Hidden Treasures

One of the interesting things about renovating an old house it that you never know what you might find.  More often than not you discover things that you really wish you hadn't like cracks lurking under wallpaper or rotten floorboards.  Thankfully, in our case, we were given ample opportunity to find all the horrors our house had in store for use before purchasing it 

This last month has been one of peeling back the layers and knocking numerous openings into walls in order to gain more light as well as a better flow to the layout. 

Can you spot the cats?

When I was in England recently my husband, Spike, was charged with the mission to knock through one of our bedroom walls into the room next door (our dressing room).   It was while he was doing this that he found a beautiful gold 20 franc coin from 1877 under the skirting board.   This coin is apparently worth in the order of 300€ but we have decided to keep it as a lucky charm (or for a rainy day!)

These coins were known by the name 'Génie' because the figure
depicted is the Genius of France inscribing the Constitution.

We did find another coin a little later but a 5 centimes piece from 1936 unsurprisingly doesn't have much value but we enjoyed researching it as an interesting find all the same.

The next interesting find was some faded wallpaper hidden behind a run of tongue and groove panelling in our downstairs hallway that was being removed to make yet another opening into our living room.  I think it's just beautiful and hope to find something similar but from my initial research such truly elegant designs don't seem to exist any more.

I just adore this gorgeous wallpaper

For our final find we had been wondering for some time why there were some wooden mouldings on the wall of our first floor landing so last week we decided to investigate further...

Spot the cat... again!

and look what we found behind some hardboard! These wonderful glazed double doors. The next dilemma was deciding where to use them because they now lead to our ensuite shower room and that could potentially be quite a spectacle for any poor unsuspecting passer by!  

The glass panels have been wallpapered at some point in their life with
the faux stone look we currently have on our second floor landing
(I will not be launching a worldwide search to replicate that by the way!)

After much discussion we decided that the doors would be ideal between our bedroom and our newly created dressing room which of course means more dust and disruption because the opening poor Spikey made when he found the gold coin will have to be made a little wider and substantially taller.  

It's unfortunate that we didn't find the doors before the opening was made but that's the nature of renovating an old house and we are convinced that it will be worth the additional work not least because having doors will prevent our naughty cats from getting into our dressing room and making a mess.  

The rest of the house will, of course, remain a haven for the cats and the little furry tumble weeds they inevitably leave in their wake!

Fenêtregate

In my view one of the most important aspects of a house is it's windows, especially when the house in question is a period property.  The difficulty with new getting windows right is weighing up the ascetics against the ecological properties.

Our new house in Cognac dates from the mid to late 1800's and some of the original single glazed windows are still in place but the majority have been changed at one time or another for less sympathetic windows so the decision to replace all the windows in the house wasn't difficult.

The horrible windows we have now that will be transformed into lovely
French doors onto the balcony

The ugly window in our living room (this was taken before we moved in)

What was difficult was finding an ascetically pleasing wooden double glazed option that would be made to look as authentic as possible.  Personally I would rather freeze, run up massive heating bills and ruin the ozone layer before placing Lego plastic windows in my house but I realise that I am in the minority there so I'll do the decent thing and shut up about it.

Before we made appointments with any menuisiers (French artisans specialising in windows and doors) I made-up a file with photos of the style of windows I would like for the house.  One remaining original window in the house I particularly like is in my office so this was to be my example or template for all the others.

The window in my office that I would like recreated with double glazing

Having interviewed various people who also made the dreaded plastic versions it became clear that the wooden windows they could provide were not what I was after at all.  The glazing bars that I wanted at the top of each window (like many town houses in France) were flimsy bits of beading stuck on the glass (or even worse between the two pains of glass for ease of cleaning... yuk... sorry!) and having visited one workshop in particular I left feeling incredibly depressed at the quality of workmanship on offer.

It was after that visit that we remembered someone we had used before to make authentic windows for a large old property we owned previously in the Vienne region of France. We didn't really think he would come this far south because he seems to have lots of work but in view of the fact that we were offering such a big job he did come to do a quote.

Our old house with his authentically made wooden windows

The lovely window he made for our kitchen

After a week or so they e-mailed over the quote and as expected for 13 windows it was very expensive but surprisingly it came in considerably lower the disappointing workshop we had visited earlier.

Having visited his workshop and discussed the finer details further with him and his wife just before Christmas we came to an accord  that they would come to fit the first three windows in the New Year.  So last Friday the living room window at the front of the house and two attic bedroom windows at the back arrived.  As I peeked in the van the construction looked authentic and the colour I had chosen for the exterior side of the windows (a very dark grey - no it's not black just very very very dark grey) seemed OK so we left them to it.

After an hour or so I heard them trudge up the stairs past my office so I decided to take a look at the window they had fitted in the living room but as soon as I saw it I knew it wasn't right - the bar at the top was too low.  I quickly nipped out of the front door feeling flushed and crossed the road to look at it from the outside and there was no getting away from it... it was wrong!

I know you're possibly thinking that I'm being very fussy but if the glazing bars
were higher the window would appear to be more elongated and elegant.   

I called Spike to see what he thought and to my immense relief he agreed that the window looked a bit odd and wasn't made to the right proportion.  After this shock we then tentatively went up the two flights of stairs to see the attic window they had now begun to fit. My heart sank as it had exactly the same problem, in fact it also had the unfortunate side effect that the glazing bar was set at my eye line so that when I stood at the window to enjoy the view all I could see was wood!

My view out of the attic bedroom window

The view I was hoping to have without having to bend my knees 

We measured the window in my office and concluded that the glazing bar was set a quarter of the way down the glass but the windows he had made had the glazing bar set at a third of a way down. Of course if I had gone for the stick-on a flimsy bit of beading option this problem could have been easily remedied but with me being an extremely fussy person and insisting on having windows made by authentic construction the problem was not so easy to solve.

