French Maison de Maitre for Sale
Originally, we’d moved only part-time to France. We’d bought a little shell of a house and spent almost two years working with local artisan builders to completely renovate it. By the time it was finished and we’d moved in, none of us wanted to return to the UK, even part time. We soon realised we needed to find a bigger home to live in full time.
After many months of searching, we found this house. The sense of space and the light-filled rooms captured us the moment we saw them, and our young children fell in love with all the gardens to explore. We all loved the feeling of privacy and seclusion, and the huge ancient lime tree that stands sentinel outside.
When we moved in, only the ground floor was habitable. So we lived on the ground floor while working with local builders to renovate the rest of the house. We created a large dining kitchen by knocking the small kitchen through into the boiler room. We had a solar hot water system installed, and a wood-fired Esse cooker (‘Flame Vert’ eco-certification) with a central heating system to replace the old oil-fired system. We had a double sided stove installed between the new kitchen and the sitting room (also Flame Vert certification), with warm air vents to one of the upstairs bedrooms and the attic.
We created a very large studio room from the old stabling area, and concreted the floor in the main barn. We had 3 very large bedrooms, a huge luxury bathroom, and a walk-in airing cupboard built in the main house upstairs, with fully insulated walls and ceilings. A massive attic room spanning the whole of the top floor was created, with feature vaulted ceilings and exposed beams. We bought a reclaimed solid maple floor from an old school to create a gorgeous floor for the attic room. A new electric system was installed throughout the new kitchen and upstairs, along with ethernet cabling to each bedroom and the attic. We had hardwood double glazed doors and windows made-to-measure for the kitchen, studio, bathroom and attic room. All this work has improved the energy efficiency of the house to a B rating, and the carbon footprint to an A rating.
Meanwhile, we also planted trees, trees and more trees to create a coppice for endless future firewood. We’ve planted Ash, Beech, Hazel, Willow, Wild Cherry and Maple. Over a decade on, those trees are now ready for their first cut, so there’s a wealth of firewood growing and ready to heat the house. We also created a permaculture veggie and fruit plot, now, sadly, somewhat neglected. We added cherry, plum, medlar, mulberry and nectarine trees to the existing apple, cherry, walnut, peaches and quince trees in the old orchard. We’ve deliberately encouraged wildlife to move back in, with the creation of many wild areas, including near the house. It took a decade, but the place is now teeming with wildlife. The dawn and dusk choruses are really quite spectacular.
Selling our lovely home was the furthest thing from our minds, and so everything has been done to our own family’s tastes and specifications. There’s still some decorative work to finish - some of the walls are still bare plasterboard. Some of the original windows will need replacing with double glazed windows. All the tricky-sized windows and doors have been replaced with made-to-measure hardwood double glazing, though, so the expensive part is already done.
There's a (currently unused) main entrance hallway. We were planning to install some open-tread L-shaped stairs leading to the first floor from this entrance hallway, and open up the existing doorway into the other half of the house. That would match nicely with the existing stairs leading to the third floor, creating a double-storey height open and galleried stairwell and landing, with light flooding in on all three levels from three different windows/glazed doors. We even have suitable stairs waiting in the hangar to be installed here, although they are likely to need some resizing and renovation.
Our next plan was to convert the 4 ground-floor bedrooms into a self-contained, wheelchair-accessible apartment, with a large sitting room, a dining kitchen, a bedroom and very large bathroom. Circumstances have now overtaken us, and our plans have changed, and so the downstairs rooms have many possibilities depending on what the new owners want to use them for. For now, there is still the original vintage wallpaper to admire, along with the original hardwood parquet floors which are still in great condition. This area will probably benefit from being re-wired. If the new owner wants spare rooms for guests, hobbies or B&B bedrooms, then all that’s needed is some decoration work.
We had also intended to replace the outdated, non-confirming fosse with a reed bed or similar, along with a water harvesting system and greywater recycling system. There is an original 'cistern' water storage tank underneath the patio and a massive amount of roof space for rain collection. For now, we have a compost toilet in the upstairs bathroom (a Separett Villa model) but all pipework and water supply for a flush toilet and bidet is also in place, so it will be very easy to change.
