Coup de coeur #13: Antas

"Pierre, what do they have?"

Number 13. I did that on purpose, of course. But I hope it was a lucky choice.

The house was discussed already briefly here, but here is some of the story about acquiring it.

Still looking for mill and/or water we stumbled upon this place. One of the driest regions of Europe, but still: a watermill. We had seen this house before. We are into houses in lush green, cadres verdoyant, and even: bucolique! This one is in a barren stone area, and did not appeal to us, really. But, it does have water!

We went there first time April 2015. Really impressed by the house, especially by the huge kitchen.

A few buts first? Alright. In the picture here you can see that on the right side of the house there is a road. That is a road with right of way for the neighbours. Right along the house. Plus the space in front of the house. Areas that are baking in the direct sun, and thus are hot and dusty. And, we don't like chemins communal along our house, being the a-social type we are, although we were assured there is very little traffic here. Just the "lemon truck once a year", and the "house down the road is not inhabited".

Another thing is that the workshop and terrace of the house overlook a block of land that did not belong to the property (the red area in the picture). Well, if there is something we like less than chemins communal it's a house that is right next to someone else's land. Before you know it they start a camping, a chicken farm or a motocross terrain. Or, they install a trampoline.

Of course we are paranoid. We're from the City.

The owner apparently had heard more worries from other prospective buyers about that road along his house, and decided to do a new road, further away from the house, the red line in above map.

We felt we needed to choose between Serena and this place. So we went back in June to have another look, see how the new bypass is, have another look at Serena, and experience Andalucia in summer, at it's almost hottest.

We went to Serena first, and just sat still an hour and let it sink in. We walked up the rambla, to see where the Serena river would lead to. Well, it becomes narrower and narrower, till you are stopped by a thick bunch of reeds. The area is absolutely lovely and peaceful. But, the house itself did not catch our hearts. Too much work to make it nice, a garage at the house is not really possible, and then it probably it still is not at all as nice as the house in Antas.

So: Antas. With it's nice spaces and thick walls.

And, something else: Restaurante Mi Casa. That is a very nice restaurant, within walking distance (15 minutes) and certainly within bike distance. I have a theory. A theory that is mine. And it's a theory about restaurants. And the theory is that if they pour a Good. Campari., then it most probably is a good restaurant.

This. Is. A. Good. Campari.

Back to the house. There are more roads, in the map above the Good. Campari., on the border of the property: the dark greens in the map. So why the red path? Just follow the greens! That caused a lot of misunderstanding because people cannot or do not read maps. But in the end our solicitor told us that you cannot change rights of way, that way, and you may get taken to court. Hm. That would not be a great start.

Another but is that this house is located not in a nature reserve, but in the middle of agricultural fields. They grow artichokes here, nice! Cauliflower, good! Kale. Kale. Kale! Hate kale. Yuck. Agricultural activity may mean tractors doing their thing there all day, with irritating noise. "No, no!", the owner and estate agent cried, "some people thought the area was all too quiet!". And, "we think it is a very funny question". Sure, sure.

We quickly found out there's quite a bit more traffic than that yearly lemon truck. There is someone living in the house down the road, who lives there during the week, works elsewhere and travels by car, and a few times a week there's a little van of a man who tends the orange grove even further down the road. And they all don't drive carefully.

It's not so much that it's noisy, but the dog that came with the house loves to chase cars. We quite love that dog, so we need to put up a fence so she can't just run after the cars whenever she feels like it. That'll be quite a long fence, actually.

And yes, there's noise from the fields. Harvesting kale (yuck!) is done by hand, they pick the lower leaves, and leave the rest to regrow (bleah!), but the harvest is stored in a big truck that has a cooling machine. It was droning there a few days last time. But, at least you can escape that noise by sitting at the other side of the house, or go inside.

The (red) block of land next to the house was owned by a "mate" of the owner. "Ah, that won't cost you very much", he said, "as he does not have right of way, and he cannot build on it, and it has no water rights, so it's worthless". Well, it is worth something to a new owner, as it probably is the place to extend the garden, or put in a swimming pool. But we won't buy a house where we cannot walk around on our own land.

