Duncan

Interesting to hear - this is mostly what I suspected - the cons outweigh the pros :) I guess the Prepping is part of the joys of second homing Pay for pro - or DIY

[quote user="Frederick"]No....I would not  . There is a risk with this no mater how  well you know  the people . Unless its family and you would not mind the inconvenience of having with them living with you if in the event of accident illness . or some other  circumstance crops up  where they cant leave when planned to do so ... Brittany  ferries strike kept me in  France longer than expected last year for example . [/quote] Hi Frederic, I hadnt considered that as part of the picture. If I'm staying at eg a Gite and get ill or one of the kids do, I've never attempted to stay on.  Is that a possibility?  I figured that usually with a holiday etc, at the end of the agreed time, you make your way home, any which way you have to. In a similar way, I had envisaged an agreement being in place to say the 'Preppers' would agree to be gone by a certain time/date. Hope that makes sense Duncan

Thanks for all your answers and replies - great to hear my mum isnt alone in her conundrum of house-prepping.  She has a largish garden (7 acres) so the outside is a big part of the picture. Personally I quite enjoy the outside house prepping - less so the inside part.  I am happy as a pig in the proverbial when outside doing the mowing, hedges, logs etc.  I was out there in Normandy with a friend last year (he needed some time out) for a few days - he and I mowed the lawns, trimmed trees, hedges etc and got it looing good outside. And it occured to me that there are probably other people like us who are quite happy doing the outdoors house prepping (and probably plenty who are happy to do the indoors prepping too).  And there are probably plenty of people with second homes with gardens and houses that need prepping. Could the 2 meet? Now, IF the trust issue were gotten over - if you trusted someone enough to be at/in your house - would you let them stay for a few days while they prep up your house? They get a no-cost break - you get the house prepped. Now, I know the trust part is a biggy, and there are plenty of other details to iron out, like gas and elec usage etc - but would you let someone who you had gotten to trust, interviewed etc, got to know - would you let them use your house for free in return for getting your house up and ship-shape for you?

So the general concensus seems to be 1. Awesome, friendly, much-appreciated neighbour (I guess that's the luck of the draw on who you get as neighbour), or 2. DIY when you get there and spend the first day or 2 doing it all, or 3. Go Pro - Pay someone periodically or just before you arrive to come in and sort it all, inside and out Does that seem about right?  Any other options?

This is a question for you if you have a second house in France which you DONT rent out... My mum has  a second home in lower Normandy which I help her out with occassionally.  She goes maybe 4 times per year, for a few weeks stay at a time.  Every time she goes there, the first day or 2 (or 3) are taken up with getting the house ship-shape and up to speed - mowing the lawns, doing the hedges, cleaning the house through etc, etc. What do you do to get your house ship-shape and up to speed, in the absense of actually paying a management firm to get it sorted for you? What advice would you give?  What do you do?  Or does this house-prep not bother you? Or is there a way to get someone to do it for you? Thanks Duncan