The Big Reset, Part II

So why France?

For us it was the culmination of many things. Brexit was happening. Michael and I did not want Britain to leave the EU, the political climate in the UK felt divisive and hostile at the time. As an electrician Michael went in to a lot of homes and met many people on a daily basis and often had to deal with ignorance and racism (he is British Caribbean). We were uneasy with the direction things were heading in the UK. Also contributing to our decision was the climate crisis and thinking about the future for our daughter, we wanted to be somewhere with the potential to get off grid, be self sufficient and grow our own food. As much as I loved living on the coast I was starting to feel it perhaps wasn’t the best long term decision. We picked a location in France away from the coast, not too far from the borders to neighbouring countries. Ideally I wanted to be near the Swiss border and Lake Annecy but who am I kidding, that is millionaires territory. I can’t cope with super hot weather and like to be around greenery and it needed to be temperate for a good kitchen garden. So moving slightly more west I discovered the Morvan Regional Natural Park. A protected area of woodlands, lakes and traditional farmland covering 700,000 acres, half way between Paris and Lyon, and it was affordable.

Lake Panneciere in the Morvan Regional Natural Park.

Throw in to the mix that Michael was at burn out point, I was frustrated with not having enough space to work on my new wallpaper ventures, our daughter was due to start school that coming September and we didn’t want to uproot her once she had started school. Also, the Brexit deadline was fast approaching, and we were fed up of all our hard earned cash going on just keeping ourselves in the rat race trap. To be an electrician, Michael had to pay for his van lease, public liability insurance, certification etc. the list went on. We were paying our mortgage, a home improvement loan and credit cards. Weighing it all up I could see a way for us to get mortgage free, clear our debts, have a load of space and be in a beautiful location. It seemed like a no brainer. We put our flat on the market and got a buyer really quickly. We hadn’t made it out to France yet to view properties but I had quite a few lined up ready to view. It was early 2020.

Oh wait, what’s this? Hi Corona!

We went into the first lock-down. Michael was unable to work and we started falling behind on our bills, mortgage, debts etc. It all started getting very real and confirmed to us that getting mortgage and debt free was the way to go. We made it through the first lockdown by the skin of our teeth and a charitable donation from our church (God bless Holy Trinity Hastings and the members of my prayer group that clubbed together to buy us food. This act of kindness when we were at such a low point still makes me cry!) We also received the first government grant that was handed out. Lockdown mark 1 finished and we lost our buyer due to Covid and his mortgage offer being retracted. Undeterred, we made it out to France to view properties. We drove, taking the eurotunnel which was brilliant because we didn’t need to step out of the car. The first house we had lined up to view was a blow out. We turned up to the appointment to be told that the owner had taken the agent off the listing and we couldn’t go in.

Our first introduction to Villa Anne Marie et le petit chalet.

So, onto the next house which was the one we were most interested in, it had a chalet in the garden which we could turn into a holiday let as well as a big house and small annexe. There was a school in the town for our daughter, a bakery, post office, convenience store, swimming pool and a cute little pink cinema. We pulled up and before we even viewed inside Michael said ‘I want it’. We viewed the chalet first and I fell in love with it. It was hitting all my childhood fantasy ‘Little House On The Prairie’ buttons, so I was sold before we looked inside the big house. I didn’t really connect with the main house, the corridors were dark and narrow and it has lots of small rooms, twenty five roughly! But I could see that there was potential to knock rooms through and make something of it. The package it presented to us as a whole was too good to turn down. It offered everything we were looking for, but also the guy selling it, lived next door and was in the building trade. He offered to help us with contacts or advice with the work that needed doing on the property which was reassuring because even if you are an experienced DIYer, doing it in another country is a different and far more challenging proposition. It was comfortably within our budget as a cash purchase so we put in an offer and cancelled all our other viewings. It may seem impulsive to buy the first property you see in another country with no knowledge of the area but that’s what we did. It felt like looking a gift horse in the mouth to question it. There were other parties interested too, so I didn’t want to risk losing it.

Above: some shots of the interior of the main house and annexe when we first viewed it.

