Nah, not me! This is part 2 of “House Hunting in the Limousin”.
There’s a lot of older properties for sale here in the Haute Vienne. But with old houses, you get old house problems. There’s the obvious stuff like dodgy wiring, damp, tiny windows, cold in winter, but there’s so much more…………………..
Quirks and fashions. Remember when polystyrene ceiling tiles were all the rage? Then pine cladding? Then heavy flock wallpaper? You’ll find ‘em all here. Let me give you an example.
The French love wallpaper. They love it so much they stick it on doors as well, and then they stick more over the top! A painter decorater friend of mine was working on a house up in the Creuse. He’d been stripping wallpaper off layer after layer. The old lady client arrived to see how work was progressing. She took one look and burst into tears. My firend asked what was wrong, worried that the work he was carrying out was not to her liking. She explained that it was the sight of the wallpaper she had known as a little girl that had made her cry!
Case of the missing fosse (septic tank). We’ve seen old rural properties where all the household waste water, excluding the toilet go straight into the strom ditch by the side of the road. It’s grey water, it stinks and it’s horrible. We have even seen a house where ‘everything’ went straight into the river. There has been a move in France to get everyone up to a standard, but clearing the backlog (Euuugh!!!) is taking some time. Even when there is a fosse, it’s location may be long forgotten. If you are looking at rural properties try asking the viewing agent where the fosse is. Mostly, they won’t know! It’s only after you’ve bought the place and started living in it and using it that you’ll get the smell that will help you find it. In the case of one of our neighbours the access to the fosse was inside the extension! When I say extension I don’t mean some spanking new thing, no, almost as old as the house. Maybe something added 20 years after the original build.
Then there was the rising damp problem caused by modernisation, or how about the endless layers of flea infested old carpet that were stored in the attic to act as insulation. The horror stories go on and on. It’s not always bad, but there are always surprises with old properties. Not a case of beware, more a case of be aware.
