Two weeks in France - week one

Monday

Our journey down to our house in France was broken up today by a diversion into Brittany tovisit our friend Ellie.  In a dramatic move, she has got divorced, sold her house and used the proceeds to buy a house with attached Gites.  We get there late morning for a few hours visit.

The overwhelming impression is just how pleased and excited Ellie is by the developments.  She has only been in the house for two weeks and is working long hours getting everything sorted out.  She has even had her first guests staying.  She is so fired up about it all, though how things will seem in darkest February, who knows. 

We had a walk round the entire site - Ellie has quite a few acres of land, mostly meadows but also some woodland and what might be a bog.  It really is a stunning location.  We had a lovely lunch and a long chat about the various things we were up to, and how odd it is that we have both ended up doing something similar.  Interestingly, Ellie had a few thoughts about the painting holidays / brocante business which we should think about in detail

We left early afternoon for the four hour drive down to our house.  Hopefully we should see more of Ellie going forward which would be very nice.

We arrived at our house around 7:00pm - Wife's first visit since February.  There has been loads of work downe since then and I was pleased that Wife seems to like how it has all turned out.  This first week will give us time to review everything I've done and make a few changes to a few things - and I have some new work that I want to get done - painting the shutters for instance

Tuesday

First thing to review is the progress on our renovation project - Petit Chats.  Recently work has been focused on levelling the floor in the loft ready for new floorboards to go down and removing the old electricals, ready for a full re-wire

Lots of new joists in place, making a level surface for the new floorboards

Also there has been some work on the downstairs bedroom / bathroom.  The old shower has been removed and the prep work done for the cutting of two new doors and the closing of one existing door.  Some slight problems here caused by the existance of a sort of dummy wall.  To get a level wall, this will have to be covered over.

Amazing amounts of dust produced as the wall is prepped

The downstairs lounge remains the store room and is now very full

As is the kitchen

Our main concern is the conditionof the pool which is currently still a cloudy green colour as the chemical treatments slowly make progress against the winter algae.  The filter is also not working very well, but we should see some gains this week


Wednesday to Friday

Work continues on Petit Chats for much of the week.  The electricals are nearly done and while Steve works on this, Grant and his colleague are doing the downstairs doors. I have severeal trips out with them to buy materials. 

While this goes on, Wife and I make some small changes to various other things in the house and I worked on what will eventually be a painter's studio (and is now the garage)

Wife has also been quite tried this week and has had a few long lies-in.  She has also not wanted to do much going out - in fact we didn't manage to do any of the things I had wanted to.  But never mind, she has definitely perked up as the week has progressed

Saturday

Out early this morning to visit a street Brocante at Arvert down near the coast at Oleron.  This is partly a test of whether we can acquire sufficient stock for our brocante business and generally the morning goes quite well.  Some real bargains, some more expensive things. I paid around E30 each for three pictures that might be a bit extravagent.  But actually a nice morning out.

Today's haul

In the afternoon, Wife and I travelled back down to the same area and visited Mornac, one of France's official "most beautiful villages".  This will be a perfect location for the painting holidays.

Then onto Royan for dinner out at the place we went to after we bought our house.  This does huge seafood platters for two to share and I am going to try and persuade my sister-in-law to have one with me, when they are down for our second week.

Catching Up 6 - What I have been reading recently

Catching Up 5 - Music I've been listening to recently

Catching Up 4 - Daughter's PhD

Daughter was accepted for her Masters / PhD at Oxford some time ago.  Some time later, she received notification that she was getting a "studentship" to cover the cost of this for the prospective four years - amazing news.

The one area where she has not yet heard is from the college she applied for.  This was chosen on the "scientific" grounds that it seemed to have the most active Middle Common Room social life. 

If she does get in their, she should get accommodation for the first two years.  I have a walk past the main accommodation block the other week and it looks very nice.

