Farmhouse Renovation Project in the South of France

You have just bought your gorgeous old farmhouse in the
south of France and all it needs is some renovation and TLC
and it will become the home of your dreams! A word of
caution! It is often all too easy to become wrapped up in
your optimistic hopes and dreams and not spend enough time
planning the renovation and ensuring that enough finance is
in place for the project to be completed. The last thing
you want is to buy that perfect renovation project only to
find two years down the line that the roof is still leaking
because you haven't the money to fix it as you spent it
elsewhere!

Unlike in England where it is standard practice to send in
a chartered surveyor before you buy a property who can
estimate the various costs of building repairs; this is not
the case in France. You will need to ask a local builder,
architect or a British chartered surveyor in France to
check the structural state of the building and estimate
what the repair costs will be before you buy. You should
then add at least 25% for any hidden extras that the
architect/surveyor may have missed. It is also very
important that you are realistic about the time frame in
which your house will be ready to move into. A job that you
might expect to take six months in England will probably
take a few months longer in France especially if you don't
speak the language as it will take some time to find
builders who come recommended and whose work you approve of.

Once you have bought your quaint but dilapidated farmhouse
in the south of France which you have chosen for its laid
back atmosphere then don't be surprised when your tradesmen
adopt the same attitude in their work regime. You will have
to keep on top of them at all times to ensure that the work
is completed on schedule and that everyone is synchronised:
if for example the electrician is booked to rewire the
house within a certain time frame and he is delayed or does
not turn up then other jobs such as plastering that follow
will also have to be delayed and rescheduled. This
rescheduling may not be possible for some weeks which could
in turn put other jobs behind schedule- patience is
something that you will have to learn to embrace!

For instance an English couple that relocated to the
Rhone-Alps region in the south of France found that their
project actually took two years rather than one year as
predicted and spent the first few months cooking with
camping gas and portable cooker while the kitchen was being
built- so be prepared to rough it a little during your
adventure! Not that it's a bad thing: it can actually be
very enjoyable cooking and eating in the great outdoors
after a hard days work watching the beginnings of your
project slowly become the home of your dreams. This
particular couple actually spent the first few weeks living
with their neighbours rather than staying in a hotel while
the house was unlivable. The two of them simply went over
to say hello and in a great gesture which you would find
hard to come across in any part of the world, they were
invited to stay for as long as they needed even though just
moments before they were complete strangers!

The project was finally completed two years after they
first bought the house and regardless of all the headache
and hard work they put in if you ask them now they would
say they really wouldn't have done it any differently. The
stone farmhouse has become a haven of tranquility and
something that they can both be very proud of as every
evening when they drink local wine and eat Provencal food
in their scented, colourful courtyard they can look up at
their house and truly say "We did that".

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Nick Dowlatshahi is an expert on the French property market
and managing Director of Leapfrog Properties. Leapfrog
Properties is a French Property agency which specialises in
property sales across France.
http://www.leapfrog-properties.com