9 July 2013

SPOT THE DIFFERENCE no/2

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When we viewed the house in August 2007 it was crammed full of big, dark and heavy furniture.  Also tons of “brocante”.  There was so much of it that it was difficult to make out how big the room was.

The agent told us that the seller wanted to let the contents go with the house and if we didn’t want to buy it she would probably leave it all behind anyway.  We sincerely hoped not!  None of it was particularly nice or to our taste.

spot the difference3

Luckily when we took possession of the house it had all gone!  We had arranged to meet the agent at the property to have a look at it an hour before our final appointment at the notaire’s office.  When he opened the door and walked in the look on his face was priceless – it was completely empty, much to our delight.  Getting rid of all that stuff would have taken a lot of brocantes and vide greniers !! 

Nick still thinks we have too many ornaments and other bits and pieces around the place – but looking at the agent’s photo makes me realise we haven’t got quite that bad yet !!

Have a good week and enjoy the sun………l’été est arrivé !!

13 comments:

  1. The interior of your house reminds me very much of ours -- as does the interior -- especially before. Except the dear lady we bought from also had the walls painted a very dreary grey colour! It's amazing how much it changed with a coat of white emulsion! It's very hard for us to keep the trinkets at bay though! I dread to think of what we will do should we ever decide to sell!

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  2. We can tell that you are a woman of excellent taste. The place looks so inviting.

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  3. Looks great :-)

    Our house too was full of the most dreadful dark gloomy furniture when we viewed it, and you had to work hard to look 'beyond'. Happily our sellers too emptied it as we'd asked.

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  4. Not too many bits and bobs in my view... just right. It looks lovely and homely.

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  5. Our sellers were Brits and had only lived there for a few years so there wasn't a great lot of furniture that they weren't intending to take back to the UK. A couple of bits we bought, like the fridges, washing machine, garage shelving etc. They also left behind what they couldn't fit into their removal lorry!

    Your house is lovely and so very comfortable. The after is better than the before.

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    1. Including a rather nice green bowl......!
      The only thing I wanted in the whole house was a pretty china cake stand in the shape of a daisy. I was hoping it might get left behind (hiding it at the back of a cupboard where it might not get found!) but it disappeared along with everything else.

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  6. Despite the original "clutter," I can see why you fell in love with the place. Now, it looks like bliss!

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  7. At least the walls were white when you first saw it, Jean. The interior of our house had been painted with pale blue gloss - walls woodwork, even the beams! We had to get them sandblasted.

    The clutter looks like the kind of knickknacks many people collect during a lifetime, but thankfully she took it with her. Now your living room looks very peaceful and inviting.

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  8. I think you have it just right - we have to have regular purges of accumulated feathers, owl pellets, snake skins, bits of 2CV, supermarket "pub", seeds, and what have you..

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  9. Moving the door must have made a big difference and the wood burner (as we have discovered) is soooooo much better than an open fire. Have a good weekend. Diane

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  10. I would have liked to have had some of the old furniture left here when we bought Labartere, or even bits and pieces left in the barns, but it was all stripped bare, apart from broken bits and pieces of rubbish. Ah well, means I shall have to spend some happy hours searching in the brocantes!

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  11. A beautiful room One of the joys of travelling in France is to go to the brocantes. Sadly, I can only buy light things as too heavy to drag all the furniture I'd like back to Australia!

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  12. It looks lovely now. I can just imagine coming home from a long stroll or walk with Lulu and flopping down with a bierre frais from le frigo.

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