Today we exchanged contracts on the sale of our French holiday home, and I am both sad and relieved.
We have owned it for nearly 33 years and over that time we have had so many happy, short breaks, long breaks, alone, with friends and with family. DD was still at school when we bought it, DS at university, now they are both in their 50s and our DGC are already at the exam stage .
We bought a rundown 2 bedroomed house with an apology for a bathroom, Over the years we have turned it into a 4 bedroomed 3 bathroomed house, DH and I doing most of the work. My mother died here when on holiday with DF
But in recent years DH's health has been dodgy. We are starting to need to pay people to do jobs like grass cutting, which sends costs soaring. DH cannot do repairs and DIY. When we were 75 we decided we would sell the house when we were 80 - and we were 80 last year, and having had 5 years to get used to the idea, we did exactly what we said we would.
Our sale has been miraculously simple. About 2 years ago one of our very elderly neighbours - 90s - died and his wife went into a care home and the house was sold to a very young couple, who have gradually been taking the house apart and reassembling it. We have got to know each other and got on well. We told them we were going to sell the house and 2 days later they called in to say the parents of one of them would like to buy it! - and that is what has happened.
We had met their parents and liked them and each side has been falling over backwards to facilitate everything.
So today we signed the Compromis de Vente - the equivalent of exchange. It required all parties concerned to meet at the Notaire's office to go through the document formally and agree everything. The Notaire, with printed copies and an overhead computer screen, went through it word by word. After an hour and a half, we finally signed everything. It was rather nice having so much formality attached to the exchange.
We need to be out by 22nd April when we complete so ahead of us we have several months of complicated activity emptying the contents, some to come home and be distributed around the family, the rest to be left to a house clearer
Then that will be the end. We will still come back regularly staying in B&Bs and Gites. We know we are doing the right thing, but after 33 years, I am both sad and relieved.
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