As I write this, Daughter is in Tanzania working as an English teacher.  Though she is enjoying this, she is thinking of coming back a couple of weeks early as she has loads to do related to college, etc (and is probably a bit "over-travelled" from the past 9 months or so on the road)

This time last year, she was still working at the management consultancy in London and not enjoying it.  So what a change in a year.  Resignation, 3 months in India, getting her PhD place, 3 months in the Far East, her yoga teaching qualification, 2 months in Tanzania.  It has certainly been a dramatic year.

Catching Up 3 - The Vintage French Business

The vintage french brocante business is an idea that we thought could be bolted onto the painting holidays next year.  Spending lots of time in France, and visiting loads of weekend street markets, etc, has suggested that we could regularly buy french collectibles and take them back to the UK for re-sale.  This business doesn't have to make much each year, but it could at least add a sweetener to everything else - it is also quite good fun to do.

So far, we have accumulated around 50 boxes of brocante stuff and are tentatively planning to attend a number of antique and collectibles fairs over the coming months.  We are also planning an ebay shop. 

Then next year, when people are regularly crossing back and forwards to and from France in respect of the painting holidays, etc, we will be able to keep the business stocked up.  If we sold 500 boxes a year at a 50% gross profit, we could make about $15,000 a year.  Not a huge profit, but more than enough to cover quite the annual costs of running the house in France.

Being the son of an antique dealer, I am quite keen on this sort of thing!

Catching Up 2 - The Painting Holiday Business

For the last two months, we have been developing a painting holiday idea to try and enhance the low-season rental stream from our house in France.

Modelled on our old overseas business that we ran in 2008, but without the drag of third-party rental expense, we are planning for this business to be largely run by two friends (one of whom is an art teacher which should help).  Wife and I expect to be quite passive in the day-to-day operation.  It is too hot to sit outside painting for hours in July and August in our area of France, so we are targeting May-June and September-October - exactly the weaker times in our rental plans.

At this stage, the business is being discussed in general terms only.  But we are about to have our first print advert published and are beginning to consider some points of detail.  One of the key lessons from our experiences in 2008 is that the more that is planned in advance, the easier the work is to do.  So lots of thought needed now.

The painting holidays now have their own website http://painting-holidays-in-france.co.uk

Catching Up 1 - Our House in France

Since we bought the house last November, I have spent about 7 weeks there in total, mainly doing the re-decoration needed in order to enhance the rental part of the property.  This has gone extremely well I think and I am really delighted by how it now looks.  It has been rented for enough weeks to cover the annual running costs, but not enough to eat much into the renovation costs.  But a decent enough start.

The renovation work on the other half has progressed further than I had expected at this time.  The plan has been enhanced compared to the early versions, but at a slightly increased cost.  However, when this is finished, the outcome is going to be extremely good.  We'll be left with a 9-bedroom, 4-bathroom farmhouse, easily split into two as seperate rental properties.  But there is at least 8-10 weeks of work for me over the next winter to see this through to completion.  And a huge amount of thought needed to see it finished properly

The house has its own website http://cadran-solaire.co.uk

Picture added later - our house it all its summer glory

Its Daughter's Birthday - 24 today

In Daughter's busy schedule, it is perhaps surprising that she is actually home when it is her birthday.  So 24 today - an age she describes as being a "crap age", neither young enough or old enough apparently.  I don't know what that means really.

Last year we went to Le Caprice and saw Tara Palmer Tomkinson.  This year we went to a really nice pub near Oxford that one of Wife's clients recommended and had a really lovely meal.  The place was packed out - so some pubs are doing OK

Daughter has had quite a year.  This time last year, she was working for a Management Consultants in London and not enjoying it.  A few month's later she quit.  Since then, she has been to India for 3 months working for a micro finance bank, had three months in the far east where she visited four or five countries and did a yoga-teacher-training course.  And she is off to Tanzania in a few weeks time where she'll be teaching English for a couple of months.

She has some things to do in Europe over the summer and then should be starting her MSc / PhD in the autumn. 

