property report
11 Cezethe Cévennes, France 🇫🇷

• Local connections: typically 1h15 to Nimes with 35mins regular train from Nimes centre to the big town of Alès, then 45mins bus (12/4/5/6pm); from 2029 20mins train to the local town then 10mins drive, and from 2031 30mins train (1h15) to the door
• Rail
• Paris just 3h to Nimes but with changes can become 7h total to the door; last departure currently midday, in future could be 2:45pm; with pickup or if overnighting (4h30 trains) with last departure 7:30pm arriving 10pm; with pickup 4pm departure arriving 9pm
• Barcelona just 4h to Nimes, but only 9:30am with connection for 5pm arrival (6h+; reducing 2030, again 2034 and again when the high speed line is fully complete); with pickup (5h trains) last 3pm, if overnighting last 4:30pm
• the interesting overnight stop is Nimes; once the railway reopens there should be a later train possibly only to the local small town in which case pickup would be offered from there (10mins)
• Air
• Nimes: 1h15 drive / 30mins bus; limited Ryanair, year round to Stansted, Brussels, plus seasonal to Luton, Dublin, Porto and Morocco
• Marseille: 1h15 train and 10min bus; major lowcost hub covering Poland, Portugal, Italy, Malta, Morocco, Portugal, …
• Montpellier: 2h drive / +2h bus and train; service to Lisbon
• Carcassonne +2h30 bus and train; extensive Ryanir inc Portugal
• Coach: from Barcelona, cost effective and time efficient, allowing late arrivals into Barcelona if you don't mind a night coach, albeit arriving a bit early at 5am, first train at 6am, but the local bus is not until 9am thus lots of killing time.

Events

In June in Besseges, a small DJ/electronic festival, and in Aug a 3-day Funk festival. In the summer there's many night markets and a few other minor distractions.

North rooms briefly get morning sunrise, top floor has partial outlook over trees to hillside. South afternoon sun, and on top floor having outlook over railway.

The kitchen is of course the hub of the house, interconnecting with the lounge having a small coworking table. To get to stairs and rooms the focus coworking and kitchen are entirely bypassed, but the lounge/coworking must be traversed; rooms have direct access to the rear terrace, conservatory, den and sauna.

Whilst the rail track being so close at the back might be considered instrusive, it should not be, services will pass only 12x daily on new soldered rails with modern units, and the stop is only 300m away thus half the services will be coasting. And in any case having a train go by makes one feel better connected to the world. Inside the house it should be unnoticeable as the 1st floor is well below the track embankment and workspace completely cut off from it, so only minorly noticable from bedrooms with the morning service.

Improvements / Variants

• to rectify the very limited indoor sunlight, the plain room on the top floor (left of staircase) could become a library; the room would then get winter sun though would need a new bigger window of french door; this could be done anytime before the ensuite is installed; the missing room could be moved to the end of the kitchen opening off the lounge and would become a plus room, but more likely the room would simply be lost as the kitchen would have to be planned with the room from the start
• a small 5m2 sun terrace could be added either with a door from the above library, or from the staircase; this would get sun quite a bit later than the main terrace
• the front balcony could gain steps down, or even a ramp to the garden bypassing the interior stairs for direct access, also to the laundry space

Minimum stay of 2 weeks with fixed arrival and departure days, avoiding hard-to-fill availability gaps whilst maximising occupancy. Alternate arrival and departure days would be permitted with temporary stay in a pod. Buses do not operate Sundays, therefore until the railway reopens changeover days would be Fridays or Saturdays (choice at booking; when a gap is created it will be used to facilitate cleaning scheduling, however not strictly necessary as with an average stay of 4 weeks only 2 rooms per week will need cleaning).

It is expected that the average stay will be one month, resulting in 2–3 changeovers per week which is easily manageable. Initially short stays would be accepted without restriction, ultimately this would be reduced to only 1 room and pods.

The founder would be present essentially full-time during the initial phases (2 years) until adequate operations are established when he would stay part time to ensure staff training during changeover, or to fill-in when short. The founder's room is retained and is not included in earnings.

Surplus rooms and pods may be offered as free accommodation in the form of a residency, giving talks, etc.

1. plumbing: 2 of the 3 shared bathrooms on the 3rd floor must be installed so that plumbing for the old on the 2nd (and pipes on 1st) can be removed
2. structural: ground vault reenforcement beam and wall removal
3. floors: 1st patching up
4. rooms: create 2-3 north rooms on 1st
5. finishing: sandblasting/painting vaults
6. plumbing: kitchen connection
7. lintel: create a new opening connecting the first floor landing to the kitchen as the existing is too far into the room, partially blocking the existing with glass and wood
8. staircases: the steps from 2nd to the 3rd floor should be fully rebuilt as a priority
9. staircases: currently there's an internal staircase from 1st to 2nd which would be closed
10. staircases: the exterior steps in the rear passage need to be moved from the middle to the end to better correspond with those up, and to better connect as a staircase, this does not inconvenience accesss as the old would remain until complete
11. plumbing: ensuites would not be initially planned, however 1 might be added just so that there's one on the 2nd floor
12. openings: swap 1st balcony door and window
13. staircases: once the steps are formed into a new staircase from 1st o 3rd, the block would be walled and roofed as a complete stair well
14. staircases: ideally the steps from ground to 1st will be rebuilt for better angle and ease, however not urgent, plus would make access impossible without temporary access via balcony or extra formwork

The building facade is ideal for a tasteful mural, thus an artist will be invited.

