The renovation begins!

Almost four years after I made the decision to find a house to renovate in France, the building work has finally begun! I've learnt such a lot during those years, about how to find and purchase a house in a different country, how to deal with the paperwork and the language barrier and most importantly how to find the right people to help. I've taken the whole process really slowly, and enjoyed spending time with friends and family at the house before starting any of the work, which all adds to my love of it now.

After sorting a couple of bits of paperwork, including setting up some insurance to cover the renovation (my existing policy didn't cover this so I had to cancel it and move to a new policy with a different company) and submitting the official documentation to start the work (Déclaration d'Ouverture du Chantier) to the mairie, the builders started the work a couple of weeks ago as scheduled. The very first thing I did that Monday morning was open my webcam and take a photo of the first tiles being removed - it's a new chapter for the house and the removal of those first tiles felt like an important moment to capture!

The builders spent the first week removing the front porch completely as this would allow them full access to the front of the house and the garage. The new design will have a smaller front porch that will be built back later.

With things moving at a fast pace we decided it would be best to start purchasing the items the builders would need soon, including the taps, bath, shower trays and toilets. These were ordered directly from Leroy Merlin to avoid any mark up on the price, and there were a couple of hurdles to overcome in terms of the payment and delivery of these but we worked our way around this. The items will be delivered to Anthony's house (he lives about a four hour drive away) and he will then bring them to the house on his regular visits - which prevents the builders having to sign and take responsibility for them, something they weren't too keen on.

Anthony asked me to select the exact roof tiles I want so the builder could order these for the garage roof, which would be the next job after the porch. The choice was limited to vielle (old style) tiles as stipulated by the mairie so the choice was simply between a slight difference in colour. I showed Anthony a couple of roofs that I like and he recommended the colour option Castelviel based on these.

Once the front porch was down, the builders moved onto the garage. The roof was removed (along with the asbestos) and within a further week, a new roof was up, along with the new tiles I had selected the week before. The building work is moving much faster than I had imagined it would, which is of course a good thing, and I love watching the changes happening on the webcam. The garage roof was one of the first jobs to be completed because this is where all of my furniture will be stored for the duration of the project. With the new tiles on, I am pleased with the look of them - they keep with the style of the house and I no longer have to worry about the asbestos.

Demolition work inside the house has also begun. The kitchen is mostly out and ready to be taken to la déchetterie and the builders have removed all of the existing cupboards in le salon to expose the walls. Surprisingly (to me at least) there was no insulation at all in the part they uncovered. The topic of insulation has already been mentioned by the builders as the new windows are thicker than the old ones so it's likely I will have to pay an additional price for extra insulation. On verra!