Right Move

38 Rue St. Yves La Trinite Porhoet

 Wednesday was always going to be special because that was the day we were to view the house in La Trinite Porhoet. We found the place on E Bay of all places and had been in constant touch by email with the owner, Jim Allen, ever since. He had supplied us with many photos, plan drawings and ideas for what was possible to make the house fit for our purpose. The only problem being it was quite a lump over our budget, but we just had to take a look.

But first we had an appointment in Saint Gilles (or village flowery) and it certainly was. Very, very pretty place with a large lake.
The property in question was an old hotel/ bar with twelve, yes twelve bedrooms, four bathrooms and four toilets. The bar it's self was still there complete with pumps and everything. I know I've used the word huge on many occasions, but this place was simply.....Huge. And all for 74,500 euro, but you would need twice that again to get it looking anywhere near it's former glory, evidence of which was all around in the shape of photos of the former proprietors standing proudly outside their flower festooned establishment. Quite sad really.

Downstairs living room

   Then it was on to La Trinite Porhoet where we had an hour to wait for the estate agent to finish their lunch (we were beginning to get into the laid back way the French fill their day) So we took the opportunity to check out the local bar and sample their coffee.
That done we went off to view the property, and immediately fell in love with it. Lovely entrance hall with marble staircase, big front room, big kitchen and four bedrooms and a bathroom on the ground floor. Self contained two bedroom apartment with fitted kitchen and bathroom and a large lounge on the second floor. Then a basement with double garage, games room office another fitted kitchen, shower and loo. Also there is a large detached garage at the rear of the house. Now if that isn't perfect for a B&B I don't know what is.

Lake at La Trintie Porhoet

Another little bonus was the beautiful lake three minutes walk away down the lane to the side of the property where you can fish or stroll, there is also a sailing club. So all in all we think we have found the place of our dreams. Four en suites to install and we should be good to go. The estate agent contacted the Marie and they have no problems with our plans and also gave us the thumbs up for solar panels if we can afford them.

Now it was back to blighty to pack our stuff and prepare for France.

  

Buying Trip Deuxième partie

Long house featuring Howard

Day two of our viewing trip saw us head off to the village of St Nicolas du Pelem where we were to meet Doug, our agent for the morning. We arrived, parked up, and made our way to the village centre to find the rendezvous.
Whilst waiting this chap came along and remarked, "you look busy", to Karen who was stood there with her clipboard and pen. Well, we got chatting, as you do, and it transpired he knew Doug well, and gave us lots of good tips and advice to help us in our quest. Doug duly arrived, we said our goodbyes to our new friend Howard and set off to the first property.
This was a huge townhouse in the village of St. Nicolas du Pelam which was at one time a wine merchant. Hence the presence of a number of massive oak barrels in the store at the side of the house. We looked round with interest, and I must say I liked it alot. But it would have needed more Euro than we had to restore it to former glories.
The next house Doug took us to was far too small for what we needed, and to be fair Doug told us as such before we went, but the owner was expecting us so off we went. On the plus side we got to drive through some beautiful countryside.

Inside the longhouse

For the afternoon appointments we travelled to Gouarec a particularly nice little town with some beautiful buildings. Here we met Eric, who took us to see the longhouse pictured above.
The biggest surprise of the day was that having arrived at the property the key holder was none other than our new friend Howard who we had met previously that morning. He was good friends with the owner and again was very helpful.
The house itself just blew us away, it was achingly beautiful  was almost perfect for our needs. In reality it was two cottages made into one, with four bedrooms and two bathrooms  upstairs, two in each cottage reached by two staircases, and a large double downstairs with it's own bathroom. It would photograph well and was on the edge of a village, we were  very tempted.

The field

There was one slight problem, the field. The property came with the field included in the price. And what a view it provided, you looked straight over it from the garden, but what could we do with it. At present the owner lets it to local people to graze their horses on, but how much income that would generate I'm not sure? Also I believe in France you are taxed by the amount you own and this is a lot of land. The lack of any outhouses was also a concern, but that didn't stop us mulling over the various options as we made our way to the last property of the day.

