Planning and playing the waiting game

Phil started drawing plans for each and every room, pricing up everything. He was desperate to go and buy a big white van for our trips with building materials but tried to hold off until we had parted with the deposit. Little did we know this would take so long.

I received a document so I could give power of attorney to the notaire to sign the first part of the contract on my behalf. This is the compromise de vente, a  promise to buy. In France however the original email I sent with my offer is intent to buy and is a formal contract.  I had chosen the notaire in Villefagnan to keep things in the same place and hopefully make it easier at the final signing.

Our agent asked us if we wanted to buy the furniture in the house as requested by the sellers. The owner of the house is an old lady (age 91) who is now in a home. I don’t know if it is her brother and sister that are selling on her behalf but they are old and live some distance away. We put in a cheeky offer (having studied the videos I took in France) – there is a lot of furniture there – large wooden and very French mostly. Of course this meant that we would inherit other stuff too that would probably end up being burnt. To our delight our silly offer was accepted.

 

During October it all went quiet which started to become a bit disconcerting.  Although we did manage to organise the sale of Glo Candles and my house in Bradley Stoke. A flurry and then nothing. After a few weeks I called the agent who set our minds at rest. Things were happening, the contract had been posted – that had been signed by the notaire – but every day that passed it didn’t arrive. Two and a half weeks later it arrived and I made plans to transfer the deposit. I had already sorted out an account with ‘Smart Currency Exchange’ one of many companies where you can buy currency at an agreed rate and transfer the sterling to them. They then transfer in Euros to France without charging me fees. They make their money by buying and selling huge amounts of currency at very competitive rates.

 

By the end of October we had found the perfect van. Phil didn’t want to miss out on it so he bought a long wheel base Nissan Interstar. Huge white thing it is!

 
During the waiting weeks Phil has done much investigating. Pellet burners seem to be very popular in France and they are coming up over here now. In fact the government are going to start offering huge incentives for people to buy them in UK from May 2014.

The pellets are recycled wood that has been forced into pellets. These are fed from a hopper into something similar to a wood burner (or a large boiler). The systems we saw in France were very sophisticated. Digital programming and they can even be called and switched on via a telephone.

The deposit was finally transferred on 22nd November and was due to hit the notaire’s account by close of play on 25^th. It seems like ages since my offer went in on 28^th September. I had been chasing my cheque book and card with the bank, Credit Agricole, since 8^th Octonber. They have branch in Villefagnan although only open Tuesday and Friday mornings – coinciding with market days. Chased yet again on 5 November and found they had sent it to Eymet – where I opened the account, in spite of them promising everything would be sent to my address here in the UK. Anyway the cheque book and card from the account finally arrived on 22 November. A mere 8 weeks after opening the account. Still no sign of a PIN number though!

We plan to go over to France for the final signing of the Acte de Vente. We (along with the sellers or their representatives, all meet at the notaire’s office and before signing all go off to the house to check everything is in order.) After this rush of excitement on 22^nd November we booked some flights to Toulouse to arrive 9th December. We are hoping to sign the Acte de Vente on Friday 13^th December (as flights after that go sky high because of Xmas, ski-ing, school holidays etc). Our lovely agent has said that even if it doesn’t happen that day we can give power of attorney to the notaire and it will still happen shortly after.

We are getting very excited now. Hopefully we will be able to look around some tile suppliers and builders merchants and also organise a mobile phone. I can’t transfer my English number to France. All our numbers begin with a 7 and French numbers begin with 5 or 6.

 

Over the weekend of 16^th November we visited a Home Improvement and Renovation show at Shepton Mallet Showground. Loads of interesting stuff. Biomass boilers, great wooden and stone flooring and a solar light that we will definitely get for our bathroom en suite as it won’t have any windows.

I have ordered my first purchase for the house which has now arrived and is standing in the hall. A very large Hot Water Cyclinder! Who would have thought a cyclinder could be so exciting?

We are probably going to hold off on ordering everything else till the New Year. Hopefully my Bradley Stoke house sale will have gone through in the next couple of weeks and then I can have money to spend. We are keen to get a soda blaster to help strip paint from beams etc. It is similar to a sand blaster but more gentle and can be used on metal and glass as well as wood. They use it on car engines too. This is a costly item (around £500) and soda has to be bought separately. I’m sure it will be much used though and more efficient than Nitromors.

So all of a sudden it’s all systems go.

We will celebrate Phil’s birthday whilst in Villefganan and it looks as though the lovely Nadia will join us for a glass or two.

 

Having written this, the last week has been full of frustration. Mostly this end selling my Bradley Stoke house. I cannot comprehend the high levels of incompetence that my solicitors have displayed so won’t even go there.

However the estate agents have been amazing – not something you hear often. They have certainly been working for their money. Will be off to France in a couple of days and have just heard we are set for signing the acte de vente on Friday 13th.

 

à la prochaine mes amis.