Now came the tricky part. Making it happen during a pandemic. Thankfully, there was plenty of interest in our flat, the housing market in Hastings was buoyant, it has been for years with the dreaded DFL’ers,(Down From London) whom we were when we moved to Hastings, pushing prices up (shakes fist)! The buoyant market was further aided by the first lockdown and even more Londoners wanting to get out of town and have some space to breath. We had two interested parties in our flat and it went to sealed bids. We accepted one of the offers but it was a nail biting wait for all the paper work to go through. Usually in France you have to put down a 10% deposit when you make an offer on a property. I do think this is a good thing as it stops a lot a stress with people changing their minds or pulling out because they have found something better or the myriad of other potential reasons that house sales fall through for in the UK. In France you put your money where your mouth is and if you pull out of the transaction without just cause you lose your deposit by way of compensation to the seller. We couldn’t raise the deposit until our sale in the UK completed, but thankfully the seller of the house in France, let’s call him J-C, was very patient and was prepared to hold the house for us despite other interest. Obviously we were going to be his new neighbours so I think he liked the idea of having a nice young family next door. He also owned some holiday apartments just around the corner and offered us free accommodation whilst the purchase was going through and also whilst we made the chalet habitable.

Above: out and about exploring the area.

We were close to completing on the sale of the Hastings flat when an old charge against the property pre-dating our ownership was discovered (it had been missed by our solicitor when we purchased it). It was a considerable sum of money and although it wasn’t our bill to pay, trying to track down and get thousands of pounds out of someone when it wasn’t of any benefit to them to clear, seemed like a waste of time and energy so we took the hit and agreed to clear the charge upon completion. The next obstacle was finding someone at short notice to do an international removals service during a pandemic. The first company we booked did not work out, we paid a large deposit to secure them but there was a serious miscommunication and lack of clarity from them as to whether they could actually get across the border with Covid restrictions. To cut a long story short they cancelled the job and refused to return our deposit. So now we were in even more of a desperate situation, I couldn’t find any reputable companies willing to do it. I can’t remember how I found him, but I found someone willing to do it. In hindsight the company name should have been a warning. Rawhide Removals (read as cowboy!). But we were desperate. The initial quote was ok but it kept creeping up and up. We had already boxed up and put a lot of stuff in a storage unit. He turned up on the day and announced that there was more stuff than we had agreed and could Michael get some of his friends round to help. It then transpired that he didn’t have any moving blankets or straps to secure anything. He went off with one of the guys to get some from somewhere but was gone a couple of hours. He had ordered for loads of our stuff to be carried down to the street to then be left there in the rain whilst he sorted the blankets and straps. Our friends did most of the heavy lifting whilst he ordered people about. It was a majorly stressful day. We got the flat empty and he went off with our stuff. He was due to comeback for the stuff in the storage unit the next day. We set off for France leaving this in his hands.

Above: saying goodbye to the empty flat in Hastings and arriving very tired after a nine hour drive at the holiday apartment, and checking out the house the next day.

Exodus

Our car was full to the brim with the essential stuff. We had a long nine hour drive with a small child and nervous dog in the car but we made it and as promised by J-C the holiday apartment was ready for us. Our attention turned back to the removals. Of course now he became difficult to get hold of, not replying to messages or answering calls, he became very hostile when I did speak to him, he always had an excuse for delays or why our stuff hadn’t been delivered. At this point I did some digging on his company. My heart plummeted into my stomach as I read some truly horrific reviews, people who’s stuff had gone missing and court cases. Undelivered possessions. It appeared from the accounts I had read that he had a problem with women and confrontation so we had to be tactical despite the rage I was feeling. All of my art equipment and all of Michael’s tools were in his possession. Basically my livelihood and all the tools Michael needed for the renovation. I felt sick with the stress of it. Because this guy seemingly had an issue with women I suppressed my feminist rage and let Michael deal with him who took a very polite and understanding approach with him which seemed to make us some headway. I think some three or four weeks later he delivered most of our stuff. Not all of it, he promised to deliver the rest on a subsequent trip. He probably does this to ensure you pay up. Then we came to settling the bill and he presents us with a bill twice the original quote. I had to step outside of the apartment, I didn’t know what to do with the rage bubbling inside me. I sat outside shaking and sobbing. I pulled myself together and went back inside. We paid it through gritted teeth because having read the reviews I knew this man was not good to get into a battle with. The most important things had been delivered and I just wanted him out of our lives. We eventually got the other items but it was one of the most stressful experiences.