Next thing/but is: water rights. Water rights are extremely important for us, as we do like a hot and dry climate, but we do need water to irrigate garden, and perhaps fill a swimming pool. You cannot do that with drinking water. Well, not responsibly. And it may cost a fortune, especially if your water is from a desalination plant, as is sometimes the case in Andalucia. The previous owner had sold a strip of land for water rights. The paperwork for this was missing, however, but a search would be started to find that.

Advised by our solicitor, we decided to put the purchase of the extra block of land and the water rights as "requirements" in our offer, which was accepted. Then an interesting time starts, where actual papers and deeds, and water contracts must be located, and exchanged from one solicitor to the other, and shared with the estate agent, and. Then one solicitor says she has sent papers two weeks ago while the other has not yet received them, etc. That went on till the very last day.

Oh yes, somewhere in above paragraph we must have decided to actually DO it. Unclear water rights, a block of land that was more expensive if we did not want to grant the previous owner right of way, worries about traffic, pesticides, noise, etc, make decisions quite difficult. This is not a choice for a holiday, it's for the last 20, 25 active years of our lives. Drama! But we seem to have said yes. (Didn't we?)

We also put in a date in the requirements for the transfer of ownership. We did not have very many time/dates left in our schedule, as end of August there were work-related responsibilities at home. We had hoped for a transfer date early August, so we could spend about 4 weeks there, but that was not possible because too much legal stuff still needed attention. Alright, August 14th then. Noooo, that was not possible for the owner's wife, who wanted to say goodbye to everyone, and wanted to spend a last holiday there. A date of August 24 was proposed as earliest date, and we would need to find a place to stay for them, afterwards. Which we declined, as that would leave one full day to us before going back to work, and it was simply silly. Ok, then it's end of October for us as earliest next opportunity. Then August 14th was quickly accepted, but not with a smile.

Visiting the day before the transfer at the notary, to see if the house was still there, and it's inventory, was declined. Very odd. We'd not be the first to find an empty or even stripped house after the visit to the notary, and the transfer of a property. Sigh. We'd like to know a bit about the house too. Where is the mains water tap? How does the electricity work here? What do you do to keep that wood shining? Ah, oil. How often do you spray against woodworm. What paint did you use? The reply was that they "prepared lots of notes" for us, and it was not possible, because it was "emotional".

In the end it was agreed to visit an hour before notary, which was at 13:00. Well, everything seemed to be there. Not that a full explanation and guided tour were intended. "Yes, well, the house did not come with a manual to us either", the vendor grimmed. Very drole indeed. "We need to go", his wife pressed. Oh, and there's something else. The dog. She is behind the house with puppies. "But we contacted a charity, and they will come for them the moment they come out of their den." Yeah, right. Well, you can read more of that story starting with Zoomba part 1.

That morning: off to the bank. Money to pay for a house isn't transferred electronically, nor collected and handled by the notary. It's the responsibility of the solicitor here. (The notary only arranges registration with the catastro end escritura.) So, you go to the bank with the account you transferred your assets to, and, for each receiver of money, a bank check is printed, and deducted from your account. One to pay off the owner's mortgage, one for tax to Andalucia in the name of the vendor, one for tax to the council, one for the actual house, one for tax to Andalucia for us, one for the block of land, one for the tax on that block, one to pay the estate agent ("ooh, I can feed my family again!"), and now I have lost count again. About 10 checks. Oh, and a check to pay the bank.

That was a joke, the bank could be paid electronically. They (Cajamar) were quite decent actually, and did not charge much.

Coffee.

And the notary. Us two, our solicitor, the vendors, their solicitor, the vendor of the extra block, and his solicitor, 8 people signing and reading papers. And, at the very last, a very dark copy of a copy of a water rights contract! Yeah! We were assured (if that word still means anything) that that was in order.

The notary reads the deed to you, or at least parts of it. You all sign, and you get thrown the keys along the table by clearly less than happy previous owners. And then you own a place in the sun!

Though the nice chained fly screen was gone, and so was the pump and filter installation of the (derelict) swimming pool. Aha, that is why he inquired so strongly that we did not intend to put a new liner in... You could see the plastic pipes were freshly broken, so that just happened, apparently.

But, we had other, and bigger, worries on our mind. Like, this mother and her children.
(But that all ended well.)

So, we had a week here. Besides taking care of Zoomba, that meant exploring the house, buying a vacuum cleaner (not a little task), and stocking the fridge. And some cleaning. And locating the prepared notes. We still have not finished this last task.

