So, project massive renovation will be starting soon. Figured there needs to be a place for people to rip the piss and also offer advice for me to ignore completely.
Here’s the property:
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Good luck 
Be alright; what could possibly go wrong ?
Gulp! Hope all goes well
It’s the one on the left, right? 
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You are either very brave, or bloody mad. I think I will reserve judgement for a while.
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That house just looks fabulous, but it also looks like a massive job.
We’ve just spent the best part of a year renovating our house in Liverpool. New roof, new central heating and hot water, three new bathrooms and a new laundry, fully rewired, replastered every room (originally there was wallpaper on every surface, except the floors which were covered in the most appallingly old and horrible carpet), polished nearly every floorboard in the house, repainted every wall and ceiling. The results are starting to look promising thank God.
We are having a bit of a rest before we tackle the kitchen (which will involve a fair bit of steel going in as we are removing walls) and the gardens. Hopefully this will all be finished by September, which will mean the entire job took 18 months.
I shall take vicarious pleasure in watching your work proceed as I am feckin’ knackered and sick of the sight of builders.
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I am sure your clients are sick of the lack of sight of you as you are always on holidays.
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don’t have clients, I have victims 
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I admire your courage john 
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Nice roof lights. Very, erm…subtle.
Are you going to live on site? We found this quite challenging to say the very least. I’ll never do that again.
Good luck, we found the process of tradesmen very different to the UK, in that there are very few general builders, there are few multi skilled trades. Once you find a good set they will be with you for life.
Yeah, we’ll have to. The main house structure is actually pretty good; just the barn bit at the end that needs anything substantial. Complete rewrite is happening, chimneys reinstated, kitchen done, and a mezzanine, pantry and utility section to be built inside the barn area.
It is doable, just not much fun. Keeping shoes on the kids was an absolute nightmare as they refused to recognise that they were on a building site…
We always made sure we had a bathroom and somewhere to cook in operation. Camping/living in a building site isn’t pleasant but it is not impossible. You can always sleep in tents and cook outside during the summer anyway as it looks like the weather will be ok.
Were I 15 years younger I’d love a project such as this. I wish you the best. Is the plan to live over there?
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Lovely ! I always feel inspired but this sort of project, I really wish I’d gone at it pre kids. If you would like to hire Stronzetto for any bonding work his fees are astronomical, unfair and unworthy but he will ensure a fun fail.
We’ve been living over here for 4.5 years now! We’ve just been renting up to now as getting a French mortgage sorted is an interesting experience.
The biggest challenge from a logistical perspective is that there’s no real kitchen in there at the moment, and the space we want to use for the kitchen is in no fit state to have one installed (see the second photo with a fireplace in). Probably going to need to jury-rig something up as a 6-month level temp solution, and do a lot of BBQ and salads (oh the hardship 
)
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