A Christmas Up-Date

We had not expected any need to post again until I returned to Arné in mid-January. However, we had an unexpected Christmas present in the form of an e-mail from our builder with several photos of the house attached; these are the ones posted above.

And you may understand our delight at receiving these as the progress made over the two weeks since we returned to the UK is very clearly visible. Virtually the whole of the western end of the house has now had the main structure of the roof rebuilt. The next step will be to put an impermeable membrane in place and then the laths on which the tiles will be laid. And then the tiles themselves can be laid – the new tiles have already been delivered to the house.

So at this rate of progress it would seem Jean Claude’s statement that this part of the roof will be complete by the time I make my January visit is likely to be fulfilled. And that will mean we have a dry area in which to start the next steps in the restoration.

Now it all starts!

Having agreed to a quote and a start date with our French builder we decided to return to Arné to celebrate the commencement of the work on the house. All the stories indicated to us that we might well find that the promises to start would be broken. But quite the reverse has happened. We arrived to discover that the work had already commenced; part of the roof had had the tiles removed. And promptly on Monday as promised Jean Claude appeared and continued the process of removing the tiles – the broken ones are thrown away and those that are complete are stored for use back on the restored roof, which will give it an old look.

The next day having completed the work at the front we set to and took down all the trees that grew close to the back of the house. The most difficult was the very large pine that can be seen in the original photos of the house in the earliest postings. But Jean Claude was not daunted and he got it down and then cut it up into useful slices which we have stored to the side of the garden at the back. We also had a bonfire to get rid of all the useless spare wood. The difference made by all these changes can be seen in the photos at the top.

And then the process of stripping off the tiles proceeded at the back so that in the end there were no tiles at the western end of the house. The next step though was far more difficult; the problem of the wall that’s falling down reared its ugly head. With the removal of the roof the strength holding the wall up would be significantly reduced with the very real possibility that it would collapse. So, Jean Claude jammed three acrow props against the wall – see the picture above – and then also put strengthening concrete with iron reinforcement at two places across the crack, the pictures above show this.

And then the weather intervened – rain is a problem for roofing as it makes all movement across the roof extremely dangerous. We went for a visit to Biarritz where the weather proved to be beautiful. And when we returned we discovered that despite the rain Jean Claude had actually continued with his efforts on the roof stripping away the wood. A further day’s work has resulted in all the western end of the roof being removed so that there is effectively nothing left except the walls – as the pictures demonstrate. The next step was to create a reinforcing ring beam of concrete at the top of all the walls prior to the process of rebuilding the roof. Jean Claude was able to do this across most of the front of the house before the weather once again turned nasty with high winds and lashing rain. It was fortunate that he had managed this part of the work as he had stated to me that this area of wall was wobbly and could come down in a storm – the concrete reinforcement held throughout three days of abominable weather so we are confident that progress will continue without a collapse.

Jean Claude stated that if the weather holds sufficiently then he confidently expects that the roof for this part will be fully renovated by the middle/end of January and we shall be able to commence the internal works on this part to make it habitable enough for our use. We shall see!!

The other bit of progress has been the provision by EDF of a temporary electrical connexion on the post nearest to the house. Howard the electrician contacted EDF and despite the recent strikes managed to make the necessary arrangements. The next step which he will undertake is for a cable to be run from this temporary box to a board in the pigsties allowing equipment, and possibly the caravan, to be plugged in. We left before this could take place as the weather prevented any work on the electrics.

Notwithstanding this somewhat doubting comment about the timescale for the completion of the roof, it has been so encouraging to be here and witness the progress being made so rapidly. And when the weather has been so good as it has been, it has served only to reinforce our view that this will be the most wonderful place to have as our home.

And now a Date!!

Having waited for what has seemed such a long time all is now progressing apace. I have accepted the Devis from Jean-Claude and today - Thursday 8 November – went with him to a builders’ merchant in Boulogne-sur-Gesse to set up an account. He will draw down the materials which he has identified, and which are therefore part of the account, and on a monthly basis I’ll be billed and have to pay within a month – all very civilised. And Jean-Claude has stated that he will start on site on Monday 26 November. Prior to that materials will be delivered and he now has a key to the padlock on the gate – he’s very concerned about the possibility that some of the material might be stolen and therefore wants the site to be as secure as possible.

I have, whilst all this has been going on, continued to try to clear the site of the rubbish/material that has come out of the house. The pictures above show the way in which I stored this material as it came out of the house and then the situation as it now stands. I’ve made numerous visits to the Dechetterie, almost becoming friends with the men who work there! Not the least reason is that I am still very poor at reversing my trailer into position to tip the material into the skips and they direct me with enormous patience so that I get it right ………… eventually.