Well, the house was perfectly liveable. Plenty of clean linen, towels, etc. Enough and proper furniture and kitchen utensils for a holiday house. Though after a few days you long for your own pans, knives, bed and couch, and everything. And, INTERNET! Ah well.

A last, and quite maddening, hiccup was the transfer of the telephone line. You need to do that from the actual phone line, and supply the last so many numbers of passport and bank account number. But, if the previous owner refuses to give you that, you can't. We had thought a land line would be a good idea, for an ADSL internet connection. But actually, the lines are so bad that not much bandwidth remains. So, we did not pursue that avenue any longer. I hope for the old owners that they stopped payments.

Strange, how people that before seemed pretty decent can so quickly change after a sale is done. And leave a lovely dog behind. Well, that dog is one thing we really must thank them for, she's totally adorable. Perish the thought the transfer date would have been the 24th of August, or 30th of October, instead of the 14th...

PS
The neighbours who sold us the extra block of land turned out to be a really nice. They dropped by the next day to see how we were, and even allowed us to use their wifi! That was very convenient, to get e-mail, arrange shelter for a dog, and download the newspapers. They keep an eye on the place while we're away too, which is very nice. Oh, and they close off gas bottles. We're really grateful!

Coup de coeur #12: Montastruc Ribereuille

(A series of "Pierre, what do they not have" posts)

As for the last house in this series in France: the moulin de Ribereuille-Montastruc. Nice looking rustic house. Big, too. Top end of budget, but you never know. I'd seen it for sale a while ago, and it's still there. Message to the estate agent: de silence. Using the Google method on phrases from the advert you can locate quite a few other advertisements.

And even a private-looking advert. That does not give me a reply either.

This is an example where the Street View shows that the house is for sale a long time. Isn't that an "a vendre" sign? Yes it is.

Usually my "tactic" contacting an estate agent is explain a bit what I am looking for, where we are, that we need more info before we come and visit, and please tell me where the house is? Here I had long found it, and all I asked the estate agent was: "this house located there-and-there, is that still available?".

And, to my surprise I got a reply! And that they even had a colleague who speaks Dutch, and he would contact me.

He did, but knew not much about the place, but he'd find out, even though he was at an hour's distance from the house. But, as I knew, such distances were nothing, in France, and remained silent. But I had his phone number and email address, so that wasn't the last he heard of me. After a week I politely poked him, if he knew more by now. That took a bit longer, but then the parcelles cadastrale and some more info emerged.

Oh, and the house was now rented out all of a sudden, since a few weeks, with a contract of a year. To a Dutch woman who was left by her partner... blabla, sad story. And that the owner (thus) did not take a fancy to Dutch people. ('Allo!)

Well, renting out a house is not necessarily bad for a place, if they keep it clean, heated, ventilated, and all that. This really is a big house. Billiard room, gym, huge living... And a separate apartment. Was the apartment rented out? No, the house itself.

Well. That is not a positive development. I could live with a temporarily rented out apartment, but not with me owning the house and the whole house being rented out, knowing how well-protected tenants are in France.

There are a few more buts. In the picture above you can see there's a small road directly along the property. Another bloody chemin communal that runs right along a house I like.

The estate agent promised to let me know if there are developments. Apparently there were none, as I haven't heard from him since.

The house still is for sale, here (and a few other places). Oops, €2000 taxe d'habitation + taxe foncière though, per year.

Coup de coeur #11: Canarico

(A series of "Pierre, what do they not have" posts)

Here is another Spanish mill that was restored by an English owner. Only mad dogs and Englishman stay on the beach in the full sun, and the same is true for restoring old buildings. This one is done very nicely and sympathetic.

200-year-old, in production till around half 20th century, then abandoned 50 years, then restored as a (beautiful) house.

It is located at the end of a rambla, near it's water source. The source is an aquifer that is tapped about 300 meters from the house, and collected in an olympic size swimming pool, right behind the house. The trapezium shaped aqueduct then channels the water to the mill, where it drops down some 10 meters.

This house does have tap drinking water, but it is right on the edge of the electric power grid. The owners decided that they would use solar panels and batteries instead of connecting up to the grid. I'm an engineer, I like that.

As for the buts: a few things. First of all, you both need to fall in like with a place if you're two people. One of us was not as charmed as the other. That makes it difficult to proceed.

