July 2006 - Posts
Well it is a done deal! We are the happy owners of a French property at long last! After all the years of talking about doing this, it feels very good to have made it a reality.
The actual signing of the forms went very smoothly. We all assembled in the notaires office (interesting obsevation on the typical nationality differences in that the Dutch vendors were early, we were bang on time and Bertrand arrived 15 mins late!) and the documents were read out and signed. We were then handed a copy of the document to say we had purchased the property and a lot of handshaking later we were off to the insurance office with Bertrand to make sure that we completed this legal requirement too.
With the house and contents now safely insured, we said goodbye to Bertrand - he`s off on holiday now to spend some of his fee no doubt! We then drove off to the house to meet up with Mr and Mrs K ( the vendors) who had kindly agreed to go through the keys, water heaters and all the other quirks of the property ..and yes to show us where the fosse septique is!! They were very kind and took us round, showing us all the details of the houses and garden. I have to admit that we did give in and buy the TV! We are really suckers when people are kind!
Eventually they left to resume their holiday, and suddenly we were on our own in our lovely "new" house. Geoff was quickly dispatched to the village to try and buy something for lunch and I had the place to myself to explore for a while. It was like a chocoholic being let loose in a sweetie shop! Very exciting! Geoff returned clutching a baguette and nothing else - the huite a huite shop (not) apparently like everything else in the village closes between 12 and 3! So our first meal as French property owners was bread and jam (we had kept a bit of butter and jam from breakfast) eaten in style under a shady tree in the garden!
The rest of the day was spent exploring the house, doing a bit of shopping and exploring Sauxhillanges and its environs a bit more. We had hoped to open a bank account in the village, but we could not do so without an appointment which was a bit frustrating as this meant that we could not get going on setting up the telephone line either as the company insists on you having a bank account. Strangely enough neither the electricity or water companies were so bothered and those accounts were soon sorted so at least we have continuing water and electricity supplies.
We spent the night at the house which was great and then set off to return to England to sort out all the remaining stuff there.This meant driving to Limoges on the notorious black Saturday holiday changeover day - definitely not to be recommended - but we made it just in time for the flight, thank goodness.
More next time on our final week ( removal firm permitting ) in England.
The day has finally come and we are off to sign the final papers for the house. We are quite nervous - well at least I am! We think we have every thing in place - paperwork, translations, insurance details (well we need to go and pay that whilst we are there, but the quote is sorted). We also need to get a bank account up and running - another job for tomorrow. We are in for a busy day methinks! I just hope everything goes smoothly. I will update on our return.
I can not believe it has been so long since I did an update! So much has happened too. We are now in possession of the final papers which we have read and had checked by our vigilant French speaking lawyer daughter – I always knew all that investment in her education would pay dividends in the end! Apart from a few minor blips such as our surprising change of nationality to being French(!) it all looks very good. We have an appointment to go and sign alongside the Dutch sellers on Friday 28th and so have booked flights and accommodation for the Thursday night. We hope to stay in the house on Friday – I only hope all our understanding of the transaction is correct as we understand that the house will be legally ours then!
We have also had a few communications from the vendors regarding the purchase of Geoff’s new toy – a powerful grass mower, and the proposed sale of a further TV set (declined). We now also have the official address of the house which we need for our first marketing activities.
We have been in touch with the removals firm and are "pencilled in" for them to pack up and remove all our furniture from the rented house and to move all our belongings to France hopefully during the second week in August. They won’t take a definite booking until we finally sign for the house, so we are hoping that they do not become too busy over that period.
I was able to get a friend at work to design and print a lovely poster for the staff room which has generated a lot of interest. So many people who I hardly ever cross paths with at work have come to ask about the house and to express an interest in coming to stay – great! I have also printed off several fliers from the poster and have been distributing these to all and sundry. It’s a handy thing to have as it enables people to see the house (splendid photo even if I do say it myself!) and get the address and my contact e-mail which will have to do until we get a phone number and web site up and running.
I am now a lady of leisure too! Well, as Geoff keeps reminding me for a short while only!! Leaving work was an emotionally mixed experience. I was very pleased and relieved to be leaving all the stress and pettiness behind but having worked there for 9 years it was very difficult saying goodbye to a lot of very good friends. I had the usual round of farewell meals out, firstly with my tutor colleagues, another with my fellow escapees on a training day (when we were surplus to requirements having no need for further training!) and lastly with my health and social care team. The last one was by far the nicest and the hardest too! I wrote a farewell poem – something I have done for many classes of students when they have left college and this went down well. It really was sad to think that I soon would no longer be part of that team. The very last day was really hard. So many people came to see me, gave me presents and cards and wished me well. I was very tearful by the time the final traditional end of term meal came round but I did manage to say a few words of thanks to everyone – and get in one last plug for the business of course!
It felt very strange logging off my computer for the last time – but the up side is that come September I no longer need to churn out UCAS references any more!
So now Geoff and I are trying to co-exist happily for the last few weeks in our rented house. It’s very difficult to keep out of each others way in such a small space especially when Geoff needs to work. I will have to have lots of days out I think if we are to stay on speaking terms!