So what a year!

Today I bought a van!

As we develop our current business idea, we have reached the decision that we could do with a van.  It costs us around £400 to do a round trip to France with a hired van and we are planning to go there perhaps 8 times a year.  It would cost us about £3750 to buy a Van that ought to last four or five years and so would cost under £1000 per year.  So a big potential saving by having our own.

And if the business doesn't work out, I will probably to be able to get £3k for itand so it will have still been better to own one rather than hire one.

That said, it is Jerome that will be looking after the van and doing most of the driving in it.  He is hoping to get some small "man with a van" jobs each week in Bristol to help pay for it all. 

So we are planning a trip to France in a few weeks time - to deliver the furniture I have here that I want in "Petits chats", pick up some stuff that I bought on the last trip, and to allow us to visit several brocante markets and try and buy 50 to 100 boxes of stuff to re-sell in the UK.

So another exciting development 

Today, I rescued a deer

A man out walking his dog knocked on our door this morning to say that there was a deer trapped in a wire fence in the field opposite and could I call the RSPCA or someone.

I can do better than that - I can walk down into the field and free it myself.

Its back leg was caught in a loop of wire and it was in a very twisted position.  It is fair to say that it wasn't very happy that I was approaching, but it didn't take me long to untwist the wire and free the leg.  As you'd expect, it rushed off in a panic (getting trapped in a dead end between two fences but eventually finding its way out again)

Never let it be said that I am not friend to man and beast.

Painting holidays in France

Another idea for boosting the revenue from our French property - hosting painting holidays.

Our two friends - J and Y - seem up for the callenge of running this.  Y is an art teacher, so the actual painting part of the holidays should be fine, while J is half-french, so that should help too.

There are some complications though.  For instance, J has to return to the UK for access to his two children.  That return journey was part of the reason we were looking at the brocante business idea as the regular trips back could be used to bring stuff.  This has meant that the holidays have to be organised as one-week-on, one-week-off, which might not be ideal. 

There are some upfront costs for this venture which we are finding, but hopefully J and Y will manage most of it themselves, in effect paying us rent out of their turnover. 

Wife and I are hoping that our experience running holidays in Europe back in 2008 will be of help.

The painting holiday website is at http://painting-holidays-in-france.co.uk

A trip out with Jerome and Yvette

A day out with Jerome and Yvette reveiwing nearby locations that have products for sale that sort of match the type of thing we can buy at brocantes in France.

First up is Witney Warehouse, a furniture store that does a line in shabby chic painted furniture and is pretty good at it. 

Then on to Chipping Norton antique centre where there is much more expensive shabby chic stuff and loads of french collectibles of various sorts - most at prices of perhaps 6 times what we would need to pay for the item in France.

Finally to Oxford to view the Thursday antique and craft market in Gloucester Green - our stuff would be better than the typical stuff for sale here

So a reasonable showcase of the trade we are getting into - and no sign that the plan is particularly far-fetched.

New painting projects

There is a new Annie Sloan furniture-painting book out which has inspired me to start a few new furniture painting projects despite it being freezing cold out in my "workshop".  I am also thinking that these sorts of projects could add a good diversification to the brocante business ideas.  Suppose I could turn out four pieces a week.  If they cost £50-100 each to buy, but sold for £200, that would be £400-500 gross profit per week.  Sounds a bit unlikely that I could make this each week, but where is the error in this analysis?

So my three new projects are two cupboards I bought recently from Haynes reclamation yard and a chest of drawers that I bought some while ago.  All three are earmarked for France, but they do provide practice for the business idea and allow me to assess accurately how long each piece takes to finish and what paint costs, etc, I should factor in. 

Project One

This first cupboard is a fairly large piece that I plan to put in one of the new bathrooms in Les Petits Chats.  It has a number of interesting features in its panelling and round its base.  There are two long drawers at the top left and right, and a large main cupboard.  I was not able to remove the fittings on the door handles which was a shame, and means that there will inevitably be some paint on these when I've finished.