There is a lovely South-facing area in front of the house where a swimming pool could potentially be installed. This would be the icing on the cake, as you could walk from the kitchen or sitting room out to enjoy the sunshine on the pool area. That was our vision, anyway, and we're really quite sad that it won't be us who gets to enjoy it all.
After many months of searching, we found this house. The sense of space and the light-filled rooms captured us the moment we saw them, and our young children fell in love with all the gardens to explore. We all loved the feeling of privacy and seclusion, and the huge ancient lime tree that stands sentinel outside.
When we moved in, only the ground floor was habitable. So we lived on the ground floor while working with local builders to renovate the rest of the house. We created a large dining kitchen by knocking the small kitchen through into the boiler room. We had a solar hot water system installed, and a wood-fired Esse cooker (‘Flame Vert’ eco-certification) with a central heating system to replace the old oil-fired system. We had a double sided stove installed between the new kitchen and the sitting room (also Flame Vert certification), with warm air vents to one of the upstairs bedrooms and the attic.
We created a very large studio room from the old stabling area, and concreted the floor in the main barn. We had 3 very large bedrooms, a huge luxury bathroom, and a walk-in airing cupboard built in the main house upstairs, with fully insulated walls and ceilings. A massive attic room spanning the whole of the top floor was created, with feature vaulted ceilings and exposed beams. We bought a reclaimed solid maple floor from an old school to create a gorgeous floor for the attic room. A new electric system was installed throughout the new kitchen and upstairs, along with ethernet cabling to each bedroom and the attic. We had hardwood double glazed doors and windows made-to-measure for the kitchen, studio, bathroom and attic room. All this work has improved the energy efficiency of the house to a B rating, and the carbon footprint to an A rating.
Meanwhile, we also planted trees, trees and more trees to create a coppice for endless future firewood. We’ve planted Ash, Beech, Hazel, Willow, Wild Cherry and Maple. Over a decade on, those trees are now ready for their first cut, so there’s a wealth of firewood growing and ready to heat the house. We also created a permaculture veggie and fruit plot, now, sadly, somewhat neglected. We added cherry, plum, medlar, mulberry and nectarine trees to the existing apple, cherry, walnut, peaches and quince trees in the old orchard. We’ve deliberately encouraged wildlife to move back in, with the creation of many wild areas, including near the house. It took a decade, but the place is now teeming with wildlife. The dawn and dusk choruses are really quite spectacular.
Selling our lovely home was the furthest thing from our minds, and so everything has been done to our own family’s tastes and specifications. There’s still some decorative work to finish - some of the walls are still bare plasterboard. Some of the original windows will need replacing with double glazed windows. All the tricky-sized windows and doors have been replaced with made-to-measure hardwood double glazing, though, so the expensive part is already done.
There's a (currently unused) main entrance hallway. We were planning to install some open-tread L-shaped stairs leading to the first floor from this entrance hallway, and open up the existing doorway into the other half of the house. That would match nicely with the existing stairs leading to the third floor, creating a double-storey height open and galleried stairwell and landing, with light flooding in on all three levels from three different windows/glazed doors. We even have suitable stairs waiting in the hangar to be installed here, although they are likely to need some resizing and renovation.
Our next plan was to convert the 4 ground-floor bedrooms into a self-contained, wheelchair-accessible apartment, with a large sitting room, a dining kitchen, a bedroom and very large bathroom. Circumstances have now overtaken us, and our plans have changed, and so the downstairs rooms have many possibilities depending on what the new owners want to use them for. For now, there is still the original vintage wallpaper to admire, along with the original hardwood parquet floors which are still in great condition. This area will probably benefit from being re-wired. If the new owner wants spare rooms for guests, hobbies or B&B bedrooms, then all that’s needed is some decoration work.
We had also intended to replace the outdated, non-confirming fosse with a reed bed or similar, along with a water harvesting system and greywater recycling system. There is an original 'cistern' water storage tank underneath the patio and a massive amount of roof space for rain collection. For now, we have a compost toilet in the upstairs bathroom (a Separett Villa model) but all pipework and water supply for a flush toilet and bidet is also in place, so it will be very easy to change.
There is a lovely South-facing area in front of the house where a swimming pool could potentially be installed. This would be the icing on the cake, as you could walk from the kitchen or sitting room out to enjoy the sunshine on the pool area. That was our vision, anyway, and we're really quite sad that it won't be us who gets to enjoy it all.