We have also begun to make progress with the web site. I had a meeting with Louise to discuss the proposed outline last Friday and she is going to make a start on it and on some business cards. Again it is a bit frustrating as we need more photographs of both inside and outside of the house and these we cannot do until we are actually there. We have been investigating several advertising internet sites too so that as soon as we get the keys we can get some copy off to them to get the business promoted in Britain and Holland. We have realised that we are unlikely to get into any printed guides this year as we will not make the deadlines for copy so the internet will be our only way of publicising the venture.
Our friends here have just woken up to the fact that we will be off in the next few weeks and so we have had quite a few invitations to go and see them. Its going to be a busy time. Matthew and Christine are planning to move into their house the weekend before we hope to go too so there is a lot of to-ing and fro-ing to be done for them too. Methinks this lady of Leisure bit is not going to happen!!
One last bit of news is that I have been able to "pencil in" the first visitors into the diary! Admittedly it is only Hazel and her friend Hannah but it looks good!!!! Matthew and Christine are also in there for a week in September. There is also the possibility of some friends calling in on the way back from an epic tour of southern France but as they have their caravan with them I’m not sure they count fully as the first visitors.
Movement at last! The papers arrived on Friday – the original French compromis and the English translation which we’d signed in the Notaire`s office. It all looks good and we feel that progress is being made. We have also started to think about the website we will need to market the gite and rooms. We have looked at loads of websites when we have been looking for accommodation ourselves so we have a good idea of what works and what doesn’t. One of Geoff’s clients does websites and there is also a guy at work who would like to do it so we just have to sort out the layout now. We realise how important this will be so we must make a good job of it.
We have also started to make a list (soon to become a database) of people who have said that they want to come and stay. They will be the first recipients of the website when it is up and running.
Geoff has redone a number crunch of our finances with realistic figures now that we know some of the costs for certain. Thankfully we still seem to be well within budget. So long as the extra bathrooms etc don’t exceed our estimates too much things will be OK.
The search for a house name continues…….we are going round in circles!
A bit of a break through on the house name at last! My French teacher colleague suggested Les Hirondelles (The Swallows – as in birdies!). The more we think about it the more we like it. Swallows come in the spring/early summer, stay for a while, and then leave for homelands. The analogy seems very apt for our type of business. It also is a nice sounding word, so I think it definitely is a goer!
Things have gone quiet again on the house buying front. Geoff is going to contact the notaire next week to see if we can get some kind of a date for the final transaction as we would like to book a flight early so as to get a cheaper deal.
Woke up early the other morning and spent a frustrating hour or so thinking of where all our existing furniture – which if you remember is languishing in storage at the moment – is going to fit into this new abode! Somehow I do not think our formal dining table and chairs will look right in the farmhouse and as for the crystal chandelier…… ! The annoying thing is that I can’t really get access to these things as probably the sensible thing would be to sell some of them now. I only hope they have easily accessible auction rooms in and around Issoire! Does E-Bay exist in France?
More and more people at work and in our village have been asking us to make sure we send them the website address, which is good news. I only hope all this interest turns into bookings once we get there!
Well I’ve been and gone and done it!! Handed in my resignation – scary stuff! It feels really good in one way as I am quite fed up with teaching at the moment, but the implications of no wages in September is very scary. At work, there is still a lot of interest in what we are doing and a lot of people are saying how brave we are to be taking such a huge step. I don’t feel brave at all!!
Things have gone a bit quiet on the house front. We need to spur young Bertrand on a bit I think. We have a trip arranged for next week so we can do this in person. It will also give us another chance to see the house and do a bit more planning on what will go where furniture-wise and to try and estimate how much equipment we need to buy.
We managed to get a flight to France during half term. We flew from Leeds/ Bradford to Paris and hired a car to drive down to the Auvergne. It was good to test out another route and apart from the usual pain of driving around Paris (not difficult but time consuming), we found this was another possible way to tell people to get to the house.
We had a good few days staying in nice chambres d` hotes yet again. everyone is really friendly and very keen to pass on tips when they find out what you are proposing to do. We also visited the house again , this time armed with a notepad to write down the contents and to sketch the layout. it is so hard to remember when you get home even though you take photos. The house(s) are lovely and this time the nearby quarry which we had been worried about, was working so we could assess the amount of noise for ourselves. Minimal I’m pleased to say! Bertrand was very helpful again, and had arranged for us to visit the notaire on the Friday afternoon.
This visit turned out to be good too. We were able to read a translation of the Compromis de Vente and having checked it thoroughly, sign it - on every page!! Very thorough the French! This is now a firm commitment to buy the house .. or at least it will be when we forward the deposit when we get back to England. The Dutch owners will sign their bit this week when they visit the house. I hope they cut the grass too as it was very long!!!
It’s very exciting!! We have now completed the first step to being the new owners of our French dream house!
Going back to work was a real drag, but it won’t be long now until I don’t need to ever have that "return to work" feeling! My colleagues reckon I have a sort of smug look on my face especially when they are talking about planning the next terms work!!
