Property search and age

[woolybanana]

Well, the property search is on but questions begin to pose themselves: do I want new build or existing property, what size is needed given the kids are not there except for holidays and, hopefully, some long weekends?

Do I want to wait/ Can I wait 10 to 12 months for a new build?

What about timber frame constructiion, is it any good in France?

Then the dreaded Anno Dominae; is it worth it? I am after all rising 69 and diabetic.

Then inheritance; can I put the house into an assurance vie in the kids name and keep the usufruit?

Is this going to be my last home?

Blahhhh, this is exercising my mind somewhat so any comments welcome, even from Norman.

[Quillan]

Well being a little younger than you it is something that I think about from time to time. My thoughts are that energy costs will increase as will probably the cost of such things as water. Thinking about that do I really want to see my money being spent on all this and is there anything I can do? My conclusion has been that whilst it would be nice to live in a character property it's going to cost me and those costs are going to rise taking an ever bigger chunk out of my pension.

 

Some time back there was a thread on the forum about the new(ish) regulations apertaining to new builds and how they have got closer to a basic 'passive' home where little energy is required to keep you warm in the winter because of the insulation required and the ability to recover heat from air circulated through the house from the outside. The technology behind this is now well established and prices have dropped considerably from the early days. That coupled with recycling water for certain things, low energy LED lighting, geothermal heating (much cheaper to install during a build), solar water heating and possibly solar electricity or even a wind generator all come to mind. All a little more cost initially but the day to day living costs would be significantly lower than living in a nice character property. My decision would therefore tend to lean quite heavily towards a new build embracing all this technology be it timber framed or more traditional (block) type build because I simply don't want to be handing over my pension to somebody else just to keep warm in the winter etc. Alternatively of course you could move out of France to a warmer climate although I feel I have a medium understanding of France and I quite like it here.

[NormanH]

In a rush so I will add more later...

Given that you are ageing and  in increasingly poor health which drink and senility are doing nothing to improve:

1) I would buy near an excellent medical centre (in my cases Montpellier for barrel 1 and Toulouse  barrel 2)

2) Plan to live on the ground floor

3) Somewhere that doesn't require the ability to drive, or need a car.

4) Just a patio where you can place a few pots and a table and chairs not a garden that needs upkeep and bending etc.

With diabetes your feet and eyes could go.

[woolybanana]

Thank you, Norman, right to the heart of the matter. Pretty much along the lines I had in mind. And good thoughts too, Quillan. Thank you.

Not so sure about the drink and the senility though! Still, you needed to get one in, Norman, after all this time!!!

Your bits all in order, are they?

[Gardengirl]

Much of the above is in line with my thinking; we own a modern apartment in France and intend to downsize in England at some stage - the sooner the better according to my husband, when thinking of the garden!

I wouldn't choose the ground floor for my apartment though - it does seem that those on the ground floor can be less secure than those higher up. Our building has just 3 floors, ground, 1st and 2nd, which we live on. I wouldn't want to live on a higher floor in case the lift broke down, and knees don't improve with age. We have a lift here, which has only broken down once in 7+ years. However, 2 residents were unable to get out and about for a day.

Any shutters should be electrically operated, as should any awning; winding the 2 non-electric shutters in our apartment is a definite pain in the elbow.

[mint]

As you yourself have noted, Wools, Norman has it all pretty much summed up[:D][:P]

I can't comment or begin to answer most of your questions but I do have something to say about "wooden build" and that comment can be summed up in one word, NO.

With wooden build, you'd still need a traditional foundation, easily one of the most expensive and "slow" stages of a new build.  Still got to come up off the ground and that's identical for traditional or wood build.

The only type of wood build I'd consider is one of those super-slick German houses where they bring the whole thing direct from Germany and everything slots together like lego.  Otherwise, the local ones are not worth even considering.

I don't know about the behaviour of wood in the damp and cold conditions in northern France or the Belgium border where you have talked of basing yourself, but even here, in the warm and sunny and relatively dry south west, the wood soon turns into a dingy looking grey mass.  OH has a young friend (from his ping pong club) who had just such a house built 2 to 3 years ago and, although the wood was supposed to be pre-treated, he now has to put some lasure or similar all over the house to stop it looking like someone's neglected garden shed.

We also have a notable termite problem but, again, I am not sure whether that is applicable to where you are going.

The definitive deterrent, for me anyway, would be the possible difficulty of selling should you need to.  The market for traditional houses is depressed enough so why stack the odds against yourself?

Make things easy for yourself and, as long as you can afford it, don't worry too much about costs.  Do you really want to wait a year and more for an eco new build when you could simply buy a nice, convenient house that you could move into straightaway and start enjoying yourself? 

Pommier might come along and tell you about buying land to build on; she'd have recent information.

As for size, certainly have a guest bedroom if you want to but, unless your family are going to be coming several times a year, it'd almost be cheaper (and certainly more convenient) to put them up in a nearby B n B and still get to spend time with them AFTER breakfast (when you have slept off the excesses of the night before) and feel respectable enough to be the grandpa you'd surely want them to remember.

[suein56]

[quote user="mint"]As you yourself have noted, Wools, Norman has it all pretty much summed up[:D][:P][/quote]

I can only agree [:)][:)]

[quote user="mint"]As for size, certainly have a guest bedroom if you want to but, unless your family are going to be coming several times a year, it'd almost be cheaper (and certainly more convenient) to put them up in a nearby B n B and still get to spend time with them AFTER breakfast (when you have slept off the excesses of the night before) and feel respectable enough to be the grandpa you'd surely want them to remember. [/quote]

Good thinking; though OH and I do find having the space afforded by having a spare room, which doubles as my office, is useful for us as we spread out in our (increasingly) old age.

Have you thought about giving your offspring their just desserts now and you renting ? parsnips is the doyen to speak to.

A goodly number of our older French friends have given away their capital to their offspring, who have then bought their parents a (very nice) home; where the parents pay only the normal everyday bills. I presume, in this latter case, any major bills would be paid by the offspring (as in a landlord/tenant scenario). Though this rarely seems to occur as the properties are usually new or very newish.

Sue

[Judith]

I had a timber frame house in Winchester, once, long ago ;-), and it was probably the cosiest place I've had.  Relatively modern still when I bought it, and no real problems.

Location for if you are unable to drive is high on my list, also.

[woolybanana]

Thanks, guys and gals, much appreciated; very much like the idea of getting kids to buy it. And it would be under the limit I think. Will see about that this week.