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-Short Attention Span Theater-
We bought a crumbling French château - but restoring it was no fairytale
2020-02-04
[The Telegraph] Like many others, when Dick Strawbridge and his wife, Angel Adoree, decided to uproot from England with their young family and move to France for la belle vie, they envisaged a modest farmhouse, perhaps a simple gîte. However, 45 rooms, 78 windows, 12 acres, one moat and 10 exhausting months later, they are the owners of a beautiful château, a five-floor home in Pays de la Loire, 10 times the size of your average British house ‐ all for the unbelievable figure of £280,000.

But like most fairy tales, there was a catch. This château came with no electricity, heating or water, a sanitation system that emptied into the moat ‐ not to mention hundreds of dead flies, bats (very much alive) and lavatories that hadn’t been flushed for 40 years. It would take a person with sizeable enthusiasm and energy to take on a restoration challenge like that and come out the other side smiling.

Luckily, Strawbridge has form. The retired Lieutenant Colonel first appeared on our screens as a plucky and resourceful contestant on the Channel 4 series Scrapheap Challenge (he went on to present the programme), before starring in three series of BBC Two’s It’s Not Easy Being Green in the mid-Noughties, about his struggles to live an ecologically friendly, low-impact life, with first wife Brigit and their teenage children. His latest project has required every ounce of his gung-ho spirit.

"People talk about going off and having their adventure and we’ve just done it," says the 56-year-old. "We’ve got wild boar in our forest, deer wandering around the front, kingfishers and red squirrels. It’s all pretty special. We do pinch ourselves that it is a bit ridiculous. But we made a choice to not live within the M25." The couple had spent four years searching for the perfect place to bring up their family, Arthur, three, and Dorothy, two. "They are now growing up in a place where if they play hide and seek, they may never find each other," Dick says.
Posted by:Besoeker

#15  ...Any man with a mustache like that isn't going to be stopped.

Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski   2020-02-04 17:25  

#14  And 'This Old House' proved Bob Villa could restore ANYTHING in 60 minutes; and these morons believed it...…
If they are looking for sympathy, it is in the dictionary between sh!t and syphilis.
Posted by: USN, Ret.    2020-02-04 14:33  

#13  Priorities folks.

First you hire some men-at-arms, longbowmen, cavalry, go Crecy and fill the coffers and labor from the countryside.
Posted by: swksvolFF   2020-02-04 11:45  

#12  ^ that's the order of magnitude I was thinking, TW.

I used to dream of doing this, too, but when I consulted people who'd actually renovated chateaux before they said forget it, it would be less expensive to build a new one.

So figure $400 per sq ft or maybe €4,000 per square meter: that's easily >$10 million for a typical castle.
Posted by: Lex   2020-02-04 11:28  

#11  Mr. Wife estimates the work would take $20 - 50 million (all new electrical, plumbing, heating, roof, mold abatement, plaster/drywall...) He wants to know if the good lieutenant colonel brought home unreported funds from Iraq or something.
Posted by: trailing wife   2020-02-04 11:13  

#10  I believe a château requires a set of servants.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru   2020-02-04 09:59  

#9  ...next California! (do I need to put a /sarc on that?)
Posted by: Procopius2k   2020-02-04 09:32  

#8  Ref #7: On PBS here. Interesting show. Rather half assed repair attempts but have to admire their enthusiasm.

Well after all, it is France.
Posted by: Besoeker   2020-02-04 08:39  

#7  On PBS here. Interesting show. Rather half assed repair attempts but have to admire their enthusiasm.
Posted by: Woodrow   2020-02-04 08:37  

#6  = More material for their endless Reality TV Show life
Posted by: Lex   2020-02-04 08:31  

#5  What a vanity project. Other than the family of four, which might together use as many as a dozen rooms, what use is the rest of it? Do they rent it out for period television shows and films? Provide space for weddings and company retreats? Have potluck weekends with 140 of their dearest friends, but only if they each bring a 12-roll package of toilet paper? And, most importantly, who is going to do the housekeeping and grounds work originally intended for a full inside and outside staff?
Posted by: trailing wife   2020-02-04 08:30  

#4  That's quite the 'contractor's special'. There's a house three spots / 150 feet away from mine, and they paid top dollar for a house they more or less had to nuke. It's taken them over a year (they're on the last stretch this & next month) and I bet they've spent at least $200K so far.

At least they don't have live bats to deal with!
Posted by: Raj   2020-02-04 08:00  

#3  the perfect place to bring up their family, Arthur, three, and Dorothy, two. "They are now growing up in a place where if they play hide and seek, they may never find each other," Dick says.

... and thanks to the wild boar roaming around, little Arthur and Guinevere might get gored by one of Asterix's sangliers
Posted by: Lex   2020-02-04 07:46  

#2  I've been watching it on television.

Here is a trailer piece.
Posted by: Besoeker   2020-02-04 07:46  

#1   It would take a person with sizeable enthusiasm and energy to take on a restoration challenge like that. Not to mention the sizeable bank account. I figure a decentish restoration would run about 5 times the purchase price.
Posted by: AlanC   2020-02-04 07:37  

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