Plounevez Quintin

  

Plounevez Quintin surprised me big time. Looking at the details before we left I wasn't too hopeful. however I was quite wrong. The house was, and still is deceptively big, in good order and overlooks the village church. It was one of the cheaper places we would look at, and as such was terrific value. If our budget was more limited this could well have been the place. Karen even found a rifle in a cupboard, how weird is that. 

So that was day two over and we had the longhouse on our radar along with the first house from the day before, we had also met Howard, which was a major plus. Things were going pretty well....Roll on tomorrow.  

Buying Trip

Base Camp

Well here we are back in Brittany for perhaps the most important visit of them all, for it is on this trip we hope to decide on the property that our future will depend. No pressure then.
We based ourselves about 2k north of the town of Huelgoat, where we stayed on our first trip way back in March. In fact, it really was too far west for our purpose but it was cheap and available, so beggars can't be choosers.
As it turned out it was very pretty and comfortable, so we unpacked and made ready for the weeks adventure.

Mael Carhaix

The very first place we saw set the bar pretty high. Just outside the village of Mael Carhaix was this splendid pile. Five bedrooms, the top two already boasting en suites, the rest of the house in good nick, this place had "P" big time. and the view from the gardens wasn't too shabby either.
Also there was a stone cottage to "renovate" (spend lots of money on) and a very large barn for storage, presumably my combine harvester it was so big.

Well if this was the kind of stuff we were going to be viewing the next few day would be very interesting indeed.

La Feuillee

 We saw four properties in all on Monday, and they were all pretty good but we had to discount them for one reason or another, either too remote, too much work or queries on land boundaries we didn't want to get mixed up in.
The house at La Feuillee was one we were really looking forward to before we left England, and was our last appointment of the day, but on inspection I was a little disappointed. Don't get me wrong the house was fine, nothing particularly wrong with it, it just didn't grab me. Karen on the other hand was much more impressed, and I must admit, for the price it was a lot of house. Situated on the outskirts of a pretty village it was very well placed as well, so it ticked all the boxes except the "you have to buy me" box......Oh well.
We did get convinced to have a look at one more place which, as it happened , was back in Huelgoat near where we were staying, so in for a penny.....
The house turned out to be a huge money pit and far to bigger task for us or our budget.

So with day one done and one contender in the bag, we set off back to our gite, for a cold mistakenly purchased non alcoholic beer, food and wine (alcoholic).
Roll on tomorrow, when we would get to meet our new Brittany best friend, the venerable Howard, top man.
  

Done Deal

Well, yesterday evening at 6-30 pm it actually happened, we exchanged contracts on our house sale, that's it done and dusted, farewell to "Melrose".
I'm  not saying those words don't come with a certain amount of sadness on my part, but our future doesn't lie here anymore. Our time in Victoria Crescent has been, on the whole, very happy, it's the house that Sophie and Tom grew up in and I'm sure they will always remember  it  as their home. 

When  we first moved here it was never our intention to move again, but after the children moved on it seemed to lose a little bit of soul and the lure of a fresh start, when we are still fit enough to make a go of it, seemed too good a chance to give up. 

The last couple of weeks has been pretty stressful. The information going backwards and forwards between the various solicitors and estate agents was really beginning to make my head hurt. And having to cough up £300 for an insurance policy that I know no-one will ever need, just to make our buyers solicitors happy, was annoying to say the least. But we paid up just to try and keep the cogs turning. The thought of anything going wrong, and having to go back to square one was not on the agenda.
Well, as I said, it's all signed off now and we can go to France tomorrow as cash buyers, and as so have a little more clout in the bargaining arena.
And lastly a massive thanks to Richard Ottaway and his pals at Martins Estates and all the hard work they've  done on our behalf, money well spent.
So it's on to Le Shuttle tomorrow with 17 houses to view next week....Wish us luck.  

The next post should have lots of news and pic from our week in Brittany and maybe even a new address!!!