lespetitesgarennes

Our Grand Design in Montemboeuf, Charente, France

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Rock stops play? Roche arrête le jeu?

rock

Rock didn’t stop our trusty builders

Fortunately not as it turns out!  Our builders did come across some rock which I thought meant disaster when Tom first told me.  I had visions of vast costs involved to remove that rock in some very unenviromentally friendly way – and that roll top bath becoming ever further from my reach.  Apparently tough it would have been a good thing – rock being a good base for foundations.  This could have meant a saving in the cost of foundations – that bath was on its way back….In then end, the rock was just in a small area and was nothing to worry about or be thankful for.

Our builders continue to make good progress and as the sun still seems to be shining in Montemboeuf, hopefully there will not be any delays due to bad weather.  I just hope they don’t get the weather we’ve had in London any time soon, or that pool that we want will be built a little earlier than expected.

Trench footings

Trench footings

The photo above shows the start of our foundations and Tom tells me the metal caging has also gone in which reinforces the foundations.  I don’t have much more to say about that, apart from it is very exciting – more so than just your average hole in the ground with bits of wood in anyway.  Hopefully in the next post I’ll have some photos of something more concrete as it were…..


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Time to discuss the landscaping! – Temps de discuter de l’aménagement paysager!

Al and Tom discuss our landscape plans

Al and Tom discuss our landscape plans

As mentioned in our previous post our brother-in-law, Al, joined us for a few days in our lovely gite near Salles Lavalette in Poitou Charentes. As a Landscape Architect, we decided that he would be an ideal person to help us with our landscape plans.  A lot of our discussions were around designing the entrance and approach to the house.  We felt that this was important for a number of reasons, including the fact that once we have a habitable building on site, we need to give it some protection and security.  However, it is not something that we can rush either because it is the first thing that people will see as the approach the house.

Al and Jess designing in the sunshine
An Architect and a Landscape Architect working in harmony!

We discussed a number of options and had a couple of site visits and I think that we all have a similar idea as to what is needed an as to what will work.  Tom and Al also visited a few garden centres near Angoulême to get an idea of what is available (plants, stone, aggregate etc) and the costs involved.  As there is a Pépinières in Montemboeuf, we hope that we will be able to buy some plants from them as well.  We are quite a long way off from planting, but the design stage is in full swing!

Al is now planning to come back to us with a few ideas.  Once we have these we will post them here and on our Design page.


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Water tight and air tight by Christmas! – Hors d’eau et hors d’ait avent Noel

Circuit des Remparts, Angoulême

Circuit des Remparts, Angoulême

It has been a busy couple of days over here in the Charente, we have met with our builder, Stuart and also Claude from Marandat to confirm final designs and details for the build.  Tom did make a few final changes to the designs, but we both think that these changes have improved the design and make for a better overall and workable layout. And yes, the 10cm rise int he roof height is still there – woooo!

Thursday 18th September was a very big day because this was when we signed the contract with Marandat and handed them a big cheque (scary). Thankfully, overnight the lovely people of Scotland decided to stay with the UK, which resulted in a spike in the pound-euro exchange rate (along with diggers, something else I have become quite interested in). This meant the cost of our build became a little bit more affordable. It is amazing what a few cents on the pound can make!  To celebrate the signing, we took a trip to Super U and bought some champers.  We’ll be drinking it with Al, when he comes over later this week.

We have also been in contact with the various utilities companies in France, SAUR for water and EDrF for electricity.  We are also meeting a man about drainage (exciting times).  Luckily we have mains drainage so no fosse septic  needed.  So far the only evidence that we have seen that the utilities companies are doing anything are a few spray paint marks on the road.  If the companies are anything like they are in the UK, we could be waiting a while!

After the signing of the contract, we made a final visit to the plot with Stuart to confirm the location of the house.  He hopes to start in the next couple of weeks.  Once he has finished, hopefully by late October/early November, the timber frame can go up.  The terms of the contract with Marandat state that the house should be water and tight by Christmas, this means our house will have doors, windows and a roof (my garden shed is bigger than this).  Once we all get back from the Christmas break, they will start on the internal works, such as stairs and walls.

It was then time for a bit of a holiday.  We first headed towards Cognac to stay with our friends at Maison Maurice for a couple of days, before heading to our gite near Salle-Lavelette.  On the way we managed a trip to Angoulême to experience the circuit de remparts.  Although there wasn’t any racing while we were there, we saw plenty of fantastic cars on the way there and parked all round the town.  It is definitely something that we would both like to visit and experience again.

