Mikey

if you have a look at http://www.traxxas.com/  they have a forum where you can obtain loadsa knowledge. their forum is really for people with the traxxas brand of RC trucks but you will find the guys on there very helpful. if your pull start keeps snapping its probly cos you've flooded the engine and got hydrolock which will stop the engine turning over. what make is the model out of interest, with the instruction you should have a notice of what the factory settings are for the carb. if not you need to find out what they are and set them then work from there.   mike

EWA  I can't think of any disadvantages other than if there is a power cut it don't work.   I suppose it uses electricity is one, but unlike with a fosse septic you don't need to put any activating products in it after the first lot. one good thing is it doesn't smell at all, another one is telling our guests the water in the gites comes from it, and of course I tell them after they've been here a few day so I know they would have drunk some or showered. so far i'm very happy with ours, as for the cost, because it was a new concept in France for small domestic sewage plants when we got it, we got it trade price + 10%    They do make a smaller one for 4 or 5 people.   mike

EWA  I can't think of any disadvantages other than if there is a power cut it don't work.   I suppose it uses electricity is one, but unlike with a fosse septic you don't need to put any activating products in it after the first lot. one good thing is it doesn't smell at all, another one is telling our guests the water in the gites comes from it, and of course I tell them after they've been here a few day so I know they would have drunk some or showered. so far i'm very happy with ours, as for the cost, because it was a new concept in France for small domestic sewage plants when we got it, we got it trade price + 10%    They do make a smaller one for 4 or 5 people.   mike

a) How much did the actual thing cost ?  ours was 27000Ff.  it can handle just up to 25 people b) Is there a requirement from somebody (from the mairie, whatever) to come and check effluent levels etc at regular intervals.  No c) I assume that it consumes a wee bit of electricity to keep it stirred up or whatever it does ? the same as a 90watt light bulb, when our 4 gites are full we have it running 24/7  but in reality you only need it to be on for 16hr per day

have a look at http://perso.wanadoo.fr/smpi/station%20epuration.htm i've got one, installed myself at a cost of 90euro for man with digger, inspected and approved, no need for soakaway as the liquid that comes out is clean and treated and can go into a ditch or water course, mine goes into stream behind house.   mike

http://www.jr-international.fr/modules.php?name=Boutique&itm_ref=15028 the above link will take you to a sie that sells the poolguard. its not a perimiter alarm but is probly the best or one of the best pool alarm you can get. unfortunatly its not afnor approved but is CE approved. i already have the aquasensor wind detector so am covered legally but i want the poolguard as backup cos i know the aquasensor is not reliable. you can get perimiter alarms from the site above, but i'm sure prices will be coming down. good luck

I have one, and think its a great wind and rain detector, as for detecting a child falling in not so sure. I'm going to get a poolgaurd alarm and use it with the aquasensor. when the cost of afnor approved pool covers come down I'll get one. you can get afnor approved fencing now from Geant, I saw it in their latest publicity.

Dave and Olive, what French make is better and cheaper than a Rayburn, I've never seen any. I'd love to get a French oil fired range that does central heating for 25 rads and hotwater.   Please enlighten me   mike

Jo, you said you had 32 weeks booked with them. is that 32 in 1 property or 32 in 4 properties.   cheers

check out http://www.siromer.demon.co.uk/  they deliver to France, I've got one and its amazing, well worth the money

you could get a mini sewage plant that would work out cheaper that several or a larger fosse installation

hi, i have 5 goats so how many would you like. We are not far from you either.

i've got some neighbours that layed finished oak floor, cost them around £50M2 all my floors on the ground floor of my house are pine, i hired a big sander and found it a nightmare to use and left grooves on the floor, i got better results with a good quality orbital sander. good luck 

friend of mine just had his house re-wired, just about same layout as your, plus he had one storage heater fitted total cost 7500 euro. over priced i think

are you kidding, i doubt you will get grant for heating a pool. you can get solar heating from www.solarmatt.com i have it on my pool and it works well and isn't too expensive

