You might have noticed it’s been a while since I’ve posted anything here. That’s partly because we’ve been away from our little house in the Loire for six months now, and also because—in the month that and two days that we’ve been back—we’ve been so utterly overwhelmed with the scope of the project that there hasn’t been any creative energy left at the end of the day to write about the experience! When we arrived back in Montrichard on the 11th of January, we settled into our rental house just down the hill from our house. We rented the same place last summer and liked the big yard, the views over the river, and the fact that we could see our house up the hill from the bedroom window! And there was something new at this rental house since we were here last: two adorable donkeys living in the pasture behind the house. (Brother donkeys Gribouille and Nuage are sweet and curious, and always come running to the fence to say hey when they see us.) Our first goal is getting electricity at the house. (Spoiler alert: it hasn’t happened yet.) We got one estimate last summer, a second while we were still in California (after sending a detailed explanation of where we hid the house key. We were kind of surprised he actually found it!), and a third the first week we were here. They ranged from thousands of euro to many, many thousands of euro, which caught us off guard. (The realtor we bought the place from estimated it would cost 15,000 euro to get this place completely habitable. Either she is the least knowledgeable real estate professional in town or she was lying through her teeth. Not sure which is worse!) For the last week, Jeff and a friend have been demolishing the interior of the house, bagging up the contents, and making dump runs. So far, they’ve had one lady stop to question them as they stacked up the bags in preparation for dumping them into the trailer for hauling away, and had a band of pickers come along and start rummaging through everything looking for bits and bobs of value. Requests to move along (they were still working, after all) went unheeded! Today, electrician #1 is coming back to confirm his estimate is still valid. We’ll likely go with him—the middle-of-the-pack estimate—mostly because he was recommended to us from a friend of a friend. That matters in France. Then, we’ll be on the hunt for a plumber. This, my friends, is the not-so-glamourous reality of home renovation.
1 Comment
Colleen Holland
2/26/2022 04:47:54 pm
I can't wait to see this beautiful French home come to life. Thank you for sharing your journey!
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