction to “bloody well man up”, I mounted the ladder to the top of the wall where I was to pull the heavy wooden gable ends up while the OH lifted them.

How we don’t both have hernias is something I will never understand.

We finally, after much heavy breathing, grunting (not in a good way) and swearing, got the first gable resting on the top of the wall. My job was to stand and hold it while the OH bolted it down. I felt sick and dizzy standing up there holding this huge wooden frame that weighed more than me and was taller than me. Pierre the farmer went by on his tractor and laughed out loud at the latest antics of the mad English pair.

By the end of the day we had the gable ends up and secure. By the end of the week we had the roof tiled.

It was time to do the internal work – electrics, stud wall, insulate, stud ceiling, plaster board, plaster, paint, lay wood floor. All the time the hot tub had to be moved about, still on the palate truck, in its bubble wrap. We had no idea if it would even work after three years being in storage. We’d unwapped it and tested that it turned on – the lights came on, but it couldn’t be fully tested without being filled with water – we just had to hope for the best but I’m sure you know what happened next…

The pig pen reborn.

A bientôt, Janine

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We (that is me and the Other Half) decided that we would get the structural work done on this old French house before we did any of the internal works and that included some of the out buildings.

We started by renovating the barns which came with the house – one of which is in the courtyard to the front of the house – mostly because we were worried that it would fall down – into the road on the other side. We think it was once a pig shed.

The building had walls to three sides, a tiled roof and was held up with various bits of wood. It was filled with coal, ashes from decades of wood fires that had just been chucked on the floor – a dirt floor on different levels. There was also a huge amount of general rubbish that previous owners couldn’t be bothered to put out for the dustbin collection (all of 5 metres away).The building itself was about 3 metres wide and 10 metres long – a very unaccommodating shape for most uses but we knew exactly what we wanted to do with it!

We had our work cut out for us, first we had to strip the building back to basics which meant taking the roof off completely.

The roof tiles are really old – they’re much bigger than modern tiles and we didn’t want to change the appearance of the house too much so we decided to take them down really carefully for me to clean and then we would reuse them.

This meant the OH standing up on the roof and dropping the tiles down to me to catch and stack.

This went well for a while, we got a rhythm going – I’d put my arms up, the OH would drop a hefty tile down, I’d clutch at it and put it on the steadily growing pile.

Until, I looked up to catch a tile and saw an enormous spider swinging from it.

I don’t like spiders – at all. I inherited a phobia from my Dad. He was once taking part in a very serious Bridge competition with international Masters. They were put up in a hotel. He saw a spider in his room and ran naked (he was in bed) into the hall calling for security. So, my spider fear I hope you agree is understandable if ridiculous.

My immediate reaction was to cover my eyes – not sure why really – so I couldn’t see the spider I suppose.

The OH wasn’t looking – on account of us having a rhythm.

I stood there and the tile dropped right onto the centre of my uncovered head.

I dropped to the floor like a stone I am told.

When I came to the OH had a very concerned look on his face but when we established that I just had a big bruise, a bit of a cut and was fine he found the whole thing hilarious – he doesn’t put up with my phobias and told me to man up.

What do you call a woman with a tile on her head: Roof (Ruth for my non English speaking friends who may not get the joke!)

I was ordered to get back to work and tile dropping began again – this time with me wearing my hard hat.

Next – a phoenix emerges from the rubble…

A bientôt,

Janine

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New build properties are particularly popular with French buyers – probably because it can be cheaper than buying an old property and updating it to modern standards, particularly in the case of heating, plumbing, insulating etc. This area is strictly regulated in France and developers must have a bank guarantee in place for each new development.

This guarantee is provided in the Deed of Sale to ensure that the new development will be completed to the advertised standards even if the developer or construction company runs into financial difficulties.

If this is the route that you wish to go you will first need to identify a developer/builder. You’ll need to find land for building on and make sure that it is appropriate for building a house (check with the notaire to be absolutely certain) and you will most likely need to employ an architect to design the house and draw up plans for submission to acquire the correct building permits. Theoretically, you can design, build and acquire permits without help but in our experience this rarely if ever happens as the rules and regulations are onerous and complex.

A builder may have a “model” property – a pre-determined type of property, assuming that the land you buy comes with a “terrain a battir” guarantee (land for building), and you are using a reputable builder, this is often the quickest way to get permission to build. This is because the models are designed with local planning requirements in mind and they are often at competitive prices. Developer’s officers in the high street can often look like estate agents – they are a common site in France.

If you go with a developer/builder who is helping to locate land – make sure that you visit the site and are clear on the plot you require. Also check exactly where the property will be located on the land to ensure you are satisfied – there can be caveats with the permission to build on “terrain a battir” that precisely state on which part of the land a building can be erected and the size of the building footprint may be specified.

