Dordogne Roofer

Hi guys

Thought i'd start a thread on our move to France, purchasing of land and building a house. I fully expect it to be the proverbial roller coaster , hold tight!

I'm English and 41, Cat is N Irish and 35, we met on Tinder

We're moving in approx two weeks, we haven't got planning permission yet, very near though.
We're renting a gite for the winter in the village, approx 1/4 mile from the land.

Plenty for us to do. We've sold a lot of our furniture, the tv the bed etc.

We've been gradually cancelling direct debits, the internet etc.

I've just got all terrain tyres fitted to my van as I could picture me sliding around the land on normal tyres. With a bit of rain it will turn very muddy.


Man these tyres are loud! They howl, I wasn't aware nobbly tyres were loud. I'll be grateful for them when it's muddy though.

I changed the sump on the van and gave it an oil change, it used to leak more oil than I could put into it. Leak solved. I broke up my old van for parts when that died and i'll do the same with this one once that dies. She's got 163K on the clock and vans lead a hard life. That being said Transit Connects are brilliant little vans, as much as I hate diesels.
I've stocked up on oil, power steering fluid etc

< snip >



The Mustang is getting two small exhaust boxes added to rear as it's just too loud. The drone is annoying. The 600 miles to Carlux would be tiring in it. The 3.5" boxes will quieten it down a bit.


StudebakerChanged the trans fluid and filter on it the other day, gave her a polish (what you can as the paint is ratty)


We've got stuff in storage in Orpington and stuff at a friends in Ashford, just gotta figure logistics...

We've agreed a quote for the sewage to be installed, it was quite reasonable in the end, 1700 Euros I think? The Mayor didn't want to dig the road up so it's running across our land to provide the new neighbour too. We agreed as we're nice like that

Dordogne Roofer

Here's Carlux, it's south east Dordogne

Dordogne Roofer

Had our leaving do last night.

Feeling a bit tender today....

That's the last time well be London proper for a while.

I've never really liked the place anyway, it's fine for a night out but other than that I just find it grim.
Saying that i'm not a city person, give me the country anyday.

InVinoVeritas

Now it you were selling the Mustang that might be more interesting. Assume it's a '66 V8 with LHD?

Dordogne Roofer

Hi,

To be honest it changes every 5 minutes.

Yes well done it's a '66 convertible, 347 stroker, 4 speed auto. 4 wheel discs, LSD.
Yes LHD . New wheels and tyres. Spent a few quid on her over the last year, new shocks etc

Mechanically it's great, it looks great at 10ft but it does need a paint job.
We were going to sell it (still might) as is but now we might take it with us.

We just sold Cat's house in Ireland so that's one big thing out of the way.

Are you familiar with Yanky motors then?

Dordogne Roofer

Couple more pics -



We imported it from the States last year. The US owner spent lots on the car, over 10K on engine and 'box alone. He put a blue/cream interior in it with the intention of spraying the car silver blue. If I had it sprayed I would go with silver blue or a similar colour.

scrubbedexpat056

Hi,
I like your spirit in all this. The Japanese have a saying I remember from my martial arts days - 'Stamp quickly and walk through a wall of iron'. Good luck with it all and I'm going to be very interested in hearing how you get on.

Dordogne Roofer

Nice quote. Thanks for the comment. Cat and I are not sure if we're mad or brave?
We are biting off way more than we can chew, we know that, but the plan is to get some of it built and the rest will happen over time.

We are both very similar in that nothing much phases us, we worry about stuff that's worth worrying about, but most things in life are trivial IMHO.

Oh I rebuilt the gearbox in the Studebaker, once you've taken a GM Turbohydromatic 700r4 apart and put it back together nothing else seems complicated! Ha ha.

Tweedpipe

Interesting blog. Keep 'em coming!
With your interest in cars, once in France I can imagine you doing some pretty mean mods on a Citoen 2cv.
And running costs a tiny bit more economical too compared to the Mustang...