Two: we had hoped the water source that ran the mill in the past would be available to the owner of the mill as well. Not to run the mill as a mill, but for irrigation of the garden, trees, etc. Perhaps to just fill the reservoir and use it as that olympic size swimming pool. Alas. The water still runs through the mill, although it's more a trickle than a stream at the time we visited (January), but the owner of the mill has no rights to the water at all. It's owned by the community. As is the big reservoir. The reservoir is not really maintained, it's just full of reeds. I would have loved to take care of it, but that requires careful communication with the people there. And if you get there as a foreigner it will take a while till they trust you, and know that you will not waste (their) water.

The power situation is okay for daily life. The batteries will allow you to run computers, refrigerator, lights, television etc as you are used to. The only things you need to compromise on are high power devices like boilers, electric ovens, washing machines and the like. You cannot run a big 3kW oven on a battery system, or heat water electrically in a washing machine. You will need a hot-fill washing machine, and use a solar boiler for hot water.

Perhaps the number of solar panels can be increased, and the number of batteries, although that requires a new converter too, here.

No garage. Can be built, but an existing one would have been nice.

We planned to get back here for a second viewing, but an "off" prawn prevented that, and we were already leaning towards the house we now have.

The mill is still for sale, here. Do pick it up, it is a beautiful place. I don't know why they stress the "B&B", it's simply a great house for a family. And located in the Cabo de Gata nature reserve.

Coup de coeur #10: Finca Leonardo

(A series of "Pierre, what do they not have" posts)

End of 2014 we had some doubts about winter in France again, and diverted our attention to the Canary Islands. We know Gran Canaria, Lanzarote, La Gomera, but had not been to Tenerife.

And on Tenerife we found this place, a finca with not little land, and irrigation water. Edge of town, quite high up, above Arafo: Finca Leonardo.

The colour is not what we would prefer ourselves, but seeing other houses, white paint is available on Tenerife.

This finca was listed on quite a few estate agent web sites, with wildly varying prices. Apparently it had been for sale quite a while, seeing early adverts with date, about two years ago. And we found the house on a house swap website as well. Oh, that is still online too, here, but at a much higher price.

Isn't this a holiday snap? And isn't that view gorgeous? Where's the white wine?

This is what you can find with Street View, apparently taken a while before the photo above, where the basin is painted white.

A bit less jolly, maybe because of the grey sky, and the rainy atmosphere. But there is a basin in the roof terrace, that could be a lovely dipping pool!

Alas, a few weeks later, by the time we figured out it might be an interesting place to live, the place appeared to have been long sold. At least 6 months prior. You can still find it online, one and a half years later. Like here, and here. And here!, €70.000 price reduction!! Hm.

So this view will not be ours either. Nor the hundreds of avocado trees.

Coup de coeur #9: Serena

(A series of "Pierre, what do they not have" posts)

The filature was the last house in France we visited, in May 2015, before we decided that we'd look further south, and try the south of Spain. To my surprise that is an area that has very many watermills, even though there are no true rivers, and very little rainfall. The region does have very big "aquifers", underground water reservoirs, that were tapped and used for irrigation, and to run watermills.

Those mills are not the kind you see in France, with a big paddle wheel dipped in a river, happily paddling along. The mills in Spain all have an individual reservoir above a horizontal waterwheel that is slowly filled, and is emptied on the wheel on demand. That reservoir can be filled slowly with an aqueduct, and allows the miller to do his work for about 15-20 minutes.

The picture is the Molino de Serena, not far from Bédar, sitting in a valley of it's own, really private and peaceful and quiet. An irrigation canal supplies the mill with water, as it does to irrigate the citrus field that belongs to this property too.

Lovely view away from the house. Can you hear the birds?

For us the location is absolutely lovely, it has much of what we want. Peace and quiet, a lot of space, no direct neighbours, irrigation water, and quite a big house (200m2+).

There are "but"s here, too. The house is big, but the space is divided into a lot of tiny rooms on three levels. There is only one room in the house, on the first floor, that has a decent size. The kitchen on the ground floor is not usable for us, the ceiling is only 2 meters. This is a house that was built year by year, room by room, as more space was needed by the then owners, the available skills, and materials. So there is an eclectic mix of techniques. We've tried very hard so visualize how to better the layout, and even went as far as to ask an architect if the cellar could be converted to a garage, and if some walls could be removed. All in all, we finally decided it was a step too far, even though the location is A++.

