And now for the guided tour...

Today's post is all about the videos! The quality isn't great, and I will do better ones once we get to France ourselves, but I hope that these will give you a little bit of an idea about how much work we have to do - but also how great our little house will be, one day! Apologies for them being in portrait and not landscape, but they'll give you the gist of things...

Firstly, my swimming pool...

This is the gorgeous Lac du Chammet. It is less than 6km from the house, so I will be able to go and swim regularly - someething I have sorely missed during lockdown. My current favourite swimming spot is about an hour's drive away, and can be pretty busy most of the time so I haven't dared head over there even now restrictions have been lifted a little.

Then there is the lovely hamlet of Le Rat. The current owner of the house is our next door neighbour, and the farmyard opposite will be crowded three or four times a year, the little road blocked, by gorgeous cows who need their vaccinations. It is peaceful and quiet - other than all the really noisy birds!

The farmer contacted the agent to check we like animals and to be sure that we knew this, which we thought was rather lovely and something we couldn't imagine anyone over here doing. It made us feel that our neighbours want us to come, to bring our little house back to life. We can't wait to meet all of them in person.

In this video, you can see the kitchen/living room - which will become a kitchen/dining room once we get there. It is large, and hiding behind some rather ugly cupboards is a gorgeous, granite block fireplace which we intend to open up, so there will be a place for our shiny Rayburn to nestle!

I really want to take the wall on this side of the staircase out, to open up the area a bit, and to leave the entrance to the wine cellar 'open', or at least have it appearing to be. I'd like the door to be further down the stairs, out of the line of sight, so that things feel roomy.

Now, this room is currently not really anything more than a storeroom, with a loo oddly plonked at one end of it. We want a downstairs loo, but we have plans to slightly extend this one, and create a loo and shower room, ideally all on one level and with easy access - in case there comes a time when I need a wheelchair. I hate that we have to think about that, but it is a possibility, so best to face it now.

You also get to see the whole of the upstairs, and our amazing attic. We need to decide where to put in a full bathroom, and whether the attic will one day be a gorgeous big office/workshop space or whether we create a couple of bedrooms up there, and convert the two small bedrooms into our office. So much to think about - and impossible to make the decisions until we can get over there and get to grips with the flow of the space.

And finally, there is the barn and what will one day be a lovely garden. We aren't sure what we will do with the space in the barn - there is such a lot of it, and we still haven't decided if we need more living space, or want to just leave it as it is, with all its rustic charm.

What I do know, is that as soon as I can, there will be veggies and fruit growing in my garden, along with some flowers and gorgeous spaces to sit and eat cheese and drink wine. We can't wait!