Well did we have fun!
There we were - on the rebound after missing out on the super little half-bungalow in Pessac. We had 1/2 hour before picking the kids up for lunch. What do you do? What we did was to go to the agent we had meant to begin with so long ago but had never quite got to. (It's just 2 weeks, but it seems longer!)
Anyway, the agency was wonderful! Like an estate agency run from a wardrobe by Charlie's Angels. The office was tiny, just two desks, and was full of women in their 20s and 30s dressed as Carmen in frilly blouses with chunky jewellery. And a small dog who put his cold nose on your bare toes.
They said "What about the Landaise?". I said that we had seen it once with another agent but we were concerned that it hasn't sold though it is with almost every agency in Bordeaux, at wildly differing prices. They said people were scared off by the new houses to be built in front, and that their price was lower because they charge less commission. (The prices vary by about 40000 euros, and they are not the cheapest. But never argue with a room full of people of opposite gender to your own!)
So we drove down to the house and timed the journey to the school. About 5 - 10 minutes should suffice. We walked round the area and had a nice chat with a lady whose poodles roll in the muck (caca - this used to be Gwilym's word for Coca Cola.) Then the agent arrived and we looked over the house, working out where the freezer could go. They showed us the plans for the two sweet little houses to be built in front. They looked OK. There remain these questions:
a. How is the house heated? The story is that there was a gas boiler, but the owner removed it and replaced it with an electric boiler that heats the hot water and the radiators. Or perhaps it doesn't.
b. What about the wiring? Some of the sockets have no earth connection. It may need rewiring. Also again we have switches for lights but no lights. Except this time there is no trace of there ever having been lights. Is there something I am missing about French bedrooms and switches?
c. What about the external timbers? They have quite a few splits in them, but they don't seem to be supporting anything as far as I can tell. So this evening I plan to phone an architect from the church and ask him about the timbers on a landaise.
But it could be a goer. And it has three mulberry trees in the garden.
Anyway, the agency was wonderful! Like an estate agency run from a wardrobe by Charlie's Angels. The office was tiny, just two desks, and was full of women in their 20s and 30s dressed as Carmen in frilly blouses with chunky jewellery. And a small dog who put his cold nose on your bare toes.
They said "What about the Landaise?". I said that we had seen it once with another agent but we were concerned that it hasn't sold though it is with almost every agency in Bordeaux, at wildly differing prices. They said people were scared off by the new houses to be built in front, and that their price was lower because they charge less commission. (The prices vary by about 40000 euros, and they are not the cheapest. But never argue with a room full of people of opposite gender to your own!)
So we drove down to the house and timed the journey to the school. About 5 - 10 minutes should suffice. We walked round the area and had a nice chat with a lady whose poodles roll in the muck (caca - this used to be Gwilym's word for Coca Cola.) Then the agent arrived and we looked over the house, working out where the freezer could go. They showed us the plans for the two sweet little houses to be built in front. They looked OK. There remain these questions:
a. How is the house heated? The story is that there was a gas boiler, but the owner removed it and replaced it with an electric boiler that heats the hot water and the radiators. Or perhaps it doesn't.
b. What about the wiring? Some of the sockets have no earth connection. It may need rewiring. Also again we have switches for lights but no lights. Except this time there is no trace of there ever having been lights. Is there something I am missing about French bedrooms and switches?
c. What about the external timbers? They have quite a few splits in them, but they don't seem to be supporting anything as far as I can tell. So this evening I plan to phone an architect from the church and ask him about the timbers on a landaise.
But it could be a goer. And it has three mulberry trees in the garden.
Comments
A freind emails: This may be a completely unnecessary comment, but it is not uncommon for there to be no ceiling lights in bedrooms (or living rooms) in
France, particularly in modernish builds. The switches operate a
sockets or sockets into which you plug your standard, table or bedside light or all three.
Enlightening!