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Euge

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Everything posted by Euge

  1. Thank you all for replying, I have marked gas as yellow, electric as red, water black, and drainage as white or grey. As for the misleading heading, Oh dear, I can see what you mean now, some people have smutty minds , and I always thought it wasn’t the colour or taste that mattered, surely it’s the size and quality of longevity that make a sheath able to last the distance. Whatever, I’m still enjoying practising.    :
  2. Does anyone know the colour of the protective sheath for services, which are buried underground like: Sheathing colours for services Water = Gas = Electricity = Telephone = Sewerage pipe = Television Cable = and the colour and/or wording on the tape laid above them.
  3.   Sorry!!! My post was quoting English size units and worktops. I would be interested to hear if it is cheaper to buy and cart your kitchen from England, or get it locally in France. I also wondered if all French made kitchens offer the same standard sizes as were quoted by the Kitchen sales person correcting my post???
  4. Flat pack is normally much cheaper as the factory did most of the work for you. If your kitchen is of any size, all you have to do is work in the sizes buyable. 1)     Draw a scaled drawing of your kitchen. 2)     For the floor units, Measure out from the wall 600mm (do this all the way around your kitchen) this is the normal depth of a kitchen work top, but there is nothing stopping you having a smaller unite space i.e. 550mm, 500mm or what ever (but it can stop you having carrousel swing shelves). 3)     Using drawing 2 (above) you will see where you can practically put units on the floor (remember you have to be able to get in and out of your kitchen) allow a 600mm + gap. 4)     Units come in 300, 400, 500, 600, 1000mm widths (if the depth is 600mm allow an extra 100mm empty space for the corner units to but up to). 5)     If you have a space of less than 300mm left over, position your units to make best use as a bin/towel rail/wine storage space. 6)     Leave 500 or 600mm gape for white goods (measure yours, but 600mm is normally best, in case you have to change white goods in the future). 7)     Floor units (with work top fitted) should be about 900mm high 8)     Wall units come in the same widths as floor units, but go back 300mm. 9)     Worktops come in 600mm depth and you can buy 900mm for breakfast bars. 10) I think it is worth putting the kitchen up you and using a carpenter to fit the worktops (mitre joints look much nicer than those metal strips).   Enjoy the saving on getting fitters in, and remember if you mess up one or two of the units, it can still save you hundreds of euros (if not thousands) on what you might have paid. This was in reply to someone who seemed to want to save a few pounds. The rich out there can squander as much as they can afford and enjoy only having to see the finished product. Good luck whichever way you go. If you need any help drop me a line Euge
  5.   Hello Richard I am going through the stages of building my own house in Confolens (area 16). I have the land and have the Architects drawings which have just gone in, so I will have about two to three months before we can start the build. I'm doing a block construction. If you need an architect, contact me on [email protected] Put 'house build' in the subject box (so that I can pick it out of the junk mail which comes from time to time). There is much to learn about house building in France. best of luck   Euge
  6. Thank you to everyone who offered assistance here, I’ve read every post and will take on board your thoughts. Again thanks   Euge
  7. Here is a tip to get your money to France fast.   Normally if you book your transfer before 2am it will be at the receiving banks holding section the next morning. This is where it sits until it is (often only once a week) claimed, hence the normal eight-day period needed for it to be seen to arrive.   So here is how you speed it all up. When you send your money from an English bank to France, ask your Cash Teller to ask the international department doing the transfer for the trace number. This number (reference or what-ever) is how banks track the route your money took en-route in case it gets lost. (Your Cash Teller may not have heard of it, so insist contact is made with the international transfers section). When you have the international trace number, give it to the people at the receiving bank and they can use it to claim the money which is sitting in THEIR international department just waiting for it to be claimed. I have done this several times in an emergency situation and it worked for me (normally I allow eight days as this can be a pain). Try it yourself before you rely on it, as a late payment may cost you dearly. Euge
  8. With speed ferry, remember it is only a 50 min crossing time, so if they are running 45 mins late (this has only happened once for me as normally they are well on time) you still arrive earlier than if you had taken the more expensive other crossings. I have used them many times and find it a great service at a cost, which is often half, or more lower than the other companies. I just wish they did Portsmouth to St Mao as well.
  9. Hi I’m trying to find out what I need to do to work legally in France. I’m currently in England and expect to be coming over soon. I have been told I will need to go on a 5 day course and as such have contacted the Chambre des Metiers. As helpful as they seem to be, they couldn’t speak English and my French doesn’t go to understanding everything they said, but I figured there is some waiting list. So I was wondering if someone who has been through the process could guide me here. Thank you
  10. I’ve just been reading this stuff about electricity cutting off when a kettle is turned on. Umm, is there a problem with electricity in France? I’m readying myself to build in Charente area 16 and would be interested to know what the problems are and how to avoid them if possible. Should I cost up a generator, or like one poster, use oil to heat, gas to cook and electric for light and computers?