It was cheaper than the house we finally bought, but with the work needed to make the house nice(r) we estimated the cost would be the same. And still the house would not be really our taste, as we prefer big open spaces.

It's still for sale as far as I know: http://www.olivehouse-es.com/property_sales/listings/l0806.html

Coup de coeur #8: La Fillolie

(A series of "Pierre, what do they not have" posts)

In our search for multi-hectare properties we stumbled onto this one. Isn't it pretty? Yes it is. This is 10 hectares of chestnut trees on a hill in the Lot area, with a lovely house. And a big pool. Not a mill. And, almost within budget, provided not much work was needed. This is the first house we actually visited in France.

The top of the house is a bit higher than the hill it leans into, and at the same height as the top floor, where kitchen and living room are conveniently located.

Sorry, I start to sound like an estate agent already.

It has a separate outbuilding where they dried chestnuts in the past. (Here at the foreground.)

If you know where it is located you could see it, but I won't tell you.

And a nice and big swimming pool too. Cleverly heated with a bunch of black plastic tubes that are simply in the sun, and heat up the pool very nicely.

So what was the problem? Well, problem is a big word. We were after a big property, with a house in the middle. Here the house is right at the edge of the land. The red bits are not part of the property.

And, a chemin communal (again!) is running right along the house. They had told us hardly anyone uses the chemin, but while we were there a number of cars went past. Hm.

Another thing is that we need a garage for a beloved oldtimer car. We had hoped the cellar of the house would be suited as a garage. It is not. It's too low and not deep enough. The chestnut dryer is not reachable with a car, it's pretty high above street level.

The heating situation of this house could be what we like: 10 ha of chestnut trees should be enough to comfortably heat this house. But (always these buts) this house has the living space on the top floor of the house, and there's an insert stove there with a chimney on top. We had planned a much bigger Attika, and you cannot fit one of those there, the ceiling and chimney are too low. The roof is made with lauzes, and very heavy. Rebuilding the chimney elsewhere seemed a bit too much.

Another option would be to have a central heating system and a woodburning stove located elsewhere. The chaudiere could be the place, but you'd need to transport hot water about 20 meters to the house. Can be done, but it's a costly option too.

In the end we decided to not do it for yet another reason: there are hardly any windows in the living room, and the kitchen needed replacement and enlargement. One of us thought that was not too great. The other did not mind. So, that was a "non".

Here the "sold" situation was reversed actually. When I first contacted the owner, it had been sold. But, the buyer apparently could not arrange finances, and we were contacted later that it was still available. And so we visited. And treated to a nice lunch too by the Belgian owners. We're still grateful for that.

Coup de coeur #7: Filature

(A series of "Pierre, what do they not have" posts)

Here is the loveliest house that we did visit. And really lovely it is. That is why it has the label "coup de coeur", eh.

I had been mainly looking for properties labeled "moulin" or "mill", but realised there are more types of building that are old, have big blocks of land, are situated on a river, and used water power: the filature (de soie). Spinning factories! Where silk was spun into thread.

This is (it is still for sale) a lovely place. Asking price over our budget, but the house had been for sale a number of years already. I found on old advert with nearly double the price it has today. So what is wrong with this one, one wonders.

It is roughly 11x6 meter, so about 60 m2 per floor. Cellar, first floor, second floor: 165m2 in total. Plus an external garage. Not bad. The first floor is one big open space, with a giant salon, and an open kitchen. Huge windows overlooking the river on one side, the garden on the other. The second floor has 2 bedrooms, two office rooms, a bathroom and a master bedroom+ensuite. No attic.

And a cellar, containing the oil fired heating and the septic tank. What is not to be liked.

Well. The estate agent was worried about the vendor from the start. The owner is an old lady whose husband had died. She herself was getting too old to live in this house, so her children had told her to come and live with them, and sell the house. But, she was convinced the house was really worth a very high price. That is why it had not been sold. Her children had lowered the price so it came into my email filter view. But still, the estate agent had to deal with her. And clearly that was not an easy task for her, judging her rolling up her eyes.

So here we were.

No, the oil fired heating was no longer functioning. There had been a really exceptional flood the year before, and the water had destroyed the heating. See how high the water was, on the upper door of the machine?

