Finding a project manager

The local builder had helped me throughout the whole process so far and it felt disloyal to be getting some new quotes, but I knew rationally that I should. I spoke openly with him about this and he encouraged me to get some other quotes and reassured me it was very normal in this situation. To be fair to him, I think it must have been a difficult job for him to give me a final quote (especially as I wasn't sure exactly what I wanted in terms of all the fittings, lighting etc). Now that I was thinking about getting some new quotes myself, it became clear to me how hard this must have been for him to coordinate so many different professionals and get these quotes together, while guessing what I'd need for certain bits.

During a conversation with my dad about the situation I now found myself in, he suggested I speak to a family friend (Anthony) who had moved out to France 20 years ago and ask him for some advice. I contacted Anthony and he couldn't have been more helpful. He had built his own house in France and understood how complicated things could be and offered to help me as much as I needed. This was such a welcomed development and I felt back on track.

The first thing we did was create a full spec of exactly what I wanted, down to all the finer details such as the taps, lighting and plug sockets. This was such a useful exercise as it felt like I now had an overview of the entire project and how it would look at the end. This was the first time I'd felt this way as previously I'd been making decisions about things as they came up. For me, I much prefer to work to a plan compared to figuring it out along the way and there was a sense of order to things now.

Anthony very patiently sent me separate links to the relevant pages on a website (Leroy Merlin) where I could choose the flooring, tiles, internal doors, wardrobes, showers, baths, sinks, toilets, taps etc. and suggested I ordered these directly from the website and have them delivered to the house to save any markup on the price. This would mean a huge saving as the quote I had received for these items from the local builder was from a company that had added up to 50% on some of these items.

I compiled a spreadsheet with all of these items and it felt very satisfying to be able to view everything together for the first time.

As well as putting the spec together, Anthony and I had many conversations about the roof, the septic tank, the concrete engineer drawings, the watering system and the windows. He also updated the architect's plan with the final room measurements as this wasn't included in Phase 2 of the work. After much consideration, we decided to make some amendments to the middle bedrooms 2 & 3 to maximise the room space and to add double showers in both en-suites:

Anthony put all of this information together in a pack and arranged to meet four different building companies at the house to obtain some quotes. I can't explain how helpful this process was, and I'm not sure what I would have done without Anthony at this point. Not only had he put everything together in this organised way, but he was able to meet the building companies and speak with them in French (I am still learning to speak French but this was way out of my speaking ability).

Anthony offered to act as project manager and as he lives a four hour drive from my house, I was very grateful he was willing to take on the project with me. To have the support from someone who has his knowledge about the work required was invaluable. No matter which builder I decided to use, Anthony would help with the contract and all of the legal requirements such as the thermal regulations certificate.