I’ve started to re-read the very good book we bought last year about how to set up and run a B&B in France (by Deborah Hunt). It really is very good and has lots of useful and relevant tips but is also written in a very easy to read way.
We have now sent off the deposit to the notaire and are waiting for the papers to be sent to us. We then have a seven day period to change our minds. I don’t think we will be doing that somehow!! I only have two minor stresses just now. One, I can’t recall seeing any phone lines/sockets but as Geoff says they can easily be sorted, and two, we need to think of a name for the place. I am sadly lacking in suitable inspiration for this one! It has to be French and preferably not twee! Matthew, our son, reckons all the ones we have come up with so far sound like names of retirement homes or hospices!! Not good! More next time on this when , hopefully inspiration will strike!
Things have gone quiet again! We thought that the papers would have arrived from the notaire, but they have not. Time to e-mail again I think. It is very difficult doing all this at a distance. Just when you think you are making progress things go quiet!
The search for a suitable house name is also proving very difficult. We have taken to reading our considerably big French dictionary for inspiration – sad or what? It does give me something to do during the never ending football fest which has taken over our TV set, but it does make tedious reading. Mind you I am learning some very "useful" French words and now know the French for shoe-horn, canary, underpants and genitals to name but a few!! I have drafted in some help from my French teacher colleague, Babette, at work who is trying to think of something particularly Auvergnat. I can only hope she succeeds or it will be Montagne Vue after all!
The other burning question at the moment is whether to buy bed-linen and towels here or to wait until we get to France. There are arguments on both sides. I don’t want to increase our moving baggage too much, but then again I know the best places to buy good value things here. Still pondering this one.
Well at last it’s happening. We have talked about this move to France for more years than I care to think about and now it’s really happening. To backtrack a little, we put our lovely four bed roomed house on the market last summer (July 2005) and although we had plenty of interest in it, we could not get anyone to offer anywhere near our asking price. The dreaded stamp duty was largely to blame so after a few months of stalemate we eventually re-crunched the numbers, redid our sums and decided to accept a lower offer. Things have gone fairly smoothly from then, a couple of last minute quibbles apart, and we found ourselves back in our chosen area of the Auvergne at Easter with the exchange of contracts on our English house imminent, giving us much more bargaining power. We had a hectic week looking at 12 houses, some from internet "English" sources and some from local French immoblier sites. It was fun, but tiring, as with every thing in France, you forget the distances, and we had not anticipated having to drive through quite deep snow to view some of the houses!
Eventually though we viewed the house of our dreams – more or less!! It’s an old farmhouse, with converted barn and with a bit of work and imagination will be perfect for our intention of running a chambres d`hote and gite business. Its position is right too – near enough to the motorway to Clermont Ferrand but deep enough into the country for our guests to enjoy some peace and quiet. There are one or two things to sort out, but it seems pretty ideal – and the price is right too! Bonus!!!
Back home and the house sale progressed rapidly. We found ourselves at one point with the contracts exchanged, ten days to moving out and with nowhere to move to!! However it all worked out in the end and we found a nice (expensive) two bed roomed cottage in a good location.
Moving day was fun!!! How do you fit a quart into a pint pot??? Although we have been shedding some of twenty plus year’s worth of accumulated stuff for months now, there still seemed an awful lot left! The removal guys were fantastic and although my sticker system (Green stickers to go to the rented property, red stickers to go into storage) had caused much merriment amongst my nearest and dearest, the removal men said it made the move one of the easiest they had done. (Must add that the kids had put green stickers on the dog, fruit and other stuff like that at one point to wind me up!!!) However we were eventually ensconced in our "new" little abode with a very confused and unhappy dog!
It’s amazing how quickly you do get used to a smaller space and less furnishings!
The sale of our house now complete and more money in the bank than we’ve ever had in our lives, we could now concentrate on buying the farmhouse in France. We contacted Bertrand our handsome young estate agent and got him to check out one or two things – size of septic tank, working hours of the nearby quarry, number of the Marie etc. These queries having been answered we put in our offer and soon a deal was reached. We arranged for a British surveyor who Geoff had met on a "Living France" seminar last year to do a survey – much to Bertrand’s distain, and now we are waiting for the report. It’s all very exciting now – very scary but exciting. I have a picture of the house stuck in front of my desk at work to inspire me. At work, everyone is really interested in what we are doing – some people think we are totally mad but others are quite jealous and are very keen to come and visit us. I just hope they realise that they need to pay!!!
The Surveyor’s report came back this weekend and looks favourable. There are a few things which will need attention in the future, but basically he sees no reason not to buy the house. Great!!! He can’t find the "fosse septique" though which is a bit worrying. We immediately e-mailed Bertrand and have asked him to get things moving. We are also planning to go and have another look at the house during half term at the end of May (my birthday present apparently!). Geoff has also taken the advice of another "Living France" article and has rung the Marie and had a chat with M le Maire! He seems pleased that we are buying the house, keen to encourage tourism in the area and wants to meet us to discuss "un petit project" he has in mind which he thinks we can help with! Help!!