And the septic tank. If you look carefully you can see how high the water has been, about 20 cm under the underside of the windows...

And yes, that is the septic tank, that apparently started floating and broke off it's pipes.

That is not as bad news as you might think, as septic tanks are no longer allowed in situations like here, next to a river. There was good news actually, a mains sewer had been constructed the year prior, and was even at the edge of the property, only about 20 meters from the house. It would have been very easy to connect up to that. And not a great cost too, I presume.

The bad news was that the cellar as is is completely useless. I would not have kept the oil fired heating anyway, but would have installed a heat pump system. Very good if you're next to a river! Water-water heat pumps are very efficient, and can generate lots of heat with little power, relatively speaking. The cellar would have been the location for that, but not now. I have calculated how big a heat pump this house needs, and it's between 20kW and 25kW, so it is not a small one. And, consequently, expensive. Not to be placed in a cellar that floods like this about every 20-25 years.

The house does not really have other rooms where you can install a heating system, apart from a big wood stove in the living room. Or, two. I like wood stoves a lot. But, only if you can source the wood eco-friendly. Preferably from your own wood. However, this property is only 2400 m2, not big enough for your own firewood. And this house is in the Cevennes. Very nice in summer, but winters here can be harsh. So, a powerful heating system is necessary. And, heating a house like this may break your bank. Really.

It may be possible to protect the cellar against the water. It would require closing off the path that runs onder the entrance, along the house. There used to be a wall there, that the current owners removed. Had that wall still been there the flood may not have been that bad. Anyway, that path is a "chemin communal", and thus cannot be closed off, unless the community allows it. The estate agent has been so kind as to ask the mairie, and the counsel if closing the chemin would be allowed. A few weeks later: non.

Well. That did it. We don't like flooding, we don't like people walking over our property, along our house. And, we don't like to pay a price that is not reasonable for a house that now lacks 1/3 of it's usable space, no sanitation, and no heating.

I could have lived with a flooded cellar now and then, the living floors are probably safe, but this house definitely is in a zone rouge (inundation danger zones), and that influences insurances, or even prevents you rebuilding your house after a fire, or flood.

The house is not far from another house (20 meters), where they have an outside terrace. I think that was the final "non" for us. If there are nice people there that behave themselves, all is well, but if there'd be an a-social bunch of people we'd be totally annoyed. Currently that house is owned by an elderly man who does not live there, and everything is locked up. All in all: non.

But, still the house is absolutely lovely. And there's a magnolia grandiflora tree, that I love.

Coup de coeur #6: Moulin de Roche

(A series of "Pierre, what do they not have" posts)

Moulin de Roche. I found this one just after returning home from Moulin de Chateaurenaud. It had been way above budget, but a new deal was offered now, where only 1 hectare of land was sold, instead of 4.5 ha. And that was at the top end of our budget too, but do-able if the price would be negotiable, and not too much work was to be done to do up the house.

The usual questions (state of the septic, parcelles cadastrale, etc) would need answers before visiting the Charente again. Had we seen the advertisements before we could have visited... Here the problem was that the house was advertised by at least 5 different estate agents. One was able to tell me the parcelles cadastrale, but then remained silent. The second divulged that the septic was not "to norm" and needed replacement. When I asked him if anything was investigated about that replacement he remained silent too. The third never replied, even though at no more than 1 km from the house. The 4th was able to tell me the house has an air-jet heating system, but then remained silent, too.

I let it rest a few weeks, but it was still nagging. This is such a nice place! I wrote an email to the mairie to see if they perhaps could let the owner know I was interested. Nothing. I can imagine they thought it very odd that a foreign person writes such emails to them, but hey. A week later estate agent 4 sent an email if I was still interested, because another party had shown interest! Well, who could that be? I thought it must be myself, and that perhaps the mairie indeed had contacted the owner.

Then I found estate agent #6, and I think they were the actual and main estate agent for this house. She wrote me that she knew the house very well, from childhood even, but that it had just been sold. The story of my house buying life.

I will never sit here.

Or here.

Or there.

Apparently this mill had lost it's water rights. The wheel was gone too, and replaced by a bathroom. What a waste! It is possible to get water rights back, but that is a long bureaucratic process. You cannot buy a mill and simply hope you will get those rights back. What would have been very possible here is to install a heat pump to heat the house, instead of that oil-fueled jet system. A river flowing under your house has a big heat reservoir!

