Wow - October 2009 since I last wrote, how time flys when you're having fun! I thought I would put a quick update out there for everyone as today is officially our last day in the UK, I've stripped the bed, tidied the bathroom, emptied the wardrobe, packed the car and it finally feels as though we are clearing out giving both sets of parents their space back - garden space, garage space, store space, spare bedroom space, dining room table space...hmmm it's amazing how much space two people can take up now I come to think of it!
So, most of you will know the story of October 2009 to now, so here it is in a nutshell. When I last wrote we were coming home for Christmas happy in the knowledge that it was just a matter of time before our new house would be ours. There were complications, but we thought that was just par for the course of what a difficult experience buying a house in France is supposed to be. However, sometime in February we decided enough was enough and we really needed to push for a completion date or we may never get into the house. Having been more than laid back up until that point, a little push didn't seem so bad, but the moment we did the Vendor freaked out, she didn't have enough time to get her belongings out...urrr September to February - we thought we'd given her reasonable time, she was stressed, worried...she didn't want to sell. I opened an extremely apologetic and sympathetic email from our agent saying that she wouldn't sell to us and there was nothing we could do about it. February 2010 and we were back to where we were in February 2009...at the beginning - a very worrying place to be.
It took us about 24 hours to stop crying and panicking and to resume fighting position and come up with a plan B, which turned out to be quite a fun plan. We bought Bertha, a double bed, roomy lounge area, tight but perfectly efficient bathroom, lovely hot water and a little kitchen....we were in unknown territory...the forecourt of a caravan dealership. As sales people ourselves, buying things doesn't normally fluster us, but this most certainly did. With £2000 cash as our budget we had to choose from the 'Bargain Basement' section of the forecourt - but a bargain we did find. After a few laughs (from the salemen) when we thought he was talking about a foot pump not a water pump, we finally did a deal and 3 days later collected our new home. Our friends found it just as novel as us and after turning mum's dining room into a sweatshop we did a quick re-fit of the cushion covers and were in France 3 days after that.
Here comes the good bit, we went with 15 viewings booked, on day 1 we saw a couple of ok properties on day 2 in the morning we found out that 2 things we wanted to see had already sold, which worried us slightly - suddenly the middle of rural France had a fast paced property market that seemingly we couldn't keep up with. On day 2 in the afternoon, the agent presented us with a property that we weren't booked to see and we both fell in love. It was the one, and we both knew it straight away. We negotiated and agreed a price on day 3 and unbelievably signed the Compromis de Vente (an exchange) on day 5. So buying a house in France didn't need to be difficult after all, in fact it was so easy that we knew it was all meant to be.
Our property in Vervaux, St. Priest La Plaine, has more land than the last one, just as much building potential for gites, is far more private with a nice driveaway off of the road and is brimming full of established trees, little garden areas and rolling countryside everywhere you look. It is also closer to the motorway and to Limoges Airport. The owners are lovely and so pleased that we bought it, they want to come back to see what we've done with the place. It all feels right. We submitted our 'CU' for change of use on a couple of the barns in preparation for gite renovation in the future and came straight back to the UK to start planning the build and embarking on getting all of our wordly belongings over to France.
March and most of April passed and then we had the good news that the planning was all positive and the owners were keen to sign the deeds over before they went on holiday. And so a couple of trips in hired trucks and a meeting with the Notaire later, we are the proud owners of a new home, significantly poorer in money but much richer in hope and dreams that can finally be realised.
Our internet is not set up in France yet, but I will update you as and when I can.
A Bientot
xxx
