Your Farmhouse Renovation Project in the South of France
You have just bought your gorgeous old farmhouse in the south of
France and all it needs is some renovation and 'TLC' to become
the home of your dreams!
A word of caution!
It is often all too easy to become wrapped up in your optimistic
hopes and dreams and not spend enough time planning the
renovation and ensuring that enough finance is in place for the
project to be completed. The last thing you want is to buy that
perfect renovation project only to find two years down the line
that the roof is still leaking because you haven't the money to
fix it as you spent it elsewhere!
In England, before you buy a property it is standard practice to
send in a chartered surveyor who can estimate the various costs
of building repairs. This is not the case in France. You will
need to ask a local builder, architect or a British chartered
surveyor in France to check the structural state of the building
and estimate what the repair costs will be before you buy. You
should then add at least 25% for any hidden extras that the
architect/surveyor may have missed.
It is also very important that you are realistic about the time
frame in which your house will be ready to move into. A job that
you might expect to take six months in England will probably
take a few months longer in France especially if you don't speak
the language as it will take some time to find builders who come
recommended and whose work you approve of.
Once you have bought your quaint but dilapidated farmhouse in
the south of France which you have chosen for its laid back
atmosphere, don't be surprised when your tradesmen adopt the
same attitude in their work regime... You will have to keep on
top of them at all times to ensure that the work is completed on
schedule and that everyone is synchronised.
If, for example, the electrician is booked to rewire the house
within a certain time frame and he is delayed or does not turn
up, then other jobs such as plastering that follow will also
have to be delayed and rescheduled. This rescheduling may not be
possible for some weeks which could in turn put other jobs
behind schedule... patience is something that you will have to
learn to embrace!
For instance, an English couple that relocated to the Rhone-Alps
region in the south of France found that their project actually
took two years rather than one year as predicted. They spent the
first few months cooking with camping gas and portable cooker
while the kitchen was being built - so be prepared to rough it a
little during your adventure! Not that it's a bad thing: it can
actually be very enjoyable cooking and eating in the great
outdoors after a hard day's work watching the beginnings of your
project slowly become the home of your dreams.
This particular couple actually spent the first few weeks living
with their neighbours rather than staying in a hotel while the
house was unlivable. The two of them simply went over to say
hello and in a great gesture which you would find hard to come
across in any part of the world, they were invited to stay for
as long as they needed even though just moments before they were
complete strangers!
The project was finally completed two years after they first
bought the house and, regardless of all the headache and hard
work they put in, if you ask them now they would say they really
wouldn't have done it any differently. The stone farmhouse has
become a haven of tranquillity and something that they can both
be very proud of as, every evening when they drink local wine
and eat Provencal food in their scented, colourful courtyard,
they can look up at their house and truly say "We did that".