Although the house purchase was within budget we didn’t have enough to allow for a contingency fund. The outstanding charge on the flat in Hastings, the loss of our deposit with the first removal company and the doubling of the fee with the second meant that our budget for refurbishing the chalet had just been cut in half. It was upsetting and disappointing but at least we had made it here, we had our stuff and things were heading in the right direction.

Above: some before shots of the interior of the chalet. I loved the charm of the vintage wallpapers but they were hessian backed and nailed to the wood panelling and were not in good condition.

J-C was accommodating as ever, he let us store our removals in the house despite not having completed yet. He also let us start the stripping out of the chalet early too. So out came all the old electrics and plumbing, and by old I mean old, the original Victorian wiring which was very unsafe. We completed the purchase in October 2020. Now, the renovation could really start. We prioritised insulation because the chalet was basically a glorified shed with a thin wooden frame and cladding on the interior and exterior with an empty cavity in-between. The walls were only a few inches thick and the winters here are mega cold. Colder than we were expecting. The first winter we had -12*. The bathroom was rotten. The floor, the roof, the walls, Michael practically had to rebuild it from the floor to the beams. Renovations always take longer than you think they will. Installing the insulation, plumbing and new electrics was a big job for Michael on his own. A friend of J-C very kindly helped Michael with installing the insulation. I worked on getting Noa’s room habitable first. We were hoping to be in for Christmas but unfortunately we didn’t make that deadline. We did however have a functioning kitchen, a flushing toilet and some basic furniture so we put up a Christmas tree, some fairy lights and spent our first Christmas day in France in our little chalet. However, there was a curfew in place as part of the covid restrictions so we had to leave and go back to the holiday apartment by 6pm. We moved into the chalet in late January. We all bunked in together in Noa’s bedroom which had the only sanded and varnished floor and was reasonably clean. The walls were not finished but had been filled, sanded and a undercoat painted on so it was by far the best room, comparatively. Noa had her bed and Michael and I had an inflatable mattress which was impossible to get into without making loads of squeaky plastic noises. Thankfully, Noa is a deep sleeper so it didn’t pose too much of a problem, more of an annoyance for us than anything else.

Above: the stripping out, installing electrics and plumbing, insulating and the long and laborious task of pulling out a million rusty tacks.

We had got to the important benchmark of making the place habitable but it was far from finished. The bathroom had bare OSB flooring and ceiling, no bath panel, half done tiling. The toilet was temporarily positioned at a jaunty angle so the door could open because the pipe to the outside needed repositioning which we weren’t sure how to do. The kitchen had no cupboard doors (they still don’t!) and most of the wooden floors were crusted up with carpet glue that had fixed the old cheap nylon carpets down. The pine clad wooden walls had been covered in an old hessian backed wallpaper which had been glued and nailed down. This has been the bane of the chalet renovation. Removing, or digging out thousands of rusty old tacks and nails, filling, sanding and caulking every join between the planks. This is where the renovation fund ran out. The chalet is habitable, but far, far from finished. If you have ever watched Grand Designs you will know that everyone should have a contingency fund. There are always unforeseen complications, things take longer and will always cost more despite the best of planning. We didn’t have the luxury of a contingency fund so here we are, still living in the unfinished chalet. The plan was to refurbish the chalet as a holiday let and start receiving guests from Spring 2021. I laugh now at how unrealistic that was. The income that the holiday let would generate was going to fund the renovation of the house. That was the plan. One of the biggest lessons we have learnt in coming here is that sometimes you have to let go of the plan. Covid restrictions in France were long and harsh, we learnt to be still, to be patient and to wait and then something quite unexpected started to happen…

Read Part III (coming 30th May) to find out how life changed for us once we moved in and what our thoughts are about living in France now nearly two years down the line.