Termites
I talked with a few people about the Landaise, and about my remaining reservations:
a) the cracks (fissures) in the exterior woodwork. Apparently they're all like that. They're meant to be like that. Fissures don't matter. Little holes do, because that's termites.
b) the heating. Apparently what we need to do is get an insert installed. That way we won't need to use any heating anyway because burning wood in the insert will heat the whole house. (The couple who assured us of this live in a really big house, so it must be true!)
But, you must buy your wood from a reputable wood furnisher, and you must not stack it against the house because that is an invitation for the termites.
Yes. Bordeaux has termites. They eat their way through concrete to reach tasty wood. The folks mentioned in b) showed us where their next-door neighbour had to have his concrete walls treated to kill and repel the termites after stacking his wood against the house.
So. The house is probably OK. The estate agents phoned today to tell me that yes, there is a boiler - an electric boiler, that heats the radiators and the hot water, and it does it for about £500 a year.
OK. I think we've checked about all we can. We've seen the plans for the two little houses to be built in front. We've been down to the house early morning, midday and late at night. We've walked the area and examined the shops. We've driven the school run in both directions.
I think now either we go for it or we don't! What more could we do?
a) the cracks (fissures) in the exterior woodwork. Apparently they're all like that. They're meant to be like that. Fissures don't matter. Little holes do, because that's termites.
b) the heating. Apparently what we need to do is get an insert installed. That way we won't need to use any heating anyway because burning wood in the insert will heat the whole house. (The couple who assured us of this live in a really big house, so it must be true!)
But, you must buy your wood from a reputable wood furnisher, and you must not stack it against the house because that is an invitation for the termites.
Yes. Bordeaux has termites. They eat their way through concrete to reach tasty wood. The folks mentioned in b) showed us where their next-door neighbour had to have his concrete walls treated to kill and repel the termites after stacking his wood against the house.
So. The house is probably OK. The estate agents phoned today to tell me that yes, there is a boiler - an electric boiler, that heats the radiators and the hot water, and it does it for about £500 a year.
OK. I think we've checked about all we can. We've seen the plans for the two little houses to be built in front. We've been down to the house early morning, midday and late at night. We've walked the area and examined the shops. We've driven the school run in both directions.
I think now either we go for it or we don't! What more could we do?
Comments
The agent phoned us up earlier to tell us that the buyer says he has had an offer on the house but has not accepted it, so if we make an offer we should exceed it. The offer was pretty well the amount we would have said. Well, we'll sleep on it, but we won't get into an auction.