Thanks Catherines2, i'll check them out. Ron i agree withsome of your comments, but from an advertisers point of view they really have gone down hill and become very un-personal annd slow in responding to the advertisers. has anyone else noticed that once you've paid for the yr they never send a reciept or even a THANKYOU  

for anyone that does want a range that will work with french oil try  http://www.heritagecookers.co.uk/ they sell a lot of ranges to english living in france, just tell them its for france and they will do whatever is needed so it will run on french oil/diesel 

james, if the cottage is that small you really wouldn't need any rads, when we had the villager in our gite which is open plan down stairs 40m2 on each floor it heated both floors without being plumbed in. also we had it running 24/7 on the minimum setting  the furthest end of the room was 28c, and upstairs was never cold. I have friends with similar size houses and they just heat with logburner the downstairs and as you know the heat rises. whith a property that size you will probly only use about 2 corde of wood   out of interest what area are you in.  

I'm not impressed either, we've been with them for a few yrs now, last yr we only had 2 bookings through them, the rest were through francedirect.com. i've not been very impressed with their customer service either, for about 4 weeks whenever i did a search my details came up but the picture was of someone elses property. out of interest catherines who do you advertise with, i'm seriously concidering not renewing in april.

I second that stuart, i got my aarrow stove from them. the rrp for the aarrow is £1500, i got it for £1250 inc delivery to france from renovator, it left their warehouse on the friday and i got it on the following tuesday.

the villager we have has the integral saddle boiler and the aarrow has the interal rap around boiler. we used the villager for 3 yrs without being plumbed in while we stayed in one of our gites while i was restoring our main house, intending to plumb it into the main house when we moved in. the output from it in the gite was amazing, but once it was plumbed in to the main house about 80% of its heat went to the rads and left little for the room it was in.   i then got the aarrow which is far more powerfull and that solved the problem exept the wood consumption goes up greatly. james, the villager is a great stove but i really would not advise anyone to use them or any other woodburner with back boiler, they are too expensive to run, and as for running it with coal it will cost a fortune, coal is more expensive in france than the uk. i'm giving up with mine and will be fitting an oil range cooker for the central heating. where we are in brittany a cord of logs cost from £100 to £130 and as i'm using between 10 to 12 a yr plus the wood i get free from local saw mill, its expensive and thats with just 6 rads, when the house is finnished I'll have 25 rads and use a lot more wood. 

Iceni, if you install one with back boiler you will see your consumption  of wood triple at least. if you have free wood then go for it otherwise i wouldn't bother, we've  gone from using 3 cord to about 10 since we fitted one with back boiler, and thats with just 6 rads and hot water on it, plust once connected to rads etc the stove will give off less heat to the room.   we have a villager with back boiler , can't remember the btu rating and we have an aarrow 90.000 btu output

Miki is absolutly right about GdF. there are gites in the same village as us that are GdF and they have a 100% occupancy all yr, in season French tourists out of season French re-locating or seasonal workers. But lets face who wants people all year, i'm happy with filling ours during the summer and  the odd few here and there the rest of the yr, any more than that would drive me mad. shawny me old mate, you still hav'nt pm'd me about the property i mentioned in an earlier post. I would give the guys number so you would save a fortune on agents fee's, and i wasn't winding you up when i said it was orignally converted by one of franky goes to hollywood, it honestly was.   mike

dear shawney, yes having a pool does make a differance. more income and more attractive to clients. i know a man that selling his house and 3 gites with pool in britany not too far from st malo, we could be neighbours. if you would like to pm me i will give you his number. its a beautiful property large main house and 3 gites, ithink one is 1 bed not sure about the others, it was originally converted by one of franky goes to holywood.  

Thanks for you diy cv, very impressive, i was offering some advice thats all, you imagine you have guests in the middle of august and the water heater packs up, if you can't diy you have a problem cos you won't find a plumber and if you can it will cost your weeks rental to have the heater changed, and if you can't you have unhappy guests. Go on to the fpn site and search for for properties in brittany and you wil find there are at least 15 properties with gites for sale. The cash statement may be irrelivent for you but it isn't for others.