  11. Hello to all and thanks for your imput, it make great reading finding out what is what. just a breif question, what is SOFARTH ? and has anyone had a quote on the cost of installing thermal heating? Regards Euge
  12. I'm about to open a bank account in area 16 (Charente), Nr Confolens, Q1) Is there a bank that others here find best to use? Q 2) Is there a bank which is not that good to us?  Q 3) Is there a type of account best to open (easy to take payment from UK)? Q 4) Is it best to convert money in the U.K to Euros or From France? Q 5) Do the french charge for banking services when you're in credit? Q 6) The bank which my local estate agent (French) has sort of arranged for me is 'Credit Lyonnais' does anyone use it an know if they charge for banking? Thanks for reading this and answering it if you do Regards Euge  
  13. Can you? I didn't know that.Do all providers do it? I'm with Vodaphone I’m not sure about all network providers, as I only use O2, but I would assume it would be the same, so call yours and ask. On O2 the one-off set up fee is about £5 and covers you for a month, then you pay about £2 there after per month (they deduct it by way of equivalent calling time or cash, on pay as you go), you can opt out at any time by sending a cancellation text (it’s a good idea to get the HOW TO CANCEL details at the time of ordering, as they can be hard to find later). But I found it very worth while and cost effective.   To the Estate Agent who was letting off steam, well yes you are right, there are few good reasons to account for lack of consideration and I apologize if my post upset you personally. Most every business will suffer from those who are needlessly thoughtless no matter how well the business is organised.
  14. Hi I'm also going to be building in France (I intend to self build) I have done it before (but in England) and was wondering if we could share or exchange experiences to help each other (no fees either way). I know much about building and will be finding out the costs of materials and the labour I will need. I am not in your area, but it would be interesting to find out if it is worth a journey (out of area) to get certain items.   Hope to hear from you   Eugene [email protected]
  15. If you go on the internet and type in translations, you should get a few hits from sites offering FREE translation (it isn't perfect, but does give you an idea of what is being requested). Here is one I use http://ets.freetranslation.com/ The translation from this: Pour nous permettre d'assurer l'établissement correct de l'évaluation cadastrale de ce bien, et ne pas commettre d'erreurs qui pourraient vous être préjudiciable, j'ai l'honneur de vous inviter à nous faire connaître l'état actuel devotre propriété en remplissant la déclaration ci-jointe. IS sort of: To allow us to assure the correct establishment of the land evaluation of this good, and not to commit errors that you could be prejudicial, I have the honour to invite you to do us to know the current state devotr property while filling the here joined declaration.    In a nut shell it is asking you to: Please fill in the joint declaration to allow them to correctly evaluate your property.
  16. As others have said it is a two way problem, I spent over £1,000 going to France on three occasions to see properties which had been sold WEEKS before I had made the appointments, first visit was to see three agents and five properties (all had been sold before I got there). Second visit, I made sure the property was still available, but didn’t like it so was happy to viewed three plots of land. I liked them all and offered the full price on one of them, (it was accepted). When the land area drawing came, the plot showed only half the plot for sale on it The agent said the area had been clearly marked on the land, but didn’t know that in my excitement at having found a beautiful plot, I had gone back to it the same day as the viewing and had videoed the land to take home and show my partner. No markings were there (maybe I shouldn’t have been too keen to buy). Third visit to France I agreed to buy land, made an offer (it was accepted) signed the papers, then decided to check with the local mayor to see if the permission to build was okay (I had been told it had been granted and it was a clause of the agreement), The Mayors secretary told me that no permission would be granted in that area. So even though my deposit would have been returned, I’d have been three months committed to a property that wasn’t suitable, thus three months wasted time and possible price increases down the road, with another trip to pay for. I used the cooling off period to get out of it (normally there isn’t any cooling off period with land purchase, but this one had a very small shed on it so I was okay. Luckily, I found another plot (French agent this time), which I am buying now. I know you can’t put all the English agents in the same smelly pot, but all the problems I had were with English Agents. So pleased don’t drip about just having to get out of bed, think of those who plan a trip, book it, pay for it, get out of bed, drive hundreds (even thousands) of miles, to find the property has been sold, given the wrong details, the massive electric pylon is just out of the picture, a foul stench industrial plant belching out stuff which was luckily blowing your way on the viewing day or the many other things which we are not told about before we make our journey. We don’t have any recourse but to tell who ever we can which agents did this to us. So we go home defeated and have to start all over again.   An idea for the agent is to give accrete details, (surely room sizes should be a must) then get the customer to confirm an appointment the day before. As for us the customer, well by that time we have already booked an un-refundable fare to get to France and would be on our way, so we need the agents to be honest and efficient.   Telephones: If you use an English mobile phone in France, remember you will be paying for outward and inward coming calls at international rates. But you can call your network before going and pay a one off small fee to get all calls extremely reduced in cost 
