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.