Renovation project - We have finally finished

Renovation project - We have finally finished

Do you remember reading this? this was part of my first post written on 4th August 2012. We have finally finished and are ready for opening.

We are both older and wiser and have more grandchildren and it never gets easier leaving them behind when we visit. There have been many tears along the way both from joy, frustration and exhaustion but what a transformation. 

Well this is it, we’ve done it!!!!!!

We have sold up lock stock and barrel and moved to France, Huelgoat in Brittany to be precise and I would like to welcome you to join us on our adventure, I plan to complete a daily blog (well when the hangover or work do not get in the way) detailing the trials, tribulations and joys of renovating an old town house in to a luxury B&B. You will probably get to hear about the drunken antics, rows and tears as well, but John isn’t too happy about that bit, but hey ho, I’m the one typing!

Let me introduce ourselves, I’m Jenny, I’m 42 in my previous life I was a Quality Management Consultant (great title, I know and roughly translated it meant that I inspected adult social care accommodation). I left work full time approximately 18 months ago to work with John as his labourer come dogsbody, so my family thought I had already had my midlife crisis before setting out on this one.

John is 48 and 4 quarters, he’s still not got his head around being 49 (it was a recent event) and in his previous life he had been a self employed builder for over, well lets just say a very long time.

We met a few years ago and had the same outlook on life and easy going nature, which is going to be essential for living in a house with no water, electric or other essentials. First tip of the day is to be very wary of French estate agent particulars, as we apparently bought a house with electricity and water!!!!!!!! Both had to be switched on but I’ll talk about that later.

Everybody has seen the TV programmes and read the magazines about how fabulous it is to renovate a property abroad, this blog will give you a realistic, detailed account of what it is really like, including leaving children and parents behind, made doubly difficult as one child (she will not be pleased at being called a child) is currently 6 months pregnant with her first child, am I going to be nominated for mum of the year??????

Has it been worth it?

Yes we think so.

Here is a selection of before and after photo's, we hope to see many of you here this year and would like to say a big thank you to so many that have supported us on this journey and hope you enjoy our next chapter.

The photo's are all taken from similar angles and really show the difference between before and after

A big thank you to Gerda Bolton photography 

The back bedroom

The Landing

These photos were taken from similar angles

The front bedroom

The bathroom

The living room

The dining room

The porch

The staircase

The garden

We are now taking bookings if you want to get in touch contact us via the blog or on our new website http://huelgoat-france.com/