  17. I am using a Notaire called Helen (an English lady) working for ‘Serge Proust’ (name of the associe she is part of) who is in Mansle (area 16). 0033 (0) 5 45 20 35 16. She seems very efficient to me, having spotted something wrong with the certificate of urbanisation (CU) the agent had been using to encourage me to buy some land. I immediately stopped that purchase and went on to buy  land I’m due to complete in a few weeks. I had been aware of putting a clause in the contract to make the CU part of the deal, but had I relied only on that clause I would have been three months behind the market when we would have eventually found out (with prices moving upward, three months could have been expensive).   Regards   Eugene
  18. Thanks for responding to my request for names, addresses and telephone numbers of people who may be able to help put my project together, (keep them coming if you will). It’s nice to know there are people out there who are prepared to help a stranger and hopefully as I put this together, others may benefit for all, or just the various parts of building a house from scratch.   I will be posting stage one (Buying land or derelict building) of the project soon. This was the first decision my partner and I had to make when choosing what to buy.   Many of you responded via my private email address (which is great) but will you please put in the ‘Subject bar’ a name or reference to do with building (I nearly deleted some e-mails, thinking they might be the normal junk mail which come in from time to time).   I will be getting in touch with those people and services you’ve suggested, then will get back to you to let you know what happened.   I am still finding my way around this forum and can’t seem to find a search tag to try to find the posts of BJSLIV (offered by Forum Guru). Is there a link or was this an abbreviation?   Again thank you all for taking the time to offer help.   Best to all   Eugene  
  19. 1) Marking out and Digging foundations shouldn’t take more than a day on a house size 80 m2 ground floor level (yours is likely to be smaller, so it’s still a day) 2) Pouring the concrete for the foundations (ready mix) one day (hand mix) 2 or more days depending on size. Saving the cost of buying ready mix can cost you much more in labour on a sizable job. 3) Brick layer should be able to do 80/100 bricks an hour (allow time for starting, funny bits and cleaning up), If you work on these numbers it should help you work the rest out. If you want more accrete help, I would need to see pictures of where the extension is going and the drawings of what is to be built. there are other parts of the job which can take time or hold things up, but again your question is not clear, I need more details Hope this helps regards Eugene
  20. Does anyone have? A)    Copies of the form needed to submit detailed plans of a domestic property to the Mayor or who ever else I should be sending it to (the name of this form would be helpful)? I'm in area 16 B)     A copy of any house plans already submitted. I have drawing my own but would like to see how much detail is to be included on submitted drawings. C)    A copy of the accompanying paperwork submitted with house plans, giving details of the other aspects to be considers by those who will approve or reject the project. D)    The names/addresses/telephone numbers of any Architect, Architect collages, or other persons qualified to draw and submit plans for approval. E)     The names/addresses/telephone numbers of any building related individuals/firms who you feel are worth recommending. F)     If you’re a ground worker, brick layer, labourer, carpenter, roofer, plasterer builder and are looking for work please contact me. F)     The names/addresses/telephone numbers of any building related individuals/firms, you feel are worth AVODING G)    Any other advice you think would be helpful in this quest to build a house from scratch. Please feel free to post any replies here (if it’s allowed) or directly to my e-mail address [email protected]   So fare I am up to the stage of being ready to send the final amount needed to pay for the land and thus sign the ‘Act of Purchase,’ later this month (June 2005). This may not seem fare along the line to finishing the house, but you have to start somewhere. To this point there have been many things to learn, some where prepared for and others (sort of) dumped unexpectedly right on me. For many of you who have bought in France you will understand what I’m on about and may have experienced some of the follies I will be mentioning along the way. For those who are happy to help where you can, I thank you and  promise this is not a one-way street of me just taking and learning only from you. I will be posting each stage of the project for others to learn from my experiences. Perhaps it might be entertaining from time to time and hopefully we will end up with a record most can follow of how to self build a property from scratch. For others who wish to just follow this project, I hope you find it interesting. Keep your fingers crossed for me, as this is a lifetime dream in the making.   I will go into more detail at a later stage to cover the points of each leg of my project to ‘build a house in France from scratch,’ But if anyone has a question to ask about a particular point (up to where I am so far,) please fire away, but remember this is free and I may need time to answer, so don’t get impatient.   Best to all Eugene
  21. Hi to all Is there a part of this forum or any link/s, which deals with the various stages in building a house in France? I’m expecting to complete the purchase of a plot of land in late June 2005 and would like to be ready to submit my plans soon after (I have a certificate of urbanisation) and then go on to getting it started.   Any help, pointers in the right direction or past experiences would be most welcome. I do speak a little French but it doesn’t go to reading, writing or much more than eating and seeming a little foolish (I will learn though).   If there is intrest I will post details of each stage of the build, the joys, the probs, the laughter and tears. LOL   Thanks in advance   Regards Eugene
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