REAL LIFE
“The house still had beautiful, albeit filthy, original oak floors of wide wood planks”
muck. Get quotes for anything that looks awful and do as much as you can yourself,” she says. They have already started to
renovate the rundown property next door and plan to use it for holiday lets as well as create a guest suite for visiting family and friends. They are also going to turn their cellar into a gym. However, one of the nicest
restoration projects has been the garden, which was very overgrown and had all but disappeared when they bought it. “We started clearing it before we fully owned the house and discovered figs, fruit trees and honeysuckle. There is also a well, which we found on our third visit. It was a cared-for garden once upon a time and we are making it lovely again.”
Top: the understated helix staircase steals the show in the hallway. Above: before the work – the dark and dingy, rubble-strewn space. Right, from top: the restored oak floors with their ‘ladder-style’ pattern; before renovation
as possible. The house still had beautiful, albeit filthy, original oak floors of wide wood planks bisected by thin oak strips running the length of the room, typical of the 18th-century ‘ladder style’ of the area and which Becky was keen to keep. “In one of the rooms, vandals
had poured gloss paint mixed with glass all over the floor. It took me two days with a heat- gun to scrape all that off; then I did a light sand and polish. It was hard work but it came up like a dream. I was delighted with it,” says Becky. Another renovation project,
albeit a much smaller one, was an old patchy cast-iron bath
that the owner had left behind. “I cleaned and bleached the hell out of the insides and wire- brushed and sanded the flaky paint off the exterior and claw feet. Then I gave it three coats of paint, allowing a day to dry between each,” she explains. Four days later, the bath was finished. It now has pride of place in the family bathroom. Steve worked on the house
full-time for about five weeks and then part-time for the rest of the summer. “We moved in at the end of June and had a basic kitchen and bathroom by the end of July. Then we had to wait a while for replacement planks for some of the floor.
68 FRENCH PROPERTY NEWS: September/October 2023
But the bedrooms were ready with a week to spare, just before school started.” Becky and Steve have the
whole of the top floor while the boys have a spacious bedroom each, with plenty of room for a desk, sofa and an area for sleepovers. Although there are still snagging issues (there is a bathroom to complete and a window seat needs to be made), the basic renovation has been completed. “And we came in on budget at £55,000.” Becky estimates that if they’d
hired builders and paid the market rate, the renovation would have cost approximately £200,000. “Look behind the
A FRESH START Besides the house, the move has also enhanced the family’s lifestyle. They particularly enjoy being part of the local community and it is easier for her sons to take part in all the clubs. Most of all, they just love French life. “When my kids come back from school and I ask what they had for lunch, they never say ‘cheese’, they say ‘camembert’ or ‘reblochon’ or whatever. Food is so much part of the culture here.” This is particularly true in
Bellac, which has a very good regular market selling a broad range of local produce as well as oysters. The Charente coast and La Rochelle are only three hours’ scenic drive away and the family visit regularly. The house is now as close to her dream home as it could be. “We are on the edge of
town, but a two-minute walk to the bars and shops,” she says. “From here I can see the countryside, the medieval stone bridge and the medieval church. I love it!” ■
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