Tomorrow, it is back to work.  Our brother-in-law Al is a Landscape Architect, with his own Leeds based practice, Laand. He is coming over to visit the plot.  He will be doing the garden designs for us, so needs to see the site to get an idea of the work involved. There is quite a lot of land so he will have plenty to work with.  Although as it is a sloping site, he will have a few obstacles to overcome.

Still, lots of exciting times to come!

New French words I have learnt  (I will expand on this as the weeks go by);

Hors d’eau – Water tight
Hors d’ait – Air tight

La poute – beam
Poussez les dents – teeth coming through!
Baies coulissantes – Siding doors
Casque de chantier – hard hat.
Sous-sol – basement
La Renouée du Japon – Japanese knotweed


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Our first site visit – notre première visite au chantier

Molly checking the sign is in its proper form!

Molly checking the sign is in its proper form!

Nous sommes en France!

Today, Tom, Molly and I paid our first visit to the site since the ‘ouverture du chantier‘.  Even though it doesn’t look like much at the moment, this was a very exciting step in the whole process.  We were also able to meet our builder, Stuart, on site to discuss the setting out of the house to make sure the foundations are put in the correct place.  Although we do have a rough idea, these can not be finalised until we have the drawings from Marandat – our timber frame company.  After having had a meeting with Claude today, we hope that Stuart will have this drawing by the end of the week and then Stuart can start the works!

After visiting the site, we took a trip to see our timber frame company to go through their quote and to get an idea as to when they can start on site.  It all looks possible for them to start in November, as long as Tom and I can be decisive about the designs and the type of windows we want.  There is far more to choice of windows than just their alignment, we have to decide colour, opening style, finishes as well as deciding the sort of shutters we want – I never imagined I would take so much interest in a window.  If the choice of windows is difficult, I dread to think how we will be on kitchens and bathrooms!  Luckily, Tom and I seem to like the same windows so the choice is not as bad as it might be!

A few other design decisions were made today and I am happy to say that we have (and this is very important), agreed to raise the roof by 10cm!  Wow, you might think, but this is a very significant design decision that I (no, seriously I did) pushed for.  It means that we don’t have to trim the bedroom door frame in one corner.  It would have been one of those things that niggled at me in my old age. Oh no, I am turning in to Tom…..!

 

New French words I have learnt  (I will expand on this as the weeks go by);

La poute – beam
Poussez les dents – teeth coming through!

Baies coulissantes – Siding doors
Casque de chantier – Hard hat.
Sous-sol – basement
La Renouée du Japon – Japanese knotweed


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The builders have started on site – Les constructeurs ont commencé sur le site

Building access on to the site

Building access on to the site

I never thought i’d be so excited by a picture of a digger, but I am.  The picture above shows a digger on our site, starting work on the access road.  Stuart from SLM Construction kindly sent these through so that we could see his progress.  It night not look like much at the moment, but it is the first sign that we have that work has started and that we really are building a house!  The building of the foundations should take about 6 weeks and then the timber frame can start – just as long as we finalise the designs!  We will be signing the contract with Marandat next week, so we need to stop tinkering soon!

The sign to the left of the picture must be displayed as part of the planning process and is therefore a legal requirement.  Unfortunately, for the first two months that it is displayed our planning permission can be contested by third parties.  Hopefully, this will not happen, but I will have my fingers crossed until mid-November! The photo of the sign is just as important as seeing the digger.  If we did not have this sign in place, and the proper form, potential opponents would have the right to contest the planning decision.  The obligation to prove that the notice was placed on the site in a correct manner, and for a sufficiently long duration, lies with Tom and I  – so hooray for the photo as proof.

The new driveway looking north

The new driveway looking north

We wrote to Grand Designs about our project but unfortunately they are only covering projects in the UK.  They only ever did one season of Grand Designs Abroad and I think they should think about doing another one!

Now that we’ve started on site, more posts and photos should appear, keep you eye, we’ll keep you updated as much as possible!

 

New French words I have learnt  (I will expand on this as the weeks go by);

Baies coulissantes – Siding doors

Casque de chantier – Hard hat.
Sous-sol – basement
La Renouée du Japon – Japanese knotweed


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The building begins – la construction commence!

Perspective Image © Thomas kyle

Perspective Image © Thomas Kyle

So, here we are, nineteen months after our initial plot search, we are about to start building!  Please, don’t get me wrong, this hasn’t been a slow and laborious process, these things just take time.  We had to find the plot, buy it, work up designs, take them to the planners, work on the designs some more to get them right before submitting them planning permission.  Then, once planning permission was granted 2 months later, more detailed designs had to be drawn up to take to the builders and we then had to chose our builders – which is definitely something you need to take time over.  The time it has taken to get this far has nothing to do with French bureaucracy – which contrary to anything you may have heard was very quick and efficient – or us dragging our heals (although having a baby may have slowed things down a little), it is just that building a house takes a long time and we haven’t even had the metaphorical brick laid yet.  This is about to change though!

