As 2015
drew to a close, most people Steve and I knew were recovering from the usual
excesses of Christmas, while making plans for New Years’ parties. There were
visits to family and friends, and relaxing times, with some good food and a few
drinks. Having never been the
conventional types, Steve and I were on route to Southern Spain in our 23 year
old Land Rover, which was crammed to the seams with our “stuff”.
Here we go again!
The plan in Spain was, for me to finish the latest
book I was writing, titled, Caught in Traffick.
My latest book
Of
course, we couldn’t just “go” to Spain and leave it at that, oh no, we decided
that on the way we would look at some property in Brittany.
We had
done a 6 month house sit in the Tarn et Garonne region of France earlier in
2015, and had fallen in love with the country, the people, the culture and of
course, the food. We’d looked at a lot of property in the Dordogne, the
Limousin and other regions but after a three night stay in Dinan, it was
Brittany that had captured our hearts.
Beautiful Dinan
If it looks like a castle, I'm there!
Dinan city walls
And so it
was that a few days before New Years’ Eve, we had stopped off in a tiny unheard
of village called Plussulien to poke about in a one hundred year old property,
which needed more than a little TLC to bring it back to life. We had been
attracted to the place as it boasted a “sound studio” and with Steve being a
musician, and both of us singing professionally, it was worth a look.
Oh dear - the "sound studio"
Hmmmm,
for “sound studio” read, damp, dark, no - way - in - hell - is - this - a -
sound - studio”.
I mean
DAMN.
Maybe
once upon a time, the guy who lived here had tried to use it as such, but to
simply block up the windows and then cover the walls, floors and ceilings of 2
rooms in carpet and call it a sound studio doesn’t cut it! The place was next
to a road, and so every time a lorry or a tractor went past, the noise would be
picked up inside – nope, it could never work as a sound studio, not now, not
ever.
Hmmm, nope, not going to work
So, the
question was, having discounted it for the purpose which had attracted us to it
in the first place, … were we still interested?
We said
what everyone says to an agent at the end of a house viewing, “We’ll have a
think about it and let you know”
And so to
Spain.
Spain was amazing
Truly breathtaking - the view from our Spanish house
Our first
few days in Spain were obviously busy, and it took us about a week to get the
place in some sort of order and to clean it up.
During this time, we had discussed the house in Plussulien and weighed
up the pros and cons of buying such a place.
The biggest draw for us was that while it needed totally renovating, it
DID have mains electricity and water, which would be a massive saving in the
long run.
After a
lot of discussions, we decided we would go for it, and so began the remarkably
easy process of buying it. Offers were made, rejected, bettered, and eventually
accepted.
Well, this was IT
I
finished my book and by the end of March, we were on our way back to Brittany;
this time, to our own place J
Off we go again!
As we
walked through the door and into the damp, and freezing cold living room, I
will admit to a slight tremor of, “Oh crikey, what have we done?” Thankfully,
we had made one last stop at the local supermarket and bought 2 essentials – a kettle
and a heater, which were to be our best friends for a few days I can tell you.
My VERY basic kitchen
Oh but afterwards, how fantastic is this!
Oh hell yes, that's better
The electrics were old and in desperate need of attention. Every time we wanted to put the kettle on, we had to double check to make sure nothing else was on. No microwave, no washing machine, no dryer – if so, the whole system would trip and we’d be back to square one.
Ahh the wiring
Steve
spent the best part of nine months renovating the main house before he got to
the ex sound studio.
We had,
by now, decided to turn it into a gite; it would be a small one bedroom place,
but we felt it might do quite well, as despite their being literally thousands
of gites in France, with a lot of those in Brittany, smaller ones were not so
common. People often holiday in families, or groups and Steve and I had been in
a situation several times where all we wanted was a small one bed place, and
ended up paying a premium for 2 and 3 bed places, as there were no cosy little
places to be had. Well, maybe we could remedy that; in our neck of the woods at
least.
First - knock your way through!!!
It was a
massive undertaking as the previous owner had blocked up the windows in order
to have his studio as sound proof as possible. We had to get permission via our
local Mairie to put them back in, and also to move the door. We filled in acres of forms, sent off
countless papers to prove we were who we said we were, and waited. We were told
to expect a three month wait and were therefore pleasantly surprised to get the
necessary permission back in three weeks – delivered to our door my the Mairie
himself.
It took
three long months to get it into basic shape and an additional few weeks for
the finishing touches. We had family do a practice run in February this year
and discovered that once again, the electrics were the main issue. Having
another property attached to the main house, obviously meant a significant
increase in power usage. We needed a bigger electric box. One phone call to the
helpful English speaking EDF line and one week later, we had our bigger power
box and voila, no more problems. Ha! I could have 2 kettles on now, plus the
dishwasher, washing machine AND drier – perfect J well it
was until we got the astronomical electricity bill, which is a whole separate
topic!
Where DOES one begin??
Slowly slowly
It's getting there
Ahh yes, but then there's the bathroom to do
The
garden was another project, which almost left me broken, what with the giant
obstructive and seemingly indestructible tree root, which was determined to
stay where it had been for decades. Steve triumphed in the end, and conquered
it, as I knew he would; add one patio, a few chairs and a table, plants, tree
bark and a few stones and there you have it – a sweet little garden.
Steve conquers the tree root!
And voila! Complete with Hound Dog :)
My
favourite bit of the garden however is when it gets dark and the solar lights
kick in – it’s like Vegas out there J Did you expect anything less from us?
Naming
the gite was easy – we decided to call it Merlin’s Cottage Gite after our
rescue dog Merlin who had been with us since May 2016 and had seen all the
renovations as they took place.
Thanks to our friend David for this wonderful sign
Our gorgeous rescue hound Merlin
Always in the thick of it
In June this year, we opened our door – just the one – to paying guests and to date have had several satisfied customers, who have all declared it cosy and perfect for two people, which was our original objective.
And now ........
Kitchen
Living area
Bedroom with king sized bed
Bathroom
It’s been
a lot of very hard work for Steve, and I am thrilled for him to see people
enjoying the end result of all his labours. I was particularly pleased to see
one guest sunning herself in the garden. I couldn’t help the sense of
satisfaction it gave me to see her reading her book, sipping her wine and
enjoying her holiday in OUR little gite garden.
And of course lots of colour
It made
it all worthwhile. We had done it, we had our gite and it’s wonderful.
And the whole thing ......
If you are interested in booking a short or long stay in Merlin’s Cottage Gite, please contact me directly at;
Please do
visit our website where you will find more photos and information;
We can be
found on various Internet sites, which I have listed below, but you may incur
charges if you book via these sites;
For more information on my writing, please
visit;
Thanks for reading
Freya xxx