I am to meet an electrician, whom I’ve met previously, on Saturday to discuss his involvement in the project. It will help enormously if he can at least get a temporary supply from EDF into the site, and he seems confident that this can happen. Hopefully we can agree an outline Devis for the work, though at this stage it’s difficult to be absolutely precise as decisions on exactly where sockets will go will emerge as the house comes together. But I think it will be possible to agree an outline of what we are to do and therefore the timescale and the costs.

After this meeting I shall return to the UK. And then we shall both return to Arné (leaving the puppy in kennels) to be on site when Jean-Claude starts the work. As I said to him we wish to be here to celebrate the actual commencement of the work which will eventually lead to a habitable dwelling. And we shall return to the UK some time pre-Christmas to have a family celebration of that event.

It should perhaps be noted that although I have been incredibly frustrated with the apparent slowness of the pace at which everything has happened, our experience is actually quite fast. Talking with a number of people here it is evident that there are people who have had to wait up to three years to obtain a Permis, and that hedged around with all sorts of restrictions. So we have been fortunate to have made the progress we have, though it has felt quite different experiencing it!

And now – a builder.

After all the time we’ve waited it now seems as if we might make some rapid progress; let’s not let hopes rise too far too fast! I have pursued some of the leads that I established over summer and have been visited by two of these. The second of whom showed up with a Devis – a quotation – which he had prepared in August, but didn’t pass on. I’ve seen the quality of his work on another house in the village and it is excellent so I would be happy to employ him.

More importantly he can start at the end of November and can cover all aspects of the tasks ahead of us in terms of roofing, masonry and flooring. And with all of this he’s also provided a very thorough Devis which gives a figure significantly cheaper than any we’ve had up to now. So all in all he seems by far the best option so I shall engage with him. And we can expect work to commence pre-Christmas which should mean that some protection will be afforded to the house before the worst of the winter sets in, which seems to happen here in mid-January.

With this progress achieved I shall now return to the UK for a couple of weeks to then return to Arné and be on site when the builder starts. I will also act as his labourer when I can – which offer surprised him. But it will help the work to go forward more quickly with an extra pair of hands and we want to feel directly involved in the whole project.

So, a very positive message at last.

A Permis …………………. at last!

[Three posts written but not put on the site owing to the difficulties of accessing the internet. I wrote them on my laptop and place them here now without alteration to demonstrate how the project has progressed.]

Well, it’s taken an inordinate time but at last we have been granted the Permis de Construire that we’ve been waiting for. We received a letter from the Mairie informing us that the Permis and its “arrêté” are awaiting us when we can collect it. Of course, the Permis is based upon revised plans which take into account the fact that we must not demolish the barn as planned and also that we cannot have four roof-lights at the back but just two dormers. Both of these will add to the costs of the renovation; but hey no matter, now we can start to think in terms of progress on the building.

So, back to Arné to collect the formal notification of the Permis. But life is now complicated by the fact that we have acquired a puppy and she requires rabies injections for her to be able to travel freely between the UK and France. This takes time to come into effect; and so Joanne has to stay in the UK to look after the puppy whilst I have come to Arné to try to engage with builders/roofers with the hope that I can get things moving prior to winter setting in.

And given our luck, or planning, or understanding of France it should come as no surprise that my arrival should coincide with a saint’s day holiday in France. The result of which is that no shops are open – dinner has been a sparse affair – and no one is available to talk to about the possibility of quoting for the work we want to have done.

Despite all of which, delight in the physical situation of the house is such that it doesn’t seem to matter. Take a look at the pictures above which demonstrate some of the beautiful scenery to see why we want to be in this house in this part of the world. Let’s hope that we can indeed persuade builders/roofers to do the work we want and let us start to enjoy the benefits of such a wonderful part of the world.

Permis, what Permis???

This post starts with the view that I wrote at the start of the latest visit, it then takes into account what happened at the end of the stay. Things change!

This was to be a short visit prompted by the possibility of meeting the builder who having been let down on a previously organised job might be able to start work prior to winter. I ‘phoned when I arrived and yes he could, and indeed did, turn up. He’d been here before and looked at the house from the outside and had the architect’s plans; so this was a chance for him to see the inside and make a fuller judgment.

As the fifth person to have a close look at the troublesome wall it was interesting to see how he made his judgment. And his view is unequivocally that the wall is eminently rescuable and can be held in place by the structure for the roof that he proposes. This is very similar to the solution offered by the two other builders who say that it can be saved. Overall he was encouraging about the task of undertaking the repairs, and when we talked through the timescales indicated that he could get me a quote before I leave again. Also that he could start the work in late October/early November and therefore be well underway prior to the onset of the worst of the winter. We shall see!

