Ray and Jennie Smith have bought and are starting a course of renovation on a house with an attached barn in the “Pays de la Gatine”, Deux Sevres. They start their story with how the journey began for them.
Introduction
This is not, by any means, a unique story, there are more and more people undertaking or have already undertaken similar projects. What we are hoping to achieve here is to offer an overview of our experience of purchasing and renovating (hopefully) a French property in Deux Sevres. We hope to share our experiences with other like minded people who are considering or who have already undertaken a similar project. It is in no way intended to be an expert or definitive approach to renovating French property (as we are by no means experts) simply an ongoing account of what we have done and hope to do along this journey.
We are a family of four, my wife, two girls, and myself. The girls are six and four years old, they are very lively and enjoy the outdoors life. My wife and I are both Secondary Teachers (this in itself should be reason enough to want to run to the French countryside!!!!). My wife is currently still working in a school while I am re-establishing my previous occupation as a Stained Glass Artist. Clearly the advantage of school holidays enables us to visit France quite often. We are both Design Technology trained, although my wife has moved into another area of teaching and we are both quite creative with experience of the ‘arts’, textiles (not me!), painting, pottery, sculpture and of course stained glass. Our experience of house renovation is based on the fairly extensive work undertaken in our UK home and that of a close friend. Although this experience will stand us in good stead, the learning curve, in France, is very steep. As I’m sure you well know, the French do not like to do things ‘our way’. Also, the fact that our command of the French language is limited does not help.
A number of reasons and choices brought us to where we are today. The overriding decision to buy a second home in France was to offer our two young children somewhere to run and play in safety, with fewer restrictions than would be required in the UK. To acquire somewhere where my wife and I would have the opportunity to relax and ‘be creative’ in a more peaceful environment.
We wanted a renovation project (and we certainly succeeded in achieving that). Although we had a few criterion, to match budget restrictions, we needed to remain flexible. The main criteria were
Property to renovate.
Be affordable.
The property should have a minimum of 1000m2 of land.
Preferably be detached or not have obtrusive, encroaching neighbours.
Should have enough scope for ‘improvement’.
Be in a rural environment.
We have fairly clear ideas of what we like and the thought of paying a premium for something that some vendors regard as ‘ready to move into’ did not sit well when we knew we would rip it all out anyway! Another reason for opting for a renovation was the expectation of a lower initial purchase price, although it would be naive to imagine that the final cost would be cheaper than a ‘done up’ property or even a new build but hopefully we could control the amount and pace of later spend.
It was always our intention to prioritise the environment over the amenities the property provided, we knew we could change the house but not significantly change the outlook. We needed some land to ensure a degree of privacy and to enable the children to play. As our purchase was initially intended as a holiday home and we had a motor-home to use as temporary accommodation moving in was never a priority and. rightly or wrongly, we were not prepared to set a timescale on completing the renovation. Our initial priority was to have somewhere we could call our own and enjoy the time spent there. A rural environment was a must as we live in a semi-rural environment in England and are used to keeping pigs, ducks, chickens etc. we wanted to maintain this option, although the irony is that because we now travel so frequently between England and France we cannot keep so many animals!
Our preference for a detached property was born out of desire to please ourselves (within reason) what we did and when we did it, without offending or worrying about others. Not that the fact I play the drums has any bearing on this!
Although the initial purpose of the property was/is as a holiday home we were hoping to purchase something with enough scope to possibly develop a future business venture from the property. We considered if we ever moved fulltime to France it would be to improve our quality of life and not simply transfer a English 9 to 5 lifestyle for a French one (or should that be a 9 to 7 lifestyle in France!).