Putting things into perspective

On good authority I have been informed that it would aid our planning application if we submitted a perspective of the our proposals to the Maries office. So here it is.

After looking around for a bit of free software on the internet I settled for Google SketchUp. Whilst being a bit clumsy and sometimes frustrating it does in fact produce remarkable results and has some nice enhancements that allows you to convert the image to look "hand drawn".

So I hope the nice people in the Maries office like the images and give us permission to build.

Oh and sorry for the pun!

Planning Problem

We have just been informed by the Maries Office that our planning application for permission to carry out the alterations to our maison secondaire has been incorrectly filed. We need to submit a permis de construire so guess that the grenier is not classed as an existing habitable space even though its boarded out, has windows and is accessible.


So back to square one and now we have to wait up to eight weeks for the permission to come through before we can make a start on the building work. Hopefully however, we can still start putting the drainage in and dig out the bay tree to the front of the property and re-build the wall that it is pushing over.

Despite the set back we are still hoping to get the work done this year and think we are about to learn that things in France don't happen as fast as they do in the UK. We can live with that, after all the slower pace is one of the reasons why we love France.

Kitchens

 We were thinking of buying our Kitchen in France. There are lots too choose from including bespoke handmade kitchens, contemporary, traditional manufactured from solid wood,laminate to foil wrapped. Basically anything you can buy in the UK you can buy in France.  

However, we came across a fantastic kitchen specialists called Samuel Neal that  provides modern German, classic English and bespoke handcrafted kitchens. Not quite what we where after but their showroom is amazing and is well worth a visit if you are in the market for a quality kitchen.

Sam will also look at the lower end kitchens if you are working to a really tight budget. Having said that there was a lovely German contemporary style kitchen at very competitive price. 

We are still thinking on that one but cant imagine it fitting into a small stone cottage in France at the minute.We have time on our side so maybe we will change our minds

Sam's website is certainly worth a visit too 

http://www.samuelnealkitchens.co.uk/

Déclaration Préalable

Its a geat sounding name but obtaining planning permission in France for building works of a minor nature is relatively straight forward. Simply you fill in a standard form describing the works and its location together with drawings and the all important Plan Cadastral and send everything to the local Maries office and wait for 28 days.

In our village I have been told the Mayor rides round in his car looks at the building and decides if it causes any issues with the neighbours and whether it looks ok. If you hear nothing then you can proceed. Great system if you have to work within the planning system in the UK where every step of the process can be made very arduous by Council red-tape. In France if you are wanting to work on your house go to your local Marie and tell them and they will advise you what to do next,

As guide a those building works that require a works declaration can be summarised as follows:

• A new building or extension to an existing building, not greater than 20m²;
• Creation of any openings in a building;
• Garage/Workshop not greater than 20m²;
• Conversion works that transform at least 10m² of the gross surface area into net surface area, eg garage, attic, basement;
• Changes to the exterior finish of the property;
• A below ground swimming pool;
• Works to historic listed buildings not requiring planning consent;
• Boundary wall or fence above 2 metres;
• Change of use of a building, even where no works undertaken (although planning consent required if external structure altered or structural work undertaken);
• Installation of temporary caravan.

The  Declaration Prealable can be found
http://vosdroits.service-public.fr/R17501.xhtml

An English translation can be found
http://www.propertytranslations.com/component/option,com_docman/task,doc_details/gid,30/Itemid,42/lang,english/

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Currency Exchange

Being a novice with currency exchange I have found the last few weeks buying Euros the most stressful part of purchasing our property in France. Our Notaire recommended a foreign currency exchange business and sure enough we put our faith in them to give us a fair deal.

The very charming female French advisor assured me that they would give me the very best deal and that I needed to be extremely careful in using other businesses as they might not be bona fide. Very sound advice of course.  However, what I couldn't understand was that  consistently the deal I was being offered was well below the "going" exchange rate. I then found myself trying to exchange money on a falling market.

I started to shop around for quotes including the main stream banks and researching the companies advertising on the Internet. I selected several companies that appeared to be OK, rang them and talked to their agents. They took the time explain to me how the money markets worked and how to read and interpret the rates on the screen.  I even went onto google maps and used street level to ensure their offices actually existed.

It would be wrong for me to say which company we entrusted our Pounds Sterling to Euro exchange with. However having initially laboured over our first major currency exchange and then going  through a very steep learning curve I have emerged much wiser, more informed and when it comes to having to do the same thing again then the transaction I hope will be less painless. Oh and never go with someone a Notaire recommends as in our case I eventually found out that they operated more like a high street currency exchange.