Lunch on the terrace

Just to keep you up to date on the progress of the presbytery.

You can see the position of the house in the village here and some shots of the rooms here and here.

The building has been ours now since just before Christmas when Sile and I went out and signed with the Notaire.
At the new year we went and rented a house down the road and visited frequently, at that stage we got the water and electrricity connected. Clive came out with me in February and we succeeded in measuring up the building and testing walls- to find out which were load bearing- so that when Sile and I went out at Easter we had with a schedule of works to show builders.
We had had a personal recommendation for a builder in the village whom we met and liked, he also introduced us to his mate, the plumber, who fixed our boiler and the house became not just liveable-in but actually (bordering on) comfortable.

We also talked to an English builder at that time who told us proudly that he didn’t employ any French men as they were all “bloody useless” this did nothing to win friends with this party
so he was out.

We also met another English man who works as an agent for two local French builders.
This man (and everyone is going to remain nameless for the moment) also drew up plans from Clive’s spec so we soon will be able to obtain quotations from three separate local builders.

Let me give those who might be interested a brief description of what we want doing.

Ground floor is simple, at the moment there is a large room on the left as you come in which is going to stay much the same and become the multi functional heart of the business as an office/utility room/storeroom.
On the right hand side are the public rooms, at the moment two large interconnecting rooms which lead out to our terrace.
These are going to become one, again multi-functional, area with an open kitchen, sitting area by a wood burning stove and large (10 /12 seating) dining table by the doors to the terrace, for those days when we eat inside.

This is the plan of the existing ground floor.

As you can see the south wall, at the bottom of the drawing, is a curve rather than a straight line.
We are in the middle of a circulade village and so the buildings curve towards the centre.

The first floor is a little more complicated.
At the moment we have two large bedrooms, two smaller bedrooms and a large bathroom-actually two bathrooms side by side.
The two large bedrooms are going to have bathrooms put in, the two smaller ones are going to become one large family room with bathroom and the bathrooms are going to become a single/small double also with bathroom.

The large and half converted attic will become the family home as it has two converted bedrooms as it stands and loads of open space which will get a bathroom and possibly a private sitting room for the Dwyers.

Our next job will be to deliver the plans and the spec. to at least three builders and then wait for prices to come our way.

Then we will have to decide how far our budget will stretch and which man we will pick to do the job, or part of the job or any other possible combination of same.

The balls are still very much in the air.

The garden is rather more complicated.

It is very pretty as it stands, untidy but pretty with a huge China Berry tree in the middle (we have still to see it blossom) and quite a lot of flowers which some ancient nun obviously cherished over the years.

Our plan was to put in a swimming pool but the reality may not be so simple.
The questions are should we lose the tree?
Would an overground pool do ?
Would a little plunge pool do?
Can we afford a pool at all?

I think all these questions make us cautious about making any decisions and so we will head out to Thezan in July with an open mind, or at least one with some potential openings in our mind set .
Hopefully by September, before we come home we will know exactly what we are doing and by whom and when it will be done and, when will we be opening our new chambre d’hote.

The six hundred thousand euro question as to what it will be called will also be decided at this moment.

Don’t hold your breaths but I promise I will keep you all informed.