I would have loved to be the custodian of this historic building for a number of years. But, it was not to be.

Coup de coeur #5: Moulin de Braqueville

(A series of "Pierre, what do they not have" posts)

Well, you cannot deny me a taste for quaint properties. Here is a very special one. It's the Moulin de Braqueville, located on the river "Dure", near Montolieu.

The house is located high above the river, which explains it is still there. Quite contrary to the actual mill building, the remnants you can see below. A disaster happened here, September 8th 1871. Enormous rainfall in the Montagne Noire caused a massive surge of water, causing destruction in the whole area, including the works of the Moulin de Braqueville. It was never rebuilt, and the mill is as you can see it today.

This house was advertised on IADFrance, and only there, as far as I could see.

Here is a case of a totally unwilling estate agent:

Bonjour,

Ce moulin ne correspond pas à vos projets.

Bien cordialement,

Catherine TAILLEFER

and

Bonsoir ,

Comme je vous l'ai dis dans le message je ne pense pas que ce bien corresponde à vos projet, par contre si vous voulez le voir je fais une visite vendredi à 15h30, si vous voulez en profiter c'est avec plaisir.

Bien cordialement,

Catherine TAILLEFER

How kind. And just a few days notice.

But, more roads lead to Rome. There are very nice panorama pictures online of this house. I wrote the maker that I really liked the place and his pictures, and perhaps he knew the owner? He did! The owner was an old friend of his, who sadly died the year before. But he would let the daughter know I was interested. A few days later I got a very kind email thanking me for bringing interest to the house, but that sadly for me it was now sold, that very day.

I like to think I helped the sale by expressing interest, and pushing the other interested party. I still hate this estate agent. The house was nice, and within budget, so..

I would not have minded to live with this view, after throwing the pot down the river.

Ok, this interior is a bit old, and the estate agent's papers are included in the photo. (Often the case! They make a picture of the kitchen, but with the briefcase and all paper on the table.)

Coup De Coeur #4: Moulin de Chateaurenaud

(A series of "Pierre, what do they not have" posts)

Now and then you can buy enormous properties in France for relatively little money. Sometimes because the place really is a dump, but sometimes because a property is inherited by children who don't like the place, and it only costs them to keep a house from totally falling down. Sometimes because of a lot of reasons. Here is a place that qualifies for many of those reasons.

It is a (very) old mill in the Charente area, near Mansle: le Moulin de Chateaurenaud. Already mentioned in the Middle Ages, but rebuilt a few times. The current set of buildings was probably erected in the middle of the 1800's. It was at least partly a wood sawing mill. At the beginning of the 20th century it was converted to generate electric power, with a giant waterwheel. I guess it stopped working before World War II, and was more or less abandoned since. The family kept up the place as far as they could, apparently replacing the roof in the 1980's in an attempt to at least conserve the building as it is.

It had sustained a lot of damage already, with the old roof leaking like a sieve with a hole in it, which made wood rot, and some ceilings collapse. They just replaced the roof, but did not restore the interior. So that was untouched since ca. 1940-ish. Untouched by man. Not so much untouched by nature's hand. Wood worm, mould, fungi, damp, rot, all had their "hands" on the place.

But, you don't have to restore everything you can, and if you have the time, the means, the skills, the willingness, the determination... you can do a lot. Chateaurenaud certainly has that certain je ne sais quoi, at least for me. Here at home it was mostly frowned upon though.

There are two parts in a property like this: 1. a place to live 2. a place to do a bit of production. The production part was promising (to me). The big waterwheel was still there, with all the machinery intact. Even the old electric generator was still there. The wood of the waterwheel was all gone, however. But, that can be restored without too much difficulty. It's just planks of wood. Or aluminium, as I would have done. A new generator, et voilá! d' electricité!

A bit more complex was the living part. This house has no modern amenities. No water. No electricity. No sanitation. No telephone. No heating. And, no proper floors, any more.

I was aware of these pictures before visiting, but could not quite determine the state of things. Nor could a surveyor I contacted to look at the photos too. He did suggest the following: these are floors that are simply constructed by laying wooden beams onto the bare soil, and put the planks on top of that. He was quite right. And you know what? Floors constructed like that don't last 150 years. They get damp, they get woodworm, mold, and in general, they get eaten.