My plan was to sand this down, prime it and then paint it in Farrow & Ball Oxford Stone paint.  I was not looking to distress this piece but instead produce a good-quality, smooth paint job.

After the primer coat

During the first top coat.  Oxford stone is a rather nice greenish-grey. 

After two coats of top coat but awaiting the doors and drawers.



Overall, this item cost £68, has required about £4 of primer and £6 of top coat.  It has taken about 6 hours to process, spread over four days.  If sold for £200, the profit would be about £120 or £20 per hour - though the "work" does have some hobby aspect to it as well, so the hourly rate should be considered to be a bit higher than this.

Project Two

This is a smaller, but much heavier cupboard.  It has a carved trim round the top and sides and the top actually lists up to reveals a wide open surface.  Again I am thinking of this as a bathroom peice for France.

I decided that this one should be painted using Annie Sloan's Chateau Grey, a very greeny grey.  Then afterwards I am going to decide whether to give it a light wash over of a paler colour - probably a watered down mix of Old White and Paris Grey. 

For this one, I was able to remove the hinges and fittings - which should make it a much cleaner finish.

Post painting - door hinges are to be reattached and the whole thing still to be waxed. 

This piece cost £88 and has used about £6 of paint so far.  It does need a new plywood back though, so a little more cost to incur.  Time taken was a little quicker than the F&B project

Project three

This chest of drawers was bought a couple of months ago for France but I have only recently decided to go ahead and paint it.  The other chest I bought the same day is going to be kept unpainted at it has a rather nice patina on the drawers and top.

I decided that this would also be painted in F&B Oxford Stone. 

Jason Molina RIP

A music site has reported some sad news over the weekend - the death of Jason Molina. His record company says he died of "natural causes" but the implications seems to be that he died from organ failure due to alcoholism - he was 39.

I first heard him with the track "Steve Albini's blues" and I soon had all his cds (just about) from emusic.com and other pay sites.  Didn't it Rain and Ghost remain two of my favourite albums ever.

I saw him twice in concert - once was a solo show in the upstairs of a pub in Shepherd's Bush (which I saw with Wife) and the other was a Magnolia Electric Company show in 2009.

He released his final recordings late last year and I am listening to them now - a sad a set of songs as you're ever likely to hear.

Rest In Peace

Three weeks inn France Part 5

Wednesday

Jerome and Yvette duly arrived around 10:00 last night after a rainy drive down. 

A morning spent doing more jobs for 4 hours - the name plaque has gone up at the end of the drive and the lockboxes for the keys have been attached on a wall in the garage.  J and Y have a lie-in

We are joined by Dave the estate agent just after lunch for a visit to see Jerome's possible barn purchase.  On the way, we are delayed by the closure of a village while the entire front section of an aeroplane is moved through it.

Jerome's barn is better than I remember - huge potential if you have the time (which they do) and the money (which they don't).  The location really is stunning.

What a view (from the back of the barn)

Later we call in at the Emmaus near our house to consider the sort of things we might try and purchase for our suggested brocante business

Then in St Jean to look at possible painting sites, visit the cave for 2 litres of merlot, and the brocante shop to compare prices with Emmaus.

Dinner is at Le Cabanon in St Jean which has re-opened under new management - not bad but they don't do the kidneys flamed in the cognac that the previous owners did, and which is one of my all-time favourite dishes

Thursday

The penultimate day of my three week visit - still lots of important stuff to do

We have the cleaners in today to do a preliminary deep clean before the rental season kicks off.  There are two of them but it will still take them two days this time.

Meanwhile Jerome has been set to work to demolish furniture, while I moved the garden stones.  The garage is now full of broken up stuff and yet another trip to the dump is required.

Dinner is at Le Scorlion - St Jean's finest.  I treated us all to a bottle of St Emilion with the meal - my all time favourite wine

Friday

Last morning - still lots of small stuff to do.  For instance, there is a lot of picture hanging to do, such as the landing upstairs. 

