This article is going to be a bit different from what you’re used to. Chéri and I have actually been working on something exciting for the past two years. We’re talking big plans, including a manor house, outbuildings, and a large plot of buildable land. Every month, I’ll take you back to the beginning: how we found it, why we fell in love with it, and everything that has happened since. These two years have already involved a lot of dust and sleepless nights, and it’s just the beginning, as the renovations haven’t even started yet. Let’s just say it’s been quite the adventure so far, and I can’t wait to share it all the way to the opening of phase one.
Characterful
In our two-year property search to start our tiny house project, Chéri and I have visited about 25 properties. We went to a beautiful house run as a B&B in Capestang with extra land to buy (too late, it was sold within days). I also remember a characterful mas between Narbonne and Gruissan, with generous proportions (and a creepy attic). Or the castle-like estate in Vendres with a huge garden all the way to the beach (in between two campsites and loads of structural issues). A serious option was a property between Murviel-lès-Béziers and Causses-et-Veyran. The house was not too big, and there was a barn we could turn into holiday homes. The 1 hectare plot of land was just perfect, flat and with fabulous views. But when going to the town hall to ask if it would be possible to construct tiny houses, the answer was a firm ‘non’!
Main Issue
Visiting all these properties refined our search criteria. If there was a house on the plot, it should be manageable with minimal work. Chéri and I definitely didn’t want a house from the eighties. Nor the seventies or the sixties, for that matter. In fact, we realised that we definitely wanted something with character. Usable outbuildings were a plus. Collapsed barns with birds’ nests, not. And the main issue was the land, as I really had to pay attention to whether it was buildable. I learned a lot about the PLU, short for Plan Local d’Urbanisme (local urban planning rules). It made me realise that there isn’t much room to build in the area of communities we were interested in. In the meantime, we moved to Béziers, and I had other things on my mind.
Lower Expectations
Once the dust settled after our move and most of the boxes were unpacked, I finally had my head clear enough to focus on our tiny house project again. With my wishlist in hand, I still couldn’t find a suitable house, and I started to question the whole venture. In my frustration, I decided to lower my expectations. I started by adjusting the size of the land, as that seemed the biggest bottleneck. I reduced my initial wish from a minimum of 5,000 m² to 4,000 m², still a reasonable plot. And the minute I changed this search criterion, an interesting listing suddenly popped up. More on that in the next newsletter.
