House #32: Could this be it?

No, no, this is not the house we saw today. It does look nice though.

Let me start at the beginning and you'll have to excuse the gushing, but both Sarah and I really liked this house. Yet funnily enough it's one of the least photogenic houses we've seen, hence the little hovel pictured above. A little eye candy.

Anyway, we drove early this morning to meet Steve, our new realtor. British, of course. He sat us down and asked exactly what we wanted in a house, and, miracle of miracles, he seemed to actually hear what we were asking for. Out came his laptop, the surfing commenced, and he was saying very encouraging things like, "this one isn't for you because..." Most excellent. He also drew amazingly quick and cogent floorplans on a piece of scrap paper on his desk.

The result being that, due to our unique combination of shock-honesty and stringent requirements, only three properties on his list conformed, only one of which was available for viewing today. And so we drove.

Off the main road between two famously charming towns, one of which has one of the best weekly markets in France, we turned, and went through a nice little stone village, to the end of the road. And there sat our house. Now comes the non-photogenic part, which is crazy because when Sarah and I pulled up to the house (Steve was in his own car, and Kepler was asleep by that point), we both fell in love with it. And continued to fall more deeply in love as we started to explore.

Ok, I know, you want to see it, and I'm not one to be cagey, so ignore the pinkness of anything pink you see, and come on in. Here's the house on approach:

What you can't see here is the depth of the house... that great wide verandah, which is itself immense, something like 800 sq ft, wraps around the corner, and the house continues thuswise:

So we walked around it to check it out from a different angle.

And then onto the verandah itself. What a sprawling space! A ping-pong table looked sort of small in the middle of it, and cocktails and shisha would be a must. It looked out over the village, and vineyards, and in the distance we could see a train going along its track. very bucolic.

So far, we're loving it. But it gets better. For right inside the door I was greeted by the entry hall tile floor. One of the elements I swore I would have in some future house was tiles like this. They're hard to find, though. These were beautiful.

Immediately upon entering was a bright bedroom to the left, and another on our right, occupying the front corners of the house. The left one we'd knock out and convert into a nice kitchen. More open-plan, and it would communicate with the verandah for outside dining as well. but I digress. Beyond these two rooms, which defined the hallway, was a spacious living/dining area with nice wood floors. The sense of space and light in this house was great.

Also, as you can see, a stairway down in the front hall, but I'll get to that later. The living/dining room wrapped around the front left bedroom in a big L shape, with the dining zone in the center, and the living zone around the corner.

Looking from the living zone across the dining zone, you can see a couple doors:

That's the kitchen on the left, which with its great big fireplace and its door out to the next expanse of green would be reclaimed when we'd make the new kitchen in the front bedroom. And the other door is a nice little bathroom containing the stairs up to the raw attic space. I won't bother you with the attic, but to say that it was big and potentially useful.

Where was I? Oh yes the dining room. Looking back out at the front door, here's what you see:

And so we proceed to the back of the house, through the doorway in the back wall of the dining room. Three bedrooms, two small, one large. Should really be two. Probably was at one point, and will be again if we buy it. And they share another bathroom with a clubfoot tub looking right out the door at the back garden. It's nice to feel almost outside in the bath.

I realize, of course, that I've just gone and eliminated two of the five bedrooms we've so far encountered. But that's ok; there are three more downstairs. Nice light, too, and with their own kitchen, although it's a little bit dilapidated. One of them was an office:

The other two were bedrooms, and there was a bathroom attached as well, also in need of some refurbishment. Windows everywhere, southern exposure, new electrics and plumbing, new central heat... I'm loving this house. Also dowstairs was a vast and voluminous garage space, and a few assorted rooms in ill repair. Future fun, I guess, if we ever need the space.

Another thing about Steve: he used to be a builder. Fixed up houses in France for 15 years and sold them on. Got tired of breathing dust, started selling them without fixing them up first. But he was a very useful resource to walk around with today. Rough prices for everything we asked about changing, and extra good ideas on top. Sweet. Like for example: to get all the render off the stone on the exterior walls, then scrape and repoint all the stonework beautifully costs 45 euros per square meter. And well worth it, I think. This would be a stunning house returned all to nice stone.

I haven't talked about the land yet. Well, there's the southern yard along the side of the house, grass with a pool which we'd want to sink into the ground:

Then there's the yard in front of the house, a triangular sort of slope with cherries, figs, pears, apples, and a well:

And then, northward behind the house, a forest. All the green space together, two acres or so. Couldn't see the end of it.

And that verandah. Such a space. Ah. I digress. After we visited the house and asked all the normal questions (school in the village 2kms along with minor commerce and bar, dairy a mile away with fresh milk daily and butter once a week to the public), we said goodbye to Steve and went to check out St Foy, one of the two towns nearby. The house lies between St Foy and Castillon, the latter of which we saw on our way to the property. It was old and pretty and charming on the river, but nothing like St Foy. Gorgeous old beautiful town with all the trimmings.

So what's wrong with this house? I can't figure that one out. We're not totally in love with the small village in which it actually sits, but it does offer us basic necessities including school, and there are two magic riverside towns with castles 10 minutes away in each direction. There are reportedly other towns close by also, one of them even closer than the other two which we haven't yet explored. So all the daily needs are a walk or bikeride away, major shopping and restaurants a short drive. Plus one of the best markets in France every week. Also the house's village has a minor stop on the rail, Bordeaux in an hour and a half.

We feel good about this one. It's a tiny bit rough around the edges, in need of some work, which we want, and ready to go despite. But being the cautious idiots we are, we want to see Steve's other two houses tomorrow. And we have two more on Monday with someone else. But this could be the one. Plenty room for visitors too. And did I mention it has DSL?