Other than that I did a deal more of clearing out of the house to remove all of the straw and hay that was stored at first floor level at the eastern end of the house. This constituted a substantial fire hazard as well as obscuring the state of the floors making it impossible to judge where it was safe to walk. Moving it in the temperatures I experienced was very hard work – hot and stuffy as well as very dusty. Fortunately I had some face masks available so that I did not inhale too much of the dust occasioned by the clearing process. And I was able to move all the straw/hay onto our field as shown by the picture above. Our neighbour enquired whether I intended to burn it – it would be unbelievably dangerous to do this as the material is completely dry and would fly everywhere – and I said absolutely not, it would rot down in due course. She seemed a little disappointed in this answer!

Other than that I’ve re-sprayed the courtyard at the front with weed-killer to keep that under control. No doubt it will re-grow again before we return some time in autumn but it’s worth trying to stop it getting completely overgrown.

And I made a visit to Biarritz to have a day off and just to see how long it took. It’s actually about 150 km and takes less than two hours to get into the centre of the town. There were surfers even though the weather was rather calm and they made it look all so easy that I immediately wanted to have a go. However, I’ve no doubt that I’d make a complete prat of myself if I did try it. But those visitors younger and fitter than I am will doubtless enjoy themselves enormously having a go at it.

And at that point all seemed well. And then I decided to look in on the Mairie as the architect had informed me that I should expect a letter from it formally confirming the Permis de Construire. Since I had received nothing and there was no sign on the notice-board outside a visit seemed a sensible idea.

How to contain my frustration at this point?? The secretary was helpful but a little baffled that there wasn’t a notification. She ‘phoned the Departmental authorities who informed her that there is a problem over the open-sided barn which we have planned to demolish. And it would seem that despite having had a letter that states we have authorisation as from the end of July in the absence on any further communication (which we haven’t received) we actually don’t have such authorisation! It would seem that the Departmental architect is having second thoughts about the demolition of the barn. But he’s not got round to informing us about this. So, I am told very firmly that I don’t have a Permis, absolutely no work should be done on the house and there’s no indication of what time-scale we are now expected to work to.

Given that none of the builders has actually got round to quoting on the work there’s no real problem in all of this – no work is going to happen any way! But to say that I am angry and frustrated is to put the least construction on my feelings. How we proceed at this point is any one’s guess. I shall retire to England to take advice and think it through. One feeling is that since I have the strong suspicion that the reversal of the decision is the result of the intervention of the Maire, whose parents are the next-door neighbours, I shall simply leave the house to rot away to nothing becoming a permanent blight on the face of the village and affecting his family’s property most directly. Childish and unhelpful I’m sure; but bitterness at the ridiculous twists of the bureaucratic process engendering feelings of hopeless rage can result in such thoughts.

An August Posting

Where to begin?? This is going to sound much the same as the previous post and the one before that because ……. progress is slow to non-existent. Once again I’ve spent time in Arné pottering around the house doing various, hopefully useful, things but in reality awaiting the attentions of builders. I have had further visits from builders and talked through the issues and therefore what they can or can’t do. Two possible English builders visited and seemed knowledgeable and willing but in the end they have dropped out on the basis that the job is too big for them. Another potential English builder has been introduced to me and he is keen to find a biggish job to replace one where he has been let down by the people for whom he was going to work. But despite promises he has not re-contacted me so I’ve no idea what the situation is with him.

The French builder alluded to in the last posting has returned and is apparently quite enthusiastic about taking on the job. He showed me some of his work that he’s done on a house in the village for another English couple and it is of a very high quality indeed. I’d be more than happy to employ him on that basis. But, and there always seems to be a but, despite promises he’s not provided me with a quote nor given me any indication of when he might start work other than to assert that he can start prior to winter setting in. I shall have to contact him again to prompt him on all of this and even then I do wonder whether I shall get a quote with a start date!

The one bright moment in all this gloom is that I have been informed by the architect that the Permis has been granted as from the end of July. I should have received a letter formally stating this but the architect was informed that the Mairie is ‘a bit behind with the post/letters’ and so I’ll receive it ‘sometime soon’. That was three weeks ago and I’ve received nothing so far. But despite this lack of a formal confirmatory letter I do actually have permission and could proceed, if only I could get builders to do the work!

