Emma - Our House
The one stipulation I had when we were looking for our new home in France was that it would not be a renovation job!
Well as you can see from the photos (below), renovation was its main characteristic but when all other boxes on the criteria list are ticked what choice do you have!?
Well as you can see from the photos (below), renovation was its main characteristic but when all other boxes on the criteria list are ticked what choice do you have!?
Although much work was required, the house has the view, the capacity to be a 5 bedroomed Chambres d’hotes whilst our home part has a separate entrance. It has a barn for all Derek’s stuff and a bit of land, but not too much. Its characterful and historic. Its on the edge of a village with a station and train link to Limoges. The village is a typical pretty, well kept, rural French village with a Boulangerie, Boucherie and Coiffure … what else do you need? It has a little Primary school with school bus stops to the college or high school 5km down the road.
We bought the house and renovated both our home part and the chambres d’hotes over a period of a year and opened for business last year. Its definitely the most mammoth task we have ever taken on and we have usually bought houses that need work before and whilst we have lived in them. There are still parts of our home to finish downstairs but its what I would call heavy cosmetic decoration work, so no more knocking walls down, building others, so work for post this year’s high season.
Look at it now!
Look at it now!
Our Chambres d’hotes business
Last year’s high season went better than we expected albeit a bit of a shock to the system. My main memory of it being me shouting down the stairs to my Mum “another double and 2 pillow cases!” as she was vigorously pushing an iron up and down the board. Things are slightly calmer and much more organised now but we wait with a mix of trepidation and excitement for this summers guests!
Carol on SpringtimeOne of the things I love most about this area is that the Limousin year is very evidently punctuated into four seasons. Being predominately indicated through leaf colour and wildlife you generally know where you’re at in the year, unlike the drizzle fest of the Pennines.
The first signs of spring here are the sound and sight of the northerly crane migration. As they flap north we know warmer weather is coming, even though it is still often pierced with frosts and a chilling wind. The bees and wasps are early to appear, loving my winter flowering honeysuckle, one of the earliest pollen givers. Even the huge, jet dark carpenter bees with their drone and flash of iridescent blue are early to make the most of the uncharacteristic February heat wave. As the frosts start to abate along comes the purple of orchids on the verges and my personal favourites the Burnt orchid and Bee Orchid, thriving on impoverished soils which haven’t been grazed the ubiquitous symbol of the region, the Limousin cows. Our resident red squirrel, almost black in colour, has been seen more frequently and the blossoms of peach, apple, cherry and hawthorn add cloudy whites and pinks to the vista. Hummingbird hawk moths are already here and it won’t be long until seasonal migrants such as the punky Hoopoe and striking Golden Oriole are amongst the local populations for the summer. By late April the Cuckoo is a continual accompaniment to my weeding stints in the veggie patch. Local folklore says to keep a penny in your pocket ready for a cuckoo call as it bodes good fortune. I wonder if a supermarket token works as well? |
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Caroline & The Barn
We were excited by the challenge of turning the Barn into our holiday home and, as we finished the building work, we saw this happening. In the meantime, as I like to design & plan, I trawled through magazines picking out pictures for how the property might look and stored these, together with fabric & wallpaper swatches, in a sketchbook.
When we bought the Barn I was running my own Interior Design business and making bespoke soft furnishings eg. curtains, cushions and loose covers for furniture. I was keen to make what I could, but using colour scheme that was completely different from the blues used in our UK home. The magazine pictures enabled me to focus on the colour scheme, style and provide general ideas. I decided to use red or green as the main colours with a beige, cream or white background to create a French country look. However, we on a tight budget so some items, surplus to requirements in the UK, were re-homed in France. Other items were bought from Ebay and Ikea but but always with an eye to how these might be customised.
The photos below show the Barn as our finished holiday home and before we had the mad idea to double the space by creating an upstairs, but more of that next time.
Hover on the photos to see what was used and how it was changed
When we bought the Barn I was running my own Interior Design business and making bespoke soft furnishings eg. curtains, cushions and loose covers for furniture. I was keen to make what I could, but using colour scheme that was completely different from the blues used in our UK home. The magazine pictures enabled me to focus on the colour scheme, style and provide general ideas. I decided to use red or green as the main colours with a beige, cream or white background to create a French country look. However, we on a tight budget so some items, surplus to requirements in the UK, were re-homed in France. Other items were bought from Ebay and Ikea but but always with an eye to how these might be customised.
