Compromises on French property?

[just john]

By way of atonement since the other thread (which was brilliant) dried up,  Apologies to Sweet 17

When you set out to find your French house what were you after and how much did you compromise? 
did you end up with something completely different?

We wanted something close to a village with shop, cafe, doctor, etc, max 15k from a large town, access links to international airport, Situated in 17, 16, 33 or 24. Old stone fermette with a couple of barns on an acre or so with field and wood (safe enough for the grandkids to get lost in!), Traditional Charente build in stone, pierre apparent, 2 storey, not grand, room for 4 bedrooms, Views to die for, South facing, mostly French neighbours. Original style wood for shutters, beams and joinery everywhere, especially on doors, windows and stairs Not a fitted kitchen, just fireplace or poele that will burn wood.
Garden with shrubs and trees, vines or creepers, stream, spring or well, but no fussy flowers;
Nice gates, even better, and of course Health, Luck and Time

We pretty much got what we wanted, but the compromises were that it needed a lot more work than we wanted, and we underestimated the delays in dealing with french architects, and builders despite having good contacts and referrals. It is also costing more but that is because we did not want to compromise on what we ended up with.
We did all our searching by car and didn't think what journeys on bike or foot would be like, we discovered that though it took 15 minutes to walk to the shop or bar, it took over 30 minutes to walk back up the hill!

[8-|] With all its drudgery and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world.

So now, it's over to you!

[KathyF]

Super post, John. We were looking for a small holiday cottage in Normandy and that's exactly what we ended up with. We couldn't afford a big initial outlay, so were looking for a renovation project and found a farm cottage with sound walls and  a good floor upstairs and the bonus of a new roof, as the old one had been blown off in the big storm of December 1999. This was in February 2003, when this kind of renovation project was flying off the estate agents' shelves. We saw the house one day and the price was so reasonable that we agreed to buy it next morning and signed the compromis de vente the same afternoon!

All the major work has been done over the past 4 years, either by builders or us, but it hasn't cost more than we could afford as we did it gradually.  Now we have a lovely little cottage (with only the interior decoration to be finished) with a big living-room, a new kitchen-diner and downstairs shower-room where the farmer used to keep his tools, and two bedrooms and another shower-room upstairs in the grenier.  All this on 1600m2 in a group of 3 houses next to a very quiet road just outside a tiny village and 10 minutes to a small market town.  What more could anyone want? [:D]

[WJT]

John, your house sounds absolutely gorgeous and perfect! I have fallen in love with it sight unseen.[:)]

We also wanted an old house full of character as you described but was looking for one that needed very little work and a smallish private garden with views and no where near a road (very important). We looked for several years and over a year very seriously and most of the property we looked at always had a problem particularly with situation.

In the end we bought a house that needed a lot of work and land and unfortunately a lot of the character removed in the late 60's and early 70's. So nothing like our brief. [blink] It is a very old house but unfortunately as I said most of the character has been removed and we are painstakingly trying to put it back. The location and situation is what sold us.

Having said all of that, I know there are many here that love new property but for us one of the reasons among many we wanted to come to France is to own a part of the beautiful French history. I love the historic villages and buildings in our part of France and at this stage of our lives would have been very unhappy in this part of France with a new build. So that is something I would have never compromised on.

Having said that, later on in life I can see us in a modern property, perhaps even a flat on the sea but certainly not in deep rural France. Even though our property in some aspects was ruined, there is a real since of history and I adore that. Just hope I can see it completely finished one day!

By the way, I for one would love to see some photos.[:D]

[Patf]

When we were searching we had a list of criteria, and I made a chart with a column for each one. Then after viewing tick the relevant boxes, and the one with the most ticks is the one to go for. But it doesn't really work as some criteria are more important than others. Or you can fall for a place which only ticks one box. Anyway we chose our first house for the setting and views, which were wonderful.  But I never liked the house (1970s pavillon) This was the compromise which soon outweighed the views. We have now moved and I feel much more at home in our current house, and can't think of anything about it that we have compromised on.

[Cendrillon]

[:)]In our holiday home we compromised and chose a house with only one shower room which was downstairs. Six years later we found we could fit in another shower room / loo upstairs and this is brilliant, so now we have two.[:)]

[robkat]

Interesting to hear your compromises! We bought our house 7 years ago & had roughly the same requirements but compromised on location - a rural village, but we have found it very very quiet (almost dead!!) & feel somewhat isolated there - the half hour drive to the shops etc is a bind.  We are going to retire to France but have decided to sell & move to a larger village/small town. The only problem is that we love the house - a 200 year old unspoilt stone place with a beautiful garden.  But we have decided that, at the end of the day, location is top of our list...

Kathy (Brighton & Charente Maritime)