DandNHill

I learnt to drive on a 2CV. No power steering for me! My dad loved those cars. We even had two Diane's before moving to France!

Tweedpipe

I also had a Diane in France. Lovely girl.......
Even after all these years here I've still yet to test drive a Citroen 2cv.
The m-i-l had an Ami 8 with the odd, steeply reversed-raked rear window (a la Ford Anglia 105E). I drove that car many miles. That Ami was definitely a presage of good times ahead, as her daughter turned out to be far more than just a good friend.

Dordogne Roofer

That's one serious roof chop rake

My main love is old American stuff and old English Fords. But i'm a car guy so I like anything if it's interesting.

I do like those old French vans, I'll have to find some pics of what make/model it is. I could see myself with one of those

Most nice stuff in Europe was always expensive whereas cool fast cars were available to anyone with a job in the States. Even a Corvette was accessible to anyone with a reasonable job.

There was a study on which cars used the least energy over their lifetime, including building the thing. What won?....WW2 Jeep.

I've ran a renewable energy firm for 5 years here in London. There's a lot of BS out there, the words eco, renewable etc are so abused as to be rather meaningless.
You'll see as our build progresses what i'll be using and why, it'll have solar PV, solar thermal and a log burner into a thermal store. Underfloor heating and the house orientated to get as much sunlight in as possible.
Our bills will be zero, less than zero infact with government subsidies (hopefully they're still in force by the time we've built it

scrubbedexpat056

I like your thinking in this.
Having lived on a boat for 4 years with a single 140watt solar panel and a 13kg gas bottle supplying all our, albeit small, needs I yearn for a house as off grid as possible. I've always thought the attitude to solar panels a bit bizarre in the UK. My brother went down that route in Totnes. He was limited by the number of panels he was allowed to fit as in the total output and further limited by the amount he could put back into the grid. He is certainly saving money on his bill and it should pay for itself before he dies (hopefully), but he has down lights in His kitchen. These run off 12v dc. So he is producing free dc electricity then storing it in batteries. Then the inverter loses some to produce ac current. Then the transformers lose a bit more to change it back into dc for the lights. I reckon a house could be wired for 24v dc and run everything except heating and a washing machine. Still, what do I know?
Keep us informed, I want to know it is possible to do what you are doing in France.
Cheers

InVinoVeritas

Nice looking motor! I keep thinking about getting one which is probably cheaper than actually getting one and yet still a lot of fun

Dordogne Roofer

Hi InvinoVeritas

Thanks yes the car is a lot of fun, very easy to throw around and quick too. 64-70 Mustangs seem to be the most popular Yank. Like with any old car you need to be mechanically minded or the car will be in the garage quite often (due to age).
That being said they are very reliable if well maintained and not modified a lot.

Alianco. I will go into detail re renewable energy when I get WIFI (just a cancelled ours at home and tethering at the moment which can be a pain.
Grid tied (connected to the grid) and 'off grid' PV are two different kettles of fish. I'm more familiar with grid tied and FIT's (feed in tariffs).
The FIT's in the UK were a nightmare for us, obviously they helped us sell the products but the government kept changing their minds which caused constant uncertainty, feast or famine so to speak.
In the end I came to the conclusion that the government really were not that interested in renewables, it was all a show to make them look like they were doing something (finger quotes) 'green' and also tied in with climate change (which I think is a con).
Cameron's old man did well out of it in the beginning though...

That being said solar PV, thermal etc do work...but will work better in a hotter climate like the south of France. If someone wanted to make a few quid with solar PV in the past in the UK then it made sense.
If someone wants to own a house that is cheap to run, warm and well insulated then you need to start from scratch which is the route we're going.
I love old places (like I love old cars), but they're a real pain in the ass to make efficient.

We sold our sofa and tv this week, we're reduced to using the Elvis chairs from the boot of the Mustang, there's a fine line between naff and cool, I think the Elvis chairs rock (in a naff way), Cat just thinks they're naff...