Our Newest Chateau Project Revealed + We Answer Your Questions

Welcome to our friend Chateau if you're new here we're an American Family living in France who have too many pets a love of old homes and occasionally Day drink [Music] work on the petite Salon continues here I am climbing the scaffolding just to discover I've forgotten something back down I must do this at least 10 times a day hello [Music] I'm now about halfway done with the ceiling restoration and almost finished painting all of the woodwork I'm saving the best for last the wallpaper stay tuned for that [Music] thank you is that a vestibule I don't know what you'd call that I thought a vestibule was a piece of furniture [Laughter] transfer transfer hell I can't talk how's your summer going tired busy yeah we're tired it's a little early in the morning yeah and I dragged you out of bed to film this Lincoln needs a full what six hours to wake up it takes me a while it takes a little while anyway um yeah we're having a busy summer we're completing one project where I am we are me we well you're doing the painting because I'm not allowed it's not that you're not allowed I don't think you you conveniently say you don't like it and you get paint all over yourself on purpose that's not on purpose so we're finishing up the salon but we have to look ahead to other projects and in hindsight I think we should have done this project at the very beginning and that project is our master bedroom this is how our bedroom looked during our first viewing and sadly it doesn't look much different today so our master bedroom consists of four rooms and we're just going to be doing our bedroom we already did the office right so I'm really excited to start that because it's an absolutely horrible room that you just don't want to be in it's a beautiful room it's got two giant windows and it's it's spacious and it's bright but um you know in hindsight I think we should have tackled that room when we first moved in so we had a nice space to decompress and get away from it all just shut the door and lock it and go away and we have picked paint colors yes which is really exciting Fluffy's over there about to knock something over I can sense it fluffy come on fluffy is going to help us yes there you have it yay for this project we will be using earthborn paint a UK company that creates eco-friendly breathable paints and we're super excited to get this project started [Music] oh the hydrangeas this year have been stunning I'm not sure if it's because I fertilized them this past spring or prune them later than I normally do they're providing us with plenty of beauty inside of the Chateau [Music] foreign [Music] cats and have been able to catch sterilize and release feral cats living on our property thanks to your generous donations via our GoFundMe page these cats have suddenly turned into seven just to be clear I was not in the market for another but we currently have family visiting who happen to be crazy about animals as much as we are and I encourage the kids to go take a walk and explore they found this little guy wandering in the road and following them home this little kitten is a boy and will be headed to the vet to get checked out later this week we still don't have a name but have a long list what do you think we should name him let us know in the comments below [Music] [Music] If This falls on us I don't think it's going to it was professionally stuck no but there will be photographic evidence of our device all right that's a good thing I think so so this is our exciting Friday night again we really know how to live though yeah sitting on a stack of hay and yeah it is a nice night though this is actually a really nice spot you can't see over there but it's nice so we thought we would take a few minutes and answer some some questions from start to finish once we started looking and moved in was about two years from when we started looking to when we had a deal on a place it was less than a year yeah but things got really complicated in murky and and awful and right we had a really bad experience buying this Chateau well the cellar was just very he was quite old he was extremely prickly and difficult to deal with it took us about one full year to negotiate the sale of the property with several lawyers getting involved after we had our way and we had negotiated everything but then he wanted to change things yeah so he would always move the goal posts yeah like way too far and then someone had to Reign him in and go what what the heck is going on so it was really it was the most stressful one of the most stressful experiences of Our Lives yeah really but that's not saying that's what would happen to you no if you buy a shotgun it's going to be easy and everyone's lovely and so I started looking online back in the United States we would plan a trip and then have a list of chateaus to look at contact the agents so we had appointments finding them wasn't difficult finding chateaus we originally started looking in the Loire Valley I think we had our heart set on that area so we ended up in Brittany we expanded our search because we sort of exhausted the chateaus and the Lamar that were in our budget what we were looking for property wise so we ended up here in Brittany you don't in France you don't have an agent representing you the agent represents both sides really yeah fortunately for this property the agent was absolutely amazing oh yeah we couldn't have done it without her the inspections were done prior before because that's I guess that's the French law that there are certain things have to be done before they even put a place on the market so you have all of that information so it's your job to review that and see if there are any red flags and things that you know you need to be worried about like a problem like oh by the way it needs a new roof which you know you don't want to buy a chateau that needs a new roof because that can cost over a hundred thousand easy well there was a little discussion I think I was happy with this place before you were yeah you really wanted this I wasn't on board I still wanted to look and I think it was the look of the Chateau that I wasn't it wasn't Grand enough yeah which is really stupid because I mean it's it's huge it's I mean for us more than what we need yeah so it's it's the for like if we wanted to run a big business with holiday lets and everything like that this wouldn't have worked but it worked as a family home it's a perfect yeah size for a family home we did meet a good amount of our neighbors the first year we hear we were here right we went to uh the New Year's Event the mayor has a thing where they sort of say what what's going on in the community going to happen they announced all the deaths and the births and and they announced that there