Renovation project - Going back to the UK

Renovation project - Going back to the UK

This is a very difficult post to write and I have been putting it off. We are heading back to the UK. Our tenants have moved out and we need to go back and redecorate and complete some jobs on the house.

The reason it is so difficult is that I have only been in the house a couple of times over the last few years and there are so many emotions that I am feeling. This was the last home I lived in with my daughter; I waved her off from this house when she left home. I had some amazing times living here and some very difficult times.

Yet I have not been there so do not even really know what it fully looks like now. We had never intended to sell this property but the money is now more useful than the house.

We have the excitement of knowing that we will be able to buy more in Portugal which will now be our forever home, so life will be a lot easier there. It is still a strange feeling knowing we are going to be living in it for the next week or so and my emotions are a roller coaster.

Our tenants have found a more suitable property for them now that their family is growing and have moved out, we have agreed that they can come and collect the rest of the garden toys and clear the rubbish from the garden this weekend.

The last thing we wanted to do was make the moving difficult for them and as it will be a week or so before we go on the market w are in no big rush.

But for now it is time to make plans to move everything from the house, because at the end of the day it is just that, a house, the ties we have to the UK are far more important, they are family and those ties will be there forever, bricks and mortar really do not matter.

So everybody wish us luck,

Top tip

A little word of warning to anybody that does have a house rented in another country, keep an eye on the rental prices. We have just found out that it was worth a lot more. We had not bothered as the tenants had been so good, but it is worth keeping an eye on

Renovation project - Locquirec

Renovation project - Locquirec

We are going to spend the night in Locquirec, this is not some where we have been before but it is only approx 40 mins from Huelgoat and if you are coming from the ferry at Roscoff it is only 49 kilometres

We are spending the night at Grand Hotel Des Bains, this is an amazing old country house style hotel situated right by the beach.

The grounds are well maintained lawns with a welcome row of trees along the edge by the beach. This is the perfect place to sit and enjoy the peace and quiet, even more enjoyable when sipping a glass of wine from the bar and enjoying a plate of bread and cheese.

If you are arriving by car, there is a car park in the grounds, you need to stop and open the gate and then drive just to your right. We did not find this at first and ended up in the one way system in the town.

The hotel itself is splendid old style but with all modern conveniences including a pool and spa.

The breakfast was plentiful, with a great selection of breads, pastries and fruit with juices and table served tea and coffee.

We did not eat at the hotel restaurant but we did use the bar and the staff could not be more helpful with both English and French speaking staff.

The town of Locquirec is not big and we managed a walk around the town with a return walk round the coast.

There is a small harbour that has a good selection of restaurants, including a tapas, but that restaurant deserves a blog post all of its own, we really do think it was the best tapas we have eaten outside of Spain.

The beach by the hotel is made of pebbles so great fun for the kids, further round there are sandy beaches. But throughout the sea is crystal clear.

Locquirec is a small beautiful place to visit either as a couple or as a family.

6 Small Bathroom Design Ideas

6 Small Bathroom Design Ideas

 Giving a small bathroom an inviting atmosphere is no easy task. It’s not like a large bathroom in which you can just place cabinets and decorative materials all over the place. With small bathroom design, you have a limited amount of space in which you can work. However, it’s not impossible to design a small bathroom. Here are 6 small bathroom ideas.

1. Do away with edges

Square designs have had their time, but that time is coming to an end. More and more, people are starting to cut off all edges and go circular. Round sinks, mirrors, and other bathroom necessities take up less space, leaving room for you to place other important appliances and items.

2. Freestanding tubs

A great way to free up space and give your bathroom an attractive, modern look is by getting a Clawfoot tub. Freestanding bathtubs, specifically those adorned with clawfoot stabilizers, have become increasingly more popular. Not only do they look gorgeous, they also provide you with plenty more space to place and store necessary bathroom items.

3. Tall, Skinny Furniture

While cabinets and vanities are not an absolute necessity in a bathroom, they can be useful. In order to save space in your small bathroom, you should look for furniture that is tall and skinny. By storing your items vertically, you will save floor space, leaving more room for other necessary bathroom items.

4. Elevated Vanities

Another one of many small bathroom ideas is to elevate your bathroom vanities and cabinets. Mounting a vanity to the wall under your sink will give you space under the vanity in which you can place items such as trash cans, baskets, and otherwise. Not to mention, an elevated vanity will give your bathroom a certain appeal that it can’t get from a standing vanity.

5. Ambient Lighting

Sometimes the only thing you need to enhance your small bathroom is to make it feel big. This can be accomplished with the use of ambient lighting. Though direct light is still important for everyday bathroom tasks, an ambient light below your cabinets, behind your mirrors, or above your shelves can serve to provide your bathroom with atmosphere and style.

