Babbles
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Posts posted by Babbles
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I've had look at some trocs when I'm over which is only about once a month and the ones I've seen are often just odd pairs, I don't mind different styles on each floor but up stairs the 4 doors are quite close together.
If anyone knows a good supply of second hand in Gers or south Lot & Garrone let me know!
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We have a very nasty miss mash selection of door handles on our not orginal to the house doors, the budgets small so I can't replace them with reclaimed doors and door furniture, so what I would like to do is replace the handles with metal ones and thats where I'm struggling.
The Bricolages that I've been to either have modern types gold with china handles or ones that are black forged iron and look to old and rustic, Ideally I would like grey metal that look old and good quality with decorative finger plates. Does anyone know of any shops doing this kind of thing or any websites where I can order on line. Its getting to the 11th hour and I'm starting to panic!
And also as a side line I'm looking for some kind of old style pendant light that is suitable for a lowish kitchen ceiling, again any websites would be really helpful.[:)]
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We had the same problem, but our builder and a guy at the Marie walked the site and found it with the hour there were no plans but after a few questions they had a good idea, Chances are that its been installed in the last 30 years (hopefully newer) and there might be someone in the village who saw the work being done to point you in the right direction, The thing that surprised us was how close it was to the house and I second all the advice given by Anton
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Have had another thought on french mortgage, we were told about an interest only fench morgage which was very cheap but you had to have 120% of its value as equity in your UK home which seems to get the best of both worlds, anyway just a thought
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Will has the point to a tee, we bought our property with a french mortgage and so far it works well for us, but we don't have a personal mortgage in the UK, just business loans which don't count as part of the 30% you can borrow. We got our french mortgage through a broker who was OK but not fabulous, if your french is ok and with the help of your agent in the area you are looking in I would sort out the mortgage local to that area, I would also start the process long before you find a house as they ALOT of information and any offer you put on a house will be taken more seriously if you have a mortgage in place, saying all that according to our agent most people remortgage in the UK as its easier if not cheaper.
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We are just having one installed at the moment which meets the 2007 and will be certified standards costing 10,800, its a difficult site as its on quite a slope the soil is clay so we need massive gravel beds we had 4 diggers onsite at one point. This seemed to be the going rate in Gers for a large fosse but other peoples do seem cheaper, not sure why but now they do have to be certified so I don't know how you'd get on with a DIY job.
Happy Digging!
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You all are a lot more tenacious (is that how its spelt who knows!) I've given up on Bergerac airport and now use Bordeaux it takes less than 10mins more to get to our house and its such a lovely clean, friendly airport I now use Europecar which give far better service and prices than I was getting from Hertz in Bergerac and planes seem to be able to land in fog, I'd love to know how many planes get diverted from Bergerac but it sems to happen a lot, but if Ryanair started to fly in Agen I would use that as it would be sooooo easy and I'd put up with muddy carparks and no coffee or be able to buy a magazine, there seemed to be a lot of rumours last year about it happening in2007 but I've not heard anything lately.
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I to agree with Russethouse, My Mum and Dad were broken into about 20 years ago and loads of antiques and pictures taken as it was before the days of ebay so they kept a close eye on the antique trade paper and tracked down one of the pictures going to auction in Liverpool, they told the police who staked out the auction and arrested the guy so sometime a bit of determination to not let the bxxxxrs get away with it helps, I hope your coming to terms with it now, I found how I felt about the whole thing was worse than losing objetcs (the same thiefs who broke in to my parents broke into my clothes shop a week later and clearred the place)
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We have just had ours done, it just took up a lot more space that we orginally thought but left all the work up to our lovely builder whose main focus was to get as many diggers on site as possible (4 on one day) but I couldn't quite work out why we needed so many different types but I think it was just boys and toys, finishing the kitchen got put on the back burner when the are diggers to play with!!!!
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Just in the process of having a new fosse installed, the previous one doesn't meet this years new rules, The new one is HUGE in comparison to the old and has very large gravel beds which the old one didn't have and the whole garden looked like the Somme. We had to sign a form from the Maire to ok us releasing clean water into the ground (the fact the the old grey water just leached away which was very smelly and it had to be an improvement is beside the point!) We also had some lady whose title I can't remember came to see what we were doing takes pictures half way through to ensure its done correctly (Like a building officer but not) send a bill for nearly 200Euros and then we get a certificate that says we meet the 2007 regulations soif and when we come to sell there can be no arrguments about the fosse (yipee!) But no dead animals to date! but when I go next week and if its smelly I'll know what to do!!!! quite where I'll find a dead animal is another issue I've no time to be trawlling arround for road kill!!!!
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Beautiful, I love the change of textures between the different trees, this on is the best for me!! The first one that is!