One last general tidy up by me and half a day's work by the cleaners and we are done for the trip

As always, it is quite tough to leave - there is a strong sense that the last three weeks have been among my happiest of the last few years.  Roll on next winter and perhaps another 8 - 10 weeks of work down here.

Three weeks in France Part 4

Saturday

First task today - painting the skirting boards on the upstairs landing.  Generally the skirting boards in the house are made of a strange, bendy wood-plastic material and have often only been half-attached to the walls (not enough glue used).  In an ideal world, I would gradually replace them all, but that is a huge job, and given what happened with the downstairs bathroom, it could take forever.

An occasional break from painting to fit new fittings to the bathroom units upstairs.  This is another attermpt to try and tone down the heavy contemporary feel of this room.  Combined with the old furniture, the effect is ok.  But there is nothing to disguise the fact that the exisitng units are not very nice.

With our new satellite TV, I was able to watch the rugby tonight.  So far this trip, I have barely watched anything on tv.  I am usually too tired to even eat much!

Sunday

Today I was initially focused on the white painting of the landing - lots of prep to do for this

Mid morning I drove up to the village of Le Gicq to attend the first brocante I've been to for a while.  It was nowhere near as good as last year's one in Loulay, but I did buy one or two things.  It rained most of the morning too, which rather put a dampner on things.  Not a good indication of whether we will be able to acquire enough stock for the idea we have to re-sell french stuff in the UK

An evening out at Grant and Karen's tonight - the first people I have talked to face-to-face in quite a while (excluding my attempts to speak french to the locals).  A very pleasant evening (and Karen's tour of their chambre d'hote complex gave me some things to think about)

Monday

There have been some big market moves brought on by developments in Cyprus.  This did distract me a little from the last big painting day - the upstairs landing

Also finished today was the back bedroom painting - second coats and touching up the room.  I will do a set up of this room soon, to take some photos for the website.

Radio listening today was mainly Don Letts' radio 6 show.  I haven't heard him before and rather enjoyed it.

The outdoor furniture has been finished and is now outside on the terrace.  It will be very nice there once the sun shines

Tuesday

More work on the landing from 5:00am onwards.  It is odd how it isn't light here till past 8:00!  I work for the first three hours, then go to the bakery and it is only just getting light

I have also finished the next coat of paint for the main stairs - this does look much better

And the pictures have been hung in the lounge

and the back bedroom has been furnished and some linen sorted out so I can take some photos (the main light fitting still needs doing though)

Finally, I have some prep work for the imminent arrival of Jerome and Yvette

The most weird beard this trip

An evening out brings an end to the weird beard experiment.  Approximately 3 weeks growth is the maximum I get to - and there is a good chance that this will be the most it ever gets to.  I was gratified that it took a reasonable time to shave off too.

Some grey appearing too - I am getting older . . . .

Constant DIY work and thoughts turn to Julia Kendall

With the constant DIY, hour after hour, day after day, it is only natural that thoughts turn to the sexiest DIYer of them all - Julia Kendall from DIY SOS.  Dressed in her trademark black combat trousers, she is the perfect DIY collaborator I feel. 

As the hours pass, progress is made slowly and steadily.  The zen-like application of paint gives way to thoughts of the lovely Julia . . . . .

Even if some of her designs are a bit weird!