The photos below show the Barn as our finished holiday home and before we had the mad idea to double the space by creating an upstairs, but more of that next time.
Hover on the photos to see what was used and how it was changed
Emma - my Family!
Derek (Dad and husband) sees what is possible in developing our house and grounds, has vision and diligence. He has an innate sense of the practical and there is very little, if anything that he does not apply his skills to, to solve and find a way of doing! As far as putting stuff in the dishwasher or hoovering or wiping the kitchen sides down ... well! Perhaps some of you may recognise that area of lacking?
I'm the one who adds colour and feel to the vision... oh and that small matter of administering our place in the French tax and social system and the mountain of paperwork, time and Brocante bargain hunting that that requires!!
The constant nagging, obsession with efficiency and tidiness that are the subject of many a complaint from my family (who can blame them) with a determination and need NOT to fail means that we stick to a schedule and there exists a strategy for all four of us' skills and enthusiasm, deficiencies and weak or low moments to hang upon.
Our daughters' challenges have had a very different flavour, the most pertinent being the language. Being at school all day every day means that you get the chance to learn French much quicker but it is the necessity of it that can cause the stress. They are forced to put so much in, that they inevitably get more out of living in France quicker and more intensely.
Jessie is in her last year of our village Primary school. She is a bright energetic 10 year old with a fantastic imagination that she puts to good use in her story telling, script writing designing and drawing. This is due to her highly tuned and innate ability to live another existence inside her own head …great! …until I’m to convince her not to ‘disengage’ when she’s up against something she’s not so keen on or finds difficult. Just because she can escape into her own mind and yet look like she’s present is not always a good thing particularly when you’re to learn a new language and new ways of doing things!
Lydia is in her first year of Lycee (VI Form) in the city of Limoges 25 minutes drive away. The difference here is that they start VI Form a year earlier in France and it is normal practice for students to be residential from Monday to Friday. A completely new concept for a big standard British family and one that we are adjusting to! Lydia loves it as you can imagine.
A very different ball game to her sister, she is into Maths and the sciences and she probably works too hard and is too conscious of her actions. Saying that she’s done so well after only a year of French school. She took her Brevet (GCSE stage) and gained a great pass! I’m in awe as she chatters away in French to all her mates.
I'm the one who adds colour and feel to the vision... oh and that small matter of administering our place in the French tax and social system and the mountain of paperwork, time and Brocante bargain hunting that that requires!!
The constant nagging, obsession with efficiency and tidiness that are the subject of many a complaint from my family (who can blame them) with a determination and need NOT to fail means that we stick to a schedule and there exists a strategy for all four of us' skills and enthusiasm, deficiencies and weak or low moments to hang upon.
Our daughters' challenges have had a very different flavour, the most pertinent being the language. Being at school all day every day means that you get the chance to learn French much quicker but it is the necessity of it that can cause the stress. They are forced to put so much in, that they inevitably get more out of living in France quicker and more intensely.
Jessie is in her last year of our village Primary school. She is a bright energetic 10 year old with a fantastic imagination that she puts to good use in her story telling, script writing designing and drawing. This is due to her highly tuned and innate ability to live another existence inside her own head …great! …until I’m to convince her not to ‘disengage’ when she’s up against something she’s not so keen on or finds difficult. Just because she can escape into her own mind and yet look like she’s present is not always a good thing particularly when you’re to learn a new language and new ways of doing things!
Lydia is in her first year of Lycee (VI Form) in the city of Limoges 25 minutes drive away. The difference here is that they start VI Form a year earlier in France and it is normal practice for students to be residential from Monday to Friday. A completely new concept for a big standard British family and one that we are adjusting to! Lydia loves it as you can imagine.
A very different ball game to her sister, she is into Maths and the sciences and she probably works too hard and is too conscious of her actions. Saying that she’s done so well after only a year of French school. She took her Brevet (GCSE stage) and gained a great pass! I’m in awe as she chatters away in French to all her mates.