To make matters worse when I asked if they had made any more of the windows he said that he had made all but four (luckily they hadn't yet made the French doors to the balcony so that was a small comfort)

The top window doesn't look too terrible from the outside but the window below
 (our bedroom) made to the same proportions being larger would look worse 

I withdrew with Spike as calmly as I could from the attic room and after a hushed conversation over a soothing cup of tea we agreed that we would go to the workshop to see how bad the other windows looked. The poor guy looked a bit stressed when we suggested this as I think he was hoping that we would let it go - I noticed that his eyebrows seemed to be standing on end as if the tension had made them pointy (he must be an eyebrow twiddler when stressed).

OK I may not have live in a beautiful Parisian building but I was
at least hoping to have the same style windows 

So early Monday morning we set off to visit his wife who runs the administrative side of the business to see if we could sort the mess out.  We were very nervous because having tried to live with the windows over the weekend we knew that if we compromised we would always be disappointed with them (which is particularly bad news as I am not planning to move from here... ever... honestly!).

Thankfully faced with the irrefutable 'evidence' contained within my trusty folder (years of being a legal secretary were not a waste of time after all) she agreed to reorder the glass and have all the windows altered to our specification which will unfortunately cut into their profit but they would have lost a lot more if we had decided to take our business elsewhere. As I couldn't find an 'elsewhere' I must confess I'm very relieved she agreed to change them.

So touch wood (no pun intended) the 'Fenêtregate' crisis is over and our lovely old house is back on track to get the gorgeous elegant windows it truly deserves.

Home Sweet Home

It's been a tiring couple of weeks but I couldn't be happier.  We are safely installed in our new home in Cognac and la vie en ville is agreeing with us both.  It's always worrying when you make such a large change to your life but I'm relieved to say that I have no doubt that we made the right choice.

A little grubby and sad but a beauty waiting to be revealed

I think the reason I never really felt quite satisfied is that I am a townie through and through and although I love the countryside and the idea of country life and I think it's fair to say that I have given it a go but I only truly feel stimulated by my surroundings when there is beautiful architecture to admire, cafés to frequent and boutique shop windows to gaze into.  The countryside is a wonderful place to visit but for me, after ten years of living in France, I feel that I have finally arrived.

So these last two weeks we've been busy unpacking just enough of our things to live comfortably without getting unnecessary items out of storage that will get in the way during the renovation process.  We've been so preoccupied with this that I've hardly had time to keep up with the numerous Christmas sales of my Etsy shop.

My new spacious office (I think I may change the wallpaper!)

And my dwindling stock (must go shopping!)

We've only just started to fully explore all the nooks and crannies of our new place and to gingerly peel back wallpaper, lift corners of lino and discuss which walls will be opened up and to what extent. That's the exciting part.

We did start by gingerly peeling back wallpaper but may
have got carried away when we found a false wall the length
 of the narrow entrance hall... not so narrow now!!!

So we have a lot of dust filled days ahead of us but the house has such wonderful original features coupled by a feeling of charm and elegance that I really don't mind going through all that upheaval again.  

The stunning marble fireplace in the living room that needs opening up
and something to be done with that 1960's chintzy inner surround!

The view of all four levels of the house from the top of our elegant
spiral staircase is definitely worth the climb!

Our cute little bedroom/cat sanctuary is just oozing with French charm

I am the first to admit that I have a terrible track record for putting down roots but I am confident that this time we have at last found our forever home and in spite of the sceptical chuckling I continue to endure from close friends and family (not to mention the chorus of "that's what you said last time!") I remain sure that I will not tire of this poor ugly duckling of a house that will, given time, blossom into a swan or for that matter the fabulous vibrant town of Cognac.  

Vendu!

I have been literally bursting to share the happy news that we have recently accepted an offer on our house.  It happened a few weeks ago but I wanted to make sure that the sale was definitely going through before I started bragging (I have been known to fall flat on my face in the past after becoming rather too pleased with myself!)

Our current home in the heart of the French countryside

Anyway, last Friday we sat down in the office of our Notaire (a sort of solicitor in France) and signed the Compromis de Vente which is a contract where all parties agree to the terms of the sale.  With French law the buyer then has a cooling off period of a week before they are well and truly bound by the contract to either go through with buying the property or to lose a large deposit (around 10% of the property price).

Now that I have covered the technical stuff the self satisfied gloating can now well and truly begin.  OK, so we were very, very lucky to get an offer on our house just three weeks after putting it on the market but we are particularly pleased that we avoided paying estate agents fees and sold it on the internet without spending a centime on advertising... oh clever ,clever me (I'm really asking for it aren't I?)

To be honest though because we received a serious offer so quickly it came as a bit of shock but we are now very excited about the move and after much toing and froing and a few sleepless nights we managed to eventually secure a lovely house in Cognac that we have had our hearts set on for the last 10 months.

Our soon to be new home in Cognac

The house is a major renovation project (as always) and in our favourite quarter of Cognac situated near the river and just a short walk from the lovely historical centre of town.  It's going to be quite a departure from the life we have now but I can't wait to have all the facilities that Cognac has to offer right on the doorstep.  

With all this excitement my brocante business has unfortunately taken a bit of a back seat but our move is scheduled for mid November so I will have time over the next few weeks to get back to the flea markets and start building up stock again for my Etsy shop.

So please keep your fingers and toes crossed for us that everything goes through without a hitch and hopefully in the future I can not only share with you our experiences as we renovate this poor, tired old house back into the beauty it once was but also keep you up to date on our adventures as we adjust to la vie en ville.