You’ll need to pay a deposit (typically 2-5%) which will be held in escrow by the notaire or developer (make sure he has a license to hold the money) – you have one week to change your mind. When you pay the deposit you’ll sign a “Contrat de reservation” – this will reserve the property and fix the price.

The building contract is defined in French law and includes:

A definition of what is to be built

The schedule of stage payments

Schedule of construction

Penalty clauses for late completion by the builder/late payment by the buyer

There will be other statements included – each contract is individual rather than standard. Generally speaking the time between the signing of the contract and the completion date is 4-6 months.

When the property is ready for occupation you will need to visit accompanied by the developer (or a representative). You should carefully examine the property and agree snagging issues. You will then have a period of 30 days in which to identify any further problem/snagging requirements which you should notify to the developer by recorded delivery post.

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My French home renovation reminiscences – as renovation continues unabated on this old farm house in Pas-de-Calais, northern France, I was remembering how it was when I first bought it and wondering why on earth we did it?

At the beginning of this project I made a huge list of jobs that needed to be done and then I broke it down to see what equipment we needed and what supplies were required. I’m an ex project manager so I can’t help myself! Then I looked at dependencies – for instance we couldn’t move to a room upstairs in the house – because there were no stairs!  Well, there was a stair case but it was tiny and twisted, like it had been built for pixies!  I could manage it but it wasn’t safe and the OH had to bend double to get up it. At the top beams were precariously positioned so that to get to the floor you had to climb over or under a beam.  The OH once slipped at the top of the stairs and cut his head on a beam which left a 3 inch gash right across the front of his head.  For about a month afterwards he looked like a walking money box!

Apart from dependencies there were also priorities to list – number one being we needed a bathroom and loo.  The previous occupants had simply plumbed in a free standing shower unit – at the top of the stairs! It was on the “landing” – an area upstairs which had a floor (not all of the upstairs had a floor) that was relatively stable. There was a bare bulb hanging out of the wall and the walls and ceiling were lined with ply wood to keep the worst of the elements out.  This was critical as in some places on the roof we could see outside as there were great gaping holes where tiles were missing or bad renovation work had simply opened up huge holes and been left.  Anyway, you can imagine my joy at realising that any stay at this old house would involve showering in that “room”.  The loo was in a “box” off the kitchen. I say box as the owners had simply put up a wall and door in the corner and plumbed a loo with a pipe to the septic tank – it was unspeakably revolting and condensation ran down the walls and formed pools of grimy water on the floor – a hideous off white tiled affair.

Some parts of the house had a corrugated plastic or metal roof, rusted, hole-ridden and ineffective roof coverings at best.  Some walls had fallen down, some windows were missing, an acro prop was holding one end of the house up where someone had cut an opening in the end wall – and and then built more house on the other side of the gap! My  Dad had told me I was wasting my money, it was beyond redemption.

The OH and I spent all of our holidays and at least one weekend every month at the house. We tried to work through the jobs but with an acre of land most of our weekends were taken up with just cutting the grass and trying to control the hedges, trees and weeds!  When we could do real work, we concentrated on laying concrete floors – a lot of the rooms had earth floors still and there’s not much point in doing any nice decorating when you don’t have a floor (or walls, a roof, windows…).

You’re probably wondering why on earth I bought this house aren’t you?  Believe me over the last ten years or so that I’ve had it, I have asked myself that plenty of times!

There were though many reasons that I fell in love with this ruined old place. First and foremost I wanted to be able to relish the French way of life. I’d lived in London my whole life and wanted to be able to enjoy fresh air and country living and though I could get that in the UK – it would have meant working at my corporate job until I dropped.

When I saw the house I had an instant connection, a feeling that this house was meant to be mine. I seriously didn’t consider the disgusting loo, the dodgy stair case, the fact that there was only one wood fire to heat five enormous rooms downstairs and no heating at all upstairs.  I didn’t even think about having to rebuild seven rooms downstairs that were missing walls and/or roofs and worry about how we’d manage.

I saw an ancient old building, an authentic French farmhouse that had not been loved for a long time that had the potential to be a beautiful home. I loved the old beams everywhere, the huge garden, the flint stone walls in the older part of the house, the tranquility of the village.

Of course I had rose coloured glasses on!  I should have thought about it more but if I had it would have scared me too much and I wouldn’t have done it and then we wouldn’t have this house that is just now starting to be home. I read back now through my old notes and diaries and despite the fact that here we are – still plastering, laying floors and building after several years we’ve come an awful long way.

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