We have chosen our groundworks builder and have written to the Mairie notifying them of our Déclaration d’ouverture de chantier, basically informing them of our plan to start on site.  Tom had a long chat with our preferred groundswork builder and all being well we will start building on 16th/17th September!  We are both excited and nervous in equal measure, but really pleased to be finally starting on site.  We will try to post as many progress photos as we can to keep you updated, it just depends on when we can get to site. I just hope it doesn’t go all ‘Grand Designs’ on us with adverse weather and dodgy ground, but because we did our etude de sol the later shouldn’t be a problem, the former, well we just have to hope that the Charente doesn’t suddenly get some odd weather patterns……

See you soon, hard hats and hi-vis jackets on!

New French words I have learnt  (I will expand on this as the weeks go by);

Casque de chantier – Hard hat.

Sous-sol – basement
La Renouée du Japon – Japanese knotweed


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Builders, joiners & carpenters – Constructeurs, menuisiers et charpentiers

Tom, Molly and I have just got back from a lovely trip to SW France.  Even thought the first few days were all concerned with the house build, we still managed a few days in (yet another) lovely Chamber d’hotes.  The French seem to do these very well and we have never been disappointed in where we’ve stayed. Maybe this could be the theme of my next blog…..

Anyway, this visit allowed me to finally meet the other potential builders and timber frame companies that Tom met on his last visit.  We crammed a lot of meetings in quite a short space of time and also managed to squeeze in a few that we hadn’t planned on!

Timber Frame Companies

First was Batis Paille whom I have met before as well and was very impressed by.  They have a very interesting system of build which includes straw bale insulation (hence the name, paille being French for straw).  We then met Marandat another Timber Frame company based near the plot. They seem to have quite a big operation going and were also very professional and came up with some great ideas and solutions as to how we could get the house built.

We also met David Lestage from Charente Maison Bois at his home/office. A lovely timber framed house, in the middle of nowhere.  It was a great place to meet him because we will get an idea of the quality of the workmanship we’d get on our own house.  Our last meeting was with Desmortier Maison Bois.  They are based slightly further away from Montemboeuf than the others, but still local (ish) which is something that is important to both Tom and I.  We are not only keen to employ French trades, but ideally ones located close to the plot.

One of the builders that we met recommended that we contact a menuisier that he knows called Debessac.  We met him at his factory, which was even closer to the plot than Batis Paille or Marandat.  The quality of some of the work he showed us was amazing (as it was for all of the companies that we met), but you could really see some attention to details.  He showed us a headstock that he was making for church bell housing he was making for a local church. Clearly a talented man, we will await his quote and see if he is the man to build our house.

Builders

We also met three general builders on the plot, one from SLM Construction, one from Cesar Constructions and another chap called Domingos.  They will build the foundations for us and create an access in to the site.  While they were there we discussed the possibility of building a basement or sous-sol.  The site is on a slope, so it seems an ideal opportunity to create some more space, just by digging down an extra meter or so.  This may mean going back to the planners though and I not sure that this is something either of us want to do.  Still depending on the extra costs involved it is something that we can discuss with the planners to decide if it worth our while. The builders we have met so far are either English or Portuguese, which goes against our plan to use French trades, but we have found that this is not always possible.  We are still open to tenders, so if anyone knows a good local French builder – please let us know! 

All in all this was a useful trip.  It enabled me to meet all the builders and timber frame companies which will help me feel more involved in the whole process.  We now have a better understanding of the quotes and can start looking in to them more thoroughly before we make our decision. A few of the timber frame companies are so busy that they can not start until next year. This is great news for them but mot so much for us.  On the plus side, it does mean that there is a demand for high quality timber frame houses in France!

We are still awaiting a few quotes, but in the meantime we can go through the ones we have, line by line!  Tom will also be working on designs for the basement.

One slight problem I discovered while we were there was that there is some Japanese knotweed (Fallopia japonica)  near the plot – not something you want around when embarking on a house build!  We told the Mairie’s office, who fortunately knew of the plant and the problems it causes, they took our details and said that they would get back to us.  I am not sure what will come from the meeting, but at least we have told them.  Hopefully something will be done, although it did look as though the verges had been cut recently which is slightly concerning. By the way, in case you need to know, the French for Japanese knotweed is La Renouée du Japon! It seems as though it is just as much a problem in France as it is here….

New French words I learnt this holiday (I will expand on this as the weeks go by);

Sous-sol – basement
La Renouée du Japon – Japanese knotweed


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Time to meet the builders, Part two! Le temps de rencontrer les constructeurs, la deuxième partie!