So what I’ve done is carry on with the business of clearing out the rubbish from the house and from the courtyard to enable easier access to the house as a whole. Not terribly satisfying as it feels like marking time rather than getting on with the work that really needs to be done. Some of the results can be seen above – the picture showing the courtyard taken from the first floor of the house shows that all the earth from the wall that collapsed and was put outside has been removed to our field. In the centre of the house I’ve taken out all the dangerously positioned tiles, pushed tiles into better positions to take rain away and cleared away the beds, the wardrobe and the chest of drawers which had been left there. This means that this area is no longer so dangerous and is ready for any builder/roofer to set to work on it immediately.

I’m now back in the UK as out of the blue an offer to good to refuse has been made on my house here. So it’s a matter of organising a purchase of another, cheaper house and carrying out all the necessary to enable a move to be made. At the end of all of that we shall be able to finance all the building works very much more easily than would have been the case. But of course being in the UK means that I cannot so easily ‘pursue’ builders to try to get them started on the work.

What a load of moans! But it is very trying on the patience. Given that we shall both be retired from work at the beginning of October we shall be able to concentrate all our attentions on the house in Arné and this may/should mean that we can ensure better progress; at least I hope so!

A July Up-date

I returned to Arné a bit later than originally intended but full of hope that with the Permis close to being granted I could get on with the business of confirming some dates with the various artisans to work on the house. I should have known better!

Of course everybody I’ve talked to has warned me of the difficulties in making anything approaching reasonable, let alone swift, progress. And so it has proved. Builders who’ve visited previously have simply been unobtainable or have promised to visit but haven’t, leading to frustrating days of hanging around to no purpose. One set of builders who did visit were quite encouraging but are so busy that they cannot quote for a date before next year – this is of no use whatsoever given the advanced state of collapse the house is now in. And completely out of the blue another French builder has recently visited and says he will contact me on my return from the brief visit I’m making to the UK – he’s done work in the village for another English couple and is quite keen to work for the English; I’ll see how this pans out.

I have made some progress on my own behalf. I have many a visit to the local tip – the Dechetterie – with my trailer and disposed of a lot of rubbish from the house. I’ve also knocked down the pig-sties nearest the house in order to prepare for the work on the end wall – see the pictures above. Not as easy as it sounds as it was put together with what I call ‘amateur mortar’ – that is, made with a much stronger mix than a builder would have used and therefore impossibly hard to break up. In the temperatures we’ve been enjoying this has made for a very hard task indeed. How much further I go with this depends upon the builder who eventually takes the task on – there is a great difference of opinion about whether the end wall actually needs to come down and be replaced; presently this stands at two who would remove it and replace against two who would patch up and strengthen around it.

And I’ve spent an age in, frankly, ‘displacement activity’; that is I’ve cleaned up the second of the gates and then painted it over with anti-rust paint. With all the curls of metal-work this is a task that seemed to take forever. But the results are good as the picture above shows and though I can characterise it as a displacement, the reality is that to have replaced the gates with equivalents would cost around £500; so worth doing I guess. The other comment to make is that as it the task was conducted on the edge of the road it led to regular interruptions from passing neighbours who wanted to talk about the state of the house, what I’m doing, which artisans I will have to do the work, the state of the weather, the harvest, and so on. Pleasant in that it enables me to get to know more of my neighbours, but frustrating as it demonstrates very clearly to me how poor my command of French really is.

I must say though the inexplicable delays that seem to be a normal part of being here are certainly testing my patience. I fear that if this gets to be too much I could well be tempted to call it a day with this project and look to spend my retirement in other more enjoyable ways. Perhaps the comment of someone fed up with the lack of progress and an unwillingness to fight through French bureaucracy and apparent indolence. We’ll see how this evolves!

A Very Little Progress

As noted in the last posting we were firmly informed by the Maire that we must not undertake any work on the house. However, the alternative view from the architect is that of course we can carry out repairs and we decided that we would, with caution, follow the latter advice.

So we have made a start on clearing the courtyard at the front of the house to make access for the car easier. Originally it’s clear that this area was covered in pebbles of varying sizes and this would have been kept clear of all vegetation. But over the years weeds and grass have established themselves and collected earth as well. With every passage of the car over this area the earth has got churned up and the area is turning into a muddy morass. This was made more likely by the fact that the weather has been unseasonably wet – we ‘enjoyed’ some amazing storms. In the event our efforts only cleared a relatively small area including the splay in front of the gate.

We also purchased a trailer and I also found a place where I can buy gravel and sand at very low prices – much better than the various builders hypermarkets. So I’ve loaded up the trailer a couple of times and put the gravel into the splay and created tracks for the car to stand on as well. This has improved the muddiness factor significantly. I’ve also cleaned up one of the gates to see if it can be rescued and have painted a goodly portion of it. Some of this can be seen in the photo above.

