We're gonna build a house...

So this is probably the number one reason for neglecting my blog.

The last few months we have been wading thigh deep in French administration, and have finally found some dry land where we can take a deep breath and say:

It's official, we are going to build OUR house!!!!

 

 

This is OUR piece of land

This is an artists impression of the house we're going to build

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is the plan for upstairs

this is the plan for the ground floor

 The hardest part was getting all the paperwork required and correct for the bank, we have managed to get a PTZ+ (Pret a taux zero plus), which means an interest free mortgage. It is not ALL interest-free, only about a quarter of it, BUT we couldn't afford to build this house without that help. There are several requirements to meet the conditons for this type of loan, you must not have owned a house in the last 2 years and the house you are building needs to be BBC (Bâtiment de Basse consommation énérgetique), this means a low-energy consumption house (50 kWh/m².year). The biggest advantage for us by building this kind of house is not only environmental but it means we will have zero gas bills! The heating is aerothermal, it uses the outside air and an electric pump to heat the house, the insulation is top notch, under-floor heating downstairs and all the windows face south to catch as much sunlight as possible!

Choosing the land and the builder was easy for us, we knew we wanted to buy close to where we are now, we saw the lotissement (group of plots of land) where some houses are built, some being built and a few empty spaces. We contacted the builders, Trecobat, who have negotiated this land from the old farmer and they proposed the plot and a choice of plans to build.

The other long wait was the Permis de Construire (planning permission), Trecobat submitted the plans to the Mairie (town council) on 13th July and we only got our Permis on 20th September, I can't tell you how many times we checked the letterbox every day hoping it would magically appear!

After officially buying the land at the Notaires office last week, we had our first meeting with the Building Site manager and finalised our plans. We also chose all the tiling, flooring, front door, internal doors and staircase, phew!

I popped down to the Water services office yesterday to complete the request for a water meter, as soon as that is installed the builders can start work!!!

I will keep you up to date with pictures of the progress.

To say we are excited is an understatement!