Not sure I can lend a hand on this!

Not sure I can lend a hand on this!

So we’re off! All three of us this time (Molly Tom and I) are off to Montemboeuf soon to meet the builders and the timber frame companies.  We have had most of the quotes back, so we have just been going through them to work out where we can make savings and if there is anything we need to add and/or remove from them.  The companies that Tom has met all seem really keen and are also full of ideas as to how we can make it a Passivhaus or as close to that as possible.   They have all been very helpful and I ma excited to meet them.  This is quite an important trip because at the end of it, we will have probably chosen our builders and timber frame company and will be ready to employ one of them.  This then makes the whole thing very real, but also very exciting.  I know Tom’s French is already up to it, but as I have said before, I think I am going to have to gem up on a few important building terms for when we start on site! Passe-moi le marteau s’il vous plaît (par exemple)

We have also heard back about our étude de sol (soil survey). They told us what I, the local farmer and a few others already knew, the soils isn’t clay, but loam. It is fine for building on, i.e. no complicated foundations needed, and is great for growing plants, fruit & veg etc.  Ideal for my lovely brother-on-law, Al who will hopefully be doing our landscape plans.  We did buy our land from the owner of Pépinières Charentaises,  so we hope that the land is fertile!

Watch this space, we’ll let you know how we get on…..


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Time to meet the builders! Le temps de rencontrer les constructeurs!

Section showing potential construction of building

Section showing potential construction of building

February was a great month, we received our permis de construire and our gorgeous baby girl, Molly was born! In between changing nappies I took some time to research for timber frame contractors and draw up a set of tender drawings. This resulted in a two day trip at the beginning of April to meet them as well as two general builders, and a civil engineer. The civil engineer is going to do an étude de sol (soil survey) which will tell us what the ground is like, therefore what type of foundations we will need. The general builders will do the groundworks, the drainage and the foundations. Then the timber frame contractors will do the walls, roof, doors, windows and cladding. This should leave us with a watertight but rather empty shell to start the internals.

The étude de sol is due to take place at the end of April. It involves digging a 3m hole in to the ground with a potentially large and scary looking machine.  Possibly something like the one below.

etude de sol machine

etude de sol machine

Anyway, fingers crossed that the soil isn’t too unstable so that we don’t require massive foundations!  All being well we will have the results before we go out again in May so that we can (hopefully) finalise costs with the builders and the timber frame companies.


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Planning permission is granted! – Le permis de construire est accorde!

Today we received a very exciting letter from the Mairie in Montemoeuf telling us that we have been granted planning permission for our house! Our only planning condition (accord avec prescriptions) was in relation to the drainage (more on that below).   It took them under 2 months to decide, so probably a lot less than you would expect from planners in the UK.  We were worried that they wanted more information about the drainage and that this would hold things up, but it appears as though this was sorted out for us.  We were also concerned that we were going to have to put in an application for a septic tank, but seeing as there is a drainage system right by the land, we are able to connect directly in to this.

The letter we have been waiting for.

We have both been very impressed by the service that we have received from the planners in Confolens and the speed in which they got back to us.  We are also pleased that they have approved something that isn’t typically ‘French’ and seem have embraced the designs that Tom has come up with.  Then again it does appear as though there are a few timber framed houses in the Charente and near to where we are, so maybe things are changing.  Also with organisations such as Futurobois building in timber frame is no longer seen as ‘out there’.  Futurobois which is an inter-professional association of timber companies in the Poitou-Charentes region, including all firms, from logging, to architects, to sawmills, coopers and carpenters.  They also assist. professionals in the responsible and sustainable development of their business, through collective or individual actions.

There are still a few legal matters that we need to get through first though.  Once consent is granted a public notice procedure follows.  We have to display a notice on site, which must remain during the whole of construction period and must be clearly visible to the public.  During the first two months in which the notice is displayed, the planning decision can be contested by third parties!  The Mairie also places a decision notice at the town hall  for at least two months, although a failure by them to do so does not delay start of the period for contesting the consent.

The Mairie also have a period of three months when they can withdraw the planning consent that may have been granted, on the grounds that is was granted illegally although this is not common! A similar right exists for the local préfet for a two month period after the consent was granted.   Tom and I are not too concerned by this, but it is good to know where we stand and the possibilities that could hold us up.

We are now obliged to start work on site within two years and we must proceed in a reasonably regular manner, or risk having the consent rescinded.  I don’t think that there is any danger that we will not comply to this, it is just a question of finding the right builders to do there work.  Tom is hoping to pay a visit at Easter, but this will slightly depend on our impending arrival….All the more reason to apply to Grand Designs, they like nothing more than a pregnant woman working on site!