6. Shrink Your Fixtures

Another way to make your small bathroom feel big is by installing smaller fixtures. Using a miniature, wall-mounted sink, or a compact vanity can help to make your small bathroom appear huge. Anything that you can do to free up floor space will be helpful in making your bathroom appear bigger.

Disclaimer: featured post

Renovation project - Summer friends, magical eggs and beautiful bathrooms

renovation project - Summer friends, magical eggs and beautiful bathrooms

The weather has been absolutely glorious this summer so far, I have enjoyed my evening walks around the lake, 

Sitting out on the patio with my evening glass of wine and visiting friends. But best of all is when friends come to Huelgoat. We have been taken out so many times and yes my waist is now stretching.

I think without doubt our favourite restaurant in Huelgoat is Le Crepuscule if you are ever in the area, you must pay a visit.

We are all sat there one evening as I go to get my phone from my bag and realise I have four chicken eggs in there.

Now chicken eggs are not normal for me to have in my bag, so even I am surprised. Then I remember I had popped to Suzy’s earlier and she had no egg boxes available and because she only had a few eggs spare , we just popped them in  my bag and there they have stayed until evening, being banged around and dropped on the floor, these are surely magical eggs.

They are also hidden eggs, last year the chickens were laying so many that they had trouble giving them away, this year not so, well maybe they are laying but they are hiding where. These really are free range chickens. So they have as much space as they could possibly want, including woods to roam. So maybe there are dozens of eggs out there that have just not been found?

They are the most camera shy chickens as well, they had a number of hiding places once I got my camera out.

Our friends from the UK are coming to visit tonight, they are not staying with us they are staying at Locquirec. But have decided to spend a night with us. We have the best night, I’m wondering how many times I can say that about one summer and in the morning I leave them to sleep.

They stayed in the little house, so it was like a holiday, the kids stayed with us in the main house and they got to enjoy the beautiful vaulted bedroom and the new little bathroom. They are actually the first to stay in that room now it is completely finished and they were really impressed.

The bathroom was a hit. Bathrooms are in my opinion one of the most important rooms in a renovation, it is the room that has to be completed first, the room that is probably most used and a room for relaxing as well as everyday normal use and luckily, bathrooms are John’s specialty.

But as I leave my friends relaxing I get to spend some time with the kids making juices. I am so looking forward to having our own fruit trees and being able to make fresh juice each morning.

My head is everywhere at the moment, I am loving life here in Huelgoat, I am looking forward to going back to the UK again and I can’t wait to start our new life in Portugal, with unlimited sunshine and fresh fruit.

So I am super excited about spending the night in our friend’s hotel tonight and actually get to stay in our beautiful area like real tourists!  I so need the little break, especially from my own head!.

Are garden fire pits worth investing in?

Are garden fire pits worth investing in?

Are garden fire pits worth investing in?

The outdoors are always exciting for those willing to get up and get going. This is so especially now that it is summer. There is simply too much fun outside for you to remain on the inside. One of the things people will definitely want to invest in is a garden fire pit. To some, the idea may sound old fashioned but when you come to think of it, it’s actually a cool thought. If you are thinking about investing in this pit, then you might want to consider the advantages it comes with.

Why is a garden fire pit a worthy investment?

It gets everyone out

Isn’t that good enough? A lot of time, you are going to find that people simply want to stay inside and watch a film. However, if you want to draw them outside, sell them this idea and you will all be frolicking on the lawn and having the time of your lives.

It allows you to stay out in the PM

Summers are known for their starry nights and clear skies. Whoever gets an opportunity to stay outside and live these moments has memories to pass on a Garden Fire Pit creates warmth in your garden area and allows you stay outside under the stars for as long as you can. To make things even more interesting, grab a pack of your favourite drinks and laugh the night away with your friends.

Allows you to whip up some BBQ

Summer is the perfect time to set up a grill, and a garden fire pit makes some of the best steak out there. Get some meat from your favourite butcher and make a fire. Have the family gather around the fire as the aroma wafts around. 

A garden fire pit is more than worth its weight in gold. It has a great return and promises some fun moments.

Disclaimer:

This is a featured post

Renovation project - Back in France, good friends and good food

Renovation project - Back in France, good friends and good food

Wow that was a hectic couple of weeks and things seem so different, we are now going to be selling two houses in two different countries and moving to yet another country, could we possibly make our lives a little more stressful?

But hey, that’s life and it is almost summer, this is our favourite time of year here in our little bit of Brittany. The sun is shining and friends are coming to visit. Our social life will be bustling and we start to realise how cosmopolitan we are. We have friends coming from England, Spain, Canada and France. This is the best part of living in another country; your friends group becomes so much wider. 

Even the sun is shining on a regular basis. We look around and sometimes wonder are we doing the right thing leaving here, we love this area so much. But if we want to try Portugal, we have to leave now.

But until that moment happens we will enjoy ourselves, we will also get rather large with all the soirées we are attending.