were some Americans that had moved here and everyone I think everybody was sort of like yeah well they were laughing what are you doing here but people were very lovely it was it was right before covet hit and it was really nice to to get to meet people but we don't know who any of those people are our neighbors aren't that close but people are genuinely very nice and welcoming here we've we've had no issues and if they have we haven't maybe they say it behind our backs or you don't understand them fully but yeah people have been have been really nice they're not they vary they get shorter and longer and shorter they're not they're they each Vlog runs between I think we've had a 10 and 20 minutes because I don't think anybody wants to watch more of us yeah that's enough I didn't have any french in school I had Spanish I knew some French just from grade school or middle school whatever and our children had learned some French in the US we had to start we're actually we're able to deal pretty well with the bureaucracy because most things are online or in writing and you can always translate things so it's harder if you have to deal with someone on the phone it's very difficult even if you think you're you're speaking French they don't they think you're speaking some other language yeah we we realized yeah we knew what we were getting into when we bought this place we're not um naive we knew it was going to be a 24 7. commitment and that's what we wanted quite frankly I mean I I think if we were just situated in a little house that was finished we'd be really bored and as far as the renovation so we expected or planned to do as much as possible by ourselves and only hire people for things that we couldn't handle I think we'd probably do the same thing we we do a decent job getting things done and we could hire people for doing like clearing the property yeah yeah oh that's that's my number one thing people that have expensive equipment that there's no way we could do that you know yeah but even then we're we're just um yeah we have to trust people because we've had a cup not bad experiences but people who just don't do what they say they're going to do or they don't show up or they don't give you the Devi which in is the is the estimate in France the Debbie so we we'd probably continue to do it ourselves we just have much nicer equipment and tools and all the bells and whistles yeah well we're really on the fence about that I mean part of me thinks it would be great but the other part of me doesn't really want anybody around I know that sounds like I'm a curmudgeon but there's a reason we moved to the middle of the middle of nowhere we're just um maybe if we found like a nice couple and the cottage was finished yeah probably volunteers we'd have to vet them though there'd be like a big process questionnaire that would probably scare them off the Wine's good the wine is it's delicious that's a Beastie Boys song oh is it and the wine was delicious no I'll have to go back and listen to that remember that line what album is that offer it's the voiceover that's uh anybody could fit in here as long as you make an effort and try to speak some French like if you're in a store in Paris you can always hear the Americans because the decibel they're being loud hey hey what do you think about this hey over here and the French people are like what do you think about this it's just such a difference I mean I'm a lot I can be a very loud American but I tone it way down when I'm shopping or out and about at home I sort of on the loud American yeah but um any anybody can be accepted here I mean I know we've gotten some comments in the past how the French are so rude and I wasn't welcomed and we were run out of town by the neighbors it's like well you just have to get the way things work I mean yeah French people it's it's really about being polite and not getting in someone's way and not for instance being loud you know it's like they don't need to really hear you so they consider that sort of offensive you know yeah you just just have to be a normal human being be conscious of your surroundings yeah exactly it's nice to get comments definitely and we read them all some of them are hilarious yes Lincoln's up every night and he takes notes and I have a big chart that would be really sad Lincoln what are you doing oh I'm doing mine I just spreadsheets my comment spreadsheet we're going to remodel The Cottages but we won't be renting them out we originally thought that you trying to hit me yeah these bugs yeah we need to get out of here soon yeah it's getting dark we had originally thought we would fix them up and then rent them out to people but again we're we're on the fence we're probably not going to no I don't think we're going to do it so we still need to fix them up we're more for guests probably well yes like how like people we know friends and family so don't just show up and expect a room please it's not happening there's there's no sign that says vacancy no down at the end of the driveway here we'll show that we'll show The View so this is our La over to the left and then this is one of our Fields it would be really nice to put a couple of benches out here or a hammock and just come and sit one to two weeks what kind of like a two weeks I'm naming it one to two hours once I have my kitchen done I would love to host some kind of cooking seminars or um you know where you go to the garden and you you come and we prepare and then you leave but I'd love to meet people and it's more of a comfort food is Sunday we call it the Sunday gravy which is um meatballs and red sauce that's what my dad used to make every Sunday so that's the Italian side sadly there is no takeout so at the moment I'm all about quick and easy food I'm embarrassed to say that occasionally we don't even eat dinner but what I'm about to show you is a typical night's meal anything grilled and super fast the garlic herb Focaccia is easy and I'll do it if I'm feeling slightly energetic the kids love it [Music] foreign [Music] thanks for watching if you've enjoyed this video don't forget to subscribe and if you 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Channel: Our French Chateau

Views: 35,417

Keywords: chateau, lifeinfrance, chateaudiy, chateaurestoration, chateau life, brittanyfrance, renovatingachateau, rescue dogs, interior design, historic homes, howtorestoreachateau, france, europeantravel, frenchchateau, walled garden, gardening, permaculture, buyingachateau, livinginfrance, drone photo, expats, frenchcountryside, country living, architecture, organic garden, castle, our French chateau, expat, antiques, houserenovation, frenchgarden, frenchchateauforsale, renovation, ourfrenchchateau, chateaux

Id: hGQiE7LEB64

Length: 19min 33sec (1173 seconds)

Published: Mon Jul 17 2023