We knew after that meeting with the builder that our finances would not stretch to his costs, so, after long discussions and financial estimations, we decided to do all the floor-plans ourselves, and hire certain family members who we knew had tackled decoration and construction before and who might be available for a period of approxmately 6 months. We telephoned my cousin who was in the building trade and he found three men who might be interested. They would live-in, downstairs in the sous-sol, which used to be the infirmary of the Chateau when it was a ' Colonie de Vancances ' for children. It had a kitchen ( of sorts), bedrooms and good toilet and shower facilities. We estimated we needed about 6 men, so after a few more phone calls we had another three willing workers. All were young guys without committments, who were eager to experience a ' work-shop' in a Chateau in France .In order to attract good rental bookings we needed extra facilities. First essential, had to be a swimming pool, which would have to be professionally installed . Then we needed a leisure lounge, we already had a pool table and table tennis for that purpose, so that was fine. In the grounds we had discovered shortly after we first moved in, a hard tennis court base, which was in the ideal position, so we just needed the high fencing, net posts and net, and the obligatory white lines. Finally- my dream! We already had lovely old stables--
Why not buy horses and have a riding establishment for the use of our visitors, and myself, of course!
We needed to create an attractive brochure to advertise the Chateau apartments and all the facilities. The problem was we needed this brochure in advance to get the bookings but we couldn't take any photos as nothing yet was finished, or , should I say begun!!
Dear Delphine, exciting times and what a great staircase in your last post. You certainly had grand plans and I am looking forward to hearing what happened next.
ReplyDeleteThankyou Dewlish,yes indeed they were grand plans but we were young (ish) and headstrong and, maybe , too ambitious!!
ReplyDeleteoh the old catch 22...
ReplyDeleteour philosophy: If all else fails... do it yourself or at least plan and figure it out yourself.. it is probably the best thing to do anyway.. keeps one more connected to the process and the costs!!!
Lucky you had helpful relatives...
I'm looking forward to the next installment.
ReplyDeleteLove that cartoon..
Hello Gwen, What you say is true. My Mum was one of nine children so I have loads of cousins, we all keep in touch and a few of them are in the building trade, and could give us much better estimates. We found then and now that one of the down-sides of owning a Chateau is the 'quotes' for work!
ReplyDeleteThanks Angela , the next bit is my favourite memory - the horses!
ReplyDeleteSo many things to think of but you were savvy enough to think of them all!
ReplyDeleteWhat a wonderful place with a pool, stables and such a luxurious setting! I bet those workers might have paid YOU to stay there to work!
So this is where the riding comes in.
ReplyDeleteI really love this story because of so many things, but especially the "three steps forward two steps back" process. And yeah, thinking of the luxury amenities you'd need.
I am the youngest of 8, and we've talked about bringing everyone over to the farm for projects. It really is handy. You arranged a nice coop there. Any young man or woman in their right mind would LOVE to participate in a project like this!