The only thing I miss now is our big BBQ; it would be perfect on our patio with friends and wine, 

Plymouth, UK. Places to eat and things to see, whilst waiting for the ferry to France

Plymouth, UK. Places to eat and things to see, whilst waiting for the ferry to France

So the time has arrived to say goodbye to family and head back to France. We have a couple of viewings booked in to our French house so its fingers crossed that we get a sale soon.

Though the realisation has just hit me we are actually going to be selling 2 houses in 2 countries, I can see this all getting very stressful at some point in the near future!

But we drive to Plymouth and think we will have a nice meal overlooking the harbour. This is such a nice place in Plymouth; the only problem is the parking. There is nowhere near enough places to park and double yellow lines everywhere. We manage to find a small car park by the harbour but they charge until 10pm at night. We do not have enough change and are on the verge of giving up.

We see a couple heading over to their car and ask if they have some change for a note, no they don’t but they do have a couple of pound coins and happily give them to us so we can park.

It is such a small gesture, but today as we are leaving family to meet a stranger willing to show kindness is so nice.

So parked up we head over to the restaurants to have a meal, but we are here at the wrong time, most of the restaurants stop serving food at 7pm on a Sunday night.  

I had so wanted to sit here for dinner, the view is beautiful, but one of the staff point us to a restaurant a street behind, we do not get the view but the meal is really good.

We chose to have a whole chicken that was really moist and tender with some sides and a glass of wine. The food cost just 21 UK pounds, the staff were really friendly and the restaurant had a really nice ambience.

Meze Grill may not have the view of the harbour, but the food and staff more than make up for this and if you are in Plymouth and enjoy Greek food (or just nice chicken) then we would highly recommend a visit.

If you want to have a look at the restaurant here is the link Meze Grill, Bar and restaurant

After our meal, we head over to the harbour to enjoy a relaxing drink before it is time to head for the ferry to France.  This is the relaxing part of a night time ferry trip from Plymouth to Roscoff

But for now it is time to get on the ferry and head home.

Big Price Reduction 92,000 euros- House in Huelgoat, Brittany, France

Big Price Reduction  92,000 euros- House in Huelgoat, Brittany, France

The house has been on the market for a few months now and we have had a number of viewings but not yet sold. this was not a problem as we were going to just enjoy our time here.

But, now we need to head over to Portugal so its time to sell, our sitting back enjoying ourselves is over, So we have decided to reduce the price. 

So now is your opportunity to buy at a massively reduced price of offers around 92,000 euros for a house with so many options available,

1.      The chance to live in a large family home in the centre of Huelgoat.

2.       A great holiday home with small manageable garden so no worries about spending your holidays taming wild overgrowth

3.      The opportunity to move to France and start a business straight away, a 2 bed house and a 1 bed house either of which can be let out, in a year round tourist location.

Only 92,000 euros with option to include all the furniture.

AT todays rate (11.07.17) the current exchange rate makes that only 

$104,890 USD

or 

£81,562 GBP

Has there ever been a better time to start your new life?

The property in detail:

Habitable Area: 123m2
Land Surface Area: 161m2
Energy Efficiency: D - 227
Co2 Emissions: A - 5 

Living room with new wood burner set in a large granite fireplace.

Fully fitted kitchen with dining area.

Stairs to:
Main bedroom with door to large private terrace
2nd double bedroom
Family bathroom
All upstairs windows have views over the forest.
From the kitchen:
Enter the dining room with external door to patio garden and full utility room.
Doorway that can be locked to a separate cottage with:
Large living room with small fitted kitchen and large granite fireplace, separate external door to outside
Stairs to large bedroom with vaulted ceiling and exposed beams and wooden floors, door to private terrace with views over the forest.
Fully fitted shower room off the bedroom.
Large garage/workshop. 

2 of the terraces

main kitchen

living room

rear view of main kitchen

Dining room

vaulted bedroom in the rear little house

living room in rear little house

bedroom in main part of the house

main family bathroom

stairs in main house

area in front of little house (inside garage)

patio garden

garage and patio garden

The house has been completely renovated with new double glazing, new electrics, new plumbing, new fitted kitchen, new bathrooms, new wood burner and flue. 

The property is located approx 200 metres from the town square with a selection of restaurants, cafes, and shops. There is also a doctor and dentist in the town and a supermarket with 24 hour petrol. There are creperies and ice cream shops along the lake and within the forest you will find an internet cafe selling vegan food and organic beers.

There is public transport available with a bus service to Carhaix and Morlaix (Morlaix has a TGV train direct to Paris and further into Europe)

There is a mechanic/vehicle service garage and a taxi service in the town.

Huelgoat has a large leisure lake with cafes and an enchanted forest with many tourist attractions (again only approx 200 metres from the property). 

Although a popular tourist destination the area is never crowded. 

Here are some photos of Huelgoat (approx 200 metres from the house)

Locquirec approx 40 mins away

Locquirec approx 40 mins away