Lay My Hat

Hello Everyone

We will soon be starting out on a new adventure in Charente-Maritime France. We have purchased a house with barns and are looking to convert two of them to gites.

I would love some help from anyone that has experience with the project planning of conversions like this.

I am a great believer in not reinventing the wheel .

Thanks in advance

Ian

Hi Ian, there is already a wealth of information on this site which you might want to explore. Don't be surprised if people are slow to respond to you right now. As you can imagine, many gite owners in France have their minds on other things and are worried about whether or not they are going to survive this year and how they are going to cope with changeover days if they do get the guests coming.
Probably a fair few of them will be thinking you must be stark raving mad to be doing this now!
We did a very modest restoration of a ruined cottage some years back and I did a blog about it - nothing like as ambitious as your plans, but you might find some of our experiences a lesson in what NOT to do.
Good luck. Sue
http://lamaisonette.blogspot.com/

Hi Sue
Thanks for your reply. I am loving your blog.
We also have render on the main house which we wish to remove. Your pictures have encouraged me that this is the way forward.
On all our buildings it looks like someone has 'stolen' all the mortar from the joints, so we have been looking at ways to repoint every building without spending the next ten years doing it.
Our plans were to make our house liveable (UK liveable) and then develop the barns into accommodation. My thoughts were if someone else had a list of jobs that they did, and just as important the mistakes they made it would help us greatly.
It must be so hard for those folks that have got mortgages to pay with their income expected from rentals, my heart goes out to them. We had already wrote off this year but we may have to write off 2021 too, let's hope not. Ian

Hi Ian, thanks for liking my blog. If you haven't thought of it, do keep your own record of before and after - I certainly forget what we went through and it's good, years later, to be reminded. There are also times, later, when photographic records are hugely helpful. We had to trace the mains cable down the side of our farm track and it helped (somewhat) to have photographed it as it was being laid. Knowing what I know now I would have taken many more photos, especially of stuff that subsequently gets buried.
Not only mortgages - for some people gite rental is what pays for food, utilities and day to day living. It's their only source of income.
Wherever possible with our cottage we used lime render / mortar and lime wash on the walls. It is a more sympathetic material, in keeping with the age of the cottage and lets it breathe and move (no foundations).

Just had a giggle at one of your reviews mentioning Vita and Bertie your dogs as we have Vera and Bertie.