I have also worked with chaux for the first time. This is chalk render which is recommended for working with earth walls. It creates a waterproof outer coat but allows the earth wall to breathe and thereby lets the rising damp transpire out of it. Using this I have repaired most of the major cracks in the front wall thus stopping the water penetration that is the most significant factor in causing the walls to deteriorate. Hopefully with the weather improving with these repairs in place the house will not suffer further significant damage at the front. The picture of the front of the house above shows some of the repairs.

Upstairs at the eastern end of the house I have started clearing out the very substantial amount of straw and hay which litters the floors. This is both a fire hazard and a ‘falling through’ hazard – that is you can’t be sure what’s underneath the straw/hay and could put your foot through a hole where the water has caused the floor boards to rot. The problem is what to do with this material – something I’ve not yet worked out though I suspect I’ll use it for composting on our field in front.

And talking of the field we have been fortunate in that our immediate neighbours offered to and then actually did mow the grass in it using their tractors. The grass had got to be well over two feet high and we were rather despairing about what we should do with it. Having mowed it they also took away the cut grass to feed to their milking herd of cattle so there were mutual benefits in this work. But we shall have to invest in a sit-on mower to help keep the field in shape. And in due course we want to plant it up as an orchard with fruit trees such as peaches, pears and cherries.

I did also discover the local “dechetterie” and make my first visit. This is the local rubbish dump and I disposed of all the metal items I took out of the house in my visit in February. I can see that I shall be making many visits with my trailer to get rid of the substantial amounts of material which will be generated by all the work we shall be doing.

So not a great deal of progress really. But at least we feel that we are moving forward still and as I said at the end of the last posting, we are still optimistic that we can make the important work that will preserve the structure of the house happen prior to winter.

Planning

Having arrived and got settled in the next step was to determine how far the whole planning process had got. So on the first Saturday we went to the Mairie – it’s only open Tuesday and Saturday mornings for a couple of hours. There we had the good fortune to meet with the Maire himself and attempted to discover from him what stage our request for a Permis de Construire had got to.

He had reviewed it and passed it on to the next stage – the DDE in Lannemezan. As far as he was concerned it was all OK except for one detail which he described but I simply could not understand. We were rescued from the impasse by the arrival of a lady who also lives in the village – she’s French but has taught in England for a number of years and has an English husband. She resolved the matter which is that the Maire would like us to retain the wooden trellis work at the top of the barn wall facing on to the road. We indicated that this would not be a problem as far as we are concerned.

So far so good and we were feeling quite positive. But he then told us that it would be the end of August before the Permis could be granted. Further we absolutely must not touch the fabric of the building at all. Not even repairs can be contemplated. Everything has to be left strictly alone. This is most unwelcome news, not least as I had agreed with the roofer that he would start on the house in July.

So we paid a visit to said roofer and told him the sad news. He was quite sanguine about this alteration, having had experience in France, and therefore accepting it as ‘normal’. I also spoke with the architect who, by contrast, got very fired up. He stated that the Permis ought to come through in July at the latest if all was well with the submission and that of course we can carry out repairs, it is alterations we cannot undertake. He agreed to ‘phone the DDE and find out exactly what progress had been made. But when he ‘phoned the person dealing with the submission was on holiday and once again the process stretched out. I finally heard from the architect only after I arrived back in England that the submission is regarded as complete and that all being well the Permis will be granted as at the end of July.

Subsequently I’ve received a letter from the DDE repeating this message – that is that I have “autorisation tacite” as from the end of July. There is however, a but to this. In a subsequent paragraph which I cannot fully understand there is a statement that as there is a referral to an external body – this relates to the septic tank – it may be that planning might not be actually given. If therefore I proceed with the works it could be that I’ll have to undo them under what appear to be some severe penalties. Obviously I shall have to clarify this and will call on the services of number one son who studied French at university.

Despite these caveats I do feel that we have made some progress – the submission is not going to be referred back which would have put the whole process back to the beginning, i.e. another three months from a re-submission. So it could well be that I do achieve a roof on the house with walls repaired and the ground floor sorted out prior to the onset of the winter. We keep our fingers crossed on that score.

The Journey

So finally we got round to towing the caravan to the house having decided to have it made ready at our own expense and then hope to recover some of the money via the solicitors (a rapidly disappearing hope). In the hurry to get to the ferry at Dover I very nearly killed us by causing the caravan to fish-tail as we passed a slightly slower lorry - how we got out of it I still don't know, nor frankly care to relive the experience to try to work it out.