I had asked the owners what had happened to the floors. He rep-lied that probably something too heavy was put on the floor, and that that had made the floor collapse. However, my surveyor was right. I stuck my finger through a hole in the floor: damp soil.

There is a big kitchen there. And that is the only positive qualification. It was quite obvious this house has a water problem, the nice and big stones on the floor are wet at the edges. If you jump up and down on one you can see that water wells in between...

This is the so called "champignon de plâtre". It grows on old plaster, where the humidity is above 80%. This house has nice plaster ceilings in most of the house. Plaster ceilings are constructed by first attaching thin wooden slats to the beams of the ceiling, and then just slapping on plaster to get a nice and even white surface. But, this leaves a space between the plaster and the wooden floor on top of the beams. That space gets occupied by fungi, mold, mice and anything that does not like the light of day.

A bit like this, yes.

And this.

Did I mention there's a room where there was only a small chimney fire?

What to do about this place? Well, it can be restored. The roof is not bad, the stone walls are fine, but all woodwork is beyond repair. The house needs to be stripped, completely, including windows, doors and shutters. No idea if the floor beams for the upper floor and attic are still ok, but the floor planks themselves aren't.

The floors of the ground floor need to be removed and burned, and the soil underneath them excavated so a space is created that can be ventilated, so the floor stays dry. You can then construct a floor with "poutrelles" and "hourdis", and finish that with underfloor heating and a layer of concrete. Poutrelles are smallish concrete beams that you can carry with two people, and put in place. Then you fill the space in between two such beams with "hourdis", lightweight panels. Sometimes polystyrene, sometimes lightweight concrete, or even terracotta. Then you put an iron reinforcement mesh on top, call for a tanker car loaded with concrete, and a layer of liquid concrete is poured on top of your modular floor. And it's done. (More or less.) It is something you can do yourself. A very useful site is http://www.klussen-in-frankrijk.eu/ by Christian von Klösterlein, also known as "le bricoleur" on a certain forum for Dutch people in France. A forum that is inhabited by some very nice and helpful people, but also some completely irritating ones. Like a talking vegetable stew.

And, the house needs drains around the building. It is located next to the Charente river, so at the bottom of the valley. All water flows down, and towards the river. Also underground. The whole property is wet, squishy, swampy. The house does not have gutters. That means that water splashes down from the roof onto the ground, and back up the walls. So, the walls are wet too. See the picture on the left, the plaster has fallen down.

Drainage is a risk for the building too. I think it was not constructed on solid rock, but more or less on a bank of clay and sand and stones. What they do is dig a trench, put big stones, or big wooden beams, on the bottom, and construct walls on top of that. If you start to take the water out, the soil will dry, and shrink. Consequently, the walls may crack.

It will take a few years of hard work, quite a lot of money, but most of all determination, and love for this place. And a partner that shares those feelings and determination. And the willingness to camp there in a caravan at least half a year without running water, electricity etc. I did mention the family was frowning on this place? That did not become any better. Au contraire.

Add that the asking price for this property was such that not enough was left for the restoration. The owners would have had to at least halve their asking price before I could have confidence in the finances. We did not even try that. (i.e. I was not allowed..)

Getting electricity and water connected would have cost a lot, although you can generate your own here, and there's plenty water.. Generating electricity is very possible here. The water rights for the mill are still there!

Oh, I haven't mentioned sanitation yet. Of course there's no mains sewer here. There's no septic tank either. Millers just peed in the Charente. (There is a dry toilet in another building.) Near rivers septic tanks are no longer allowed, nor is it allowed to have the septic overflow field near the river. That means you must construct/buy a "microstation d'epuration", a sort of above-ground septic tank that is mechanically stirred, and breaks down waste quite quickly. For a house this size (12 rooms) you need a big one. Expensive.

Someone has bought it though. And with the purpose to generate hydro power, apparently. See their site: http://www.moulindechateaurenaud.com I will follow closely, and a bit jealously, though not enviously, what happens there the years to come. I might even give them the old postcard I bought, with the waterwheel before the current wheel.

PS
There was an amusing misunderstanding where someone mentioned that he bought pineau by the jerrycan, and someone else replied that she absolutely loves pinot.