"Help! I bought a village" on C4....anyone watching? has this programme inspired anyone?

martco

I've been watching this programme on C4 recently

although it's aimed at the brits and all a bit over-simplified and drone shotty I have to admit that it has reignited some thinking I had from about 15 years+ back to go and do this...stop dreaming find somewhere maybe in Brittany or Normandy in need of a rescue and get busy with an eventual view to leaving Ireland altogether

I have a cupla focal française and tho not a professional I'm a reasonable diy-er handy with most general building aspects and thinking if the likes of some of these characters can do it thinking well I certainly could...mind racing lol

anyone here had the experience of going somewhere like France and tried a refurb project?

dennyk

These sort of shows are a fun watch, but even rehabbing a single historic property is a massive undertaking. The reality is that unless you have a deep and abiding passion for the property and its history and you're willing to give up all of your spare time and money and also a lot more time and money that you can't spare for the foreseeable future, it's probably not the best idea to just dive right in. If you're only a "reasonable diy-er", you're going to have to hire professionals for a lot of the necessary work, especially if the property is a really old one, and especially if it's listed or protected in any way. The latter often have restrictions on what work can be done and how it can be done, and when there's only one guy in the region who happens to know the necessary centuries-old building technique required to restore your medieval chateau to spec, well, he can charge whatever he wants for the privilege. And there will always, always, always be more work than you think. You might look at this cute old house and go "Hey, it's not so bad; it just needs a little TLC!", and then you start taking things apart and that's when you discover the washed-out foundation, the rising damp, the structural beams that start coming apart in your hands like a loaf of stale bread, the horrible bodge job some arsehole did fifty years ago that means you're going to need an entire new roof, etc.

L1011

I have occasionally, after a few pints, considered buying a hotel in rural Ireland that I know is closed, for sale and needs modernisation. However, the owners are asking for far too much. That considering is probably the closest I'll get to buying a village in France. And the hotel was built in ~1999 - I've a pre-famine cottage and a 1970s house that have needed renovation/restoration so 1990s is nothing.

I'm surprised they still have a supply of Brits stating out on this now, considering they don't have automatic rights to work/live in France anymore.

martco

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119421168#Comment_119421168

yeah I was thinking that very thing about the brits...but a 52/48 vote leaves plenty of them who like being a part of Europe I suppose

been scouring the websites over last few days and the stuff I've been seeing although cheap in comparison to Ireland didn't seem <i>that</i> cheap as the programme seems to portray...the programme itself probably more light entertainment destined for daytime tv + vehicle for the B&B's involved (I checked a couple of them out, eye-watering rates) a bit like that fake "Escape to the Chateau" nonsense...

I would love to see a real proper technical programme sometime where they cover all the dramas of paperwork bureaucracy and tricky stuff as dennyk says there, dealing with the likes of the French version of Chadwicks etc. but I suppose it would only be fit for the nighttime slot on BBC4 then lol