Friday 13th – Céret Again

We had an appointment with Credit Agricole bank to get an account set up, so headed into Céret yet again. First stop was the notaire’s office to see if there was any chance of a quick settlement but that hope was soon dashed, as French systems take at least two months to sell a house. We were disappointed, as we’d been thinking about all the things we could do in say 2 weeks in the apartment, however at the same time the delay will give us plenty of time to get our thoughts together on a revised layout and decoration.

Children in the square below

At the moment, you enter the first room (17m²) from the shared stairwell, and it has the rudiments  of a kitchen in it. There are double doors to a lovely big room (26.5m²) which is a livingroom/bedroom, off which is a 6m² bathroom. Note that we offered on a 46m²apartment, and it has become 7% bigger to be 49.5m² since then, which is pretty good. By the time we arrive next year it could be huge! It is known as a Type F1 which means a studio, since it doesn’t have a separate bedroom. It would also be a bit awkward for guests because there isn’t a separate bedroom for us.

Our apartment

Our plans are to make a little entrance hall to take people into the big room, shift the kitchen into the main room, and make the first room a private bedroom, with the lovely big double doors into a big kitchen/dining/living room. It means a bit of work, a few metres of wall, and some fiddling with plumbing and electricity, but we always said we wanted a project, and the end result will be a far nicer place to live in, much better for having guests, and hopefully more valuable. And another good thing is that we can live in it easily as is, and stage the changes over time. We’d start with a new kitchen in the big room, put it the new wall, then tidy up the new bedroom, and later on refresh the bathroom. The end result will be light and airy, with generous room sizes that are rare from what we have seen. Most apartments of this size would have 4 poky rooms, not 2 large ones.

We got the keys from our agent and after a picnic lunch went back to our apartment and did a complete measure-up and took a photographic record. It looks like our plans will work out well – there is plenty of room for our proposed changes. While we were there, there was a funeral below, and it was lovely to see the square full of people, even if for such a reason. We’re very excited. We have no doubt we can do a good job of it, and will end up with something special. It’s a blow we won’t be back here for 11 months or so!

Our meeting with the bank man took for ever, but it is all sorted and we have an EBAN number for us to send NZ money to, and for the French to extract it from. Then to the agents to drop back the keys and arrange for the services to be transferred and restarted next year. Our keys will be posted to New Zealand in 3 months’ time – that will be a thrill. Unfortunately it was raining, and not the best for a swim on our return.