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This might not help , but I did notice an architects office opposite the church in Condom not far from BNP bank, I'm over there next week so I'll try to remember to ask our builder and translator if they know of any good ones, Where abouts are you in Gers we're between Condom and Lectoure towards 47, only a holiday home at the moment but sometime in the (near!) future it should be more permenant. Happy New Year
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I've always had to pay duty (stuff from Ebay shops in the States) I don't mind the duty as with the exchange rate you normally still save but I do object to the handling charge (arn't they paid already to handle the stuff they know its changing country when its shipped so why put it as a surcharge?), On a large needlepoint Aubusson style rug I had to pay Vat ,import duty and a handling fee over $300 but with the exchange rate the way it is I still saved over £1000 so I don't supose I can moan really[:)]
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Have to agree that Abebooks and Choices are great value and I've normally found what I'm looking for and with Abebooks it could come from anywhere in the world, Choices are in the Channel Islands so don't charge vat on Dvds. I'm always looking for a bargain![:)]
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It might be impossible to Police but would your insurance be valid if your house burnt down and a gas bottle was found inside, me thinks not, we weren't preparred to risk it a bit like if you had a chimney fire and couldn't prove you had it swept the insurance companies won't pay out. I don't suppose at this point there is much clarification on just what the rules are like with swimming pool fences they'll just make it up as they go along when they've had time to think it through!!!
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I don't know which part of the Gers you are in, but unless your French is perfect avoid the Condom office as the most unhelpful man in EDF works there! Also the office only opens on Mondays and Wednesday. He's not the only person who works in the office but I always seem to have to deal with him!!! My advice would be check what he says as its not always 100% accurate, you could always try their website which I'm sure is unbiased.
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All our plans were thrown out of the window by our builder (who has gives us really good advice so we listen to him! if not necesserily always understand him!!!!) he advised us to have gas with an enormous tank which only cost Euro to install by the gas comany and tied us to a 3 year agreement with an initial fill cost of 1200Euros. Our only issue has been the radiator police told us what size and where we could put our radiators which wasn't always where wanted them but it had to be done or the system wouldn't have been signed off and we wouldn't have been able to buy any gas without the certificate. The also insisted on a larger combi boiler which turned out to still not have enough umph to get the hot water to all the rads so it now needs a bigger pump. Also we were told so I am assuming its true that as of next year you can't have gas bottles inside the house (ie for a cooker) so that migh effect your plans.
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Well, I hate to admit that I'm a fool but thats what I am, there was no cheque book but the unhelpful lady I saw last time has now been sacked!!!!! and I now seem to half half of Condom branch and my gas supplier trying to sort it out for me so who knows what will be waiting for me in 3 weeks!!!!!!!!! so at least my faith in human nature has been restored, I wonder if they will do the same for me with the unhelpful man at EDF!!!!!![;-)]
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If people use the search facility, who could be still doing it now might be interested in my experience, I'm sure the original post is now sorted, maybe not if they joined BNPparibs!!!
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A quick update, The scartlet Pimpernel of BNP has finally emailled me (4 months, yes 4 months later) he wanted a copy of our wedding certificate (3rd time) but our account is still blocked for setting up direct debits (apart from the mortgage) they destroyed the cheque books (as they were at the Champs Elysee branch, and we hadn't picked them up, even though we didn't know they were there and we don't go to Paris!!) He says he'll get back to me on Monday (everything crossed) as I'm off to Gers on Tuesday, the big question is will they or won't they have the cheque books waiting for us in the Condom branch by friday???????
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We've had a nightmare with opening a french bank account which still isn't resolved 6 monthes later, Our mortgage is with BNP Paribas and thought that having current account would make sense, it was organised by our mortgage broker, great we thought how easy just send all the paper work to him and he'd sort it out, our house is in Gers and the account was opened in Paris at the international branch, it still has a block on it, the cheque books have been destroyed and the only direct debit that we can set up is for the mortgage payments if you go to their website and try to phone the relevant branches its just an automated system, I couldn't find anyone who spoke English at the International Branch (my french just isn't up to fathoming out what had gone on) the guy whoes contact name we had didn't answer our emails for 6 monthes but hurrah hurrah he answered on friday , but still doesn't know whats going on and wanted a copy of our wedding certificate again(?) My advice would go to your nearest branch where there is someone you can comunicate with (English if need be) and even if they charge to transfer your money it will still be less than phone calls and hastle!!!!
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Bound to on the discovery channel real soon, as the repeats are never ending!
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I watched it and didn't find it quite as cringe worthy as the first one, As for Alistair Sawaday ,he did look a bit of prat just as most bosses do when go on TV and try and do what there staff do ( thinking of the tv series that was called something like back to the shop floor) you have to admire AS for running a successful publishing company and I have found AS guides really good as customer and I have never found them to have oversold on any of the properties we visited, and many of the property owners say they are the best guides to be in, so I would take their word for that. I still say good luck to them, they have their hand full with a young family as well as running the business and roll on the day they employ some locals rather than shipping people in.
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Or maybe to put a few people straight, anyway it might have been in their contract to do a follow up, is Zam B something doing the commentary, we laugh as he always sees the downside to the best of things and gives every thing a negative twist!
Can you handle it ?
in House Renovations
Posted
Thanks Dick,
They have just the job at Lapeyre on line (The cheaper ones!!!) Next step, I've never ordered stuff on line in france is it ok to use my UK credit card but have the stuff delivered to the house in France, we still do not have a card for our french account (this possibly is a way the other half is stopping me from spending!!!!!!) Unless anyone knows if they have a shop in Agen, Auch or somewhere vaguely north Ger/ south Lot & Garonne I couldn't seem to find a list of shops on the website (but that could be my limited fench and still in shock at the toothless one!)
And I've now looked at Leroy Merlin and they too have some, you guys out there are just great, when you can only get to the house once a month it really helps not having to trail round looking for the basics[:D]