House #2: supercool flat

Now this was more like it. "S" showed us a magnificent apartment, in a good location, right on the river, full of gorgeous period details. In fact, it's built on what was once the walls of the original city. It comprised one entire building in a very odd but cool sort of deco style, adjoined to a single floor of the adjacent building. Like this:

The deco building had parking on the ground level, a living/kitchen/dining area above, and a beautiful wide verandah. Above it all was a rehabbable attic space. The two spacious bedrooms were in the other, older building, along with the stairwell and the front door.

Here's the living room, in its double-length glory:

Exceptional light, huge windows looking out at the vista over the river, and with amazing flooring. They don't make em like this anymore.

The patio was no less stunning, just outside the huge windows from the livingroom:

With a view across the river of the virgin (which "S"'s husband says is the last one left in Lodeve) up on the hill:

There were some issues with the place. The kitchen, although nicely tiled, was very small and enclosed and dark, behind the long wall facing the verandah windows. It would have been necessary to knock that out, and make a peninsula out of it:

Also, the stairway up to the attic was huge, sort of ugly, and crossed the chimney, which besides being unattractive, is illegal. And the attic they led up to needed a complete rehab, and probably a bathroom.

On the plus side, the bedrooms in the older part of the flat were gorgeous, high-ceilinged, and full of light, with fireplaces, no less:

And again with the cool floors, terracotta hexagons in this case.

We loved the flat. We both loved it. It needed work, but it had so much potential. But in the end, and to "S"'s disappointment, we had to say no. Because we did some thinking, and did some math, and ultimately came to the conclusion that buying an interim home, no matter how beautiful, just didn't make any sense for us. We weren't looking for an apartment, we were looking for a house. We didn't want a glorious verandah, we wanted a yard for our son. And to buy this place, even without doing all the work we thought it deserved, didn't make economic sense. To cover the taxes we'd have to pay, the flat would have to go up in value 10% before we could sell it. Just to break even. And the mandatory 3-month buying gap would mean that we wouldn't be able to move in for a quarter year (by which time we'd hope to have found a more permanent place to buy anyway), and that when we'd want to sell it, our money would be again tied up for a similar amount of time, threatening to scupper the future dream-deal.

It was a great flat. It'll make someone very very happy. But for now, we're sanguine, and it's early days. We'll keep looking. Sorry, S.