Three weeks in France Part 3

Tuesday

I have started on the potentially awful task of putting a skirting board round the edge of the downstairs shower room.  As I write this, I have done 7 of the 15 pieces necessary but it has taken me the best part of an hour per piece and there has been much swearing in the sheer frustration of the constant tiny problems that stop it all fitting properly.  Much of this is due to working at the absolute limit of what the mitre saw can handle.  I can see there will have to be some short cuts taken in some way as I am approaching the toughest pieces and am probably going to have to budget two hours per piece as things get tricky

But on the upside today, Steve the electrician has put in a full 8 hour day and has done a remarkable amount.  The two chandelier lights that I bought from Gill back in November are in place.  The previous light fitting above the dining room table is now in the shower room.  Two new lights have gone up in the lounge.  The wiring in the shower room has been tidied up, as has the remarkably bad wiring above the sink in the kitchen.  And various other small things done too.  This has made a huge difference, as we suspected it would

I continued working on small jobs through the afternoon, while Grant worked on the boxing of the VMC unit.  He has finished the downstairs toilet and is half way through the bathroom upstairs.  So I shall be painting the toilet tomorrow - when not doing the skirting board

Wednesday

A quiet day with no visitors.  I spend it working on and off on the shower room and doing more smaller jobs.  Though I have also given most of the back bedroom its second coat of paint.

We have had a few idas about the use of the garage.  Having decided that we won't ever use it for storing a car, we are thinking about what would be required to turn it into a studio to support the painting courses that Jerome and Yvette are hoping to run in our house over the coming years.  If we have time newt week, I am going to suggest that maybe Jerome would like to break up all the furniture in the garage and we'll have a go at getting the space visible.  Then we might think about possibly putting a skylight in the roof and doing something with the walls (later in the year).

It could work well

Thursday

Remarkably, we have had a flurry of snow this morning.  True it only lasts for 45 mins and then melts virtually straight away.  But I am assurred that any snow here is a rarity.

Grant is back today to finish the boxing in of the VMC pipe work and then do a clean of the outside stonework, when we might discover that the walls will need whitewashing, which would be a very time-consuming extra job.

In the morning, we also have the delivery of the new TV and washing machine and the new satellite dish is fitted and I now have Freeview.  This ensures that we have complied with the requirement to provide an English speaking TV service but it has to be said that the choice of channels is pretty crap.

Grant's cleaning is a success and we don't think any extra painting will be required.  It is a high tech operation combining chemical treatments with a high pressure Karcher water system, but the results are great.

Friday

After yesterday's snow, this morning is cold but blue skied.  So I can take some photos of the walls now they are looking really clean

I also get a visit from Rick and his local electrician friend who take a couple of hours to work out what was wrong with the light circuit in the back bedroom but do get it fixed in the end.  Apparently a neutral cable had been pinched by the work done on reinforcing the grenier roof.  So it wasn't to do directly with the new door at all.

I have just about finished the skirting board in the downstairs shower room and though it has taken about 25 hours to do, it does look really good.  What remains is some touching up of the paint - though I am getting very low on the blue.  The new linen chairs are working really well in each room I have put them in so far and the shower room is no exception.  I wish there had been 10 of them now.

Daughter is accepted to Oxford for her PhD with funding

An urgent skype message greats me at 5:30 this morning.  Daughter has been awarded full funding from Oxford for her PhD.  All her university and college fees plus an annual stipend of nearly £17,000 for each of the next four years starting this October.

I have a chat to Daughter who is understandably very excited (and which is therefore affecting her attempts at mindfull, living in the moment during her yoga course).  Afterwards I call Wife at just after 6:00am her time.  It has not escaped my notice that this probably saves Wife and I the best part of £30,000 compared to what our budgeting discussions had suggested some months ago.

So Daughter has accepted the funding and had to produce a short research proposal during the day today.  Then there are some formalities to accept the actual Oxford offer.  She will turn down Trinity, Cambridge then - I wonder how many people get offers from both?

And this will mean that Daughter will be living just 10 miles away.  We can see her more often without being in each others pockets . . .

On all counts, some of the best news ever.

Weird beard

It would be fair to say that Wife is not keen on whiskers.  But with three weeks away, I have the time to give it a good go.  My last shave was a few days before my departure and I still have more than two weeks to go.  This might be the last time I ever have such an opportunity so make the most of it. 

And this is how it is so far.

Is that a strong hint of grey on my chin?  It most certainly is