Thereafter it took three days to complete the journey as I played it extra cautious. And we had a salutary warning when on day 2 we came upon the aftermath of an accident where a caravan had clearly fish-tailed turning itself onto the side and causing the car to crash into the central crash barrier. Fortunately it looked as if the people involved had escaped without personal injury. But it certainly reinforced the message to me that I should be careful.

Thus we were mightily relieved eventually to reach Arné in the afternoon of the third day. But of course nothing is easy and we arrived to discover that the road ouside the house was being resurfaced and access to it therefore was blocked. Oh the frustration! However, I managed to talk with the guy in charge of the team and he arranged it such that we could drive to the house. The downside of this of course was that we would be observed trying to get the caravan onto the courtyard by the whole road-laying crew.

Miraculously I managed to drive simply straight onto the courtyard with no hitch whatsoever, much to my relief. We then went off to purchase essential supplies and returned later, by which time the crew had disappeared. And then we sweated over getting the caravan into the position we wanted it to finally sit in. Said thus it sounds so easy. In fact we spent a good hour going backwards and forwards, slipping and sliding in the mud, hitching up and then unhitching and moving the car around or the caravan manually until, just as we were beginning to despair, it simply went in between the posts of the open-sided barn and into place. If you look at the picture above you'll see how tight the fit actually is.

The next issue was to provide ourselves with water, gas and electricity. In the case of water the problem was that someone had stolen the tap on the pipe from the mains! Unbelievable, as it couldn't be worth anything, but of course I had to replace it to be able to use the mains supply easily. For the gas we needed a French distributor to fit onto the bottles and only when we got this back to the caravan did we find that the caravan has push-fit fittings and the French system is based on screw-in fittings. So more explorations in the hardware supermarkets and we got something that would work. But that wasn't the end of my troubles as I couldn't get the fittings to screw into the gas bottle we'd purchased. So I took the bottle plus fitting back to the garage where I'd bought the gas. And all it was is that in the case of gas bottles the fittings are screwed in counter-clockwise - the man at the garage clearly thought that I was absolutely mad and incompetent; a very perceptive man therefore!

And for electricity we purchased a small generator. This worked first time and has proved very effective; albeit that it is expensive as a way to have power as well as noisy.

But with all of these things in place we could be comfortable and dry, cook for ourselves and begin to get on with the tasks in hand.

Frustration & Encouragement

The problems with the caravan continue to plague the project. Basically I've spent the last month kicking my heels in the UK trying to make sense of what the lawyers are trying to do to sort it out. As a consequence no physical progress has been made on the ground in France.

However, we have had quotes and responses from the tradesmen I talked with when I was in Arné and having checked these with the architect it would seem that they are at a reasonable level. So we now have some sense of the order of the costs that the overall works will amount to. I shall get further quotes to make the necessary comparisons and have some bargaining space though.

And the architect has also produced plans at the final stage prior to submission to obtain the Permis de Construire. This is the encouraging bit! As part of the submission there has to be an indication of what the outcome of the project will be and this is what the two pictures attached to this post show - compare these to the picture in very first posting.

Just like that it's all completed - we wish! But it is good to have a view of how it could/should all look when we get to the end of the long haul that this project will undoubtedly be.

And with that thought I shall now 'phone the solicitors to see what, if any, progress has been made to sort out the caravan. Let's hope that I can meet the new deadline I've set myself of setting off with a caravan at the end of April.

Further Work

A note on the remainder of my week in France. I carried on the process of clearing out the house - there's a huge amount of junk left in it from the time when it was actually occupied as a residence as opposed to be being used as a farm building. I've turned up all sorts of things in the course of the clearing out - pictures, letters, tax returns, postcards from someone in a German prisoner-of-war camp, a very large iron crucifix - but most of it is just junk and needs to be thrown away. This does, however, take an inordinate amount of time.

The good news is that I've discovered that the house is already connected to the mains water supply. I went to the offices of the water company to enquire about being connected and when I gave the information on the previous owners was told that there is already a meter in place and would I therefore sign up as the person to whom the bills would be sent in future. So I went back to the house and had a root around and I have indeed discovered the meter and the stopcock which supplies water to a tap on the outside of the house at the front. So one problem solved.

I have also met and talked with my next-door neighbour - an elderly gentleman who seems to have a substantial extended family living with him. Very hard to understand him as he speaks with a pronounced local accent and has a cigarette in the corner of his mouth which doesn't help his diction! But he's interested and supportive of the idea that the house should be rescued and not troubled by foreigners doing it.