The vaulted cielings will probably be stripped of paint to show their colour, under which IR heating panels and lighting will be hung, along with fans.

Building

The new stairwell will become a feature though may take time to finish and seal with glass.

Most cabinetry will be bespoke, this optimises their function for frequent use and easy maintenance whilst also reducing costs.

Aluminium skirting will be used throughout for its resistance to scuffing, easy fitting and cost-effectiveness, plus the ability to incorporate strip lighting in places.

Kitchen-dining

A bespoke fitted banquette along the wall with a 4m+ dining table and chairs along the outer edge. Oak worktops. Shelving could be cheaper wood or even lacquered chipboard.

Ample fridge, and storage space on open shelving with removable wooden boxes, plastic containers in frdges. Simple reliable equipment such as stainless steel. 1 dishwasher could be adequate but an additional could be added. Ultimately tomette flooring (red hexagon clay tiles); provisionally a hotchpotch a cement patched tiles.

Lounge

Would use both convection heating on low which would thus also cover the kitchen, plus IR panels, ambient heat will transfer from the lounge as the door will generally be open. A circulation system could bring warmer air from the roof down.

A wood stove for winter ambience. Would not accommodate everyone somewhat tightly on sofas and armchairs around the wall, or more comfortably with beanbags as well, easily arranged for films on a large TV screen with surround sound. Enough open space for games on the floor and could also be used as a party room for some dancing, which being at the top end of the building away from most bedrooms on the opposite side would not be intrusive, same for the workspace. Outer walls will be insulated on the inside but only with thin woodfibre as not used throughout the day, for the same reason only double not triple glazing will be specified.

Focus workspace

Coworking desks giving ~1.2m per person, having simple adjustable chairs, plus many built-in USB-C (PD) sockets so adapters don't need to be dragged around nor clutter the place. Some standing desks will be possible. Some plants.

Should ultimately become wood flooring for ease of chair movement, however likely to be divided into both parquet for the far section and sisal for the first library section.

A wood stove could be added for winter ambience with chimney traversing the kitchen.

Bedrooms

Flooring will be seagrass, decorative in prime and premium. For improved acoustic damping walls will use 2x plasterboard plus wood fibre insultation, but not decoupled.

Bathrooms

Ensuites will use a sliding door minimising obstruction from a standard door. Sink in front of the door, with shower and toilet to left and right. 90cm deep, larger in prime units.

WCs will be equipped with a bidet nozzle/douche. Rooms will be grouped to share a water tank, boosted (as an upgrade) with instant heating elements, providing instant hot water plus coverage in case someone uses all the tank. Room allocations will be made to maximise use.

The shared bathrooms are completely separated, 1 having a bath and window.

Ambient environment

The den will have small surround speakers and a subwoofer on a proper audio system (not silly home assistant speakers), allowing lively gatherings across the ground floor and onto the patio. A film could be being screened or lively game take place in the lounge and one would still able to work in the focus space or read quietly in the library.

It's good to have a healthy environment, and desireable to reduce exposure to microplastics (artficial fibres), VOCs (foam mattresses), artificial perfumes, electrosmog, etc. Simple steps can be taken even with budgetary constraints, such as using natural materials for flooring, natural mattresses (keeping a few foam ones for those with problems), wool duvets and blankets, and of course natural cleaning products.

Gentle lighting also has impact. Whilst office chairs could be an exception, they and sofas should be possible to easily re-cover with natural fabrics.

Tech

A professional system with multiple WiFi hotspots running on a dedicated power-over-ethernet backbone, using low power to reduce interference (and electrosmog). You'll be able to seamlessly roam around without loosing a connection or dropping a videocall. Somebody streaming video won't impact workspace bandwidth, plus the at-desk USB-C power will include an ethernet connection thus in most cases laptop users will be on a seamless wired connection without even being aware.

Internet connection as fibre.

We prefer local face to face interaction and as such activities and outings will be planned and written up on boards, however we shall also use a chat app to ensure everyone gets last-minute gathering and household notifications.

Heating and cooling

The house will be entirely electric, however attempts will be made to reduce resource use and consumption e.g. water tanks will be activated based on occupancy.

During low seasons, convection heaters will provide a base ambient temperature, whilst radiant infrared panels will be used to boost this in the kitchen and library. Bedrooms would only have convection.

A future upgrade could add ground-source, air-source or solar water heating to heat water before it reaches the hot water tanks to boost it, and possibly with a radiator circuit for the lounge and focus coworking instead of convection.