Wednesday 9 August 2017

Merlin's Cottage Gite; French Renovations

As 2015 drew to a close, most people Steve and I knew were recovering from the usual excesses of Christmas, while making plans for New Years’ parties. There were visits to family and friends, and relaxing times, with some good food and a few drinks.  Having never been the conventional types, Steve and I were on route to Southern Spain in our 23 year old Land Rover, which was crammed to the seams with our “stuff”.  



Here we go again!









The plan in Spain was, for me to finish the latest book I was writing, titled, Caught in Traffick.



My latest book












Of course, we couldn’t just “go” to Spain and leave it at that, oh no, we decided that on the way we would look at some property in Brittany.

We had done a 6 month house sit in the Tarn et Garonne region of France earlier in 2015, and had fallen in love with the country, the people, the culture and of course, the food. We’d looked at a lot of property in the Dordogne, the Limousin and other regions but after a three night stay in Dinan, it was Brittany that had captured our hearts.




Beautiful Dinan










If it looks like a castle, I'm there! 
Dinan city walls











And so it was that a few days before New Years’ Eve, we had stopped off in a tiny unheard of village called Plussulien to poke about in a one hundred year old property, which needed more than a little TLC to bring it back to life. We had been attracted to the place as it boasted a “sound studio” and with Steve being a musician, and both of us singing professionally, it was worth a look. 



Oh dear - the "sound studio"









Hmmmm, for “sound studio” read, damp, dark, no - way - in - hell - is - this - a - sound - studio”.

I mean DAMN.

Maybe once upon a time, the guy who lived here had tried to use it as such, but to simply block up the windows and then cover the walls, floors and ceilings of 2 rooms in carpet and call it a sound studio doesn’t cut it! The place was next to a road, and so every time a lorry or a tractor went past, the noise would be picked up inside – nope, it could never work as a sound studio, not now, not ever.




Hmmm, nope, not going to work








So, the question was, having discounted it for the purpose which had attracted us to it in the first place, … were we still interested?

We said what everyone says to an agent at the end of a house viewing, “We’ll have a think about it and let you know”

And so to Spain.




Spain was amazing










Truly breathtaking - the view from our Spanish house








Our first few days in Spain were obviously busy, and it took us about a week to get the place in some sort of order and to clean it up.  During this time, we had discussed the house in Plussulien and weighed up the pros and cons of buying such a place.  The biggest draw for us was that while it needed totally renovating, it DID have mains electricity and water, which would be a massive saving in the long run.

After a lot of discussions, we decided we would go for it, and so began the remarkably easy process of buying it. Offers were made, rejected, bettered, and eventually accepted.




Well, this was IT








I finished my book and by the end of March, we were on our way back to Brittany; this time, to our own place J



Off we go again!








As we walked through the door and into the damp, and freezing cold living room, I will admit to a slight tremor of, “Oh crikey, what have we done?” Thankfully, we had made one last stop at the local supermarket and bought 2 essentials – a kettle and a heater, which were to be our best friends for a few days I can tell you.



My VERY basic kitchen











Oh but afterwards, how fantastic is this!











Oh hell yes, that's better









The electrics were old and in desperate need of attention. Every time we wanted to put the kettle on, we had to double check to make sure nothing else was on. No microwave, no washing machine, no dryer – if so, the whole system would trip and we’d be back to square one.




Ahh the wiring







Steve spent the best part of nine months renovating the main house before he got to the ex sound studio.

We had, by now, decided to turn it into a gite; it would be a small one bedroom place, but we felt it might do quite well, as despite their being literally thousands of gites in France, with a lot of those in Brittany, smaller ones were not so common. People often holiday in families, or groups and Steve and I had been in a situation several times where all we wanted was a small one bed place, and ended up paying a premium for 2 and 3 bed places, as there were no cosy little places to be had. Well, maybe we could remedy that; in our neck of the woods at least.




First - knock your way through!!!











It was a massive undertaking as the previous owner had blocked up the windows in order to have his studio as sound proof as possible. We had to get permission via our local Mairie to put them back in, and also to move the door.  We filled in acres of forms, sent off countless papers to prove we were who we said we were, and waited. We were told to expect a three month wait and were therefore pleasantly surprised to get the necessary permission back in three weeks – delivered to our door my the Mairie himself.


It took three long months to get it into basic shape and an additional few weeks for the finishing touches. We had family do a practice run in February this year and discovered that once again, the electrics were the main issue. Having another property attached to the main house, obviously meant a significant increase in power usage. We needed a bigger electric box. One phone call to the helpful English speaking EDF line and one week later, we had our bigger power box and voila, no more problems. Ha! I could have 2 kettles on now, plus the dishwasher, washing machine AND drier – perfect J well it was until we got the astronomical electricity bill, which is a whole separate topic!




Where DOES one begin??











Slowly slowly











It's getting there











Ahh yes, but then there's the bathroom to do











The garden was another project, which almost left me broken, what with the giant obstructive and seemingly indestructible tree root, which was determined to stay where it had been for decades. Steve triumphed in the end, and conquered it, as I knew he would; add one patio, a few chairs and a table, plants, tree bark and a few stones and there you have it – a sweet little garden. 




Steve conquers the tree root!















And voila! Complete with Hound Dog :) 








My favourite bit of the garden however is when it gets dark and the solar lights kick in – it’s like Vegas out there J  Did you expect anything less from us?


Naming the gite was easy – we decided to call it Merlin’s Cottage Gite after our rescue dog Merlin who had been with us since May 2016 and had seen all the renovations as they took place.





Thanks to our friend David for this wonderful sign







Our gorgeous rescue hound Merlin














Always in the thick of it











In June this year, we opened our door – just the one – to paying guests and to date have had several satisfied customers, who have all declared it cosy and perfect for two people, which was our original objective.




And now ........ 










Kitchen











Living area











Bedroom with king sized bed











Bathroom








It’s been a lot of very hard work for Steve, and I am thrilled for him to see people enjoying the end result of all his labours. I was particularly pleased to see one guest sunning herself in the garden. I couldn’t help the sense of satisfaction it gave me to see her reading her book, sipping her wine and enjoying her holiday in OUR little gite garden.



And of course lots of colour








It made it all worthwhile. We had done it, we had our gite and it’s wonderful.





And the whole thing ......








If you are interested in booking a short or long stay in Merlin’s Cottage Gite, please contact me directly at;


Please do visit our website where you will find more photos and information;


We can be found on various Internet sites, which I have listed below, but you may incur charges if you book via these sites;





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Thanks for reading

Freya xxx