I have also agreed with the roofer who lives in the village that he will do the restoration on the main house roof and he said that he would start that in July - of course we need to hope that planning has been granted by then, although there seems to be an attitude that even without it everything would be OK!

I also met with an electrician who is going to quote me for the work that's needed and he's prepared to deal with EDF to get a supply in right away. The problem with this is that EDF may well regard the house as a building site not a habitation and that involves the supply being provided in a different way at the start, which can be somewhat expensive.

Finally I met with a local mason who looked at the wall at the western end of the house. After some consideration he decided that it would be safest to take it down and replace it with a block wall - it might even work out cheaper to do it that way. He was accompanied by a guy who runs an earth-moving business and he will also quote for pulling the earth back at the back of the house and removing the internal ground floors to a depth to allow for concrete flooring to be laid. It was both interesting and amusing to watch how they inflated the jobs that they saw themselves taking on and quoting for as we moved around the house. We'll see what quotes they come up with - the warning given by all in France is that French builders think that they can charge absolutely top rates to all Brits involved in restoration works.

The saddest part of this end of the visit was that I intended to give myself a break on Sunday and may be go over to Spain for a little light shopping in the very cheap supermarkets just over the border. But I decided to look in on the house for perhaps a couple of hours' final tidying up. And it was a good job that I did for the internal wall that is in poor state had decided to collapse yet further, threatening the props holding up the floors above, which in turn are helping to hold up the remnants of the roof in that area. The attached pictures show the situation I found when I got to the house and what I had achieved by the end of the day. Encouragingly where the earth wall is dry it is frankly as hard as concrete - I had to break it up with a lump hammer and cold chisel to create movable sized pieces.

So a mixed picture by the end of the week - real progress with the architect and in some of the clearing out, quotes awaited from the artisan and concerns about further collapses (which could be dangerous) if the weather remains wet. But on the latter point another neighbour who visited said - 300 days of sunshine is what the village experiences, so pretty soon it has to start getting better!

The Work Commences

Despite the lack of a caravan, see the last posting, I went to Arné for a week and the central purpose was to meet with the architect. So at the start of the week I spent my days clearing away rubble, etc to make the site as safe as possible for us to explore it fully and thereby be able to draw up the necessary plans. The scale of the problem is aptly demonstrated by the attached picture which shows what has happened in the centre of the house where the roof has fallen in and the weathering has reduced part of one of the internal walls to a muddy heap covered with the tiles that have fallen through.

Part of the concern that the architect expressed is that all the walls made out of earth have so little stone/pebbles in their structure and as many of them have been and are still exposed to the elements he cannot be sure as to their long term durability. There's a particular issue with the external wall at the western end of the house which is badly affected with a large area where the wall is disappearing. The architect asked that I have it assesed by a local mason to see whether it could be rescued or would it need to be pulled down and replaced by a new block-work wall, which would of course be covered with limestone plaster (chaux) to make it look the same as the rest of the house.

It's also apparent that we shall have to take down the open-sided barn on the eastern side of the property. It would require a huge amount of work to make it safe and it's not really an option (see the attached picture to get an idea of the problems). We don't need the barn and don't want to convert it to a gite; and removing it would also make restoring the main roof that much easier as we could reuse the tiles to replace those broken or missing. So the architect is going to enquire about getting a demolition order and this may be on a Déclaration de Travaux which is much simpler. In fact he thinks that we might be able to do most of the work on a set of Déclarations if the Maire is agreeable, but this is unlikely as there is so much that needs to be done. Still it's apparently worth a try.

The architect's visit also included a meeting with the man responsible for checking the viability of septic tanks - the rules have been very much tightened up recently. In fact his view is that there's absolutely no problem with this and we actually filled out the forms there and then so that they will go through with the main planning application without a problem.

So, good progress at that stage and much encouragement.

Caravan, what Caravan?

The confidence that everything was and would proceed smoothly from now on has been rudely shattered. Yes we have a caravan and superficially it looks fine - a reasonable purchase. But on closer inspection by a local company serious flaws emerge into the light of day - it has not got a water pump and the burner for the water heater system is shot. Most significantly it has a small gas leak somewhere inside and this renders it totally unsafe to use.

So we are now into the business of trying to resolve this - as the trader who sold it me has said - "See you in court then!" And this completely screws up our planning for the next steps - notwithstanding the caravan issue I have to be in Arné to meet the architect next week.

So it's a stay in B & B with an English couple quite close to Arné for me - much more comfortable than the caravan - but only for the week, so the amount of progress is likely to be quite small. Then it's back home to try to resolve the caravan position and whenever that has happened I'll tow it, or a replacement, out and stay for a substantial period to push on with the work.

Keep watching this space!

Some Progress

A period of preparation is beginning to come to an end and the hard work will soon commence.

As noted in the last posting we have had to do a bit of research around the issue of an architect - it's a matter of costs, but when was it anything other for building projects?? The result of our efforts is that we have engaged a Scottish architect who is resident in France and therefore knows the demand of planning regulations and the expectations that the 'authorities' have. I shall meet with him at the house at the end of February to sort out what we want to do to the house so that he can draw the plans and make the submission for the Permis de Construire and also for the installation of the the Fosse Septique. He has indicated that he will submit these plans by mid March and the reasonable expectation is that we shall be able to proceed two months from that date. We shall see!

I've also acquired a caravan which I shall be towing to the house in time for the meeting with the architect. This will allow me to stay on site and start the clearance of the debris, weeding the courtyard at the front, sorting out the provision of electricity, telephone and water supplies and possibly the repair of the roof. The latter might just require the Permis de Construire to be agreed prior to starting though I am hoping that this won't be the case. We'll know better once we have talked with the Maire as part of this first meeting.

So very soon I shall be donning my French beret under my hard hat and setting about the first stages in the project to restore the house to a habitable state. Because of the lack of internet connexion and the lack of power this may be the last posting until mid April when I return to the UK, it depends on whether I feel moved to use an internet cafe to report the latest position. So read and then imagine me in my little caravan in deepest France wrestling with French bureaucracy and attempting to keep warm.

Ownership!

After all the effort of pursuing the immobilier and the Notaire since April 2006 we went to France expecting there to be yet further problems and therefore hold-up. But nothing of the sort happened. Instead the week has gone quite smoothly.

The first hurdle was to open a bank account with a French bank. In this we are very fortunate that there is a bank which has recognised the influx of Brits and set up a special division to deal with them. So we had an adviser who spoke good english and took us efficiently through the process to set the account up. In her own words, the French love their bureaucracy, and I had to produce twelve different bits of paper to prove that I wasn't trying to launder money and am a solid citizen! No matter, the account has been established so that I can use this to make life much easier in dealing with French builders, etc.

Next was the signing for the house itself. Again we are fortunate in that the seller was English but speaks good French added to the fact that the Notaire had studied in the USA and also had good language skills. So the process was efficient and at the end of it I have the vital bits of paper that prove that I own the house.

The major disappointment for this visit relates to the question of submitting the plans for the renovation. It's clear that we shall have to spend some time working out how we are going to do this. The main issue being the costs of using a French architect with the scale fees that they are likely to charge. Some research needed here!

But progress at last after all this time. The whole visit proved to us that being in this area is what we want. The weather was simply stunning - shirt-sleeves in the middle of January. We met many really helpful and pleasant people who are keen to share their local knowledge. And the house despite all the problems that it poses - look at the selection of internal pictures to get an idea - is still an exciting prospect.

The Story so Far

Back in early April 2006 we visited France yet again to search for a house to buy. The idea was, and is, to have a ‘project’ to keep me busy and out of mischief once I had retired. Towards the end of the stay we visited an Agence in Mirepoix and were offered a rather wrecked looking property many miles away from the Agence. Their concerns as to the safety of the property led them to insist that I sign a disclaimer relieving them of any responsibility should I be harmed during a visit to the property – it did fill us with confidence!

The next day we visited the old farmhouse at Arné and in the ‘flesh’ it proved to be as battered as the pictures had suggested. It has not been lived in for at least thirty years, has no running water, electricity or sanitation and parts of the roof are falling in. If you look at the picture above you can see some of this. But, it has prospects! The Pyrenees can be seen, the other views are good, it is in a village just five minutes walk from the bar/shop. We decided that we would make an offer and hastened back to the Agence in Mirepoix as swiftly as we could.

There then followed a period of waiting as the seller had other people visiting the house at the end of April. They clearly were more put off than we were and so after a bit of haggling our offer was accepted in early May. I signed the Convention de Vente and paid the necessary deposit. All therefore so far so good.

However, the process then seized up almost completely as the legal work took an age. I sent requested documents, which seemed to suggest that real progress was being made, in late summer. Letters and e-mails have been exchanged fairly regularly but progress has been painfully slow.

Finally we are at the point where I can sign the Acte de Vente and the house will formally be ours from mid-January. It is from this point that the fun really starts as we shall need to work our way through the bureaucracy surrounding a Permis de Construire and the installation of a Fosse Septique as well as finding the local builders who can assist in turning the house into something habitable.

Follow our progress through this blog and laugh, or possibly cry, along with us!